If you missed the last one…
Vine & Other Horrors covers a lot of ground (no pun intended). We have killer vines, of course, but also grass, veggie people, seeds and even a killer cactus. Think of it as a very mixed salad of plant monsters.
“Nepenthes, The Murder Plant” (Wambi, Jungle Boy #3, Spring 1943) was written by an unknown author. Wambi introduces us to a real killer plant.
“The Octopus Plants” (Sensation Comics #41, May 1945) was written by Joye Murchison. Wonder Woman saves an old gardener who has people trying to kill him. He also has a few secrets of his own, like vines with a mind of their own.
“Curse of the Mummy” (Four Favorites #23, May 1946) has an unknown author. Archaeologists who disturb a tomb are attacked by a mysterious green killer…
“Experiment 74-X” (Four Color #123, October 1946) has an unknown author. No real monsters in this one. Dell had a family-friendly policy even before the Comics Code. Bugs and Elmer are taken prisoner by the mad scientist, Professor Lizer and his henchman, Grubney. Lizer can change the size of things, like carrots, with a weird ray machine. He ends up making Elmer and Bugs giants and then the size of ants.
“The Monstrous Plant” (Adventures Into the Unknown #15, January 1951) was written by an unknown author. Arthur and Sylvia come across a white witch doctor in Africa. He is the botanist, Simon McBane. He gives a seed to Arthur that contains his soul. When the plant grows in a greenhouse back in the States, it has McBane’s face. Sylvia hates the plant and shuts the power off on the grow lights. McBane’s evil tendrils grab her to take revenge. McBane also grabs Arthur. Sylvia gets loose and grabs a fire ax. This doesn’t work, but Arthur manages to throw an oil lamp on the plant, burning it.
“Seeds of Jupiter” (Weird Science #8, July-August 1951) was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. A meteorite filled with alien seeds lands on a Navy ship. One of the sailors foolishly swallows a seed and turns into a weird tentacled monster. Only by drying the monster out is the Navy able to reduce it back to a seed.
“The Ghost Vs. the Martians” (Jumbo Comics #152, October 1951) was possibly written by Ruth Roche as “Drew Murdoch”. Drew Murdoch, the occult detective, takes a case of finding a missing man, John Fulmer, who disappeared in space years before. The trail leads to a flying saucer and Martians. The aliens want Fulmer, who is still alive, to give up a formula that makes plants into killers. Some of the formula gets on a vine and Fulmer is choked to death before he can spill. The Martians leave in anger but promising to return.
“The Man-Eater” (Black Magic #19, December 1952) was written by an unknown author. Mark Ellison’s diary tell how his assistant, Eric, found a strange plant and fed it meat. After the vines come for Eric, killing him, Mark cuts the plant down with an axe.
“The Man Who Vanished” (Marvel Tales #105, February 1952) has an unknown writer. Mr. Billings is a hard-ass who gets his own way. When an old man won’t leave the hunting cabin Billings wants to rent, he goes up to force the man out. He gets the cabin but he also ends up covered in weird vines. The old man happily adds Billings to his garden of tree people.
“Dirt of Death” (Tomb of Terror #4, September 1952) was written by an unknown author. Stelpson feels ripped off when Gargan’s fertilizer kills his lawn. He confronts the old man and then kills him. Gargan’s spirit inhabits the new lawn and (you guessed it!) takes revenge.
“Plantation of Fear” (Voodoo #3, September 1952) was written by an unknown author. Mr. Caxton’s tea plantation in Ceylon is under attack by mandrakes. Tom and Caxton’s daughter, Virginia, survive the army of marching mandrakes. Who will be next? (This is a great one for Harry Potter fans.) No promised sequel showed up.
“The Plant That Lived” (Adventures Into the Unknown #38, December 1952) written by an unknown author. (Now first off, I have to say that is such a stupid title. Plants are alive. Let’s ignore that.) Phil Benson, the handsome botanist, has a Haitian Vampire Plant in his botanical gardens. The plant grabs Benson’s girl, Toni, and hypnotizes her to do its bidding. She tends the weird plant with a face, giving it water and light, and then blood, which she steals. Phil begins to suspect her when Toni has a fit about people eating vegetables at a restaurant. (“Vegetables? Why, that’s CANNIBALISM!” she cries.) The plant is now grown large and becomes ambulatory. It goes on a rampage but the police surround it and net it with Phil’s help. The officers shoot it with an incendiary bomb, cooking it like broccoli. Toni snaps out of her trance and Phil embraces her, just like the vines of the monster.
