I have been wanting to reorganize my plant monsters from the Golden Age of Comics for a while. So what you will see is partly retread but there are new comics here as well. I will post one of these a day for the next five days. I have put them into categories such as today’s post: Flowers. We also have Trees (two of them because they are most popular), Vines and Space Plants. I hope this more chronological outing is to your taste. The first segment was Slime Monsters, which I did not have to alter.
Killer Flowers were the first of the plant monsters. Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, wrote “Lost in a Pyramid” in 1869. A seed from an Egyptian tomb is grown and its flower kills the grower. In the comics, flowers begin with the jungle lords. Where else would you find beautiful but deadly blossoms? Orchids are often chosen, just as H. G. Wells did in his classic tale, “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” in 1894.
“The Blood Flower” (Wonderworld Comics #6, October 1939) was probably written by Wil Eisner. While in Tibet, Yarko encounters flowers that feed on human blood. A valley full of women rule there and he must block them off from the world.
“The Devil-Flower” (Daring Mystery Comics #5, June 1940) has Edith’s brother, Jerry, ill. Trojak must go in search of the Devil-Flower to save him. He has to beat up a lot of animals: hyenas, apes and crocodiles, to save him. The author is not known.
“Garden of Death” (Marvel Mystery Comics #35, September 1942) has an unknown author. Kametin is working with the evil biologist, Kixor. They feed the giant plant victims until the Vision discovers their hideout. The evil ones are killed by their own monster.
“The Man-Eating Plant” (Frankenstein #11, February 1948) was written by Dick Briefer and Ed Goggin. Frankie is building a rat house to catch food for his neighbor’s flesh-eating plant, Horatio. The neighbor, Thornton Rose, tries many times to kill Frankenstein but the monster is too stupid to realize this. In the end, Rose flees with the plant only to end up part of it. The last frame shows the plant with new shoots, each topped with a small version of Thorton’s head. (This reminds me of The Little Shop of Horrors, but that movie would not be made until 1960, so it must been inspired by the same source, “Green Thoughts” (1932) by John Collier.)
“Mad Mountain” (Venus #18, February 1952) was written and drawn by Bill Everett. Venus and a plane load of others crash-land in the Rocky Mountains. They find a city but it is inhabited by walking and talking plants. Venus alone escapes after an avalanche but nobody will believe her that she was on that plane.
“The Horror of the Flowers of Death” (Mysterious Adventures #8, June 1952) was written by an unknown author. Professor Harrison meets a beautiful young woman at the funeral for his partner, Neil James. He eventually falls for the woman only to find she is not human but a vengeful plant who had loved James.
“The Terror of the Killer Plant” (Dark Mysteries #7, June-July 1952) was written by an unknown author. Dr. Parker is ridiculed by his fellow scientists when they learn he is trying to turn plants into people. His experiments require plenty of blood and Parker goes to great lengths to get it. In the end, his girl, Lenore refuses to be part of Parker’s schemes and injects herself. She becomes a plant and suffocates the scientist.
“Strange Flower” (Adventures Into the Unknown #34, August 1952) was written by an unknown author. Carlotta Morti hires the adventurer, Burt Tyler to go to the Valley of the Werewolves to get the Kasaku Flower. Ms. Morti hides her face behind a mask but she offers him $10,000. Tyler shoots his way into the realm of the werewolves only to discover the woman who hired him is one too. This story has a weird combination of African adventure, werewolves and a cure for lycanthropy. It ends in the usual way with Tyler in an institution, surrounded by Kasaku flowers.
“He Who Waits” (Weird Fantasy #15, September-October 1952) was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. A scientist discovers a miniature woman who has sprung from a plant. He falls in love with her and decides to use Hornstone’s Aqueous Atomic-Compression Formula and shrink to eight inches too. Unfortunately, the plant woman dies. The scientist buries her and from her grave grows a new plant. The only problem is the plant only buds every ten years. This story reminds me of my least favorite Edmond Hamilton story, “The Seeds from Outside” (Weird Tales, March 1937).
