American Comics Group editor, Richard E. Hughes, was inserted into stories a few times over the years in ACG’s supernatural comics, as they were referred to in house. This pre-Code story, “Adventure into Witchcraft,” has some panels of Hughes listening to a writer’s problem of not being able to write a good story. The ACG way in a story with a writer and an editor was having the writer encounter the type of situation for real to give his fiction some credibility. To the fictitious depiction of Hughes, that is.

Harry Lazarus was an artist who worked for ACG, both pre-Comics Code and post-Comics Code. He was a solid professional artist, which to me showed he could tell a story. He worked for several other publishers, also.

The story is from Out of the Night, a comic book ACG added to its list of supernaturals. ACG titles were apparently doing well in those days. I like the panels with Hughes at his desk with his door advertising not only Out of the Night, but Adventures Into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds. Out of the Night ended in late 1954 after 17 issues.

From Out of the Night #5 (1952):

Ogden Whitney does an excellent job of drawing buildings in crazy positions, bending rubber-like, and threatening. It is one of the reasons I chose this story. That, and the main character, Edward Courtney, in order to understand dreams that frighten him, visits a psychiatrist.

Dr Farraday makes snap diagnoses: “Every dream has a meaning — it’s a manifestation of something in the subconscious which is trying to break through.” Sure, okay Doc...but what about the old man, with that straggly long hair who is in those dreams? Dr Farraday brings him up, “The old man might be the key to the whole affair!” Edward denies knowing the old man, and as far as I know, not shown, the doctor may have said, “Our session is over for today. Please give me a check for $100.” I imagine that because it happened to me several years ago when I sought professional counseling.

The tilting towers in “The House on Magnolia Street” are from Adventures Into the Unknown #73 (1956).

It’s April, and time for the appearance of insects, without whom I would not know it was spring (I don’t get out much), when ants begin their annual invasion. I am not fond of ants making my home a residence, so I have my ways of getting rid of them. What if, though, the ants were as big as a human, and could think. Not only think, but say things like, “O antmen! It is time for your first test! Go forth this night and try your new power! Kill the hated mortals! KILL!”

My usual ant traps would not work with man-sized soldier ants. What I may have to depend on is the solution to get rid of those giant ants in the story. Personally, I had not heard of an enemy of soldier ants, but it is right here.

The artists who soldiered on by drawing this tale, are listed as Ken Bald ? (which means the Grand Comics Database is guessing) for the cover. Dick Beck and George Klein are credited for the artwork on “The Ant Master!” It is from ACG’s Forbidden Worlds #21 (1953).

 I like Ha Ha Comics, published by ACG, which featured moonlighting animators and writers. Hubert (Hubie) Karp was a gag writer, and I favor his stories because I think he’s one of the funniest of the bunch. He wrote the “Stalwart Swinburne” comic stories.

This particular Stalwart tale has the knight facing a roc who has eaten the other knights. Stalwart is confident in his own abilities, even when faced by an enemy hundreds of times larger than him.

By Hubie Karp and artist Allan (Al) Hubbard. From Ha Ha Comics #35 (1946):

 

No kidding, I love the old ACG horror comics because so many of the stories are crazy. Comic books have never gone for much realism, anyway, but the ACG folks had a way of putting an even stranger spin on their strange storytelling.

In this story, which has ACG’s common use of lovers as the main characters, Nancy visits her boyfriend, Craig, head of a government facility under attack by what he calls “Space-spirits — inhabitants of the outer universe!” The “deadlings” are human corpses, animated by the space-spirits, looking a lot like our modern era’s walking dead characters in movies and television. At the end love conquers all with a sacrifice. There is a way of getting rid of the deadlings — and everything else, as well — with an atom bomb at their disposal. It would not be the first time I have seen a nuclear option in ACG comic books. It is all just a dumb part of another dumb story, and yet something I like for that reason.

From Forbidden Worlds #32 (1954). The Grand Comics Database credits Charles Nicholas with the artwork.

The course of true love never did run smooth, as the Bard said. It is not only true in plays, but in every love story I have ever read, seen in a movie, or personally lived through in my life. Love comics are easy to understand because they are almost always about a young woman being loved by a fellow she rejects for another fellow, who turns out to be no good for her. She goes back to the first fellow. The stories always end with an embrace and kiss. Ah, love.

So “Black Gold, Broken Hearts” is a typical story, but has our girl Millie’s struggling ma and pa suddenly rich from the discovery of oil on their property! Millie can get rid of Tom Barrow, who loves her, and go to college. It seems her main interest in college is not a degree, but to learn to act snooty and put on airs to match the other rich gals. Doing that attracts Stanton Forsyte who appears to be as ritzy as his name implies. It all gets sorted out, of course, but in these love stories I notice the nice guy usually wins and doesn’t hold it against the girl, so he is a noble swain, after all.

Before reading the story, though, Romantic Adventures, which is the source, used to also include a page or two on how girls can avoid losing their love once they find each other. The pages I have included aren’t credited for writers, so I don’t know if they were written by a woman or a man. I opt for a man because of the whiffs of male dominance, but on the other hand, such things were taught to girls in days gone by.

From Romantic Adventures #58.


Two pages from Romantic Adventures #14.
“Black Gold and Broken Hearts” is from Romantic Adventures #58 (1958). No writer is listed by Grand Comics Database, but Kenneth Landau did the artwork, as well as the page, “100 Ways to Lose a Man,” above. No writers or artists are listed for the one-page advice fillers from Romantic Comics #14 (1951), “Pal or Sweetheart?” or “Dating Do’s and Don’ts.”