Fantastic Fears #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFantastic Fears #2 (July 1953) is a strong early entry in Ajax-Farrell's celebrated pre-Code horror anthology line, which stands alongside EC Comics as one of the defining horror-comics publishing programs of the era. The issue is notable for blending genuinely unsettling monster-in-the-sewers science fiction with twisted fairy-tale subversions — a storytelling range typical of the Iger Shop's ambition on this title. As the second issue in a nine-issue run that would soon publish Steve Ditko's first professional sale (#5), issue #2 belongs to the formative stretch of a series that left a measurable mark on horror comics history. The entire Fantastic Fears run, including this issue, was later deemed significant enough by modern preservation publishers to warrant facsimile reprint treatment, confirming its place in the pre-Code horror canon.
This anthology issue contains "Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Werewolf," in which the Old Crone narrator reveals a darker version of the classic fairy tale set in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia, where Little Red Riding Hood encounters a werewolf instead of an ordinary wolf while visiting her grandmother. The issue also features a crime story involving a character named Joe who becomes entangled with a woman named Millie and a criminal named Chun; Joe is proposed a scheme to help locate Chun's hidden money, guarded by cobras, in exchange for a share of the wealth and Millie's hand in marriage.
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Fantastic Fears was produced entirely by the S. M. Iger Shop — the studio Jerry Iger operated after his creative partnership with Will Eisner dissolved — and published under Robert W. Farrell's Four Star Publications/Ajax imprint. Farrell himself served as publisher throughout the run, with Ruth Roche credited as editor on later issues, and S. M. Iger credited as art editor; the same editorial structure almost certainly governed issue #2. The Iger Shop was notorious for publishing work without individual story credits, making precise attribution for this issue's stories nearly impossible to pin down, though Robert Webb, Myron Fass, Howard Nostrand, and Jack Abel have each been confirmed or strongly suspected as contributors to the Fantastic Fears title at various points.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published July 1953 by Farrell (Four Star Publications / Ajax imprint); cover-dated the second issue of the Fantastic Fears run, which spanned nine issues from May 1953 to September/October 1954.
- Also carries the alternate designation 'Captain Jet #8,' because the Fantastic Fears series continued the numbering of Farrell's prior Captain Jet title — Fantastic Fears #1 was Captain Jet #7, and #2 was Captain Jet #8.
- Lead story 'Fiends from the Crypt': two Roman police officers pursue a thief into the sewers, discover a secret colony of green-scaled humanoid monsters in the catacombs, and are drawn into a deadly pact with them — an early example of the title blending urban-horror dread with borderline science-fiction creature design.
- Second story 'Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Werewolf' is a horror-genre subversion of the classic fairy tale in which the rescued Red Riding Hood is ultimately revealed to be a vampire herself — a darkly ironic twist characteristic of the pre-Code anthology style.
- Additional stories in the issue include 'Careless Corpse' (a dark-comedy walking-dead tale) and 'Carnival of Terror' (a snake-charmer horror story), giving the issue its typical four-story anthology structure.
- All stories and art produced by the S. M. Iger Shop; no individual creator credits appear in the issue itself, a house practice for which Iger Shop material was widely noted. Suspected contributors to the broader Fantastic Fears title include artists Robert Webb, Myron Fass, Howard Nostrand, and Jack Abel.
- The broader Fantastic Fears series is historically significant as the title that published Steve Ditko's first professional comics sale ('Stretching Things,' #5, January/February 1954), cementing Ajax-Farrell's place in comics history — making the early issues like #2 part of the run that preceded and contextualized that debut.
- PS Artbooks produced a 2023 facsimile reprint edition of Fantastic Fears #2 as part of their ongoing pre-Code horror preservation series, making the issue's contents accessible to modern readers in a format matched to the original's specifications.
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