“Love From a Plant” (Tales of Horror #2, September 1952) was written by an unknown author. Hazlitt is a henpecked husband who discovers he can evoke emotions from a vine plant. He uses the hate potion to kill his wife, Martha. He gives the plant a love potion and it “hugs” him to death.
“The Plant of Doom” (Out of the Shadows #7, January 1953) was written by an unknown author. Professor Artemus Carr is on the trail of strange giant plants in Africa. The local man who shows him the plants says they are inhabited by the souls of murdered men. With Carr are his wife, Beth, and his assistant, Jim. Beth and Jim are in love but Beth won’t leave her husband. Carr uses the new plants to kill Jim. The plant that Carr takes back to America grows large with Jim’s face. Revenge is coming!
“The Flower Women” (Tim Holt #34, February-March 1953) is an unusual horror piece for a cowboy comic. Burton Redman, a botanist, learns of the flower women. He kills one of their number and ends up getting planted– six feet under. The author is not known.
“Devil Flower” (Voodoo #7, March 1953) was written by Ruth Roche. Winston Creig brings a man-eating plant back to civilization from a remote island. He feeds the plant the man from the museum, then a cleaning woman. Creig finally ends up in the plant’s maw when he tries to trick a policeman. The cop is saavy enough to see the danger and throws Creig in instead.
“Slaves of the Orchid Goddess” (Baffling Stories #14, March 1953) was written by an unknown author. Ralph Bartrum and Eugene Harper are in the jungle looking for orchids. They discover a temple to the Orchid Goddess, Droseracea. The temple has pet tigers. When the men leave, the priest gives them a sample of the rare orchid the temple’s statue holds. Back in America, Ralph feeds stray children and women to the plant. Eugene says he should destroy the plant. He ends up plant chow too. Ralph is shot by police later.
“Orchids From the Dead” (The Hand of Fate #17, April 1953) was written by an unknown author. Orchids grown near the prison’s graveyard produce flowers with human faces. These blossoms can turn back into men. One of these flower-men escapes and becomes a florist in the city. But doom is waiting…
“The Vengeful Vine” (Captain Marvel Adventures #143, April 1953) was written by Otto Binder. Billy Batson learns about the Pilgrim Club and the early settlers of America. When an old coffin is opened a vine begins attacking the members. The plant was cursed by a witch who was executed three hundred years ago. Captain Marvel yanks it up by the roots that grow out of the skeleton in the coffin.
“Death Flower” (The Purple Claw #3, May 1953) has Sam and Trigger hiding from the cops in the city. When an old man offers to let them hide in his cabin they end up as plant food. When botanist, Walter Parker and his wife, Marge, go there the result is similar. Marge escapes and brings in the Purple Claw to investigate. Purp takes out the flower man with quicksand. The author is not known.
“Flower of Evil” (The Thing #10, September 1953) was written by Carl Memling. Stanley Budd wins the flower show with his black roses but all the other growers hate him. They suggest he stole research from a dead botanist named Metcalfe. When his daughter starts poking around, Budd feeds her to his giant carnivorous plant. Later giant ants come for him when his giant plant formula gets sprayed on them.
“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 Plant That Plotted Murder” (Strange Adventures #44, May 1954) was written by John Broome. The Skykarans infect the trees and flowers of Earth. Captain Comet faces off against the invasion. Uno dies when he falls a “mindless plant” onto himself.
“A Hand of Fate Mystery #31” (The Hand of Fate #23, June 1954) is similar to the last comic. An ancient curse in England is rediscovered to fatal results. The author is unknown.
“There Grows a Rose” (Mystic #37, May 1955) was written by an unknown author. Mooney grows the most amazing roses. They even get him locked up for crimes he didn’t commit. Only when the flowers come to the jail is he freed. Some great early Gene Colan work.
Conclusion
Killer Flowers continue on into the Silver Age but the trend for scary plants changes with the coming of the Comics Code. The flowers are usually aliens or other Science Fictional ideas. Played for laughs or as tools of villains for superheroes to defeat, they don’t have the same creepy feel that Golden Agers have.
Many of these comics are available free at DCM.
Next time… Trees…
