Black Cat Comics #45

This August 1953 issue of Black Cat Mystery promises "Strangest Tales of Fear and Superstition!" — and the cover by Howard Nostrand delivers on that tagline immediately, filling the frame with a wide-eyed man's face contorted in sheer terror against a swirling, kaleidoscopic backdrop of vivid reds, yellows, blues, and greens. The tagline at the bottom — "This is what happens to you in Colorama!" — makes it clear that all that psychedelic color is anything but cheerful. With interior work by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand, this is a wonderfully unsettling slice of early-'50s horror comics at their most visually arresting.