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[The Australian Panther]

For the guest post I have recruited David Hatch who has been posting comments regularly since he registered.
David has never participated in an open discussion on a board before so he approaches this with some trepidation. He writes in in a 'stream of consciousness" fashion which I find refreshing.
From here on in I will let him speak for himself.
So welcome David!   

[The Australian Panther]

The Australian panther was kind enough to invite me to contribute a post to this reading group ,,,, not being very computer savvy   I really thank him for his invaluable help with getting it on here, I recently decided to read Adventures into the Unknown / Forbidden Worlds etc.
Adventures into the Unknown 1
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=16406
Adventures into the Unknown 21
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=14061

COMPARING AITU 1 AND 21
    it struck me just how much had changed with AITU # 1 to the last one I’ve read, # 21 so I thought it might be fun to compare them side by side story by story. so to start     
AITU # 1 
cover   fall 1948  good cover to the first issue of the first ongoing horror comic by Ed Moritz - subtle but effective. AITU # 21 cover less subtle not as effective by Ken Bald   at least up to this point I think ACG had some really crappy inconsistent vampire stories   so the lady is looking into a mirror and seeing a green vampire and a bat buddy behind him entering her room, aren't they supposed to be invited before they can enter a place ?? what's with the green colour?  wadda they suck chlorophyll ??   the cover boasts 52 pages. take no less. They were able to do that til # 33. We also have a cover button proclaiming first [indeed ] foremost [ not after EC got up and running...] and finest [ ditto] all supernatural magazine. # 1's cover and lack of words makes it better I think.
AITU # 1   2nd page  to our readers....    a nice intro with well-done skulls n bones framing   art by Dan Gordon  AITU # 21  2nd page   an Ad for the Kilroy’s    sort of ACG's Archie knockoff    they are rather fun but I like # 1's 2nd page better. AITU # 1   1st story   The Werewolf Stalks. good art by cover artist Ed Moritz    I like the midtransformations   so according to this story  werewolves don't like garlic / can't cross running water [ what about a flushing toilet ?? ] and anything silver can kill them.....    sounds like the vampire's playbook minor quibbles decent story  AITU  # 21  1st story   Haunt from the Unknown    ok art by Paul Gattuso   decent story  but did the ghost really expect the nurse to give him a warm happy smile ??    also would have liked the ghost to look more decayed / bloated etc, but real gruesomeness was rarely ACG's thing by this time so # 1's story wins again.     
[Over to you for now]

[Quirky Quokka]

Welcome to the group, David. They look like interesting selections, and it will be good to see how the comic book has changed in between those two issues.

Cheers

Quirky Quokka

[SuperScrounge]

so the lady is looking into a mirror and seeing a green vampire and a bat buddy behind him entering her room, aren't they supposed to be invited before they can enter a place ??

There are vampire legends from all around the world with different kinds of vamps and different rules. Some authors may pick some and stay consistent, others may just pick and choose which they follow.

what's with the green colour?  wadda they suck chlorophyll ??

I would guess the colorist chose green to indicate they are not alive.

Years ago in during the 2008 Halloween Cameo Caper that my webcomic participated in involved a zombie outbreak and I used different skin colors to indicate how dead some zombies were. Blue was recent, green was dead for a while, but I don't think any of the other comics followed my coloring scheme. I just mention it as a possibility for why the vampires might have been green on that comic.

[SuperScrounge]

Adventures into the Unknown #1

The Werewolf Stalks
I had to laugh at panel 3, page 6 (page 8 overall). The shot showing the wolf running terror over the town and there is a building with the sign "House of Mirth". LOL! Somebody had a sense of humor.

Wait, they just end with a dead lumberjack in the Wilder home? Where's the police questioning John on why he stabbed this man? There's no evidence this man was a werewolf!  (Yeah, John could just say he stabbed an intruder who was attacking his wife, but still...)

The Living Ghost
The Daily Bugle? Will J. Jonah Jameson blame the train crash on that menace, Spider-Man? 

Malevo is evil. Ned was cockblocked by murder!

Interesting that Malevo's image etched itself into the mirror. The explanation why vampires don't show up in mirror's is that because it's a noble metal it won't reflect pure evil. (A ridiculous explanation, but that was the superstitious belief.) So it's odd that in this story the superstitious belief seems to be flipped with the silver etching Malevo's face into itself. (True Malevo isn't a vampire, but he is evil.)

Voodoo
Guess this was written before they knew that zombies weren't truly dead men, but drugged men thought to be dead. Interesting.

The Painted Grave
Ooooo weeee ooooh! Not bad.

It Walked By Night
A honeymoon with separate beds? Okayyyyyy....  Okay story.

The Cursed Pistol
Guns don't kill people, curses on guns kill people! 

The Castle of Otranto
A novel reduced to 7 comic book pages... how much padding did the original novel have?    Very rushed.

The Horrible Toys
Eh, okay.

The Vengeful Specter of Lord Tyrone
An amazingly patient vengeful specter. Why wait so long between visits?

