It was not perhaps so much the creatures though, but the unleashed dark sexual depravity that ran through their core, of unbidden libidos running amok in the night, that caused our parents such worry. So much so that from the 1940s onwards, attempts were made to censor the comics – although to very little success.

For Dillon Naylor the tales and their lurid titles – The Vault of Horror, Doomsday, Shock Stories and The Haunt of Fear – are the inspiration for his own work. He’s been a writer and illustrator of comic books for over 35 years.

His take on the grindcore graphics is to reimagine them for a younger audience and to use the strong black-and-white graphics to tell his own tales. Patricia the Vampire Girl is an exchange student from a country of monsters whose job is to recruit children to be vampires, but who finds life in suburban Australia too pleasant to leave. Another tale, Preston Peace, tells the story of a young boy whose parents are pushing him to succeed in high school. His only restraining disability is that he’s “living-impaired”.

Originally published by the EC (Entertaining Comics) company, the horror magazines were reprinted in Australia in the more liberated 1970s. Their unadulterated glee in the demise of protagonists was tempered only by ironic twists and the caveat that, usually, the victims deserved their gruesome fate.

“They were very blunt,” says Dillon. “The style of comic grew out of crime comics which were very popular at the time, a kind of pulp… somebody realised you could make them even more terrifying by putting supernatural elements into them.”

You can read Dillon Naylor’s latest story in Oi Oi Oi! magazine. Dillon’s back-catalogue of work is currently being compiled into a series of graphic novels. He was interviewed as part of our What’s Art Got To Do With It series. More at www.thecourier.com.au