Fine/VF (7.0). Conservatively graded. Clean, flat, decent ink reflectivity, a few tiny nicks. Pages cream to off-white, edges a bit tan. Cover by Lee Elias. Stories and art by Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand, and Joe Certa.
"Features artwork by an uncredited talent proficient in the lost craft of Zip-a-Tone technique." -EC, MAD and Pre-Code HORROR Comics of the 1950s [Green Apple: 1997].
Indeed. Several previously unknown Harvey artists have been identified since the Green Apple catalogue came out, but not the talented Zip-a-Tone guy. His story, "The Closet," is about a girl whose Aunt beats and starves her and locks her in a closet. There's no bloodshed, no death, no supernatural element. The girl manages to lock her Aunt in the closet until her Aunt goes insane (which takes just three wonderfully-drawn panels). The artist could've gone on to do more great work in comics, but he probably left the biz when the Comics Code came down.
David Hadju's Ten Cent Plague has an appendix listing some but not all of "the artists, writers, and others who never again worked in comics after the purge of the 1950s." The list has two columns of names per page, small print. It goes on for 15 pages. Hundreds of names. Among them, perhaps, is the Zip-a-Tone guy.