Haunted House
Cute.

[Quirky Quokka]

Adventures into the Unknown #1

The Werewolf Stalks
I had to laugh at panel 3, page 6 (page 8 overall). The shot showing the wolf running terror over the town and there is a building with the sign "House of Mirth". LOL! Somebody had a sense of humor.

That was my favourite panel too, SuperScrounge. That would sure be some fun park! Though it took me a minute to realise that the werewolf hadn't grown to monstrous proportions and that the purple wolf was only the montrous shadow over everything. An interesting panel in any case. 

Cheers

QQ

[SuperScrounge]

Adventures into the Unknown #21

Haunt From The Unknown
Security at this asylum is not that good. Okay story, but it could have used another rewrite.

Inhuman Agent
Okay, but rushed.

Portrait Without a Soul
Eh, could have been better.

The Zombies Prowl
"My gun will protect you from any harm!" Even the harm caused by bacteria that might exist in the tomb?  Interesting. Not as entertaining as Donald Duck in Ancient Persia (but then, what is?) Of course, after this story the archeological world would be shocked to learn that New World pyramids were created by Egyptians, even if no one believes the story of an undead priest (assuming that that part of the story is even told. Most likely Eric would just say, "Look at these Egyptian symbols we found in the Toltec tomb!")

The Gigantic Footstep
Eh. You'd think the sea would have more than enough food for such giants.

The Mysterious Mr. Home
I've encountered stories of this guy before. Here's the Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dunglas_Home

Journey Into Madness
"The most hideous of the dinosaurs-- the triceratops!" Bwah??? Got a prejudice against face horns, buddy? 
Feels like a hodge podge of dinosaur story cliches.

The Ghost Writer
Funny how Random's writing style matched Evans writing style. Not a bad story though, probably the best of this issue.

---

Comparing the two issues, the stories in 21 seem... tamed down. Issue 1 seemed to have embraced the scarier aspects of their stories, but 21 seems to have a "but not too scary" limitation on the stories.

[The Australian Panther]

David's continuing assessment.
David is using a 10 year old computer - and sometimes has trouble posting.

AITU # 1   2nd story    the living ghost    great art by Fred Guardineer   my Favorite story overall    the daily bugle???   Lol!   living ghost would make a good Spidey villain.    odd how pg. 5 has the same green face seen in a mirror motif as AITU's # 21's cover.    coincidence?? Maybe -  some great gruesome characters in this story - sadly this was the only story Fred G. drew of the living ghost. by issue # 2  his missing red eye socket has been filled in and his last story was # 3  Sigh! I would have preferred the Living Ghost over ACG's  Spirit of Frankenstein for an occasional series.         AITU # 21   2nd story ,,,   Portrait without a Soul.   adequate art by Lin Streeter    kudos to Eric Chandler. gruesome artist   Screw the stuffy critics. The story I found to be a little convoluted with too much sappy romance. So for the 2nd story, AITU #1 wins again !!
     AITU # 1  3rd story  strange spirits, voodoo.   good art by King Ward   A somewhat misinformed piece. but wadda they know ??
     AITU # 21 editorial. They announce the coming of AITU's companion mag, Forbidden Worlds.      3rd story     The Zombies Prowl. good art by ED Moritz. An overly worded little epic trying to connect the Toltec and Egyptian pyramids. I would have liked to have seen a real battle between the Egyptian gods,,,,    but nope,,,didn't happen   it seems like Ed Moritz's art got toned down from his more descriptive style in issue # 1. the zombies don't look very decayed etc. This story could have been a lot better, so even with a 1 pager AITU # 1 wins again.....         
AITU  #1, 4th story It walked by night.      good art by Max Elkan. The story is decent enough as well.
AITU #21  4th story.      uncanny mysteries  Mysterious Mr Home. OK art by Lin Streeter. Not bad for a 1 pager -  this guy actually existed! but still.....  AITU # 1 wins again...   
AITU # 1   5TH story the cursed pistol. Good art by Ed Moritz  again -  not bad for a 1 pager.   
AITU # 21   5th story   Journey into Madness. good art by Charles Sultan It had possibilities but was ultimately a big letdown. Professor Martin Fletcher thinks there were dinos in the everglades - his boss crotchety asshole professor Mottram, disagrees and cuts him down at every turn. On a trip to prove otherwise Martin and Betty his lady go off on their own and thru an earthquake etc land in live walking dino land.  All too soon they escape back to camp and because of a brought back T-Rex egg, the previously totally skeptical professor Mottram is suddenly completely  convinced ??  phtttt   I don't buy it. I wanted more dinosaurs  and to see professor Mottram get eaten by something. So again for me a 1 pager in AITU # 1 wins again, I sense a trend..... OK that's enough for now. I’ll wrap it up later.
Much thanks, David.

[SuperScrounge]

One more thing about the Journey Into Madness story. I'm pretty sure that the area that is now Florida was sea floor during the time of the dinosaurs (just like Kansas). That doesn't make it impossible to find dino fossils there since dinos could have been washed out to sea, sunk and fossilized, but without any land above water a group of living dinos is unlikely.

