Plant Monsters in The House of Mystery

Plant Monsters in The House of Mystery follow the tropes found in fiction first: the haunted tree, the biological experiment, weed men and others. DC Comics had some great writers and artists but few if any of these are trend-setters with the possible exception of the very popular Swamp Thing. Swampie was a very successful DC character, spawned in HOM‘s sister magazine, The House of Secrets #92 (June-July 1971). From that you might expect a lot of Berni Wrightson but he only shows up about as often as Alfred Alcala or Gerry Talaoc.

Now, I will apologize for the retread in this post. Only about half are new. Many of these appeared in other posts but I wanted to see them all in one place. So forgive. And enjoy.

Golden Age

“Tree of Doom” (The House of Mystery #2, February-March 1952) was written by an unknown author. This story has two cousins, the greedy Jared, and the artist, Paul Moresby. Paul loves the trees he paints while Jared schemes to get the family fortune. Paul rescues a tree from Jared’s axe only to be killed instead. It’s up to the tree to catch the killer. The author is not known.

“Tree of the Dead” (The House of Mystery #8, November 1952) was written by an unknown author. Murder is called out in this fairly sedate date tree story.

“The Tree of Death” (House of Mystery #14, May 1953) was written and drawn by Morris Waldinger. The deaths of the Dalhousies can be predicted by the tree planted by the first earl. These half page fillers were reprinted several times.

“The Man With the Magic Ears” (The House of Mystery #26, May 1954) was written by an unknown writer. A man invents a machine that can hear plants. The painful cries of these growing things drives him to try to stop people from treating plants badly. They lock him up in an asylum. This story is a version of Roald Dahl’s “The Sound Machine” (The New Yorker, September 17, 1949).

“The Terrible Tree-Man of Tanganyika” (The House of Mystery #30, September 1954) was written by an unknown author. It has Gregory, the owner of a pineapple plantation in Africa telling his workers to cut down a sacred tree, a tree-man. When the tree is cut, it falls on the plantation owner, getting even.

“The Tree Man” (House of Mystery #37, April 1955) was written by an unknown author. Trent takes over the plantation of his recently killed uncle. The foreman, Frank Wall, is a brute. When Trent asks to see where his uncle met his accidental death, he is shown a tree with a human face carved on it. This is the tree-man. Trent hears a tale of how the tree had saved his uncle’s life. He also learns that Wall killed him. Confronted, the foreman draws a gun on Trent. The tree-man saves the nephew as well.

“Mysterious Tree” (House of Mystery #44, November 1955) features a sacred tamarind tree in India. When anyone tries to cut it down terrible things happen to them. A nice partial page filler. The writer is not known. Waldinger, maybe?

Silver Age

“The Cosmic Plant” (The House of Mystery #89, August 1959) was written by an unknown author. A plant from space seems unimportant until it threatens the infrastructure, taking out roads and railroads. Good thing scientists can kill it with a gigantic version of killing a bug with a magnifying glass.

“The Fatal Flower” (The House of Mystery #100, July 1960) is a text story written by an unknown writer. Franklin Welles is a rich man who buys a mystical plant in India. After buying it, his health improves greatly. The plant is crushed in an accident. Welles fell dead at the moment of the crash. This is a familiar trope from Horror fiction.

“The Menace of the Enemy Plants” (House of Mystery #103, October 1960) was written by an unknown author. An experimental ray turns plants into mobile killers on a remote island. They even eat a helicopter. Good thing the acto-ray shrinks them back down to size!

“The Roots of Evil” (The House of Mystery #176, September-October 1968) was written by Marv Wolfman. A love triangle, it has Cora going with David, a good-looking botanist. A jealous and freaky looking rival traps the scientist and his girl in a house being attacked by one of David’s experimental trees. He laughs when the couple is killed but soon joins them in death.

Bronze Age

“The Hanging Tree” (The House of Mystery #191, March-April 1971) was written by Jack Oleck. This tale feels a little like Washington Irving, with a witch being burned in America and haunting a tree. Unlike most of our examples the tree doesn’t grab anyone. The witch’s ghost does most of the heavy lifting. Still, a creepy tree…

“Things Old…Things Forgotten” (The House of Mystery #195, October 1971) was written by an unknown writer. Igor Lazlo dreams of ruling all of Europe. But in America he comes across something he can’t tame, the very spirit of the woods. The Wrightson art reminds one of Swamp Thing a little.

“Zacornu the Demon Tree” (The House of Mystery #204, July 1972) was written by an unknown author. Based on actual Islamic beliefs, it makes a nice one-page filler for a Horror comic.

“Swamp God” (The House of Mystery #217, September 1973) was written by John Jacobson and Steve Skeates. A young boy dies as a sacrifice to a godling of nature. The humans seem unaware until the truth crashes in on them.

“The Abominable Ivy” (The House of Mystery #218, October 1973) was written by Michael Fleisher and Russell Carley. Bob is a garbage man with ambition. He crushes a rival in the compactor then wins a big contract for refuse disposal. The spirit of the murdered man comes for him in the form of creeping ivy.

“The Murderer” (The House of Mystery #240, April 1976) was written by Ed Fedory and Robert Kanigher. Dr. Florius is a scientist with secrets, murder among them. What has his love become and can he cure her?

“Check the J. C. Demon Catalogue Under…Death!” (The House of Mystery #245, September 1976) was written by Bill Parente and Guy Lillian. Careful what catalogue you order from. This one has seeds that grow as big as Cthulhu! Some of Nino most Lovecraftian art.

“Harvest of Hate” (The House of Mystery #251, March-April 1977) was written by Jack Oleck. John Arlen grows his Venus Fly-trap so big it can eat his brother. But Paul Arlen returns as a plant monster in his own right. Revenge!

“The Serpent Tree” (The House of Mystery #308, September 1982) was written by Jack C. Harris. Jennifer is a gold-digger who falls in with a band of gypsies to find their gold. Instead she finds a tree that turns into snakes. Later she flees with her greedy boss but he ends up dead. The snake that killed him bears the same initials carved into the Serpent Tree. Jen-Jen ends up in the asylum.

Conclusion

Plant Monsters in The House of Mystery was a theme that wound its way through its 1951 to 1983 run. Many of these stories share one commonality: a despicable characters who comes to a bad end. These can be mad scientists, unhappy spouses, greedy businessmen, but no matter who they are, you don’t mind them getting eaten. I suppose this was partly about the Comics’ Code, which DC was moving away from but couldn’t abandon completely (Like Warren had). If you are going to do something gross and violent, there should at least be the message that it happens do rotters.