Snow Beasts! They have many names: Yeti, Bigfoot or Sasquatch, depending on where you are. I called them YiBS in a previous post. I mentioned some comics in that post but felt I missed too many. So here we are: Snow beasts! This first post will look at the Golden and Silver Age. The next one, the Bronze Age. (After that there are many but I will leave those to someone else.)
Golden Age
Now it shouldn’t be surprising that the Golden Age comics all feature yetis. Sir Edmund Hilary’s 1922 expedition to Everest brought the yeti to Western culture. The Paterson footage of Bigfoot was a thing of the late 1960s. Bigfoot fever struck in the 1970s so Bronze Age.
“The White Apes of China” (Airboy v7 #2, March 1950) was written and drawn by Ernest Schroeder. When the Chinese try to enslave the white apes, a war breaks out between man and beast. It ends when they dump boulders on the savage creatures. As always, Schroeder sets the bar high.
“Monster of the Snow” (Tomb of Terror #5, October 1952) was a text story by an unknown author.
“The Abominable Snowman” (Straight Arrow #38, September-October 1954) was written by an unknown author. This yeti proves to be a fake, part of a stagecoach robbery scheme. This is a Western comic, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
“Giants on the Earth” (Forbidden Worlds #3, November-December 1951) was written by an unknown author and is based on reports.
“The Snowman!” (Astonishing #36, December 1954) was written by an unknown author. Another one without a real yeti. A man murders his climbing partner but loses his sight. He become a shambling beast.
“I Battled the Abominable Snowman!” (My Greatest Adventure #19, October 1956) was written by an unknown author. Men seeking the snowman rescue a mountain goat. Later the mysterious snowman saves their lives because of their kindness.
Silver Age
The Silver Age is still predominantly Yeti stories but Bigfoot finally shows up.
“Tarzan and the Snow Men of Gourambi” (Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan #87, December 1956) was written by Gaylord DuBois. It took Tarzan to bring back real YiBS to the comics. Tarzan deals with apes and gorillas all the time so Yetis are not a problem.
“I Captured the Abominable Snowman” (Strange Worlds #1, December 1958) was written by an unknown author. This comic has a man climbing a Himalayan mountain to find peace and truth. He ends up switching places with the last guy who became a yeti.
“The Abominable Snowman” (The Adventures of Bob Hope #54, December 1958-January 1959) was written by an unknown author. This is the first one to have a guy in an ape suit meet the real deal. It’s a pretty standard cliche.
“The Abominable Snowman” (Popeye #47, January-March 1959) was a text story written and drawn by Bud Sagendorf.
“The Abominable Snowman!” (Action Comics #255, August 1959) was written by Robert Bernstein. Explorers run into bandits in the mountains and it is up to Congorilla to trick the real yeti into scaring off the criminals.
Tintin in Tibet (1960) was written by Georges RĂ©miand. Classic reading from my youth. Comics books were frowned on but Tintin wasn’t seen the same way. The yeti scene is brief but it’s there.
“I Found the Abominable Snowman” (Tales to Astonish #13, November 1960) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Another man-turns-into-the-Yeti story. Despite titles that include Astonishing and Astonish, the Marvel Horror comics seemed reluctant to suggest the Yeti was real. I was far from astonished.
“The Abominable Snowman” (Tales to Astonish #24, October 1961) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Another imposter story. This time, instead of running away screaming, the yeti takes the fake to his world inside the earth. He is no beast but an advanced alien. (This comic is the closest to Lovecraft. HPL suggested that the Yeti was really the Fungi From Yuggoth, terrible aliens from Pluto that disguised themselves as men and put our brains in jars. This was in the 1930s.)
“Scenes We’d Like to See: The Abominable Snowman” (Mad Magazine #70, April 1962) was written by an unknown author.
“The Snow Monster” (Kid Montana #35, July 1962) was written by an unknown author. Another Western, I dreaded another fake, but no! Montana frees a real monster and its saves him and Diane from a blizzard. The beast has a nose like “The Thing” from an earlier Charlton comic.
“The Top of the World” (Turok, Son of Stone, November 1965) was written by Paul S. Newman. It seems odd to have yetis in a comic filled with cavemen and dinosaurs but these YiBS are even more primitive than the cavemen.
“Abominable Snowman” (Creepy #6, December 1965) was written by Bill Pearson. Scarborough believes the yeti are intelligent. His expedition gets picked off one by one. The last man finds out just how intelligent they are. This was Warren’s first Yeti story but not the last.
“The Abominable Snowman” (The Monkees #14, August 1968) was written by an unknown author. A hot mess of a comic. I suppose it was meant to be “funky” or “irreverent” or something. The yeti only appears in one frame.
“…When the Snow-Fiend Strikes” (Hawkman #27, August-September 1968) was written by Raymond Marais. The yeti learn to fly. This is Hawkman after all.
“Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Bigfoot” (Creepy #26, April 1969) was written by Bill Parente.
“Return of the Monsters” (Ripley’s Believe It or Not! #14, June 1969) was written by an unknown author.
“Don’t Help Me!” (Ghostly Tales #77, December 1969) was written by Joe Gill. An expedition is outsmarted by even smarter yeti. There is proof though, when one beat takes a picture of itself when it destroys a camera.
Conclusion
The Golden and Silver Age gave us a sampling of Snow Beasts, with the best one coming from established adventure series like Airboy and Tarzan. The Horror comics, especially in the Golden Age when there were no restrictions, prove disappointing. All of this is a mere sampler though, for when 1970 arrives things ramp right up.
Next time things really get cryptic in …The Bronze Age!