[Quirky Quokka]

Adventures into the Unknown #1

The Living Ghost

Interesting that Malevo's image etched itself into the mirror. The explanation why vampires don't show up in mirror's is that because it's a noble metal it won't reflect pure evil. (A ridiculous explanation, but that was the superstitious belief.) So it's odd that in this story the superstitious belief seems to be flipped with the silver etching Malevo's face into itself. (True Malevo isn't a vampire, but he is evil.)

Thanks for the explanation, SuperScrounge. I was wondering about that.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

I'm not sure I'll be able to finish both of these before Easter, so I thought I'd post my impressions so far.

Covers - I thought the difference in the covers was interesting from #1 to #21. The cover for #1 looks a bit scary, with a broken-down house, bats flying against the moon and a couple shown only from behind, but obviously not about to go for a comfortable stroll into the house. From the cover, I would except some suspense, maybe some supernatural happenings, maybe a scary ghost story, but not necessarily horror. It could even be the Halloween issue of the comic book. However, the cover for #21 looks more like horror, with the monster coming through the window with fangs and claws drawn. We still have a bat flying outside, but the girl probably doesn't look as terrified as she could.
Though SuperScrounge said:

Comparing the two issues, the stories in 21 seem... tamed down. Issue 1 seemed to have embraced the scarier aspects of their stories, but 21 seems to have a "but not too scary" limitation on the stories.

So that would seem to be the opposite of what the covers convey. I haven't had the chance to read all the stories, so I'm not sure.

Adventures into the Unknown #1

I thought it was interesting that the first page is addressed to the readers. It's almost like they're giving a disclaimer, like 'we know superstitions aren't true, but these are good stories'. I wasn't sure if they were trying to appease parents and teachers, or if it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek: 'We know they're not real ... or are they?'

I thought it was handy that they gave a contents list, though it proved to be incorrect. The werewolf story comes before 'The Living Ghost'.

The Werewolf Stalks

On p. 1, I didn't really understand how they took the beast alive, yet killed the man. Did the gun have tranquiliser pellets or bullets?

On p. 5, if Barbara really fell down the stairs in the way depicted, she would have broken her neck. Worst dialogue of the story comes from the doctor when explaining how it happened. 'She'll be all right now. Nerves mostly. She saw a shadow ... and in her nervous state, well ... you know how women are!' Okay, I know it’s 1948 and things were different then. But they didn’t seem to mind that these ‘nervous women’ were putting bombs together during the war. But I digress!

On p. 6, there's an interesting panel. SuperScrounge has already pointed out the House of Mirth (yes, it's a load of laughs), but I was initially confused. I thought the wolf had grown in size to tower over everything. Then I realised it was the 'monstorus shadow' he cast over everything, and I saw the smaller vignettes of what he'd been doing. So that was an interesting touch.

I didn't know werewolves couldn't cross running water and that you can kill them with silver. Good to know. And poor ol' Jacques finds release from his torment in death. Though back on p. 2, we learned that he was cruel and brutal even as a man, so maybe he's not exactly in a state of peace.

The Living Ghost

Right off the bat (excuse the pun), the art puts this in the horror category for me. The ghost is suitably creepy, and I tend not to like those kinds of stories as much because they creep me out and I have to turn all the lights on 

p. 4 - Nothing like adding a little romance to a horror story. There have been two grisly crimes, and Tony says, 'Next thing you'll be trying to tell me that the devil himself committed both these crimes! Look, I'm finished here ... but let's go dancing tonight!' Those are two sentences that should never go together - LOL

The size of the monster doesn’t seem consistent across panels. On p. 5, his head looks about the same size as Gail’s in the mirror, but when he's carrying her out the window, he looks a lot bigger.

p. 7 – Why does the olive branch look like a miniature cactus?

p. 8 – Yep, it’s a horror story with plenty of grisly art.

p. 9 - No wonder Gail loves Tony if he greets her with 'Shut up, you idiot!' I guess there'll be no dancing tonight 

p. 10 - Tony seems to have lost most of his mud covering, except for the 3rd panel on p. 10 where he is completely brown?

Not my favourite kind of story, I'm afraid.

Strange Spirits

I wasn't sure if this was meant to be an educational feature. Not sure it's quite what the school teachers would be looking for, but fits with the genre.

I'm afraid I didn't get much further.

Adventures into the Unknown #21

I haven't read much of this one, though did have a look through at the art. I couldn't help but notice that the advertising seemed a strange fit. It's a suspense/horror comic, but three of the ads were for The Kilroys (a fun Archie clone), Disney comic books (with Donald, Mickey and Goofy in the ad), and the Popsicle Twins advertising ... well ... popsicles. Doesn't seem to be the target audience, though maybe the older family members buy that stuff for the youngsters. I know that's not really what we were meant to comment on, but just struck me as unusual.

Thanks for the selections, David. Always good to see something different.

Cheers

QQ

[SuperScrounge]

Thanks for the explanation, SuperScrounge.

