SKULL COMICS NO. 6

Skull comics lasted for six issues over a period of two years. In his remarkable history of horror comics, Ghastly Terror, Stephen Sennitt lavishes praise on Skull comics, stating: “Issues #3-#6 are exemplary and constitute almost faultless excursions into the darkest regions of horror comic book territory.” For admirers of Lovecraft, it is also important to note that the “Lovecraft issues” of Skull are included in Sennitt’s praise. He goes on to say that, “Skull #4 and #5 present the very best HP [sic] Lovecraft adaptations/variations to ever appear in any sort of comic”. Tall praise indeed, for a group of pot-smoking counter culture hippies possessed of the talent, business sense, and, yes, genius, to unleash their horrific fever dreams upon an unsuspecting, but nevertheless appreciative audience. Skull comics, born out of a kind of unholy union between Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman and E.C.’s Old Witch, have become true underground “cult” comics and remain vigorously sought after by horror aficionados and comics art collectors alike.

George Evans, one of the esteemed, original illustrators of E.C. comics summed it all up nicely in a career reminisce written on 5 December 1994: “Since the E.C. era, all of us have met people at comic conventions who dug EC. Rather than filling prisons and asylums, it turns out they are functioning people in all walks of life, and for me, it’s been a pleasure meeting them.”