Like black & white photography or cinema, B&W horror
comics have their highly partial fanatics. Comics historian Richard J. Arndt
ranks among them, and his new book Horror
Comics in Black and White: A History and Catalog, 1964 – 2004 gives his
obsession with titles such as Creepy,
Vampirella, Eerie, and Nightmare a
neat outlet.
After a general history of the genre (not surprisingly, the
writer emphasizes how the anti-comics congressional hearings of 1954 were still
hovering over the horror comics industry a decade later), Arndt breaks down
each chapter by publisher, providing specs, historical data, and a brief review
of each individual issue. Horror Comics
in Black and White is coolest when spitting out historical tidbits, such as
the updates on which future artists (Iron
Giant/Ratatouille filmmaker Brad
Bird being one example) sent in fan mail. Arndt’s reviews tend to be fairly
cursory, as when he deems the cover of Creepy
issue #21 “probably the worse (sic) single cover Warren ever published on their
comic magazines. Absolutely awful” without explaining why or what the cover
depicted. Such teasing comments about the art and contents of these comics also
made me wish Arndt’s book was a bit more generous with its illustrations. Still, even
with its flaws, Horror Comics in Black
and White is a worthwhile overview of a strain of horror comics that
generally doesn’t get as much attention as its splashier color cousins.
