Number 2080: Brink of the jabbering panic

 We know we are reading a pre-Comics Code story from the American Comics Group when the evil force tries to talk his victims to death. Such is the case in “Terror in Black Hollow,” where the evil entity describes the victims of “jabbering panic,” when it is he who is doing the jabbering. (Dictionary note on the word jabber: to speak rapidly or excitedly with little sense.)

Our hero and heroine, like most ACG couples, overcome the evil by blundering through the situation, yet with intuition know what to do to combat the supernatural force threatening them.

What I can say positive about the story is that I like the artwork by Jon L. Blummer, another early comics journeyman who showed many times in these comics that the story may not make much sense, but his artwork is atmospheric and eerie. Blummer, who had drawn for pulp magazines, was another artist who had a history in illustration before going to work in comic books. He had also drawn a couple of syndicated comic strips in the thirties, including The Lone Ranger, and Hop Harrigan. Unfortunately, Blummer, born in 1904, died young at age 51.

From Skeleton Hand in Secrets of the Supernatural (whose title was almost longer than its lifespan of six issues) #3 (1953):