CGC certified: VG+ (4.5) RESTORED. "Restoration includes: small amount of glue on cover, tear seal to cover." Cream to off-white pages. Grader notes: "Writing right top of back cover, moderate tanning interior cover, small amount of glue on left bottom spine, small spine split bottom of spine, small spine split top of spine, small multiple chip out back cover, staple tears, tear seals right center front cover C-1, tears to cover." It's worth investigating having the resto professionally reversed in order to qualify for a blue (Universal) label. PBA's Director of Comics can offer advice in this direction to interested parties; please inquire.
Cover: Johnny Craig. Plots and scripts: Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig and Harvey Kurtzman. Art: Johnny Craig ("Poison"), Harvey Kurtzman ("The Giggling Killer"), Wally Wood ("Faced with Horror"), Graham Ingels ("Blood Red Wine"). Text: "Getaway!" and "Loot!" Ads: "Fun for Boys and Girls!," Joe Bonomo's Power-Plus Body," "Let's Play House," "Heavier, Stronger, Better!" tool set offer. House ads: Haunt of Fear #4, Picture Stories from the Bible.
Overstreet: "Rare. Reprints Crime SuspenStories #3, covers & contents w/ Canadian ads replacing U.S. ads." Overstreet does not list values for any grade above Fine (6.0) due to the extreme rarity of higher-grade copies. CGC Census: There are eight graded copies, of which seven are blue label (Universal), and one is purple label (Restored). The Universal copies comprise a 7.0, followed by a 5.5, two 4.5s, two 2.0s, and one 1.5. GPAnaylsis: Only one reported sale in any grade: A 2.0 sold for $729 in 2013.
Q: What am I seeing here? I feel like I'm losing my mind.
A: What you're looking at is an extremely rare Canadian edition of Crime SuspenStories #3, with the title changed to Weird SuspenStories for legal reasons, and a crudely-spliced logo which, as EC authority Grant Geissman explains, "juxtaposed the logos of Weird Fantasy and Crime SuspenStories." — Geissman, Tales of Terror! The EC Companion. Fantagraphics: 2000, p. 155.
Q: "Legal reasons"? I don't understand.
A: This mag was published by Canadian hack-house Superior "almost contemporaneously with the American version," to quote Mr. Geissman once again. The Canadian Parliament passed a law in 1949 banning the sale of crime mags and prohibiting the use of the word "crime" on the covers of comic books published and sold in Canada. So to avoid a steep fine and/or jail time, Superior's publisher titled this mag "Weird SuspenStories."
Q: Yeah, but why was Superior publishing EC comics in the first place? What did Bill Gaines think about this?
A: Let's let Bill speak for himself — this is from an interview published in The Comics Journal #81 (May, 1983): "What comic publishers did in those days was, you sold your press plates. Comics were such a chintzy business that if you could sell your press plates for $2-300, this was a consideration. If you put out 60 comics a year like I did and you sold each one for $300, that was 18 grand, which was a lot of extra money in those days for nothing. So we sold our press plates to Canada, to a publisher called, I believe, Superior. Who they were and what they were I have no idea. And they published them up there. A very shitty job, and you can still find them at conventions, and people who are such specialists of EC comics that they want everything go after the Superior comics versions, which were identical except that instead of saying EC they probably said 'S.'"
Q: Ok, but if Superior was using EC's original printing plates, why was the print quality so lousy?
A: Because Bill Gaines didn't sell Superior the actual metal plates; instead, he sold them cheapo duplicates made of rubber. As EC savant Roger Hill wrote in his article "The EC Family" in Squa Tront #3 (1970): "Since it cost too much to ship metal plates, Gaines decided to have rubber plates made up for easy shipment. These plates were sold to Superior."
Q: So who was the brains behind Superior, anyway?
A: Superior's publisher, William Zimmerman, was a shadowy figure who emerges dimly through the haze of comics history as a sort of low-budget Bill Gaines. Zimmerman's publishing career mirrors Gaines's in several ways: both men published three horror titles; both attempted to defend their comics against hostile critics in government hearings; and both of their attempts backfired badly. Zimmerman, however, took his beating from the Canadian Senate in 1949, a full five years before Gaines appeared before the 1954 Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Juvenile Delinquency. You can find more info about the Canadian hearings in John L. Kent's Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign (Farleigh Dickinson University Press: 1999).
EC research ace Philip Smith has discovered info that suggests Zimmerman was merely a mouthpiece fronting for Canadian-American media mogul Jack Kent Cooke, onetime partner of British newspaper king Lord Kenneth Thomson and former owner of the Washington Redskins, the L.A. Lakers, and other sports teams. Was Mr. Cooke the addled brains behind Superior? Ultimately, nobody knows and it's likely that nobody ever will.
Q: So why should I buy this ish of Weird SuspenStories?
A: Because it's one of the rarest pre-Code comics on the planet — hell, it's one of the rarest comic books on the planet, period. And besides that, it's just incredibly cool.
Q: What do the experts say about Weird SuspenStories?
"Canada passed a law against importing crime comic books between 1949-1953, thus Crime SuspenStories became Weird SuspenStories in Canada creating a new EC title. The word 'crime' was not allowed on comic books in Canada during this time." — Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 47th Edition.
"Due to restrictions in Canada about using the word 'CRIME' on a comic cover, Superior reprinted EC's Crime SuspenStories #1-3 as WEIRD SUSPENSTORIES, taking the 'Weird' from a cover on an EC sci-fi title. Thus was produced a 'new' EC title, and some of the rarest EC collectibles.... In #3, the entire logo was... published in red ink against a plain white background... the effect is quite slapdash. Real EC completists gotta have WEIRD SUSPENSTORIES. Good luck finding them... they're quite rare." — George Suarez, Tales Too Terrible To Tell #8. NEC: 1993, p. 46.
"The most interesting Canadian reprint is the title Weird SuspenStories, which juxtaposes logos from Weird Fantasy and Crime SuspenStories. The hybrid lasted three issues. The Canadian ECs had print runs of about 30,000. U.S. print runs were between 250,000-450,000." — Grant Geissman, Collectibly MAD: The MAD and EC Collectibles Guide. Kitchen Sink: 1995, p. 92.
Q: Wow! This mag must have really good provenance. Where on earth did it come from?
A: It was consigned by top EC historian and collector Thommy Burns, head of Facebook's EC Fan-Addict Club. Thommy owns a complete set of EC New Trend comics, but decided to abandon his quest to own a full set of Weird SuspenStories because after many years of hunting, he was unable to find the other two issues. As a true completist, Thommy prefers to have none if he can't have 'em all! We're incredibly pleased that Thommy chose to offer his copy with PBA. Here's what Thommy has to say about this grail of grails:
"The EC Comics published in Canada by Superior have quirks and anomalies that make them attractive to collectors: some issues have a maple leaf logo instead of the familiar EC logo, others have contents mismatched to their covers, and the third issue of Weird Science has a color variation that makes it not only 'weird' but also irresistible to completists. But of all of these printing differences none are more highly sought, coveted, or harder to land than the first three issues of Crime SuspenStories. Due to the word 'crime' being forbidden in a comic book title in Canada, these were retitled Weird SuspenStories, with truly odd cut-and-paste mastheads created by patching the word 'Weird' from Weird Science / Fantasy onto the then-current 'SuspenStories' logo. There were only three issues and they are true unicorns in the EC collecting field.
"Wonderful to look at, thrilling to hold, and nearly impossible to own — copies of Weird SuspenStories rarely come up for sale. Here's a gorgeous, highly-presentable third issue! I've loved being it's caretaker, who wants to be next? Stay Weird!" — Thommy Burns.
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