Number 2490: Ice cold plunderers from the past!

 In this Moon Girl story, “Plunderers From the Past,” Some Vikings are thawed from ice and come back to life. A character in the story explains that “some frogs” can freeze and yet come back from their organs and body being in the deep freeze. Yeah, I’d heard that a time or two, so to corroborate that factoid it was to the Internet I went. The National Science Foundation has an article, “Frozen Frogs Don’t Croak,” and from that article: “Jon Costanzo, a professor at Miami University in Ohio says at the first sign of ice in late fall or early winter, the frog freezes solid as a rock.

“That touch of ice immediately sets off signals inside the frog that pulls water away from the center of its body, so the frog's internal organs are now wrapped in a puddle of water that then turns to solid ice. . .The frog's heart stops beating, its kidneys stop functioning and its respiration ceases--for months. The frogs endure this suspended animation by producing a type of antifreeze made with glucose, keeping the water in their cells in a liquid state at temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius).” So when the Moon Girl character who talks about frogs asks, “Why not humans?” we know now that it is because we don’t have antifreeze in our blood.

Antifreeze or not, Moon Girl gets involved with these formerly frozen humans.

The story is written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff. It is from EC Comics’ Moon Girl #6, 1949.

Number 2459: Johnny Craig on the EC frontier

Artist Johnny Craig joined the EC gang early on, like fellow artist Graham Ingels, editor/writer/artist Al Feldstein, and of course, William Gaines, who had inherited the job as owner/publisher when his father died in 1947.

Later on, as EC grew in popularity and sales, biographies were published of the individual artists. The biography of Johnny Craig on the last page of “Colorado Rose” looks to be a warm-up for the later biographies. (I can’t tell you if this was the only one from the early, pre-horror comics EC, because I am too lazy to look it up. How is that for not doing my homework?)

Craig was a good artist, but according to even Craig himself, he was slow. Later on he both wrote and drew, showing his talent at both, and even took over as editor of The Vault of Horror. Except for the sharp illustrations, “Colorado Rose” seems like a standard early EC story, which followed the trends of the rest of the comic book industry with  a Western comic to go along with a couple of crime comics and even a love comic.

I appreciate the artist biographies more now, because those were the days when comic books were under siege by Dr Wertham, teachers and parents, and later even the Congress of the United States. Guys like Johnny Craig, as well as the rest of the gang, could have chosen to remain anonymous, but they signed their work. Considering the times, I think Craig and his fellow artists were brave.

From Saddle Justice #5 (1949):

Number 2364: “Sky Sabotage”

I can imagine the conversation between EC founder and publisher, Max Gaines, and writer Gardner Fox: “I want you to create a character just like Wonder Woman, only different. No kinky stuff!” Gaines had been the publisher of the All American line, partners with Donenfield and Liebowitz, publishers of DC Comics, where Wonder Woman was a big seller. In 1945 Gaines sold his share, including Wonder Woman, to DC, and went off on his own again. Superheroes were fading fast in the late 1940s, except for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, so naturally he would want to capture some of Wonder Woman’s sales.

It didn’t work as well as hoped, and the only super hero(ine) of the EC Comics line, Moon Girl, didn’t last for long. It doesn’t mean that Moon Girl wasn’t fairly well done; Fox and artist Sheldon Moldoff were professionals who had been working for Gaines for years, but Moon Girl didn’t have the bizarre characteristics of Wonder Woman that made her a big seller. M.C. Gaines died in 1947, and EC was put under his son Bill’s direction. He gradually made decisions that turned the company into his, and not his father’s.

“Sky Sabotage” is from Moon Girl #3 (1948):

Number 2339: Harvey Kurtzman and the atom bomb thief

“Atom Bomb Thief!” was written and drawn by Harvey Kurtzman for Weird Fantasy #14 (actual issue #2, 1950).*

At the time there was a lot of talk about atomic secrets being stolen, and the Russians building their own bomb (the Soviet Union detonated their first nuclear bomb on August 29, 1949, so it was in the news.) Besides the pay-off of the story being obvious, EC Comics used those snappy surprise endings so often the ending was not a real surprising surprise, but at least appropriate to the build up.

SPOILER ALERT: Kurtzman used a real life nuclear test as his ending, the Baker bomb test at Bikini Atoll in July, 1946. Camera footage from that test was used at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s dark 1964 fantasy, Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.END SPOILER

Kurtzman’s story was also a way for him to use some cinematic effects in his drawings, enhancing the storytelling. I especially like the the layouts of the first and last pages.

*Weird Fantasy had been “formerly A Moon...A Girl...Romance” in order to save on having to buy a new second class postal permit. In this case they got caught after five issues, so they had to start re-numbering with issue number 6. The result was issue numbers repeated later on, affecting issue numbers 13 through 17.

Pappy's Favorites Number 7: A Ghastly tale!

“Pappy's Favorites” was something I did while on hiatus in 2018. It was a way of showing some of my favorite postings from the past, introducing new readers to my archives, and hopefully having some of my long-time readers go back for a second look.

I am reviving the idea, although it won't be a once-a-week feature as it was in 2018; sometimes I just need a break, friends!

Today's post shows the original art for an EC horror story by Graham “Ghastly” Ingels. And if you have a thing about spiders, you have been warned.

Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2294: The Werewolf Legend

“The Werewolf Legend” is from The Vault of Horror #12, which is actually #1, from 1950. It is, once again, the EC publisher avoiding having to pay for a whole new second class mailing permit for a new title. So War Against Crime was killed after issue #11, and resurrected as The Vault of Horror #12. EC had been experimenting with horror stories in their crime books, and felt secure enough to issue horror comics under their own titles, after chiseling the Post Office.

The story is drawn by Harry Harrison and Wallace Wood. I am not sure who did what, but the inker may be Harrison. He bragged once about how fast he could ink with a #7 brush, “socking in the blacks,” as he called it.

The story is kind of a cheat, and also clumsy, putting all of the exposition into the last couple of panels. (The stories got better over time, which is why EC Comics has the reputation they do today.) The credit for the story goes to Gardner Fox, based on information from Tales of Terror/The EC Companion, by Fred Von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.

Number 2277: Christmas Eve Panic!

Tomorrow is Christmas Day, so here is a Christmas Eve treat, Will Elder’s version of Clement Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas,” from EC Comics’ Panic #1 (1954).

As editor Al Feldstein explained, “We were banned in Boston for lampooning the poem, ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ Panic, in the words of Massachusetts Attorney General George Fingold, ‘. . . depicts the night before Christmas in a pagan manner . . .’ A.G. George Fingold threatened criminal proceedings against [publisher] Gaines unless the comic book Panic containing the satire of the poem was withdrawn voluntarily.’”

That didn’t happen, and as the old saying goes, “You can’t buy that kind of publicity.” Even if you live in Boston, Massachusetts, you are safe reading this story.

Here is a hearty “Merry Christmas!” to you from Pappy.