Book Review: Shiver As You Read!: Atlas Comics Library No. 6

I do not know if the introduction of the censorious Comics Code really ruined American comics. It came in around 1954, killing the fun of the really deviant horror and crime comics. After a decade of floundering, the Americans found the secret sauce of the super-hero. There’d been super-heroes before, but the popularity of Marvel’s Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, and the renaissance of ’30s heroes Batman and Superman on the DC side, formed a foundation that eventually culminated in much of the pop culture of the last few decades. For good or ill.

But before the Comics Code, the American Comic landscape was a much more diverse place of storytelling. And the diversity was not from editorial dictate: the whims of the public told the publishers what to sell. You can see that in how a series like Venus starts as a romantic magical girl comic and ends up, 20 issues in, as an anthology horror series.

Shiver As You Read!, the sixth in Fantagraphics archival series of Atlas Comics publications (Atlas became Marvel after some years) demonstrates this with a collection of two different series from the ’50s: Amazing Detective Cases and Men’s Adventure. While not indistinguishable, both series move through the zeitgeist of absurd horror stories to two-fisted adventure stories with a horror twist.

Some of the stories are ridiculous. Some are absurd. But in their absurd glory this is the most entertaining collection yet of old comics by this welcome archival series. These are pre-code stories, so there’s very little of the shoe-horned in finger-wagging or schoolmarm morality that eventually made this very sort of entertainment not entertaining.

Oh, almost all of the stories have a moral. But many of the stories in these issues are not the triumph of good over evil. They involve the nasty being defeated by the nastier. The first story involves a man who finds his shadow is alive. It tries to help him… so he enslaves it to do his bidding, which raises the ire of the other shadows. There’s a bizarre story of alien invasion where aliens take over the bodies of three gangsters, who are promptly shot by lawmen.

There’s very little direct moralizing in these stories, beyond the basic notion of what goes around, comes around. The latter part of the anthology consists of the Men’s Adventure issues, which abandon the strictly horror-themed stories for mostly horrific stories of adventure, or men’s stories with bad endings. This includes a couple of boxing stories, and many stories of white men in jungles, mistreating natives and getting their comeuppance.

The goofiest story is where a couple of country bumpkins, fresh off hunting some clams, discover that flying saucers are actually giant flying clams taking their revenge. The weirdest is probably about a man who refuses to leave his African territory when it is invaded by driver ants. He mocks everyone abandoning their farms but ends up devoured. The twist there is the story ends up being narrated by one of the ants himself.

Like all the Fantagraphics Atlas anthologies, there’s an illuminating and exhaustive essay at the forefront by series editor Dr. Michal J. Vassallo. He provides the context for the stories in terms of the culture and the publication realities of the individual issues. Also included are several period advertisements which, while they don’t contribute to the stories, provide an interesting context for the comic culture where these stories were published.

The art varies wildly, of course. Some of it looks like rough indie art that would become popular a decade later, some of it is smoother comic book art. Because of the way comics were credited at the time, writing credits are largely non-existent. Dr. Vassallo states in his essay that this thematic collection largely exists because, elsewise, these comic books would likely never be reprinted. So, I appreciate that as a fan.

As a historical document, it’s great that these comics are being preserved. I found parts of this the most generally entertaining of these collections I have reviewed. I might have said that about the previous one, Police Action. Well, I liked this better.

As a general reader, my only misgivings might be that the last couple of issues of Men’s Adventure, where the stories turned towards cynicism. Every endeavor was backstabbing, nasty, and mean-spirited. Even a trip to the moon was done out of spite. It’s not a surprise to me the series didn’t last more than two issues longer than what’s presented here.

All these Fantagraphics Atlas Comic Library books are appreciated. Like all the others, this is a hardcover high quality printed edition. Shiver When You Read, as a horror fan, might be the most fun one I’ve read yet. There’s a free-wheeling enthusiasm to the stories and art that transcend the times. It’s interesting as a historical document, but, more importantly as a comic collection, just plain horrific fun.