Mocata's Den of Horror

Back in the 20th century, primarily the first half, there were various magazines known as pulp magazines.  They were predominately short fiction-based (although there were also some longer stories that would be serialized over multiple issues) and got the pulp name from the cheap, pulpy (and highly acidic) paper they were printed on and more or less replaced the penny dreadful of the 19th century.  These magazines featured fiction in genres that are often snubbed by many: crime, science fiction, fantasy, and, of course, horror. One of the most important and well-known of the pulp magazines is Weird Tales .  This magazine featured the first publications of numerous now-classic stories by the likes of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, and H. P. Lovecraft in addition to some quality material from now-lesser-known writers such as Seabury Quinn, Nictzin Dyalhis, and many others. Weird Tales originally ran from 1923 until 1954, but has since been revived ...

Back in the 1950s, horror comics were quite popular, with numerous titles from various publishers, all ranging in quality, of course, popping up at newsstands.  However, after some concern from some adults (parents always seem to need something to point to as the thing corrupting their children's minds-- in my day it was Garbage Pail Kids ), along came something called the Comic Books Code which basically killed the horror comic.  Sort of. EC, publisher of the top titles of horror and crime comics in those days, attempted to continue publishing its horror and crime titles, just without the seal of approval.  Apparently, sellers would return the comics to the publisher unsold.  EC soon got out of the horror comic game. There was, however, a loophole it seems.  The code only applied to regular-sized comic books.  If you had a larger format comic book, one the size of a regular magazine, then the code no longer applied, as it was now considered a magazine ...