Fair/Good (1.5). Soft and pulpy. Cover chipped, spine split, nice colors. Cream paper with tanning to edges, sheds occasional flakes, a vulnerable copy. Kamenesque art.
Note on the condition of Superiors: "[Apparently] Superior had a corporate policy of skimping on the quality of its comic books. They used cheaper printing plates in general and probably did not re-ink the plates as often as American publishers did... Superior also used slightly inferior paper... This means that their comic books are much harder to find in high grade. Many copies are browning, brittling and chipping along the edges." -G. Suarez, Terrology [NEC: 1992].
Final issue. "Great cover showing strange figures lurking in a film noir-inspired cityscape, odd and surreal even by Superior standards... Horror comics with 1955 cover dates are scarce; few were published due to the Comics Code, and those published were seldom distributed." -EC, MAD and Pre-Code HORROR Comics of the 1950s [Green Apple: 1997].
Like fellow shlockmeisters Victor Fox, Stanley Morse and Comic Media, William Zimmerman's Superior Comics sometimes foisted off reprints under new covers; in this case, the contents are reprinted from Journey into Fear #3. Unlike Morse and company, Zimmerman made no effort to disguise reprints by rearranging the artwork, changing story titles and/or recoloring the art. This issue's cover is cobbled together from elements taken from two story panels. The pieced-together composition has an addled, unreal quality suitable to the air of degeneracy that hovers over Superior's strange scenarios.
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