You're welcome. I find these old superstitions interesting.

On p. 1, I didn't really understand how they took the beast alive, yet killed the man. Did the gun have tranquiliser pellets or bullets?

Hmmm... page 1, panel 2 we see one guy with a gun and two guys with lassos so it seems like they are trying to capture the wolf, not kill it. The shot in panel 3 hits Pierre and on page 2, panel 1, the guy explains that the shadows wrecked his aim, i.e. he meant to shoot the wolf not Pierre.

Oddly enough the other lasso holder is shown having roped the wolf, but the reason why you want two ropes is to hold the wolf in place, otherwise the wolf could attack the man holding the rope. Lucky for that guy the wolf decided against doing that.

Okay, I know it’s 1948 and things were different then. But they didn’t seem to mind that these ‘nervous women’ were putting bombs together during the war.

LOL! 

I didn't know werewolves couldn't cross running water and that you can kill them with silver.

Probably depends on the legend.

Oddly enough, while most cultures have some variation on werewolves there was so little information on what causes them or stops them the writer of Universal's Wolfman had to make stuff up, which later writers used for their werewolf stories.

Silver and the supernatural does have a long history though, and for a good reason, silver kills bacteria, and at the time people didn't understand the concept of germs so they attributed things to evil spirits, so that's why we have things like silverware, to protect the eater from 'evil spirits' i.e. bacteria.

[Morgus]

Welcome to the group, ,Dave. Comparing 2 issues of AITU was a great idea. And you just have to love the era when you could get 52 pages of comics for a dime. I agree that by issue 21 things were settling down. And I wanted to see the nasty professor being snacked on myself.
And yeah, a turf war between the Mexican and Egyptian gods would have been gnarly. Almost as good as Mexican wrestling.
The art was pretty uniform from issue to issue, but the quality control was pretty good for the whole run as well.
My favourite was the one page on Daniel Home. I don’t know WHY they drew him as bald...he always had a full head of hair in the pics I saw, and the same goes for the Wikipedia link. Of COURSE AITU played fast and loose with the facts. Nobody saw him do the window to window levitation and he led his scientific investigators around by the nose.
The stories were entertaining and well done and both issues were a lot of fun. Glad to welcome you to the group, David.

[The Australian Panther]

Here is David's wrap-up, but I think he may have another post up his sleeve.

Yeah, once I got into doing this I really wanted to cover it story by story.    I trust your wisdom to present this however you think is best...    so here's the conclusion.... ////////////   AITU # 1  6 The story   The Castle of Otranto -   good art by Allen Ulmer  a fine haunted castle story .... it even has a ghost that looks like a real decayed decrepit thing  and not your later typical ACG invisible girl type see thru phantom.         AITU # 21 6th story  The Ghost Writer  ok art by Pete Riss -  reporter gets help by the ghost of a murdered philanthropist to stop a big swindle and solve the murder. Ok enough overall but again compared with AIYU # 1 not even a close contest. a little left in AITU # 1   7th story True Ghosts of History, Lord Tyrone.  good art by Ed Moritz - boy what an evil bastard  - pretty good for a 2 pager - and finally the 8th story [ cover story ] - good art by King Ward. Decent story with a little comedy relief. IN CONCLUSION - I wish ACG had kept the extra touch of gruesomeness that they had in the very beginning. AITU # 21 was a rather weak issue overall. They did have some better issues here and there. ACG for me, actually improved after the Comics Code came in. I think they are the only comic book company that did,,,,    ah well it is what it is. Thank you all for letting me share my opiniionated opinions. David Hatch    ////////////   so there we are      Thanks, David.  

And thank you, David. Please read the upcoming Reading Group selections and feel free to comment.
Go well.   

[The Australian Panther]

Adventures into the Unknown 1
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=16406

There are areas in CB+ that, as yet, I have barely ventured into. I have looked at some ACG material but not much, so thanks David for giving me the opportunity.
The date on this is October 1948, well before the comic code.
# 21 is dated July 1951.
Seduction of the Innocent, American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, was published in 1954.
My point, any change in editorial policy in 1951 was not as a result of Wertham's book.
The scan we have on CB+ has a crumpled cover, which, strangely actually enhances the effect.
Clear, straight-forward, quite atmospheric cover. Here we go, lets go in!
"Superstition is ignorance.It's part of the Dark Ages from which man emerged centuries ago.'
Have we really? I wonder?
The Werewolf Stalks
I'm surprised that the Werewolf never bit the wife, he had at least three opportunities. Would have been an entirely different story if he had. Art-work is good,but the atmosphere is provided by the writer.
The Living Ghost
In a time when, according to the current narrative, Women had gone back to being housewives and were downtrodden, there were an awful lot of feisty girl reporters in the media, comics, radio and movies.
Everything that needs to be said about this one, David has already said.
Strange Spirits - there is a lot more that can be said about VooDoo.
It walked by Night
The curious thing about this story, is the almost complete absence of the girl who is the centre of the story., We see her once on the Splash page and that's it. We don't see her reaction to the death of her husband and we don't even know if Aram ever married her.
Nice set-up for the end of the story tho.
The cursed pistol
Yet another curse.Why would the family keep the thing for generations?
The Castle of Otranto
Nice to see an adaptation of a famous story here.
The Vengeful Specter of Lord Tyrone
Quite nasty.
Haunted House
Very detailed art.
Reminds me of the Haunted Houses they used to have when you went to a sideshow.
Average story, but really energetic and lively art.

