Auctions: comic books published by Ajax

Flame (1955 Ajax) 3 GD/VG 3.0

Cover oxidation. Interior tearing.

Stories and art by Robert Webb, Ken Battefield, Manning Lee Stokes Alex Blum, and Fred Schwab (credited as Fist E. Cuffs). Chemist Kip Adams becomes The Flame, with superhuman strength and a reporter girlfriend. The Flame tries to find out who's behind a sabotage ring. Tugboat Tessie and Melody leap into action after an escaped circus elephant runs amuck on the Brooklyn Bridge. Boxer Plug McTee doesn't know what to do after his manager is bought out for ten grand. Devil's Business; The Man in the Seven-League Boots; Tugboat Tessie: Traffic and Tide!; Plug McTee; Everybody's Secret; The Flame's Field Day. Final issue of the series. 32 pages, Full Color. Cover price $0.10.

Haunted Thrills (1952) 6 CGC 5.5

Paper: Cream to off white

Label #4734652002

Stories and art by Carl Burgos and others. Pre-Code horror comics from Ajax-Farrell and their anonymous talents. A ship is taken over by an army of ravenous rats. A zoo's latest acquisition is a minotaur, but it requires a very special diet: human youths. A female ventriloquist's dummy comes to life, and she's brought her friends with her, in a story with art by Human Torch creator Carl Burgos. Crawling Death; Pit of Horror; Monster Mill; Dearest, Deadest Dummy. 36 pages, Full Color. Cover price $0.10.

Voodoo (1952 Ajax/Farrell) 5 CGC 6.5

Paper: Off white to white

Label #2039114001

Ajax-Farrell's horror series Voodoo managed to stand out in the crowded field of pre-Code horror comics by dint of its sheer weirdness. Three men spend the night in a haunted lighthouse. A wife's hatred of her husband's undertaking job drives her murderously insane. A woman poisons her lover's wife, resulting in madness and revenge from the beyond the grave. Corpses of the Jury; Death Light?; Man-Killer; Ghoul for a Day; The Spiteful Spirit. 36 pages, Full Color. Cover price $0.10.