Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne and maybe just a dash of H. Rider Haggard, and all in seven pages. Ace Magazines published a horror comic called The Beyond from November 1950-January 1955. In issue #7 (November 1951) there was a seven-pager that summed up all these Lost World authors in only seven little old pages. You get the whole deal, cavemen, dinosaurs and rafts. “Creatures of Fantasy” was drawn by Richard Case.
Sir Cedric Bluntly, the famous archaeologist, and his two students, Vivian Ashley and Leslie Metcalf, are exploring an old cave with prehistoric markings. Vivian gets the idea to explore the back of the cave and discovers a new hole into the mountain. When they enter the new cave, a rockslide blocks off their passage back to the surface.
In an Edgar Rice Burroughs scene, they find a world inside the earth, where phosphorescent rocks give of light. On the ground, fresh footprints!
A caveman approaches the trio but runs off when Sir Cedric takes a picture of him. They follow him back to his village. There they find a rather A. Conan Doyle group of cavemen. The primitives put the newcomers in a wooden cage. They are guarded by a black saber-tooth tiger.
The cavemen call out “Kaarreee” to summon in a most King Kong fashion a T. rex. Leslie shoots the dinosaur with rifle and Sir Cedric goes for his flash powder.
The whole thing comes crashing down when the saber-tooth attacks the dinosaur. This starts an avalanche, covering the beasts and scattering the cavemen. The visitors make their getaway.
Cedric, Vivian and Leslie head for the water. After shooting some of the cavemen (this is pre-Code remember!), they steal a raft and escape.
In a Jules Verne finale, they sail out a cave and find themselves in Spain. What an adventure! The title is weak though. These aren’t creatures of fantasy but the past. “Journey to the Lost World at the Earth’s Core” by Edgar Rice Conan Verne would have been better, though a tad long.
I have to mention this looks like a dry-run for Land of the Lost as well, whether you think of the 1974-76 show, the 1991-2 show or the 2009 film. This comic doesn’t have Sleestaks but, hey, you can’t expect too much…
This comic is available for free at DCM.