ACG was no EC thematically. Here, generally there is a positive outcome to the stories, whereas that's not the case in the EC stories. You wouldn't worry too much about children reading ACG's stories.

one down, one to go.   
       

[david hatch]

hello australian panther / quirky quokka / superscrounge / morgus [ hope i didn't miss anybody ].....thank you all for welcoming me into this neat group   i enjoyed reading everybody's comments  sorry for not replying to them in greater detail    but i've been juggling a lot of stuff lately   you will hear more from me in the near future    blessings to all    david hatch

[The Australian Panther]

Adventures into the Unknown 21
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=14061

Having a female face taking up half the cover, seems to have been something oif a trademark for ACG.
She doesn't seem to be terrified. Surprised enough to bite her fingernails, but not screaming in fear. Nice idea to have a mirror reflection, although as someone already mentioned, aren't vampires supposed to be invisible in mirrors? Also, if that's the case, wouldn't their clothes stay visible? "Just sayin.' 
Haunt from the Unknown Well-paced. Well thought-out story. Satisfying denouncement.
The Portrait Without a Soul
Nice variation on the 'painting comes to life' genre. This could be a Twilight Zone script. It's that good.
The Zombies Prowl
No explanation of why there is an Egyptian Pyramid in Mexico.
The writer also has his time periods mixed up.
Hodges says, ".........which makes the character at least 5,000 years old."
Juanita says, " ...this Pyramid which was built in 1000 AD.."
They were still building Pyramids only 1000 years ago? In South America?
Imotep says, ' .....the sacred gong which has been silent since 1000 AD' so what happened then?
And later it gets more confusing.
A disappointing mess of a story.
The mysterious Mr Home. Levitatioin and 'Fire Magic' are common tricks for Magicians.
Journey into Madness
The Dinosaur is a Triceratops which is a plant-eater. Hideous perhaps,but not ferocious, unless attacked.
The essence of the story is the feud between the two academics. The Dinosaur details are correct, which isn't always the case in this type of story.
The Ghost Writer
Very nice story.
As I said in reviewing AITU # 1, generally ACG Horror stories have a postive denouncment. That's also true here.
I'm on tomorrow, so stay tuned for something different.
And thanks again, David.   


 

[Robb_K]

Adventures into the Unknown 1

Cover
The atmospheric cover is mildly (only slightly) mood disturbing, with it's black sky and shadows on the dark house, beckoning intruders to enter through its broken door.  The book's title font having wobbly letters is also only mildly unsettling.  This is far less scary and agitating than the EC and Harvey, much more grisly, graphic, Horror comics' front covers of the late 1940s.

Series Introduction Page
It seems clear to me that ACG Chief editor and main storywriter, Richard Hughes, anticipated parents ' apprehension about their young children being exposed to horror-themed comics, and tried to "soften the potential shock" by letting the children know that there is no such thing as the ghosts and monsters who terrorize living Humans in tales based on ancient ignorance and superstitions.  Of course, most, if not almost ALL young children would, out of curiosity and letting their imagination run wild, would jump right into the stories, without reading a text page with the editor's information.

The Werewolf Stalks
Interesting human face on the werewolf.  A French-Canadien logger.  I'm surprised that the Werewolf never bit the wife.  She states that she thinks she made friends with the wolf.  The artwork is quite good.  I learned some things about the ancient werewolf tales:(1) That werewolves can't cross running water, (2) Silver is fatal to ALL types of "Undead" Humans, not just silver bullets, but silver swords, knives, and even paper letter openers! 

The Living Ghost
The artwork in this story strikes me as not as good as the detailed drawing style in the first story. I didn't know anything about "Malevo, The Legend of The Living Ghost", attributed to be Satan's chief lieutenant, who was condemned to roam The Earth, in Human form, to forever strike terror into the hearts of mortals.  Is he mentioned in The New Testament?  Malevo is Not a part of Jewish tradition - not mentioned in The Old Testament.  In that book Shatan (Satan) is but an Angel, who first was The Lord's adversarial prosecutor of humans who disobey God's Laws.  He was working with and FOR The Lord, not opposed to him, until he became a fallen Angel, for wanting too much power, and was cast out of Heaven to live in The Underworld, with other fallen Angels.  I also never heard of the Catholic (or Eastern Orthodox?) legend that a specific, petrified olive branch changes a ghost into a living mortal.  The kidnapped woman's lover, the hero looking for The Living Ghost at the last murder site sees the dead rising from their graves, and assumes that "The Living Ghost has summoned them and must be nearby.  But that isn't necessarily logical -only a wild guess.  But, of course, in a comic book very short story, it HAS to be true, as there is no space for wrong tracks.  The hero enters "The Cave of Evil" covered in mud (as a disguise).  But he is only covered in mud (coloured solid brown) in one panel.  The colourist made a bad mistake.  The hero covers the monster, now a totally alive Human, with a large, heavy boulder, and the police come and arrest him.  The State attempts to execute "The Living Ghost" by electrocution in The Electric Chair.  But the monster becomes immortal again, and disappears, to return in the following issue.  What a bizarre story, with a lot of illogical happenings and holes in it, as well as loose ends.  it's not nearly as well thought out as it could have been.  That's my main problem with these short stories.  There is not enough space to develop them and have a proper pacing.  And this story was longer than most i(12 pages) n such a book.  Ideally, it should have included a decent amount of background historical information about the legend, including flashbacks to events in ancient times (EVEN if this isn't a real legend from ancient times (but just made up specifically for this story).

