The comics of Henry Kuttner have been forgotten by fans. As a successful Science Fiction writer who had hopes of breaking into Hollywood, these early tales were mere ephemera not worthy of remembering. They certainly weren’t an important part of his CV. It is only in these days of superhero movies that old comics are given a glamor they never had at the time they were produced.
Pulp Origins
Kuttner got his start in Weird Tales with the Lovecraftian “The Graveyard Rats” (March 1936) before branching off into the Mystery Pulps like Thrilling Mystery as early as June 1936. His first SF tale outside of Weird Tales was “The Bloodless Peril” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1937). He also wrote Sword & Sorcery in the style of Robert E. Howard starting in 1938.
His love of Horror and Fantasy cost him with Science Fiction fans so he wrote under the pseudonym of Lewis Padgett along with his wife, C. L. Moore after their wedding in 1940. Together they wrote such classics as “The Twonky” and “Mimsey Were the Borogoves”. Science Fiction fans only learned later that the brilliant SF mind known as Padgett were the Kuttners. Henry died early, at only forty-three, in 1958. His wife, Catherine, would eventually write for television in the 1960s.
Science Fiction Respect
Somewhere between writing for Weird Tales and rebranding himself with John W. Campbell, Henry tried writing comics. He wasn’t alone. Alfred Bester wrote many of the other stories in the same issues. Also working for DC were Edmond Hamilton, Gardner F. Fox and Otto Binder. Perhaps the writer Kuttner most resembled with the Green Lantern comics was Manly Wade Wellman and The Spirit that appeared in newspapers. The Spirit and his sidekick Ebony White feel a lot like Green Lantern and Doiby Dickles.
Martin Nodell
Most of the comics seen here were drawn by Marty Nodell. Nodell designed the Golden Age Green Lantern, with his railroad lamp. The writer who created the character with Nodell was DC veteran Bill Finger. The Golden Age Green Lantern is far less Science Fictiony than his later Galactic Corps rendition but some things are the same like the Green Lantern oath: “In brightest day, in blackest night…” Nodell left DC for the early Marvel (Timely Comics) where he would work on Captain America, the Human Torch and Namor, the Submariner.
Most of these stories follow a pretty standard good guy versus villain scenario but where Henry has deviated in an interesting or Pulp influenced manner I have given more information.
1944
“The Gambler” Green Lantern #12 (Summer 1944)
“The Lord Haw-Haw of Crime” Green Lantern #13 (Fall 1944)
“The Cave Kid Goes To Town” Green Lantern #14 (Winter 1944) has a young boy found in a cave. Like Tarzan, he has amazing abilities and ends up being a missing millionaire.
“A Tale of a City” Comic Cavalcade #9 (Winter 1944)
“Doiby Dickles, da Distrik Attoiney” All-American Comics #62 (December 1944)
1945
“The Jewel of Hope” Green Lantern #16 (Summer 1945)
“The Last of the Buccaneers” Green Lantern #18 (Winter 1945)
“The Man Who Doubled In Death” Green Lantern #18 (Winter 1945)
1946
“Doiby Dickles the Human Bomb” All-American Comics #71 (March 1946) features a squad of evil doctors right out of a Shudder Pulp.
“Sing a Song of Disaster” Green Lantern #19 (April-May 1946) has a plane crash and harpies though GL never really fights them.
“Dickles vs. Fate” Green Lantern #19 (April-May 1946)
“Jonah Was a Jinx” Green Lantern #19 (April-May 1946)
“Mayhem Comes to Town” Comic Cavalcade #14 (April-May 1946)
“Mountain Music Mayhem” All-American Comics #73 (May 1946)
“The Gambler Comes Back” Green Lantern #20 (June-July 1946)
“The Good Humor Man” Green Lantern #21 (August-September 1946)
“What Makes Goitrude Go?” Green Lantern #21 (August-September 1946)
“The Man Who Insults Everybody” Green Lantern #22 (October-November 1946)
“The Invisible World” Green Lantern #22 (October-November 1946) has Kuttner pull out all the stops for his last Green Lantern story. GL and Doiby use a magic spell to shrink down so they can enter an invisible world inside a fish bowl. There they encounter walking trees and a race of fungus people.
1947
“Dead Man’s Tale” Eerie Comics #1 (January 1947) has a man discover a bottle that grants wishes. He becomes rich but dies when a girl destroys the bottle.
“The Man-Eating Lizards” Eerie Comics #1 (January 1947) was written as Edward Bellin. Two pilots crash in the ocean and end up on a desert island. They are captured and sacrificed to the man-eating lizards. Fortunately the lizards are blind and attack their captors. These last two stories weren’t done for DC but Avon.
1953
“Time To Kill” The Phantom Stranger #5 (April-May 1953) is a bit of a surprise. Kuttner left comics in 1947 but this script shows up six years later. Perhaps it sat on a shelf? A man who feels second best decides to kill the inventor of the time machine. Unfortunately, it proves to be himself not his rival.
Conclusion
The comics of Henry Kuttner are intriguing if not spectacular. Another kind of Kuttner comic would appear later. His fiction would be turned into comics, usually unacknowledged. For Kuttner himself the four color pages held little charm. He never looked back after this decade, his eye set on bigger fish. His fascination with Hollywood is apparent in stories like “Hollywood on the Moon” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938).
