Strange Worlds #8 (August 1952) featured a Joe Kubert drawn comic called “The Abduction of Henry Twigg”. Unfortunately the writer is not known though it could have been Gardner F. Fox, but more on that later. I mention this comic because it is a perfect example of a meme that runs through modern fantasy, the loser who is really a hero in another world.
The tale begins in our world where Henry Twigg is a loser who can’t pull in the chicks. Good thing when he goes home a beautiful redhead appears. She is Lea, scientist from the Fourth Dimension. Using an audio-vizalizer she can speak English. The Elto-Current of her transitor whisks them off to a land of medieval splendor ruled by two princesses, Mara and Tia. The men of this realm are subservient and charged with child-rearing.
The princesses fawn over Henry because he is “real” man. After a big meal, the woman charged with testing for poison falls dead. The attempt to poison Henry comes from the fiances of the princesses, Prince Mandrel and Prince Jakel.
Before any further intrigue can happen, the Grue Women attack. They have come to claim Henry. two armies meet and a terrible battle takes place. Henry feels responsible and wants to stop the conflict. He grabs a mace and charges to a hill, to cry: “Get out of here! I’ll bash your heads in! I’ll kick your teeth out!– Go on beat it! Run! Run! Run!” his drives off the Grue women.
The princesses decide to hold a festival to celebrate Henry’s victory. Both women want Henry to sit with them. Henry sees his presence will eventually lead to the death of one of the princess. He takes Lea’s transitor and returns to our world. Once again, he is the loser no one wants to date. In his mind, he sighs, “If only they knew…”
The roots of this type of story date back to Mark Twain and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). Twain had a modern man go back to the Middle Ages to do a send up of both that time and ours. The hero by nature is not much of hero. Science Fiction would produce its own version in the Harold Shea stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt from Unknown, the John W. Campbell Fantasy Pulp.
Another literary story that made influence was James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” from The New Yorker ( March 18, 1939). It was filmed with Danny Kaye in 1947 and Ben Stiller in 2013. Walter Mitty is a boring, ordinary man who lives adventurous daydreams as a pilot, surgeon and even killer. The story, while at times humorous, is deeply sad too.
Science Fiction and Fantasy certainly have their own stories of people who cross over into other realms. The label these days is “Portal Fantasy”, with perhaps the most famous example being the Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. CSL wrote that in 1950. There are much older examples: A Princess of Mars (All-Story, 1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs has John Carter spiritual go to Mars. (and its imitators like Palos of the Dog Star Pack.) “The Sapphire Goddess” (Weird Tales, February 1934) by Nictzin Dyalhis has a man about to commit suicide but goes to another dimension to become King Karan again. Robert E. Howard, in his posthumous novel, Almuric (Weird Tales, May-August 1939) has his hero transported by scientific means. Andre Norton would borrow the idea to start of Witch World (1963) , that never really looks back after we get to the enchanted realm. There is also “A Yank in Valhalla” by Edmond Hamilton, “Lorelei of the Red Mists” by Leigh Brackett and ray Bradbury, etc. etc.
To get back to Henry Twigg, I think we can assume the author was familiar with some of these stories. Henry Twigg is a definite Mitty type character but the difference is his visit to another world is not a dream. The author is not especially fond of Henry nor is he hostile. An example of a kind narrator can be found in Edmond Hamilton’s “Dreamer’s World” (Weird Tales, November 1941) while a hostile version in Harlan Ellison’s “A Delusion For a Dragonslayer” (Knight, September 1966).
Now, let’s talk about Gardner F. Fox. Fox wrote the “Crom the Barbarian”, an actual Sword & Sorcery comic, for issues 1 and 2. (Science Fiction writers Henry Kuttner and John B. Michel also wrote for the first issue.) Unfortunately, the authors of the rest of the run are not known. So what suggests Fox? 1) he worked for Avon throughout the 1950s. 2) The pseudo-scientific gizmos used by scientist Lea. He was writing Pulp for Planet Stories at this time (1947-1953). This included “Vassals of the Lode-Star” (Summer 1947) in which Thor Masterson is transported to a world of androids and fighting. 3) Another thing is that Fox would create Hawkman, the superhero who uses a spiked mace as a weapon. Henry Twigg also uses such a weapon if only for one frame. Why not a sword? None of these is actual proof, only the small tidbits that make me think of GFF.
Like the Pulps before them, early comics’ history suffers from poor record keeping. All too often, unless some old pro tells us, we simply don’t know who did what, sometimes when or why. It can be frustrating but at least we always have their work to look back on. The writer of “The Abduction of Henry Twigg” is one more mystery that we will probably never solve.