Strange Spirits - Voodoo - One Page In-house Advert
The artwork and background jungle setting for this story looks very interesting.  Voodoo witch doctors raising the dead to become Zombies, and ordering them to kill their master's enemies sounds like an intriguing plot scenario.  What a disappointment to find out that this was only a coming attraction advert for Issue #2!

It Walked By Night
The artwork in this story is excellent.  The set-up looks very interesting, and seems likely to be based on a real, existing New England legend (which is always more interesting to me than stories made-up specifically for comic book genre series.  One of the 2 henchmen the villain paid to capture his victim, and help him murder him.  That helper refused the pay from the murderer to avoid being killed by the curse the dying man put on the villain (Aram).  As an important accessory in the murder, how could he expect to avoid being a target of the curse, just by refusing pay for the help he gave the murderer, as without him, the victim might not have been captured and killed?  In the end, the ghost returns to lill the last of The Arams' line.  So the curse is fulfiilled, and ends.  An interesting story, also suffering from too few pages to show the key events of the history of the legend.  Although not shown, I doubt that Aram married the victim's wife after the murder.  Surely she'd refuse, thinking his death was no accident, and suspecting Aram.

The Cursed Pistol - One PageLegend Summary
An actual made-up rumour/story about a family?  If anyone in the family thought those shooting accidents really came from a curse, wouldn't the family at least make sure there were no live bullets loaded in the gun?
- Never mind not selling off or destroying it!

The Castle of Otranto
Nice to see an adaptation of Horace Walpole's famous supposed "first Gothic novel", which formed the template for so many later ghost and horror novels, short stories, and films.  I hope this comic book version will do it some justice, at least on SOME level!  Not a bad version - especially given the incredibly short amount of pages to display and tell the story (only 7).  I don't like the colouring in any of the stories, as it includes several characters painted totally in a single colour, which is invariably totally inappropriate for the scene, and unnatural.  It reminds me of the awful 1960s colouring in Charlton and Gold Key Comics.

The Vengeful Specter of Lord Tyrone
Who would believe that this "legend" was true, based on actual events???  Nice artwork, however.

Haunted House
This story also has nice artwork with lots of detail.  And the colouring is as bad as the rest.  The old horror story cliché of needing to spend one entire night in a haunted house to inherit a large sum of money (usually $1 million).  It turned out to be a very inventive story with a nice, unexpected, twist ending.  First we see that the "ghost" was a living man dressed up as a skeleton ghost.  And at the end, we see that a real ghost killed one of the villains, who were trying to scare the true heir out of her inheritance. 


ACG and EC Horror Comics comparison
This ACG book, and all ACG Horror genre books, generally had much milder stories than EC's and Harvey's  stories.  It's as if Hughes anticipated Dr. Wertham's book and parents' opposition to scary comic books containing grisly graphic scenes of tremendous levels of violence, gore, and people acting incredibly mean to others.

[Robb_K]

Adventures into the Unknown 21

Cover
As Panther stated, the woman should be terrified seeing a Vampire entering her room.  Her mouth should be wide open, from screaming in fear.  Yes, having the mirror reflection is a clever idea.  But, as Panther mentioned, the vampire shouldn't be visible.  But, as their clothes stay visible, the value of the mirror view would remain, and most readers would then understand that she is screaming from seeing the vampire enter the room.

Haunt from the Unknown
A mean, violent man acts the same, while he is a ghost.  Is there no rest from bad feelings and lack of joy in death, after having such an unlucky life that made him that way?
A decent story, with a good plot, and a reasonable solution at its end.

I love the Wheaties cereal free Disney 1951 mini-comic book advert!  I found some of them in Antiqvariat and other used book shops and charity shops after moving to USA in the 1960s.

