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 1767: The cut-up

The mad magician, man, he is really mad! He has a plan to cut someone in half and put them back together. The biggest and baddest magic trick of all. Too bad he can’t make it work. It seals the fate of at least one victim, a guy who came across the magician’s path, who we see chained to a wall pleading for his life. We are left to imagine his awful demise.

This tale, drawn by Harry Harrison and Wallace Wood for EC Comics’ Haunt of Fear #15 (actual issue #1, 1950), is from the very beginnings of the EC horror comics, and like others of its time, is feeling its way around what is really horror, or is just horrible. The plot of “The Mad Magician” is born of innumerable “shudder” pulps, and although well drawn, is hokey.

As you may know, Harry Harrison went into other endeavors after his comic book career, writing among them. He is well thought of for his science fiction work, including several popular novels. But he didn’t write this story. Fred von Bernewitz’s Complete EC Checklist credits it to Gardner Fox. Note the magician’s name of Boris Petaja. Emil Petaja was a well-known figure in science fiction circles, who also wrote several novels.

My scans for this story came from the Gladstone 1990 reprint from the double-sized first issue of The Vault of Horror, which includes a reprint of HOF #1.

Number 1539: Blackhawk and the hatchets of Hongo

This is day two of our Week of Quality, today featuring Quality’s long-running and successful leatherboys, Blackhawk and his gang.

Sinister “orientals” who use hatchets for murder (shades of the lurid tales of Tong wars and hatchet killers from tabloids and pulps of the first half of the twentieth century!), and who extort honest silk dealers are the villains. But unlike the grotesque stereotype of Chop-Chop, the comedy relief of the Blackhawk team, these Asians are at least presented as looking human. Or at least more human than Chop-Chop (or the stereotyped Connie or Big Stoop from Terry and the Pirates.) The Chop-Chop caricature was later toned down, but when this story was published in Blackhawk #15 (1946), he was a clownish and freakish little fat man speaking pidgin English. My apologies to those among you who may be offended.

The Grand Comics Database credits Harry Harrison for the pencils, but doesn’t make a guess as to an inker.

Number 1288: Island in the sky

I like the idea of a “sky island,” a platform hovering high over earth, like a space station, only inside Earth's atmosphere. Others did too, because the motif shows up in science fiction plots, including stories featuring characters as disparate as Mickey Mouse and Flash Gordon. Here the characters are the Blackhawks, and the villain with the sky island is the Corsair, who uses Zeppelins to support his flying city.

That idea I can accept, or at least suspend my disbelief for a moment; it's the idea that the Blackhawks, in their private aircraft, are delivering supplies to a country in Indo-China I can't accept. So where in those aircraft are they putting said supplies? Ah, those comic book plots...

Bill Woolfolk is given credit by the Grand Comics Database for the writing, and the art is credited to Harry Harrison, of all people. That is a surprise to me. I haven't seen enough penciling by Harrison to be able to tell, although as usual in Quality Comics, pencils can be often nearly buried under an inker’s style, and that artist isn't identified.

The subject of identifying comic book writers and artists gives me a chance to give a plug to a deserving blog. I've learned quite a bit about identifiers for several writers and artists from Martin O'Hearn in his Who Created the Comic Books?. Martin is certainly knowledgeable, and I recommend his entertaining and informative blog.

From Blackhawk #15 (1947):

Number 1100


One thousand Pappy posts ago


In Pappy's #100, posted on February 27, 2007, I showed one of the printings of this story, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I scanned the Strange Suspense Stories version published by Charlton in '54, which was actually the third printing (by the third publisher) of the same strip in five years. Read my original comments at Pappy's #100 to see the unusual publishing history of this story.

The version here comes from Startling Terror Tales #10 in 1952. If you don't want to ruin your eyesight on my crappy 2007 scans, you can see much better scans of the Strange Suspense Stories version at The Horrors Of It All for part 1, and here for part 2.

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is drawn by Wally Wood, and I believe it's inked by Wood collaborator Harry Harrison, who once bragged about how fast he could ink a page. This does have a hurried quality to it, but that could be because it was drawn originally for publisher Victor Fox, who was notorious for being late on payments, if he paid at all. Maybe Wood and Harrison didn't want to give it the full treatment because of that. The first few pages have more detail than the last pages, for instance. But despite that it has come down to us as a really interesting and vintage horror comics version of the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The cover is by L. B. Cole.