Number 2580: The writer is out of ideas at Out of the Night

American Comics Group editor, Richard E. Hughes, was inserted into stories a few times over the years in ACG’s supernatural comics, as they were referred to in house. This pre-Code story, “Adventure into Witchcraft,” has some panels of Hughes listening to a writer’s problem of not being able to write a good story. The ACG way in a story with a writer and an editor was having the writer encounter the type of situation for real to give his fiction some credibility. To the fictitious depiction of Hughes, that is.

Harry Lazarus was an artist who worked for ACG, both pre-Comics Code and post-Comics Code. He was a solid professional artist, which to me showed he could tell a story. He worked for several other publishers, also.

The story is from Out of the Night, a comic book ACG added to its list of supernaturals. ACG titles were apparently doing well in those days. I like the panels with Hughes at his desk with his door advertising not only Out of the Night, but Adventures Into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds. Out of the Night ended in late 1954 after 17 issues.

From Out of the Night #5 (1952):

Number 2004: The patriotic poison gas

After having a ghostly encounter, our hero, Gordon, is led to the ghosts of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, both telling him to turn over his formula for a super potent nerve gas to the U.S. Government. What could go wrong with that decision, eh? (As if nerve gas isn’t deadly enough in its original form.)

“The Unknown Ghost” is of its era, when it was unpatriotic to question the wisdom and motives of the government. Even so, had Gordon divulged to the powers-that-be in 1952 that his decision was made by listening to ghosts I think he would have found himself in a hospital for a mental evaluation. This is another of those oddball ACG supernatural stories which for its full effect is better read by you than described by me.

The story of a ghost that “holds all the trumps” is from Out of the Night #4 (1952). It  is drawn by Lou Cameron.

Number 1258: Forbidden Worlds’ sad ending

Kenneth Landau is an artist who appeared in ACG’s pre-Code comics, and so I'm showing a story he did for that company's Out of the Night #14, from 1954. He also appeared sporadically in ACG's post-Code comic books, and I'm also showing you the story he did for the very last issue of Forbidden Worlds #145, in 1967.

Landau worked in animation as a layout artist, and if you look at his listing on IMDb.com, you’ll probably recognize most of the things he worked on.

The story from Out of the Night is typical of the type of horror comics ACG did at the time. There is a likeability to them, and the endings (as in “Out of the Screen”) are optimistic. Good triumphs over evil. Yay. (It doesn't mention that the inventor who wreaked such havoc with his 3D system will be sued after admitting he's responsible for the deadly dinosaur attack.)

But the story from the last Forbidden Worlds has a very different ending for ACG, and editor/writer Richard E. Hughes. If Hughes — who is reputed to have written all of ACG's output under pseudonyms in those years — wrote it* he sacrificed his usual optimistic ending for one of tragedy. I'll let you read it and see.

Landau was a journeyman comic book artist.** He signed his stories, but even without a signature the earlier stories are recognizable by his pen-shading.

 Kurt Schaffenberger did the cover for Forbidden Worlds under his pen-name, Lou Wahl.

*The writer's name on the splash panel is Adam Barr, not one of the pseudonyms attributed to Hughes by the Wikipedia entry on him. That doesn't mean it wasn't Hughes, though. And by the way, “Richard E. Hughes” was apparently a pseudonym for Leo Rosenbaum. Hughes/Rosenbaum died in 1974 at age 64.

**A silly rumor went around for years that Kenneth Landau was actually Martin Landau, the actor. Martin did some cartooning in his time, but he’s not Ken Landau.

Number 1119


The werewolf comes from out of the night!


[I'm going to have some fun and show some monster stories; postings through Pappy's #1124 on March 24 will have monster stories of various types.]

Out Of the Night, which is a great name for a horror comic, came from ACG to be an addition to their two best-selling horror titles (they actually called them "supernaturals"), Adventures Into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds. Apparently the supply of stories featuring vampires, werewolves and zombies was endless, because they felt they needed a third book in the line. Out Of the Night lasted 17 issues, suspending publication after the November 1954 issue. The Comics Code was being implemented and that might have had something to do with it, but it could also be that sales on OOTN were down, and the book would have been killed, Code or not.

The first issue, from 1952, is strong, with a great Ken Bald cover and a sharp lead story by Al Williamson and Harold LeDoux, signed with the pseudonym Harold Williams. LeDoux went from comic books to the Judge Parker comic strip, eventually (after more than a decade) getting sole credit and his byline on the strip. He is retired and apparently still with us at age 85. Al Williamson died in December 2010.

Number 812

Phantom Fliers

Two important ties to the golden age of comics have been lost with the deaths in 2010 of Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson . Both of them lived a long time and have prodigious bodies of work. Williamson stayed within the relatively small world of the comics, whereas Frazetta went into the larger world and the stratosphere of artistic recognition.

"The Phantom Fliers", from ACG's Out Of The Night #4, in 1952, is credited by the Grand Comics Database as being a Williamson-Frazetta collaboration. It seems rushed, and I'm not seeing much of Frazetta in it. The slapdash nature of some of the artwork may have kept them from signing it. Despite what may have been a hurried job to meet a deadline, I still see things that made Williamson and Frazetta stand out as comic artists. The rest of the issue is done by competent artists from the ACG stable, and is somewhat dull. Despite some artistic shortcomings, "The Phantom Fliers" is not dull, and is the highlight of the issue.