The first Pulp magazines were published in the late 1800s. These cheap magazines were printed on newspaper-like paper made from the cheapest wood pulp. It was reading for the common man and he had to be able to afford it. Publishers started publishing reading material, mostly Penny Dreadful's and Dime Novels, for the average working Joe in the 1830s. But the new pulp magazines focus more on lurid and sensational stories. Countless series were printed. About almost every subject there was a pulp magazine. You can compare it a bit with the countless exploitation films that were made in the 70s.
In the 1930s, when the pulp magazine reached its peak, about 150 different series were issued.
In this period the pulp comics also arose. Initially these were superhero comics such as Ōgon Bat (1931), in Japan, and Mandrake the Magician (1934), Superman (1938) and Captain Marvel (1939) in America. With these comics the Golden Age of Comic Books would begin.
In 1928 A.A. Wyn's Magazine Publishers started publishing pulp fiction magazines and books under the name Periodical House. In 1940 they started publishing comics under the name Ace Magazines, with 'Super-Mystery Comics'. In 1951 they started to publish horror comics in addition to superhero comics. And so in February 1951 the first issue of the Ace comic 'Web of Mystery' was published.
In this first issue we are treated to a mummy, roaming spirits, vampires and a very cruel hunchback who makes church bells in the black forest instead of hanging around in the Notre-Dame.
Although in 1951 the horror genre in the film was largely over its peak, there were still enough young people who were still interested in horror comics. I think the reason for this is that these boys and girls were too young to see the horror classics of, among others, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The television was already invented but I think we can assume that the TV was not yet a much sold product in 1951. So stories about mummies, vampires and ghosts might have been completely new to them.
What I have often noticed about this kind of pulp comics is that the stories are often surprisingly good. They are short and therefore usually have a simple plot. I think that often works best too. With films, do I have that same feeling and are comics not basically a sort of storyboard for a film that will never be made?
But the most brilliant story in this issue is 'Model for a Madman', which is about an artist who makes a very strange demand on his models. These are the only two pages in this comic that contain no illustrations. Normally I always skip these stories in comics, but in order to be able to write a good review of this comic I thought I should read it.
The story is very compact, extreme compact. There is no word too much and too little. The pace is insanely high, but not one moment I get confused or lose the thread. From this story you could easily make a graphic novel of 48 pages A4 size.
What I always find unfortunate about this kind of pulp comics (and not only the American, but also the Italian) is that most of the time the artists are unknown. They were employed by the publisher, so they all had to draw in the same style, and if you can not distinguish yourself, it does not matter who drew it. Some of those artists later became famous because they had their own series that became popular. Think of Wallace Wood and Milo Manara. And then it becomes worthwhile for many, including me, to figure out what they have done in the service of a studio. Fortunately, there are more people who are interested in this and have done the research as far as possible.
Like I said, all the stories in this comic are drawn in the same style, but if I look more closely, I like the drawing work of 'Ghost Ship of the Caribbean’ most. Often you see that the ladies are very nicely drawn and that the men look a bit rough. Someone once told me that that is probably because the artist makes the most beautiful drawings of the subjects he loves. Sounds logical, actually, but the weird thing is that in most pulp comic stories only one or at most two women play a part. The helpless damsel in distress and sometimes a witch or something. But let me look at it in a historical perspective; it was the 50s, the first feminist wave had yet to come. What I really want to say is that both the women and the men of Ken Rice, because it is almost certain that he made the drawings of 'Ghost Ship of the Caribbean', looks beautiful.
The Golden Age of Comic Books would last until 1953, when the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established to investigate the cause of juvenile crime. Soon it was concluded that this had to be the violent comics that young people read. In the research, even a few Ace stories, including 'Web of Mystery' number 19, were cited as an example. For the sake of convenience, the committee ignored the fact that the approach of Ace Comics was that crime should always be punished. In 1954 Wertham published 'Seduction of the Innocent'. This not only objected to the violence in comics, but comics also would encourage masturbation and homosexuality. Batman and Robin were apparently homophile because they lived together and Batman stood a bit too often with his legs spread wide. That he had his pants on and Robin’s hands never went near his crotch made no difference.
It became almost impossible for publishers to continue the horror comics they published and the last 'Web of Mystery' number, the 29th, was published in September 1955. Most publishers started to focus more on detective and science fiction comics. It was only from the mid-60s that the horror comic would slowly return.
