Fantastic Comics was a 36-page, bi-monthly, comic book anthology produced by the Iger Shop and published by the comic book publisher, Ajax-Farrell from November/December 1954 to January/February 1955. Picking up from its predecessor series, Fantastic Fears, Fantastic Comics started its issue numbering at 10, rather than 1 and consisted primarily of

Horror comics Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the ...

, with other genres such as

Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, and

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

being present in its other stories. In the wake of 40's-50's sentiments, Fantastic Comics likely saw a crackdown by the public, the government, and the industry, as its story content can be speculated to have violated various elements of the Comics Code Authority's 1954 code, and with these reactions, and the decline in sales they presented, the book likely ceased publication after its January/February 1955 issue. Following its suspension, Fantastic Comics was superseded in issue number by the Ajax-Farrell issues of

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

in April 1955.

Noted Professionals

During its run, Fantastic Comics, and its predecessor series, Fantastic Fears, had a number of notable professionals from the comic book industry working on its various issues and stories, among them are

Frank Belknap Long Frank Belknap Long (April 27, 1901 – January 3, 1994) was an American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known ...

, who produced the script for the story "Druid's Castle" in Fantastic Fears #3 (September 1953),

Steve Ditko Stephen John Ditko Page contains two reproductions from school yearbooks. A 1943 Garfield Junior High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen Ditko". A 1945 Johnstown High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen J. Ditko" under extracurricular act ...

, who produced the pencil work and ink for the story "Stretching Things" in Fantastic Fears #5 (January 1954),

Ken Battefield Ken Battefield (1905–1967) was a prolific comic book artist in the 1940s and early 1950s, during the Golden Age of Comic Books. He is most associated with the Nedor Publishing line of books where, at various times, he illustrated Pyroman, D ...

who produced the pencil work for the story "Green Horror" in Fantastic Fears #8 (July/August 1954), and

Ben Oda Ben Oda (December 21, 1915 – November 1984) was a Japanese-American letterer for comic books and comic strips. He graduated from Chouinard Art Institute and began his career as an apprentice at Walt Disney Studios.''DC Profiles Number 56: Ben ...

who produced the lettering for the aforementioned story "Stretching Things" from Fantastic Fears #5 (January 1954).

Content

Being a Pre-Code comic book anthology, much of the content found in both Fantastic Comics and in its predecessor series, Fantastic Fears, likely went against much of the sensibilities of society at the time, as several of its horror and horror Esq stories featured content involving violence, horror tropes, mild sexuality and other content that most weren't ready for at the time. In particular, stories such as "Gravestone for Gratis" from Fantastic Comics #11, for example, which featured a character known as the "Banbury Ghoul", who is an undead ghoulish figure that feasted on corpses, violated the Comics Code Authority's 1954 code of "Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.", while other stories, such as "If a Body Kill a Body" from Fantastic Fears #9, violated the Comics Code Authority's code of "Sex perversion or any inference to same is forbidden", via its display of subtle or inferred sexual intimacy between its characters on its title page. This content, among other undesirable content, as cited by

Frederic Wertham Fredric Wertham (; born Friedrich Ignatz Wertheimer, March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981) was a German-American psychiatrist and author. Wertham had an early reputation as a progressive psychiatrist who treated poor black patients at his Lafarg ...

, landed many horror and crime based comic publishers in heavy controversy at the time, and lead to swift repercussions from both the government and the public, strangling sales and forcing publishers to cancel crime and horror type books, based on both reputation and local government mandates, as was the case in Oklahoma City, and Houston, which each placed bans on crime and horror comic books. In regards to Fantastic Comics, the controversy could potentially be said to have caused the title to cease in 1955, as its violations of the Authority's 1954 code, the reputation garnered of these type of genre titles by society and the government, and the strangling of sales due to all of the factors above, likely forced its publisher, Ajax-Farrell, to cancel the title in response, in order to salvage its image.

Reprints

Following its discontinuation in 1955, a number of stories from Fantastic Comics and its predecessor series Fantastic Fears, were reprinted over the years by other publishers such as

Eerie Publications Eerie Publications was a publisher of black-and-white horror-anthology comics magazines. History Less well-known and more downscale than the field's leader, Warren Publishing (''Creepy'', ''Eerie'', ''Vampirella''), the company, based at 150 ...

' in their series,

Terror Tales ''Terror Tales'' was the name of two United States, American publications: a pulp magazine of the weird menace genre of the 1930s, and a horror comic in the 1960s and 1970s. Pulp magazine ''Terror Tales'' was originally published by Popular Publ ...

, and IDW in their title, "Ghosts: Classic Monsters of Pre-Code Horror Comics". Among them are the stories, "Gravestone for Gratis", which was reprinted in Terror Tales v1#7 (March 1969) from its debut in Fantastic Comics #11 (January/February 1955), "The Tiger's Paw", reprinted in Terror Tales v4 #4 (June 1972), from its debut in Fantastic Comics #11 (January/February 1955), "Fate Laughs At Clowns", which was reprinted in Terror Tales v3 #5 (September 1971), from its debut in Fantastic Comics #10 (November/December 1954), "Scream No More, My Lady", reprinted in Terror Tales v1 #10 (November 1969), from its debut in Fantastic Comics #10 (November/December 1954), and "If a Body Kill a Body", reprinted in "Ghosts: Classic Monsters of Pre-Code Horror Comics" (2019), from its debut in Fantastic Fears #9 (September/October 1954).{{Gcdb issue, id= 244845, title= ''Fantastic Fear #9''

References

External links

Digital Comic Museum
'' Fantastic Comics '' comic viewer, issue 11.
Digital Comic Museum
'' Fantastic Fears '' comic viewer, issues 2–9.
The Grand Comic Database
Information on Fantastic Comics, Fantastic Fears, etc. publications from Ajax-Farrell. Horror comics Science fiction comics Adventure comics War comics American comics titles