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Senator Kefauver & Bill Everett’s Zombie, Menace #5 at Auction
Zombie by Bill Everett debuted in Menace #5 from Marvel/Atlas in 1953, and would return to enter the Marvel Universe 20 years later.
Article Summary
- Bill Everett’s Zombie debuted in Menace #5 in 1953, then returned 20 years later as Simon Garth in Marvel’s Tales of the Zombie.
- Menace #5 preserves Everett’s seven-page pre-Code horror classic, a key early Zombie story later expanded into Marvel lore.
- Joe Maneely and Stan Lee’s “Crack-Down!” echoes Senator Estes Kefauver’s crime hearings, tying Zombie-era Atlas horror to history.
- With just seven CGC 5.5 copies and 19 higher, Menace #5 remains an underappreciated Zombie key for Atlas and Marvel collectors.
Menace #5 opens by declaring, “You’re a Zombie!” The corpse standing motionless in Bill Everett‘s moonlit swamp has no name. Neither does the mysterious individual who has controlled him through black magic for untold years, or the woman he is ordered to abduct. Twenty years later, Marvel would return to this seven-page story, name its walking dead man Simon Garth, and build Tales of the Zombie around him.
But there may be an even more fascinating comic book horror lurking within the pages of Menace #5. A story by Joe Maneely and Stan Lee in this issue contains a clear reference to Senator Estes Kefauver‘s organized crime investigations of 1950-1951. Ironically, shortly before Menace #5 hit the newsstands in 1953, Kefauver and fellow Senator Robert C. Hendrickson had floated their intention to form a committee to investigate juvenile delinquency, with the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate creating a Special Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency on April 27, 1953. The Subcommittee’s infamous 1954 hearings targeted comic books and included testimony from a number of figures in comic book publishing and distribution, as well as Seduction of the Innocent author Fredric Wertham.
The Zombie Marvel Brought Back
Marvel was the comic book industry’s most prolific horror publisher in 1953 when Menace #5 hit the newsstands. Of course, this changed when the Comics Code was implemented the next year. Notably, the Code explicitly prevented zombies from appearing in comic books at that time, along with other horror staples like vampires and werewolves. However, when Code guidelines were relaxed on this point in 1971, Marvel looked to re-enter the horror field, and Marvel resurrected Everett’s Zombie to star in its Tales of the Zombie magazine in 1973. An editorial in the debut issue explained how this came about:
Editor Roy Thomas turned up several [Bill Everett Pre-Code Horror stories] while he was looking for vintage tales to reprint for the first issue of our sister-mag DRACULA LIVES!, back when that title and MONSTERS UNLEASHED. were the only two giant-sized comics on the Marvel schedule.
And the very best Everett tale— in fact, Roy’s personal nomination for one of the best-drawn sagas of that much-maligned decade wherein he cut his proverbial eyeteeth — was a thing called simply “Zombie.” He put it aside on top of a stack of reprint material by Russ Heath, Gene Colan. Tony diPreta. and other giants in the field, and went on to other concerns.
Then, suddenly, neo-publisher Stan Lee came up with a couple of new names he wanted to see done as magazine titles, so that Marvel would enter the black-and-white field with a whole line of 75-centers. One was VAMPIRE TALES. which debuts next month, same time, same newsstand— and the other was TALES OF THE ZOMBIE!
Roy was thunderstruck— an unusual occurrence for the Rascally One. TALES OF THE ZOMBIE. Great title, that. But— tales of what zombie? More than seven years of hectic experience in comics had convinced Roy that Marvel’s magazines usually did best with strong title characters rather than with anthology-type books per se. But, how to come up with just the right zombie, drawn in just the right style by just the right artist? He racked his brains for, oh. five minutes or so. Then. something clicked— and be remembered. Bill Everett’s Zombie! Why not take this beautifully-conceived, painstakingly-rendered Walking Deadman, and make him the unique hero of his own magazine, just like that?
You Are the Gangster, the Murderer, or Estes Kefauver?
The rest of the issue follows a similar framework, focusing on the likes of a gangster, a murderer, a doomed scientist, or a monster headed toward a likely terrible end. Joe Maneely and Stan Lee’s story “Crack-Down!” announces, “Your name is Mouse Cooley,” the least important member of Ace Harrow’s criminal organization. Senator Cobb is coming to investigate crime in Midville, so Harrow orders everyone in his gang to stop operating. Mouse ignores him, robs an easy-looking stranger for $33, and later discovers at the public hearing that his victim was Cobb himself. For readers in 1953, the story of a touring senator investigating organized crime was a clear reference to the Kefauver organized-crime investigation. Beginning in 1950, the committee held hearings in fourteen cities. An estimated thirty million viewers watched its March 1951 proceedings on television. Kefauver had sought supporting data from J. Edgar Hoover for a run at comic books during the 1950 organized crime hearings, but Hoover’s lack of enthusiasm seemingly prompted the Senator to regroup for the now-infamous 1954 juvenile delinquency hearings, which placed comic books front and center.
There are seven Universal copies graded 5.5, and 19 are higher, making this an underappreciated key with connections to a later era where census populations tend to be much larger. Menace #5 combines one of Bill Everett’s most important pre-Code horror stories with a surprising reference to one of the comic book industry’s greatest historical villains. For collectors interested in the debut of the original Marvel Zombie, there’s a Menace #5 (Atlas, 1953) CGC FN- 5.5 Off-white to white pages up for auction at the 2026 September 24-26 Comic Books Signature Auction #7469.
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