If you missed the last one…
With this post we hit the three hundred and ninety third plant comic in my collected posts. Just shy of four hundred comics from the 1930s to the 2000s. (That’s not counting individual issues of comics like Swamp Thing or Man-Thing. Just single stories.) I think we can assume that the plant monster is a major theme in the comics industry. I still have to break these down into sub-themes: plant revenge, the scientist who goes too far, etc. I’ll wait until I run out of comics to make more posts. (That hasn’t happened yet!) I will also do a percentile analysis of how many of these stories appear between April-June, the typical allergy season in North America. I have a pet theory that the number is high. It makes sense to feature killer flowers and vines while the world outside is turning green around you. Freak those kids out on their way to school. You get the idea. Anyway, here’s another batch…
As always, many authors are unknown. We have provided them where we can.
Golden Age
“Jungle Oddities” (Wild Boy #10, 1950) has the first two panels about plant monsters: the Malagasy plant of African and vines from the South America’s Matto Grasso. South America have been favorite locations for plant monsters since the beginning.
Rocket to the Moon (1951) was an adaptation of Otis Adelbert Kline’s Maza of the Moon (1930) by Walter b. Gibson. When Earthman Ted Dustin arrives on the Moon he has an encounter with a man-eating tree. This is not an important page in the story but it gives Maza a chance to rescue him.
“Spaceship to Venus” (Mandrake the Magician, May 27, 1951 – October 28, 1951) was written by Lee Falk. Mandrake is involved with plant creatures from Venus. Standard work for a stage magician….
“The Experiment of Dr. Sylvan!” (Strange Adventures #10, July 1951) was written by Gardner F. Fox. As a boy, Peter loves plants so he becomes a botanist. He joins Dr. Carlsen on a trip to Madagascar. There he allows his rival to be eaten by a giant plant and takes over his research. Eventually Peter turns himself into a plant. A drought ends Peter’s life as a tree.
“Out of This World!” (Rocket Ship X #1, September 1951) This one is mostly a space opera but it does feature one panel with killer alien plants. Space plant monsters start in the 1930s thanks to Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon.
“The Ivy Invasion” (Rocket Ship X #1, September 1951) has mutated ivy from Okinawa growing to gigantic size as it drains the blood from animals. It goes on a rampage but one scientist finds a powder that can dry it out. The world is saved. This one is a B-Movie in comic book form. The title and idea reminds me of David H. Keller’s “The Ivy War” (Amazing Stories, May 1930).
“Death is a Star Sapphire!” (Adventures Into the Unknown #34, August 1952) has a thief who is willing to do anything to possess an Egyptian sapphire. Too bad he doesn’t pay more attention to the owner’s warnings about the killer plant he brought back from Egypt too. An association with Egypt goes back to one of the very first plant monster tales by Little Women‘s Louisa May Alcott.
“Bride of the Swamp Monster!” (Forbidden Worlds #9, September 1952) has a movie company in a Virginia swamp filming a Horror picture. The local prophecy comes true and real tree monsters appear. The star of the picture gets turned into a tree so she can really be The Bride of the Swamp!
“Dead Man’s Tree!” (Forbidden Worlds #22, October 1953) This one doesn’t really belong here. It’s a supernatural tale rather than a scientific one. Most plant monsters are varieties of giant or killer plants. This one has a ghost trapped in a tree that kills people. The ghost is laid by ripping the tree out of the ground.
“The Sleeping Forest” (Mandrake the Magician, December 19, 1954-March 13, 1955) was written by Lee Falk. Mandrake returns three years later with a storyline set in Africa. A tribe there worships a giant flower. I’ve seen this before back in the early 1940s!
Silver Age
“The Case of the Martian Witness!” (Strange Adventures #114, March 1960) was written by John Broome. This is the first in the Star Hawkins series about a space private eye with a robot secretary. On this first case, Star goes to Mars looking for an escaped criminal and has to face killer plants.
