Number 2361: Seems like old times...

One million years ago sounds like a long time, and it is. But there were no dinosaurs one million years ago, despite the premise of Tor, created, written, drawn and colored by artist Joe Kubert. Tor looks more like Tarzan, a tall, muscular white European, wandering from place to place in that world of a million years ago, encountering primitive tribes. Tor is a type of prehistoric social worker, solving problems for people who are presumably what we think of as “cavemen.” I believe the idea for Tor came from the 1940 movie, One Million B.C., which Kubert may have seen; it was very popular.

I have met people with a peculiar religious viewpoint, who believe that humans and dinosaurs literally existed together, so perhaps they would not see Tor as fantasy, but as a slice of life from the past. I like the page by Kubert, featuring himself and his co-editor Norman Maurer, where they opine on the modern world with its nuclear weapons, compared to the world of a million years ago. It is earnestly said, “If it weren’t for man’s inherent desire to conquer evil and injustice, he would have destroyed himself long ago...”

Tor is well drawn, and unlike most comic book creations Tor belonged to Kubert, so in later years he could cash in on the character. That was almost unheard of in those days, so Joe Kubert had a rare kind of relationship with his publisher, Archer St. John.

From Tor #4 (1954):

Number 184

Historic Horror


It's uncommon for a horror comic story to have a background in historical events, but this story, "All The King's Men," from Amazing Ghost Stories #15, has just that.

From what I've been able to research on Henri Christophe, king of Haiti, I wouldn't recommend using this story as the basis of a high school term paper, but it gives the story something exotic. Setting a story in Haiti without it being expressly about voodoo seems almost sacrilegious. Voodoo is practically the exclusive reason for stories set in Haiti. However, the comic is called Amazing Ghost Stories, and this story does have some voodoo, but the historical background using Haiti's only king is what drives the plot.

The Citadelle, shown in the story, actually exists, and is shaped like a ship, just like the character claims and the artwork shows. Unlike the story, in the encyclopedia entries I read, Christophe committed suicide using a silver bullet, not a gold bullet. Maybe he thought he was a werewolf.

The artwork is by the excellent Bob Powell, whose artwork is up to its usual high standards. St. John was the publisher of this comic, which was the continuation of the title Nightmare, and ran for three issues on its own, just before the Comics Code was implemented in 1955.

The cover is by Matt Baker, and has a voodoo theme, although it appears unrelated to this story.

Some publishers, St. John included, appear to have been spooked by the witch hunt against comics, and anticipated the Code by toning down their comics. This story probably would not have appeared in a post-Code title without some changes, but it isn't as gory as it could have been for the time it was published. The main character is a typical horror comics character, though: an irredeemable killer who gets what's coming to him.