If you missed the last one…
More Silver Age plant monsters for you to pick! I have to admit I wasn’t sure if I’d find more. The Silver Age is tricky because the Comics’ Code ruined any opportunities for gory Horror comics. But this bunch is a nice collection of fairly creepy vines and trees. There are several jungle characters here, including Tarzan. In fact, there is three famous Edgar Rice Burroughs characters facing off against plants. (I discussed Tarzan and killer vines in a previous post, and haven’t really changed my mind with these new stories. I can’t recall ever reading them in the 1970s.)
Many of these stories take place in space or some other unusual locale. That was the Silver Age rules again. Somehow, if it was Science Fiction, it could be a little scary or weird. As you might expect there will be some familiar SF-related names: Gardner F. Fox, Jack Kirby and Gaylord DuBois, who wrote so many different fantastic things for Western.
“When the Trap Closed!” (Jann of the Jungle #13, September 1956) was written by Don Rico. Jann changes the minds of jungle trappers by letting them experience a trap — a plant trap.
“The Cadmus Seed” (Alarming Tales #1, September 1957) was written by Jack Kirby. Dr. Googer creates seeds that grow into plant men. Later the other scientists find the real seeds. Each and everyone of them a tiny Googer.
“Mr. Furman’s Friend” (Unusual Tales #12, July 1958) was written by Joe Gill. An old man befriends a plant that later saves his life when he might have drowned.
“I Was Stranded in Space” (World of Fantasy #19, August 1959) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. A man avoids a solitary confinement sentence by stowing away to space. But his ship is returning to Earth so he flees. He ends up on a planet with aliens and killer plants. He survives for ten years. We learn he has just served that sentence he has been avoiding.
“The Galactic Souvenir” (Space Adventures #36, October 1960) was written by Joe Gill. A man who visited the Flaurians, plant aliens, on their planet helps to destroy them when they invade Earth.
“The Thing That Crawled By Night” (Tales of Suspense #26, February 1962) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Plants from a meteorite grow to gigantic size and go on a rampage. Pretty typical Lee/Kirby monsterfest.
“Master of the Plant World” (The Atom #1, June-July 1962) was written by Gardner F. Fox. A dryad-like green woman named Maya leads the Atom to Jason Woodrue, mad scientist who plans on taking over the world with his super-plants. The Atom takes him out with his own seeds.
“The Lively Forest” (Space Adventures #48, November 1962) was written by Joe Gill. The space fleet of Talmus leave giant killer trees behind to defeat the Earthmen. Thank goodness for blast concussion grenades!
“The Creeping Greens” (Space Family Robinson #9, August 1964) was written by Gaylord DuBois. The family ends up on a planet where plant creatures named Klobops attack them. The Robinsons defeat the green menace so the tiny people of the planet can live free.
“The Black Pirates of Omean” (Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars #3, October 1964) was written by Philip Evans. ERB created the plant men in The Gods of Mars. They only appear briefly at the beginning of this comic.
“The People of the Tree” (Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Korak, Son of Tarzan #5, October 1964) was written by Gaylord DuBois. Korak and Pahkut find a village where the inhabitants worship a man-eating tree. They burn it and escape.
“Tree of Death” (Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan #151, August 1965) was written by Gaylord DuBois. I almost didn’t include this one. Tarzan takes part in a contest of spear-throwing. Whoever loses has to drink the poison sap of the target tree. It’s not really a monster.
“The Case of the Pick-Pocketing Plant” (Walt Disney’s The Beagle Boys #5, February 1967) was written by Vic Lockman. The Beagle Boys buy a Slippery-Fingered Fern to help them rob people and for counterfeiting. Thinks go awry when the fern grows into a rampaging giant.
“Flower Show” (Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Korak, Son of Tarzan #29, June 1969) featured this short half-pager in several different comics that month.
“The Black Fire” (Fantastic Voyage #2, December 1969) has the shrinking sub crew not inside a human body but in a garden where all the plants become monsters.
Conclusion
These Silver Age plant monster comics have followed the usual trend of the new Age of Comics’ Code, mostly Science Fiction or jungle adventures in setting. The gruesome plants of the Golden Age have been replaced by aliens from outer space, fiends in superhero comics or growing in the jungles of Edgar Rice Burroughs (or his imitators). Still, all good fun when these man-eaters show up and push the organic envelope.
At least half of these were Dell or Gold Key Comics. Western never bought into the Comics’ Code Authority. Their comics were always family-friendly with the motto: “Dell Comics Are Good Comics“. These comics did not bear the CCA seal. In fact, the company even bought full page ads in The Saturday Evening Post in 1952 and 1953 toting their wholesomeness. Being largely a publisher of cartoon and TV tie-ins, they were never part of the gloriously gruesome Golden Age gore of EC, Ace and others.
