If you missed the last one…
The Silver Age of Comics begins with a general prohibition on werewolves (zombies, vampires and gore). You don’t see them in Marvel, DC or any other mainstream companies. Where you will come across them is in the comics that never signed onto the Comics’ Code, such as Western’s Dell and Gold Key. In the magazines, Warren Publications dominated the true Horror comics, including lycanthropes, with Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Comic strips also didn’t have to follow these rules though they had their own set of standards to follow.
This odd state of detente meant that the comics that did use werewolves tended to be the Funny Animal and humor comics. (Now think about that. These are the comics most often read by younger children, supposedly the ones the Comics’ Code was protecting!) If you can laugh at a monster it no longer has any power. The werewolves ended up in the nursery with the rest of the odd bits of literary lumber.
This 1960s trend to laugh at monsters found its way into the cartoons of Charles Addams then onto TV. 1964 gave us The Addams Family and The Munsters. Cartoons like The Flintstones had their own frightening family in The Gruesomes. The comics added Melvin the Monster, Millie the Lovable Monster as well as giving aging titles like The Adventures of Bob Hope and The Adventures of Jerry Lewis a set of monster sidekicks. Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland led the way and everybody was willing to jump on the bandwagon as long as it didn’t upset the Comics’ Code guardians. By the time the late 1960s arrived, DC and Marvel were ready to create new monster titles like Werewolf By Night, Swamp Thing, The Monster of Frankenstein and many others.
So let’s look at some of these Silver Age comics, from 1955 to 1969. Those fourteen years have none of the great Horror titles (outside of the new Warren mags) but offer the occasional treat. As with the Golden Age, the writers are mostly unknown.
“How To Be a Gracious Ghost” (Strange #2, June 1957) begins with a parody of Emily Post (Emily Ghost, and her book of ghostly behavior). The werewolf in the strip complains all the rattling chains are distracting his victims. Emily Ghost teaches him to scream better. It’s a Mad Magazine style humor bit with no real lycanthropic details.
“The Werewolf” (The Phantom comic strip, May 15-August 19 1961) was written by Lee Falk. This 81st story-line featured a werewolf that only proves to be Devil, the Phantom’s dog.
“Hugo the Werewolf” (Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats #1, November 1961) was written by George Gladir. Hugo decides to look more human, having his hair removed and his ears and fangs changed. He gets picked on as a 97 pound weakling. A witch turns him back into a monster and the bullying stops. Basically Superman II.
“Dr. Evil and Mr. Good” (The Flintstones #17, March 1964) has Frank drink a potion that turns him good. One of his good deeds is to shave a werewolf.
“Slaves of the She-beast” (Star-Studded Comics #8, March 1966) was written by Larry Miller. Independent comics were not bound by the same rules as mainstream publications. The superhero fans at Star-Studded Comics didn’t go for sex and drugs but old-fashioned werewolves. Superheroes versus werewolves was not a problem. Six years later Marvel would turn the werewolf into a hero with Werewolf By Night.
“A Night t Howl” (The Munsters #9, October 1966) the Burgomeister has to deal with a werewolf. Two fake ones.
Werewolf #1-3 (December 1966-April 1967) was written by D. J. Arneson. This title was one of a number of new use a supernatural-sounding hero following the likes of Dr. Strange. Werewolf is not a monster in anyway but a man saved by wolves. Dell had never subscribed to the Comics’ Code who they had no worry about using the word “Werewolf” so prominently.
“Tea For Two Werewolves” (The Little Monsters #8, February 1967) has a rich couple turn into werewolves. They want to eat the Little Monsters’ sheep. Quick thinking saves the flock and sends the wolves, now human again, running. This one is more like Ralph and Sam cartoons.
“The Werewolves of Poligny” (Ripley’s Believe It Or Not #7, November 1967) has a man wound a wolf. Later he finds a hut and a Michel Verdun, wounded in the same place. Verdun is accused of being a werewolf. He confesses, telling his story. Once his sheep disappeared. A strange showed him where the sheep were in exchange for a kiss on his hairy hand. Verdun became part of a group of men who became wolves on the Sabbat and attacked people and stock. He and his fellows are burned at the stake but the werewolves are not wiped out. The best werewolf comic (outside of Warren) in twelve years.
“Pawns of the Loup Garou” (Donald Duck #117, January 1968) was written by Carl Barks. One of several Arctic gold-hunting comics featuring Donald and his family. This time it is werewolves and a gold mine on the Upper Mackenzie River. The biggest surprise is that the werewolf is real. The comics have produced dozens of haunted mine stories (usually in Western comics) but the hauntings always prove to be fake. This werewolf is real and is defeated with a charm, a golden wolf statue.
“The Cosmic Werewolf” (Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes #3, October 1968) is based on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. A boy and his dog transform Shazam style into a muscular hero and his lion. In this one they battle a werewolf. What makes this one “cosmic” is a scientist who has invented glasses that suck up energy from space to become a lycanthrope. he uses the power to rob banks.
“The Monster of Coglin Grange” (Ripley’s Believe It Or Not #14, June 1969) begins when Ellen is attacked by a werewolf at Coglin Grange, where she lives with her two brothers. She survives the attack but chooses to live away from the estate after that. She eventually returns and is attacked again. Her brothers wound and chase the werewolf to a grave where they find a skeleton. A stake is driven through its heart and it is given a proper burial. Werewolf-vampire thing going on here.
“Moon Swoon” (Mad-House Ma-ad Jokes #69, August 1969) One pager with a real werewolf.
Conclusion
The shift to move monsters, including the werewolf, from a thing of terror to a funny idea our Victorian ancestors used to quiver at really came to fruition in the 1960s. It began as early as Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1945. The war was over and people wanted to laugh, not shiver in fear. That wave of silly monsters will reverse in the 1970s (you can see it shifting in the 1960s with Creepy and Eerie.)
The 197os will be quite different with The Exorcist (1971), Kolchak the Night Stalker (1973) and DC (Swamp Thing, a new House of Mystery and House of Secrets, The Witching Hour and other anthologies) and Marvel (Werewolf By Night, Ghost Rider, The Monster of Frankenstein) rejoining the fray. The loosening of the Comics’ Code made everything old new again.
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