Out of the Shadows #8
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeOut of the Shadows #8 stands as one of the most talked-about covers in the pre-Code horror era, with its shrunken-head image by Jack Katz drawing enough attention from collectors and historians that it has been cited among the top pre-Code horror covers of the period. The issue is a representative artifact of the brief window — roughly 1952 to 1954 — when virtually every American publisher was racing to produce explicit horror titles before the Comics Code Authority brought that era to a close. As part of Standard/Pines's flagship horror series, it showcases the company's genuine artistic ambition, pairing a memorably grotesque cover with interior work from artists who would go on to significant careers elsewhere in the medium. Its lead story, 'The Drums of Cajou,' also reflects the era's characteristic willingness to draw on Haitian voodoo mythology as horror shorthand, a storytelling trope whose cultural assumptions have since been critically re-examined.
In "The Drums of Cajou," the eerie rhythms of Haitian voodoo drive a chilling tale of vengeance and control, as the witch doctor Cajou enslaves the beautiful Lora, turning her into a zombie to exact a long-held grudge against his enemy Neal. With the witch doctor dead and his dark spell broken, Lora’s fate hangs in the balance as the forces of the past threaten to unravel. George Roussos handles both art and inks for the story, while Jack Katz delivers the haunting cover.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Out of the Shadows launched in July 1952 under the Standard Comics brand — the comic-book publishing arm of Robert Pines's company, which had been operating in pulp magazines since the late 1920s and had found Golden Age superhero success with The Black Terror and The Fighting Yank. By the early 1950s, as superhero popularity faded, Pines followed the industry-wide shift into horror and suspense titles. Issue #8 went on sale February 24, 1953, per copyright records, and was published under the Visual Editions Inc. indicia — one of the several corporate shells Standard/Pines used. No specific editor is credited in surviving records, and script credits for the interior stories have not been definitively established by comics historians.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by Standard Comics (Pines/Visual Editions Inc.) on February 24, 1953 (April 1953 cover date), as issue #8 of the series that ran from 1952 to 1954 (#5–#14).
- Cover — a shrunken-head image — penciled and inked by Jack Katz; it has been cited by pre-Code collectors as one of the standout horror covers of the era.
- Lead story 'The Drums of Cajou' (8 pages) drawn by George Roussos: a Haitian voodoo witch doctor named Cajou zombifies a woman named Lora to settle a vendetta, before being hunted down and killed.
- Second major story 'The Mask of Death,' drawn by Jerry Grandenetti, follows a window cleaner who discovers a vampire doctor's office and faces a fatal showdown when no one believes him.
- Additional interior stories include 'The Man in the Mirror' (inked by Rocco Mastroserio), 'Masque for a Monster' (art by Charles Sultan), a half-page 'Devil's Mansion' piece attributed to Vince Colletta, and a text story 'Plunge into Doom' by Margaret Isbell.
- Art identifications for the issue were performed by scholar Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., one of the leading authorities on Golden Age interior-art attribution.
- A story from this issue was reprinted in Tales Too Terrible to Tell #1 [Second Printing] (New England Comics, May–June 1993), a pre-Code horror revival anthology that also included an original Tick story by Ben Edlund.
- The series, and this issue specifically, drew on the deep roster of talent Standard/Pines employed, which across the run included George Roussos, Jerry Grandenetti, Alex Toth, Nick Cardy, Reed Crandall, Jack Katz, Ross Andru, and Rocco Mastroserio.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Seduction of the Innocent! #5 (1986), Seduction of the Innocent! #6 (1986), Tales Too Terrible to Tell #1 (1989)
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