Marvel’s earliest out-of-print horror comics to get a spine-tingling reprint

Publisher Fantagraphics is bringing Marvel’s rarest horror comics back with a new Adventures into Terror collection. 

Marvel Comics is known today for its superhero comics, but that wasn’t always the case. In reality, superheroes were a necessity after the Comic Code crushed the industry. 

Established in 1954, the Comics Code Authority was presented as the lesser of two evils – the other being government regulation. The Comics Code would be largely defunct by the 21st century, with DC and Archie Comics being the last to abandon it in 2010. 

The Code immediately affected the industry, decimating the incredibly popular horror comics market. Those books are now some of the rarest on the market, with many, like Marvel’s Adventures into Terror, being highly sought after. Publisher Fantagraphics is alleviating some of that pain now with a brand-new collection. 

Fantagraphics announces Adventures Into Terror collection

Announced via ScreenRant, Fantagraphics will be releasing The Atlas Comics Library: Adventures into Terror Volume One. The 180-page hardback is the first of an effort by Fantagraphics to reprint Marvel’s iconic genre titles, many of which are all but lost to time. 

Fantagraphics

The first collection consists of eight issues of Adventures into Terror, a horror anthology series originally published by Atlas Comics. Atlas would shift gears in the ‘50s to become Timely Comics before taking on the name Marvel Comics in the 1960s. 

The reprints mark the first time these comics have been made available in decades. Many of these titles were canceled because of the horror content that made them popular to begin with. 

Adventures into Terror are Marvel’s rarest horror comics

By today’s standards, Adventures into Terror seems tame. In the 1950s, though, horror titles like this were incredibly popular with kids for their gruesome content and grisly art. 

That content led to something of a moral panic. The parental outcry to horror comics, along with the publication of Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, forced the comic industry to restructure its publishing practices. 

With horror comics all but banned under the new Comic Code, existing copies became even more valuable. Today, copies of Adventures into Terror can go for anywhere from $90 to $400 and are highly sought after by collectors. 

The Atlas Comics Library: Adventures into Terror releases October 31 and is available for pre-order now. For more Marvel Comics news, be sure to follow all of Dexerto’s coverage.