Number 1959: Ravin' about the Raven Sisters

It is day two of our ACG Week.

The publisher was prolific with comic books based on the supernatural. Beginning with Adventures Into the Unknown, followed by Forbidden Worlds — both surviving until ACG shut down in 1967 — and then added Out of the Night and Skeleton Hand, and even The Clutching Hand, a one-shot, which were gone by the time the Comics Code was implemented.

The supernaturals usually involved a young couple facing some horrible unearthly menace, yet winning out in the end. It was a formula that worked, because they used it a lot. So it is with “The Raven Sisters” from Out of the Night #3 (1952). Most of the eight pages are backstory, telling us that 300 years ago the Raven Sisters were evil vampire witches who could become ravens (not bats). It also shows the hero, Larry, is very handy with sharpened wooden stakes, using them as javelins against the sisters. Just another day in the life of an American Comics Group supernatural, showing that despite the threatening evil, love conquers all!*

Karswell showed this story in his blog, The Horrors of it All, in 2008. The Grand Comics Database tells us that Pete Riss did the artwork, and Norman Fruman the script. Riss was a journeyman comic book artist who worked for several publishers during the forties and fifties.

*Notice the burning candle on the left side of the splash panel. If it wasn’t a deliberate joke by the artist, then it was Freudian.

Number 1764: “Feed me, Seymour!”

Does this Mary Marvel story remind anyone else of the two movie versions of Little Shop of Horrors? Were the filmmakers inspired either directly or indirectly by this 1950 tale from The Marvel Family #54? I don’t know, but it was a connection I made when I saw the splash panel.

Mary Batson is the only Marvel who got to use her first name; if the others had followed suit we would have had Billy Marvel and Freddie Marvel.

The Grand Comics Database tells us Otto Binder wrote the story, and Pete Riss penciled the artwork. Mary Marvel, created by Binder, was named after Otto’s daughter.

Number 1700: Giving Nebird de bird

When I saw the Pete Nebird byline on this Black Owl story from Prize Comics #6 (1940), I did a double-take. Not that comic book bylines of the thirties and forties can be trusted, since pseudonyms were more the norm than exception, but Nebird is Driben reversed.* Peter Driben, the world famous pin-up artist, that is. One look at the artwork of the Black Owl story disabused me of any notion that Driben had anything to do with it. Here is a Driben magazine cover from 1938:

Going to the Grand Comics Database, they give credit for the Black Owl artwork to Pete Riss and Jack Binder. Mystery solved. Besides Nebird being Driben backwards, it is also an anagram of Binder.

*It was the late Don Thompson who said (and I'm paraphrasing), comic book readers learn early on to read backwards.

Number 1538: Kid Eternity: Rembrandt and the stolen “Night Watch”

Kid Eternity exists in an afterlife called Eternity. Kid Eternity can travel back and forth to Earth and correct injustices by shouting “Eternity!” and having the manifestations of deceased persons with the proper credentials (except when calling in a fictional character like Inspector Javert, as in this story) help him do his good deeds. In this story from Kid Eternity #3 (1946), K.E., and his buddy, Mr. Keeper, help Rembrandt Van Rijn bring back a hijacked painting, “The Night Watch,” by the old master,  

This is the first day of a theme week, our second Week of Quality.* We will feature characters who did well for Quality Comics during its own Golden Age of the forties, including Blackhawk, Doll Man, and Plastic Man.

Quoting the Grand Comics Database:  “Pencils tentatively credited to Pete Riss through consensus art identification on the GCD-Main discussion list (September 10, 2013).” Cover is credited to Al Bryant.

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*More Kid Eternity from our first Week of Quality last November. Click the thumbnail: