PRE-CODE CLASSICS UNKNOWN WORLD & STRANGE STORIES FROM ANOTHER WORLD Volume 1

Ask yourself as you gaze at the magnificently-rendered splash page of "The Serpent Queen" with art by Bob McCarty, from the one-shot anthology Unknown World #1 (1952), "What is the significance of a leashed one-eyed snake in this panel?" This title continued with Strange Stories from Another World, for four more issues (#2 to #5), every one featuring lushly painted covers by Norman Saunders. Each also boasts one or more stories by the under-rated but fine artist Bob McCarty.

McCarty might be best described as a cross between the fine detail and fun horror themes of Harry Anderson (who also has a story here) and Harvey's superb Howard Nostrand with Bernard Baily. McCarty was one of the top pre-code illustrators, working for most of the major publishers, but he is nearly unknown today. It's interesting that these look so much like comics from Ziff-Davis, a company that had a bigger budget than most, coming out of the book industry, and featured some of the period's best artists--including Norman Saunders, who did many covers for them.

This is because these were published by Fawcett, another outfit with high success outside of comics in the magazine and paperback book world. They also had deep pockets and could afford these wonderful painted covers by Saunders, and the above-average writing of Bill Woolfolk, who was one of their mainstay authors of the Captain Marvel family of titles and later for this short run of horror titles.

Stories include "Sea of the Dead," "Monsters of the Mind," "Horror-Go-Round," "The Thing from the Lake," "Dark Mirror," etc.

One of the best stories of all here, from an art standpoint, is "Hands of Vengeance," one of those fun stories starring an artist--the comic creators loved to do these, complete with lovely models. This one is by Harry Anderson, whose work for Atlas is starting to be recognized and highly prized, covers for titles like Strange Tales and numerous great stories.

Additional artists here include Ed Waldman and Maurice Gutwirth, with many of the stories by Bill Woolfolk.