The Fight for Eerie: Avon v Ziff-Davis Pre-Code Horror War, at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Avon Publications, pre-code horror, Ziff-Davis

The Fight for Eerie: Avon v Ziff-Davis Pre-Code Horror War, at Auction

Avon's 1947 Eerie Comics #1 is considered the first Pre-Code Horror comic book, and the publisher eventually battled Ziff-Davis over their own Eerie Adventures.

Published Thu, 24 Oct 2024 07:02:11 -0500
by Mark Seifert
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Article Summary

• Explore the origins of Pre-Code Horror with Avon's Eerie Comics #1 from 1947.
• Delve into Avon's legal battle with Ziff-Davis over the Eerie title in early 1950s.
• Learn about the court ruling and its impact on comic book competition.

As the first horror-only comic book, 1947's Eerie Comics #1 from publisher Avon is widely considered the true beginning of the Pre-Code Horror era.  Perhaps Avon's Joseph Meyers was inspired to this by editor Donald A. Wolheim's pitch for the Avon Fantasy Reader pulp digest, which would launch a month later and contain plenty of horror.  At least one cover from a 1947 issue of Avon Fantasy Reader would be borrowed for an issue of the Eerie comic book years later.  Such inspirations often happened between Avon's paperbacks and comics as well.  But like over 50% of Avon's titles, despite being listed as a quarterly, the Eerie Comics series would only last for one issue — at least initially.

American Comics Group would enter the horror comic field the next year, in the fall of 1948, with Adventures into the Unknown, which became the first successful horror comic book series. Marvel got into the horror comic business in early 1949, with EC Comics entering the horror field by the end of that year.  By the end of 1950, the horror comic boom was on.

With horror comics doing well, Avon relaunched Eerie in 1951. The title ultimately became one of their most successful comic book series, running 17 issues.  But the market was quickly becoming crowded and competitive, and a few months later publisher Ziff-Davis released a comic book called Eerie Adventures.  Avon soon sued Ziff-Davis for "infringement of its rights, trade name and title to the word 'Eerie,' and with unfair competition."

There had apparently been some wrangling between the two publishers before it came to that. Ziff-Davis had agreed to stop using the title Eerie Adventures after one issue and intended to continue the series with a redesigned title called Eerie Mysteries. This wasn't good enough for Avon, and Ziff-Davis was unwilling to make further concessions, so the matter went to court.

In Avon Periodicals, Inc. v. Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., the court stated that Avon did not have a monopoly on the use of the word "eerie," but that based on the notion that "both magazines were of similar editorial content, size, format, price, distribution, frequency, etc.," the court granted a permanent injunction that restrained Ziff-Davis "from printing and selling a magazine known as Eerie Mysteries with its present form of cover… and from publishing a magazine known as Eerie Adventures."

This didn't go far enough for Avon, and apparently concerned that Ziff-Davis would try another Eerie title change, they appealed.  The court then broadened the injunction by saying "We think that the adoption by defendants of the title Eerie, the same as that previously employed by plaintiff in a magazine which also so closely duplicated the size, format, design and illustrated cover of plaintiff's magazine in the same comic field, was bound to be confusing and constituted unfair competition. Recognizing that plaintiff had no right to a monopoly on the use of the word 'Eerie' and that plaintiff's use of the name had not achieved a secondary meaning in behalf of its magazine, we still think that defendants were not entitled to duplicate plaintiff's product to the point that there would be no obvious distinction between the two to the running eye."

Interestingly, Avon seemed to press their Eerie advantage over Ziff-Davis by using the Eerie Adventures title phrase that Ziff-Davis had introduced in Avon's Secret Diary of Eerie Adventures, a 1953 100-page giant. Of course, 15 years later, a different Eerie series would become a legendary comic title in magazine form from publisher James Warren.  Around that same time, the notorious Myron Fass launched comic magazine publisher Eerie Publications. But the original Avon 1947 Eerie Comics is the beginning of the Pre-Code Horror era, and there's a copy of that iconic horror comic book from Avon in CGC VF- 7.5 condition, Ziff-Davis' ill-fated but important Eerie Adventures #1 in CGC VF- 7.5 condition, and the Avon relaunched Avon Eerie #1 in CGC VF- 7.5 condition (and many others)  up for auction in the 2024 October 24 – 25 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40272 at Heritage Auctions.

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