Unpublished, unlettered, Joe Simon cover art

A never-used Harvey horror cover, possibly planned for the 1957 title Alarming Tales.

This interesting piece from the Harvey art warehouse requires a bit of explanation. The background info begins with Harvey's successful pre-Code horror comic Chamber of Chills, and the story "The Dead Sleep Lightly" (drawn by Manny Stallman and John Giunta) which appeared in issue #10 (1952). The tale involved zombies revived from their underground slumber by the intrusive activites of a mining company. Flash forward five years to 1957, when the story was selected for republication in a new upcoming Comics Code-approved "horror" comic.

But first the dark tale of walking dead had to be re-written via new dialog on lettering paste-overs, with the zombies transformed into a race of small men who lived underground. The artwork was censored by additional ink or completely covered with white paint and re-drawn where neccessary, changes mandated by the Comics Code Authority and performed by Harvey art director Joe Simon. The censored original artwork was sold at auction by Heritage Comics, but can still be viewed in their Permanent Auction Archive. There was also a "contents page" produced for the same unpublished comic, with the new title "Who's Down There" replacing the original "The Dead Sleep Lightly". The contents page offers a scene from the story, of a confrontation with the little people underground (below). The page is labeled "Chamber of Chills" at the top, but in the logo area Joe Simon indicated simply "New Title" and provided a date of 1957, the same year "Alarming Tales" was published.

While the reworked story, contents page, and the cover I'm selling here all went unpublished, it seems logical to imagine that they were originally scheduled for an unpublished issue of "Alarming Tales".

Anyway, the cover art offered here is incomplete, and unpublished. It offers a rare insight into the comic publishing business at a time when companies were under pressure to respond to many new challenges in their business. And it is a very cool piece of art by one of the most experienced creators in the comic business.

There is a chunk missing from the top left corner plus tape stains and discoloration along the top margin, but the art is in otherwise Very Good condition. The page measures approximately 14.25" x 22.5"

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