The Portrait Without a Soul
At first, the French painting master chastises Eric for drawing grisly "trash".  Then, when he paints his most grisly painting, the Master congratulates him.  That seems difficult to explain.  The man he painted as a murderer leaving his painting and taking a job as his parents' butler, and trying to steal his creator's soul is a great, very clever, and thought-provoking plot.  Yes, it is an inventive variation on the 'painting comes to life' genre, which could have been a classic "Twilight Zone" script.  The ending works very well, too, with Eric's fiancee saving herself from the murderous, soulless butler, by using the painting in which he was created to block his sword's thrust, making it plung into the butler's heart area in the painting. 

The Zombies Prowl
As Panther stated above, there is an Egyptian-style pyramid in Teotiahuacan.  That is a grievous error.
The writer also has his time periods mixed up, as The Toltecs existed only some hundreds of years after that ancient city.  Clearly, the author wanted to use a connection between Egypt's and Mexico's pyramids as an important part of his plot, so he had it drawn incorrectly.  That also shows the editor's disrespect of his reading audience, given that they could simply look up photos of the ruins of that city, and see no Egyptian-style pyramid there, but, rather a Mexican-style pyramid.  The trespassing archaeologists enter the tomb chamber and find Egyptian hieroglyphics on its inner walls, and awake the 4,600 year old Imhotep, who we know from his statue was dark-skinned, with a roundish head, clean-shaven and short, as opposed to mustachioed, bearded, tall, long-headed, and light-skinned, as depicted in this story.  More lack of proper researching.  How did Imhotep wander from Africa to The Americas in 2600-2700 BCE???  There were no longer the Bering land bridge from Siberia to Alaska nor were there ships and experienced sailors capable of navigating across The Atlantic Ocean.  And it was at least 800 years before The Phoenicians even attempted to sail outside The Mediterranean Sea and The Pillars of Hercules into that Ocean.  In addition to the lack of research, making Imhotep (who was so revered for improving the health and saving lives of The Egyptian people through his medicine, he was raised to become a god) into an evil demon who intends to wipe out ALL humanity, is totally unbelievable (and so, a TERRIBLE plot choice).  Not to mention the use of Undead Toltec Zombies used by Imhotep to take vengeance on ALL Humankind.  This story is too ridiculous and disjointed to be enjoyed or taken seriously.

The Mysterious Mr Home
This reads like the unbelievable claims made in Ripley's "Believe It or Not".  These must be exaggerated, legendlike claims, and I choose NOT to believe them (as offered by Ripley).

Journey into Madness
How could a university paleontologist not know the difference between a plant fossil and a dinosaur fossil???
The young palontologist states that they found a gigantosaurus footprint 60 million years old.  But, NO dinosaurs were alive after 65 million years ago.  And gigantosaurus  lived only between 100 million and 93 million years ago.  The artwork is good -especially the dinosaurs.  The sloppiness of this story is unbelievable.  The baby dinosaur was NOT the first living dinosaur ever seen on Earth.  It was the first living dinosaur ever seen on Earth by Humans.  That's an important distinction.  The storywriter doesn't even have decent command of his own native language (growing up in a country where he only needed to learn ONE language)!  This shows us how desperate the comic book industry was for finding writers.  They often had to accept them from the bottom of the barrel.

The Ghost Writer
The clothing that the ghost is wearing is from almost 150 years BEFORE the START of The Victorian Era.  More lazy or non-existant researching!  And it's also an embarrassing lack of general knowledge.  The story has a clever plot, however, a ghost story in which the ghost was recently murdered and he helps an investigative news reporter solve his murder case, keep his money out of the murderous villain's hands, and sends him to jail.

Overall Assessment
All in all (despite poor or non-existent researching), both these ACG horror/Supernatural Phenomena genre books were entertaining reads.

[Quirky Quokka]

Adventures into the Unknown 1

Series Introduction Page
It seems clear to me that ACG Chief editor and main storywriter, Richard Hughes, anticipated parents ' apprehension about their young children being exposed to horror-themed comics, and tried to "soften the potential shock" by letting the children know that there is no such thing as the ghosts and monsters who terrorize living Humans in tales based on ancient ignorance and superstitions.  Of course, most, if not almost ALL young children would, out of curiosity and letting their imagination run wild, would jump right into the stories, without reading a text page with the editor's information.

The Living Ghost
The artwork in this story strikes me as not as good as the detailed drawing style in the first story. I didn't know anything about "Malevo, The Legend of The Living Ghost", attributed to be Satan's chief lieutenant, who was condemned to roam The Earth, in Human form, to forever strike terror into the hearts of mortals.  Is he mentioned in The New Testament?  Malevo is Not a part of Jewish tradition - not mentioned in The Old Testament.  In that book Shatan (Satan) is but an Angel, who first was The Lord's adversarial prosecutor of humans who disobey God's Laws.  He was working with and FOR The Lord, not opposed to him, until he became a fallen Angel, for wanting too much power, and was cast out of Heaven to live in The Underworld, with other fallen Angels. 

Hi Robb

I wondered too about that introduction. I wasn't sure if it was meant tongue-in-cheek or if it was meant to appease the parents and teachers.

Regards your question about Malevo, I did a quick search on Bible Gateway, which has dozens of translations of the Old and New Testament, and there is no mention of Malevo. However, another quick search on Google found that the term means malevolent or malicious is Spanish, so maybe that's where they got the name.

