The story seen here, "V...-for Wampire", is from FLIP #1 (April 1954). The script is by Nat Barnett, who wrote funny animal, horror and fantasy stories for Harvey and a few war stories for DC, all in the mid-50's.
Along with the cover, Howard Nostrand illustrated the story of Vanessa the Vampire, who needed to successfully claim a victim before she could graduate from Vampire U, "Summa Cum Bloody"! Nostrand didn't normally sign his work and readers identified him as “The Mystery Artist” or “The Jack Davis-type Artist.”
Nostrand began his comics career at the tender age of 19 as Bob Powell's assistant (Powell has four stories in this issue) and quickly found he could imitate not only Powell's work, but Powell's mentor, Will Eisner as well. Indeed, it's not hard to spot Eisner, Jack Davis or Wallace Wood in his layouts and line work (and a touch of Will Elder, I might add). Wood is even known to have had a file of Nostrand's strips that used his layouts and to avoid an out-and-out swipe changed the positions of characters in the panel.
FLIP disappeared after just two issues, and along with Harvey's horror titles, was a casualty of the fallout following the Comics Code Authority.
After the story as seen in the first issue of FLIP is Nostrand's original art that sold at auction in 2009 for $3,107.00.
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