“The Most Dangerous Man on Earth!” (Strange Adventures #129, June 1961) was written by Gardner F. Fox. Aliens are watching Jeff Carson, an Earth botanist. They realize that they must get Jeff off the plant or he will unleash a plant terror that will destroy everything. He reverses the plant mania by giving a new cold serum to monkeys and releasing them. A last minute solution worthy of Star Trek TNG.
“My Uncle Has Green Leaves” (Ghost Stories #10, April-June 1965) was written by Carl Memling. Moron nephew kills uncle botanist. He hides the body in soil and plants a new variety on top. The plant grows into a giant monster. When nephew is stupid enough to brag to the plant about getting away with murder, the plant strangles.
“The Wanted One” (The Twilight Zone #11, May 1965) was written by Dick Wood. (No irony there!) A man is strangled by a tree. Turns out he is Nazi war criminal and the tree was planted in memory to the victims.
“The Head Hunters” (Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan #176, June 1968) was written by Gaylord Du Bois. Head hunters come to Leopard Girl’s village. Good thing she has a giant plant monster to protect her.
Bronze Age
“The Vampire Plants” (Doctor Who Annual 1970, September 1969) has the second Doctor and his companions go to Venus. The planet has been attacked by a giant vampiric plant. The Doctor sets the beastly thing on fire. Plant monsters on the actual Doctor Who show would have to wait for Tom Baker.
“The Tall Corn” (The Twilight Zone #37, May 1971) was written by Len Wein. A rich developer murders the corn farmer then buries his body in the corn. The plants take revenge. This isn’t Children of the Corn. The children are the corn.
“The Star of Death” (Tarzan #233, October-November 1974) was written by Robert Kanigher. Korak gets washed up on a deserted island where the local plants snare him so weird demon-like creatures can try to sacrifice him. They twice and lose. An odd tale with really great Alex Nino art.
“Agatha’s Baby” (The Twilight Zone #70, May 1976) has the scheming nephew waiting to knock off his auntie for the money. The old woman’s plant throws the nephew out the window.
“Each Autumn I Die!” (The Twilight Zone #75, January 1977) begins with a lonely old man who grows a flower that resembles his dead wife. By the end, he keels over and there are now two face flowers. He and his wife are together again. Sentimental in a way special to TZ.
“Alien Seed” (ROM the Spaceknight #7, June 1980) was written by Bill Mantlo. This story is a segment in a four piece issue. While ROM is taken to the hospital, an alien seed is watered by rain and begins to grow.
“Planet Story” (Marvel Premiere #61, August 1981) was written by Doug Moench. This comic is probably the ultimate plant monster story of the 1980s. Peter Quill, Starlord, finds a planet filled with planty evil. The planet (along with all the plants) craves companionship. Quill escapes, faces the choice of destroying it or not. He chooses ‘live and let live’. The plants weep for him as he flies away. The stunning art of Tom Sutton makes this rather static tale work. Of course, Quill would go on to the Guardian of the Galaxy movies and another famous plant.
“The Living Trees” (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, October 29-November 5, 1983) was a short segment in the Buck Rogers strip from the UK’s Look-In Magazine. We get something that looks like Old Man Willow. Once again we have that phrase “living trees” as if trees weren’t alive! They mean “animate trees” or ‘the walking trees”. Blame Shakespeare and Macbeth.
Conclusion
One of the other things I noticed while looking over my plant monster comics list is that certain years are a bonanza while others are sparse. Take the year 1952 for instance. Thirty-four stories. 1953 had thirty more. Why so many? What happened in 1951 to spark that? I suspect it was John Wyndham’s novel The Day of the Triffids came out that year. 1962, the year Triffids came out in theaters has only ten entries. I guess the plant energy was ebbing by then. The other factor was the explosion of Horror comics titles in the early 1950s. By 1962, the Comics’ Code had clamped down on many Horror themes. Later in the 1970s, after the Code was relaxed, you see a smaller blip in 1971 (with seventeen) with the return of Horror anthology comics.