Cheers

QQ

[Robb_K]

Adventures into the Unknown 1

Series Introduction Page
It seems clear to me that ACG Chief editor and main storywriter, Richard Hughes, anticipated parents ' apprehension about their young children being exposed to horror-themed comics, and tried to "soften the potential shock" by letting the children know that there is no such thing as the ghosts and monsters who terrorize living Humans in tales based on ancient ignorance and superstitions.  Of course, most, if not almost ALL young children would, out of curiosity and letting their imagination run wild, would jump right into the stories, without reading a text page with the editor's information.

The Living Ghost
The artwork in this story strikes me as not as good as the detailed drawing style in the first story. I didn't know anything about "Malevo, The Legend of The Living Ghost", attributed to be Satan's chief lieutenant, who was condemned to roam The Earth, in Human form, to forever strike terror into the hearts of mortals.  Is he mentioned in The New Testament?  Malevo is Not a part of Jewish tradition - not mentioned in The Old Testament.  In that book Shatan (Satan) is but an Angel, who first was The Lord's adversarial prosecutor of humans who disobey God's Laws.  He was working with and FOR The Lord, not opposed to him, until he became a fallen Angel, for wanting too much power, and was cast out of Heaven to live in The Underworld, with other fallen Angels. 

Hi Robb

I wondered too about that introduction. I wasn't sure if it was meant tongue-in-cheek or if it was meant to appease the parents and teachers.

Regards your question about Malevo, I did a quick search on Bible Gateway, which has dozens of translations of the Old and New Testament, and there is no mention of Malevo. However, another quick search on Google found that the term means malevolent or malicious is Spanish, so maybe that's where they got the name.

Cheers

QQ

Yes, I knew that "malevo" meant "someone who is bad, vicious, malicious, or malevolent in Spanish, and it is clear that the root would apply to any of the Latin-based languages.  My point was that there was no named assistent of The Shatan in The Old Testament, and so, was asking the Christians on this forum, who were well-versed on the New Testament, IF there is in that book, an assistant to Satan mentioned (especially unnamed), who could be given (assigned as an alternative name), the name "Malevo" in this story.

[The Australian Panther]

My point was that there was no named assistent of The Shatan in The Old Testament, and so, was asking the Christians on this forum, who were well-versed on the New Testament, IF there is in that book, an assistant to Satan mentioned (especially unnamed), who could be given (assigned as an alternative name), the name "Malevo" in this story.

Short answer, NO.
It's possible that the medieval Catholic church. which created elements of mythology, created the character, but quite apart from my own research, my Grandfather and Great-Grandfather were well-trained theologians and they never mentioned it.
Reading the story I just assumed that the writer created the character. I think that the pure fiction of the 'Egyptian pyramid in South America' stories was kind of the norm in comic books. If the writers knew the true details of things, particularly history and archeology, they assumed that their audience didn't, or didn't care. Historical accuracy was clearly not a priority. History was just there to be mined as inspiration for fiction. Still is, really, not just for comics. You see it in comics, Movies, TV and in 'Novels'. 'Indiana Jones', anybody?
On 'The Adversary' [from JOB] Marvel and DC both have several versions of 'Satan' co-existing at the same time.   

[Quirky Quokka]

Robb said:

Yes, I knew that "malevo" meant "someone who is bad, vicious, malicious, or malevolent in Spanish, and it is clear that the root would apply to any of the Latin-based languages.  My point was that there was no named assistent of The Shatan in The Old Testament, and so, was asking the Christians on this forum, who were well-versed on the New Testament, IF there is in that book, an assistant to Satan mentioned (especially unnamed), who could be given (assigned as an alternative name), the name "Malevo" in this story.

Hi Robb - I was going to reply and then saw that Panther has already given more detail than I knew. The Bible does mention demons in general, which would be under Satan, but there is no specific assistant to Satan. As Panther mentioned, there are lots of different interpretations of Satan in popular culture, and two that spring to mind for me are the versions in the TV series 'Once Upon a Time' and the title role in 'Lucifer', but they don't stick to Biblical interpretations. I guess a lot of people would just use the term as some kind of personification of evil, so it makes sense that it would turn up in horror stories.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Reading the story I just assumed that the writer created the character. I think that the pure fiction of the 'Egyptian pyramid in South America' stories was kind of the norm in comic books. If the writers knew the true details of things, particularly history and archeology, they assumed that their audience didn't, or didn't care. Historical accuracy was clearly not a priority. History was just there to be mined as inspiration for fiction. Still is, really, not just for comics. You see it in comics, Movies, TV and in 'Novels'. 'Indiana Jones', anybody?
On 'The Adversary' [from JOB] Marvel and DC both have several versions of 'Satan' co-existing at the same time.   

Panther, surely you don't mean that 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' wasn't an historically accurate account of what happened to the Ark of the Covenant or that 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' didn't acutely reflect what happened to the Holy Grail? I'm shocked!