Number 2513: “Hup! Toop! Thrip! Four!” Soldier ants are marching!

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).

Number 2463: Three witches

Halloween is in a few days, so we start off Halloween week with three stories of witches. What could be more appropriate?

First up is “They Burned a Witch,” from The Beyond #16 (1952). Grand Comics Database credits Dick Beck with pencils, but the inker is not known.

Our second witchy tale is by Robert Q. Sale for Strange Tales #29 (1954), called “Witchcraft.” Not long ago I showed a prison story from a crime comic drawn in Sale’s dynamic style. The writing credits go to Paul S. Newman

Third, we have a tale of a witch with a history lesson. Two panels on the bottom of page three succinctly tell of superstition, when people who first colonized the New World were on the lookout for witches. Speaking of their neighbor, Charity, the “witch,” she is suspected because she cooks food in a cauldron, and she has a black cat! If that doesn’t just scream witch I don’t know what does.

The “Witch of Death” is from Avon’s Witchcraft #5, drawn by Rafael Astarita.

Number 2120: The witch came back

Damn! That old witch is hard to get rid of! Just when you think she’s gone she pops up in a cat’s body, and after that, she takes over the lady of the manor.

Halloween is not complete without a witch story, and “They Burned a Witch!” from Ace’s The Beyond #16 (1952) fills the requirement. (Take note, though...no broom riding in this tale.). It is the second of my Halloween postings, with the third coming on Monday.

Grand Comics Database gives Dick Beck credit for the  artwork.

Number 2058: In the jungle, the frighty jungle

In both of today’s horror tales from pre-Comics Code Atlas, white people go into the jungle and something terrible happens to one or more of them. In “The Lizard,” from Adventures Into Terror #8 (1952), search for a devil lizard ends in a transformation. (Bad juju, bwana.)

Artwork is credited by Atlastales.com to Harry Lazarus, with Dick Beck a guess as inker. The Grand Comics Database agrees that Lazarus penciled it, but guesses that either Beck or Christopher Rule inked it.

Cal Massey (not to be confused with Cal Massey, jazz trumpeter and composer) drew “Look Out For Lakoonda.” In the case of this story, greed is the motivator. That and the jungle are usually disastrous for the characters in a horror comic.

Massey, an African-American, was a very talented artist who worked in comics for a time, then went into other art fields in the fifties. He became a very important fine artist. But at one point after comic books, he was contributing to Jim Warren’s nascent publishing empire, and Warren’s short-lived Playboy imitator, After Hours. Here is a full-page cartoon Massey did for After Hours #1 (1957):

From Adventures Into Terror #20 (1953):

Number 1440: Be he Red...or be he Fed?

On Monday I showed a 1946 superhero story featuring a hidden communist city of gold. Here's a love story about a girl who falls for a Red.  “I Fell For a Commie!” is from Quality Comics’ Love Secrets #32 (1953). I posted this story a few years ago, but these are new scans.

Gladys Lynn is very dumb naïve. She falls in with a communist cell, complete with posters on the wall proclaiming “Stalin Wants Peace” and she doesn’t realize where she is until page 5. Her naïvete is all because she is blinded by love. Things are not what they appear to be with her commie lover, Tom, but I don’t want to give anything away.

Comic historian Jim Vadeboncoeur gives Charles Sultan credit for the pencils, but gives Dick Beck a ? as inker.