Number 2334: Chiwallies, not Chihuahuas!

 You know it’s a story from ACG when you get a beautiful girl and her handsome boyfriend mixed up in some supernatural doin's. This time the young couple (and the girl’s dad) are in the Amazon. The natives warn the expedition that they will go no further. It is the fear of winged killers called Chiwallies. I have heard some names before — but Chiwallies? — it makes me think of a breed of little dogs.

But no little dogs are as deadly as the Chiwallies. I would not want to put out a food dish for my pet and have a Chiwallie show up.

As with most ACG supernatural comics of this era, to no one’s surprise, love prevails over evil. “The Winged Terror,” with no author listed, but art credits going to George Wilhelms, is from Forbidden Worlds #15 (1953).

Number 1966: Gale Allen and her All Girl Squadron

We begin our November postings with a silly, sexy, spacy story from Planet Comics #19 (1942). In six short pages we get girls in two-piece costumes, a couple of bondage panels, “Mitemen” and “vulture bats,” and enough science fiction accoutrements to qualify it as space opera, Fiction House-style. Years ago I hated stories like this because they are goofy...now I love them for that same reason.

I was taken by Black Barto’s gang of interplanetary prison escapees and thieves, because they wear their six-digit numbers on their chests. They remind me of the Beagle Boys, Uncle Scrooge McDuck’s mortal enemies. (Carl Barks panel from Uncle Scrooge #7.)

Artwork for “Gale Allen” is credited to George Wilhelms, a long-time comic book journeyman often associated with the American Comics Group. His work shows up in comics from ACG as late as the 1960s.

Number 1928: Vampires strike!

As a former union member, I misread the title “The Vampires Strike!” I thought it was something like the Union of Bloodsuckers, Local 666, going out on strike for higher blood counts. But that would be silly, wouldn’t it? Actually no more silly than the striking these sharp-toothed tourist cabin terrors have in mind for a doctor and his nurse, out tracking down the source of a 15-year plague of anemia.

In this tale we find that vampires are struck dead by belladonna. Is there somewhere in vampire literature that belladonna takes the place of the more traditional garlic? Must be so, because it works here.

From Forbidden Worlds 7 (1952). Art by George Wilhelms.

 Number 222


Beyonders Kill!


Happy Thanksgiving! For you beyonders beyond our borders, today in America we are celebrating our own abundance with a feast of gluttony, enough caloric intake per person to nourish a smaller nation for at least a year. We visit with family, then end our celebration in a stupor on the couch watching an American football game. Good eating, but pass the Pepto-Bismol. Our main course is turkey, a very stupid bird. When someone is pretty damn dumb we call them a turkey.

A year ago I celebrated this day with the first annual Comic Book Turkey Award for dumbest comic book story. The recipient is chosen by me, Pappy, the judgment on said story is all mine, and it's purely subjective. Last year's winner was in Pappy's #57, "The Flat Man," from Superior's Journey Into Fear #19. You can read it by following the link.

This year's story can't top "The Flat Man," but "The Day The World Died" from ACG's Forbidden Worlds #5, March-April 1952, comes at least a close second in stupidity. I won't describe the story to you. You'll have to experience it, and the Beyonders, for yourselves. The Grand Comics Database credits the artwork to George Wilhelms. The story earns three turkeys out of a possible four.



While reading it, have another piece of pumpkin pie, with a double shot of whipped cream. Ummmm, good, isn't it? But not nearly as good as the treat you'll get from "The Day The World Died!" And best of all, no calories!

Note: I made new scans of the pages in August, 2012.