Startling Terror Tales

A short-lived horror anthology from Star Publications, Startling Terror Tales ran for eight issues in the early 1950s, delivering grim, twist-ending shockers in the classic pre-Code style. The series is most frequently associated with artists Jay Disbrow and Max Elkan, whose moody, expressive work gave the tales of ghosts, ghouls, and mad scientists a rough-hewn charm. Though brief, it stands as a representative artifact of the era’s unregulated horror comics, before the Comics Code Authority tightened its grip on the industry.