“The Thing Called Dharna” (Forbidden Worlds #13, January 1953) was written by an unknown author. A heat wave in New York City brings on a jungle of mysterious plants. Marilyn takes her beau, Pete, to see her uncle Dan. Dan explains the mysterious jungle is caused by Dharma, an Indian mystic. The trio go to India to find the strange man behind the attacks. This ends with Uncle Dan’s death and the men back in NYC thinking of Dharma as a new weapon for the Cold War.
“Green Grows the Grass” (Eerie #10, December 1952-January 1953) was written by an unknown author. Professor Sarbo wins the Frobel Prize for his new plant seed that will grow without soil. Felix Halt feels slighted when Sarbo gives him no credit for helping. He murders the professor by locking him into a hothouse. Sarbo gets his revenge when Felix begins to sprout grass all over his body. The A. C. Hollingsworth art reminds me of Edd Cartier’s illos in Unknown Worlds.
“Keep Off the Grass” (Journey Into Mystery #13, December 1953) has an unknown writer. A rich man named Morgan buys an estate called Greenlawns. In his retirement, after a career of ruthless money-grubbing, Morgan only wants to work on his golf game. His swinging of clubs leaves holes in the perfect lawns. The caretaker, Smollett, tries to warn him. Morgan doesn’t listen, getting angry when a sign shows up saying “Keep Off the Grass”. Smollett denies placing it there. More signs follow until the very lawn itself kills Morgan.
“The Devil Seeds” (Ghost Comics #9, Winter 1953) was written by an unknown author. A farmer named Sam brings a seed back from Egypt and it grows into a flesh-eating monster. After it eats the man’s wife, Laura, he decides to destroy it. After a desperate struggle he lights it on fire. Unfortunately Sam doesn’t see the thing has left seeds behind.
“Green Horror” (Fantastic Fears #8, July-August 1954) was written by Ruth Roche. George and Martha Thornton stop in Old Mexico to gather a cutting to take home. The cactus grows well but George becomes jealous. He takes an axe to the plant but the cactus grabs the weapon and kills him instead. The cops write the death off as an attack by a prowler. Martha gets a new man eventually. This time the cactus gets jealous and strangles him. The plant goes walk-about and ambushes Martha. They find her dead the next day, wrapped in the spiny plant.
“The Thing That Grew” (Horrific #13, September 1954) is an uncredited adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon’s “It” (Unknown, August 1940). A dead man is reborn as a shambling hulk. He attacks when threatened but shows kindness to a little girl. One of the sources for Swamp Thing and Man-Thing in the 1970s.
“Appetite For Death” (Beware #12, November 1954) was written by an unknown author. Robert Trent and Seth Harly bring a killer plant, the Voracia, back from the jungle. Their scheming to get credit and name the plant ends with them being devoured. This comic was probably inspired by John Collier’s “Green Thoughts” (Collier’s, May 1931), a story that ends with all the characters consumed and now part of a monster plant. Roger Corman would use the idea for The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) but this comic predates that film by six years.
“The Clinging Vine” (Journey Into Mystery #23, March 1955) was written by Paul S. Newman. Wilson, an explorer, is arrested for pulling a woman’s ivy off her house. In court, he relates his experience in the jungle. He discovered an ancient kingdom strangled to death by ivy. When he speaks of this to a gathering of scientists he gets laughed off as a crackpot. He attacks the ivy on the court room walls and is arrested again. The ivy comes to strangle him to death in his cell.
Conclusion
Vines are a natural for comic books. They are easy to draw but still scary. The more challenging ideas like the evil cactus are a lot harder to pull off. Most superhero comics use vines at some point. Wonder Woman may have been first but the comic strips are even older. I know Superman will fight some in the Silver Age. Hollywood certainly has taken a page from this book. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965) featuring “The Creeping Vine”. Sam Raimi made a horror classic with The Evil Dead movies with killer vines. (Not for all viewers!) Scott Smith’s The Ruins (2006) came to theaters in 2008. (Again, not for everyone!) Smith revamps an old Clark Ashton Smith idea for an entire novel.
That’s a wrap on Plant Monsters of the Golden Age. If you want more you will have to try The Silver Age or the Bronze Age.
