Stephen King & 1950s Horror Comic Books

Honestly cannot remember where I saw or read that possibly Creepshow by King was based off of 1950s horror comics that he indulged in as a kid. I have always been interested in these and have a few of them. I am sure most of you know of Tales From The Crypt the HBO series that was based on the comics but there were many more and they were actually banned by 1954 which led to the comics code. Decapitations, mutilations, eye injuries, shrunken heads, dismemberment were pretty common in these. Some of the crime comics were pretty gory as well. Anyone else have an interest in these.

Definitely!
I was not really into the '50s horror comics - I was born during that period- but loved the Warren comics of the '60s, '70s and '80s. Of course, I'm talking about Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. I had a huge collection of all three titles, but when moving back to the Netherlands -I lived in Canada at the time- I, ehm, threw them all out, literally down the garbage shute. :cry:
Fortunately Dark Horse is coming out with gorgeous Creepy/Eerie Archive Editions, plus the first Vampirella collection should be here next week.
I also read the current Creepy series. Not bad at all.

sk

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Originally Posted by frik

Definitely!
I was not really into the '50s horror comics - I was born during that period- but loved the Warren comics of the '60s, '70s and '80s. Of course, I'm talking about Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. I had a huge collection of all three titles, but when moving back to the Netherlands -I lived in Canada at the time- I, ehm, threw them all out, literally down the garbage shute. :cry:
Fortunately Dark Horse is coming out with gorgeous Creepy/Eerie Archive Editions, plus the first Vampirella collection should be here next week.
I also read the current Creepy series. Not bad at all.

sk

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*dies*

No question about Creepshow... I mean the influence is obvious.
What's really mind-blowing about the original comics is that those very stories that became late-night HBO programming were being marketed to preteens in the early fifties. The 1950s! Is it any wonder that censors stepped in?
I think this is a good thread, especially if you want to talk about SK... those motifs creep out in his work continually.

My parents would not allow those comics in the house, so I had to go to a neighbor's house (whose parents were more lenient) to read them. Made it inconvenient, but I did read a lot of them.

John