Printing Terror

American horror comics as Cold War commentary and critique

By: Michael Goodrum, Philip Smith

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Paperback | 30 July 2024

At a Glance

Paperback
328 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.8

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$62.69

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Printing terror takes a fascinating look at American horror comics in the Cold War era, from the 1940s to the 1970s. It reveals how these comics both reflected and fed into the anxieties of the age, particularly in matters of race and gender.

The book traces the history of prominent titles such as Tales from the Crypt, Tomb of Terror and Chamber of Chills, while exploring the careers of cult figures within and around horror comics. Considering the context of Vietnam, the rise of feminism and the growth of the civil rights movement, it argues against the received wisdom that horror comics offered a subversive commentary on society. In reality they often repeated the sexist, racist and nationalistic tropes they purported to undermine.

Featuring a wealth of vivid illustrations, Printing terror offers an exciting new perspective on horror comics, deepening our understanding of this popular but complex genre.

Industry Reviews

'The six main chapters incorporate a broad range of texts, and in these Goodrum and Smith read comics from two distinct periods-the periods before and after the formation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954-through the lenses of trauma, race, and gender.'
Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association

'The authors robustly show the extent to which horror comics appear to indict racism and misogyny while consistently presenting women and people of colour as endangering white men and societal structures.'
Dianne Kirby, Twentieth Century Communism

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