Number 947


The dead are with us always


At the end of April we had a tale of haunted love, the other day a funny story of Tubby and a ghost, today two stories of death and hauntings of an unusual sort.

In "Twice Alive" we have an imaginative setting for ghosts, our own bodies. We all know our genes live on beyond us, but what if all of our ancestors inhabited our body? Even such an outrageous idea works because of Bob Powell's masterful artwork. It's too bad Worlds Beyond #1, a Fawcett comic from 1951, wasn't printed better. My scans for this story are new. I showed the story a few years ago and my poor scans of the time made the bad printing look even worse. It has haunted me since. So to exorcise the ghosts of bad scans, I resurrected this eerie story and gave new life to the pages.

Harvey Comics' Black Cat Mystery #32, is dated December, 1951, one month later than Worlds Beyond, and has another eerie story, this time featuring "the ghost of death." Both stories are done by Powell with the assistance of Howard Nostrand, who worked his name into "Deadly Acres" on the side of the moving van.

Number 306


That ol' black magic has me in its spell…


Meet Gar Macon, pilot, coward. Gar is doomed. He's doomed to repeat his mistakes. Most of us wish for a chance to go back and undo something we've screwed up, but in this case Macon gets to do it again until it undoes him. "Vengeance of the Living Dead" is from Fawcett's World's Beyond #1, 1951, the only issue of that title. It became Worlds of Fear with the next issue.

The artwork is by Bernard Baily, a fine golden age artist who contributed some of the best and most gruesome covers ever for horror comics. His abilities show in this effective and creepy story.

Number 190


Sheldon Moldoff takes us through the Doorway to Horror!


When I first encountered organized comics fandom in its early phase, 1961, there was a focus on the DC superhero comics of the early '40s, specifically All Star Comics, and Max Gaines' All-American line of DC's superheroes. Sheldon "Shelly" Moldoff, who was born in 1920, was one of the earliest of the stars of DC Comics, drawing lots of covers but best known in 1961 for the work he had done 20 years prior on Hawkman. He was revered for Hawkman. He used a lot of swipes from Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, but to be fair, everybody swiped. At the same time he was being revered for that earlier work, he was being reviled for his then-current work, as Bob Kane's ghost on Batman. The fans who loved his stuff didn't know he was the same guy they hated. 

If you read Moldoff's version of things, he was an idea man as well as an artist. He came up with the idea for horror comics, pitching the idea to Bill Gaines, who--according to Shelly--took the idea and ran with it, leaving Moldoff drinking from his cup of bitter gall.* Oh well…you win a few, you lose a lot. Moldoff took his ideas to Fawcett, and after EC's horror comics took off, Fawcett published his horror stories.

This story, "Doorway to Horror," from Fawcett's Worlds Beyond #1, dated November, 1951, is a fairly typical story, but it's a good solid entry in the horror comics annals.

Shelly also drew the cover. Click on it to see it full size. It illustrates a story done by Bob Powell and posted in Pappy's #110.

Sheldon Moldoff was one of the cartoonists who made the Golden Age what it was. He and his peers worked hard for little money, they made their deadlines, they weren't flashy, but they were professional and dependable. In my opinion, "Doorway to Horror" is one of Shelly's better jobs. I think he enjoyed the horror work, the deep shadows, the whole noir atmosphere. It may have been in an artistic sense what would have attracted him to Batman.

*Tales Of Terror!/The EC Companion By Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman, Fantagraphics Books, 2000.

Number 110


Bob Powell's Twice Alive!


When you think about it, you are a sum total of your ancestors. You have their genes, good and bad; you carry their legacy. In this story by Bob Powell from Fawcett's Worlds Beyond #1, November 1951, the main guy carries his ancestors within him…literally.

Bob Powell does his usual excellent job on this story, and the use of color in the panels of the man wandering through his own body is particularly nice. Unfortunately, the print job on this comic--on a lot of Fawcett comics of this era--isn't the best. The blacks tend to break up from some unevenness to the printing ink coverage. I have used my photo editing software to reproduce it as best I can. Powell was a great comic book artist, probably a lot better than he had to be in that period. No one would have blamed him for cutting corners on his drawings, but he didn't. I like to be able to look at his artwork without the distractions caused by cheap and indifferent printing from giant web presses.

Previous Powell stories posted include "The Man In The Hood" in Pappy's #90 and "The Shrunken Skull" in Pappy's #35.