ACG pre-Code horror comics did more than just vampires and werewolves (though lots of those). Five comic stories in four years featured killer plant monsters. The inspiration for these tales aren’t too hard to figure out, coming from the Pulps and earlier. I have avoided stories of haunted trees and supernatural type tales. These are biological tales.
“The Monstrous Plant” (Adventures Into the Unknown #15, January 1951) was written by an unknown author with art by Ken Bald. 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 gets manages to throw an oil lamp on the plant, burning it.
The inspiration for this story is obviously H. G. Wells’s “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid”. The unknown author has dramatized the story more, making the final confrontation much more violent.
“Strange Flower” (Adventures Into the Unknown #34, August 1952) was writen by an unknown author with art by Harry Lazarus. 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.
“The Plant That Lived” (Adventures Into the Unknown #38, December 1952) written by an unknown author with art by Harry Lazarus. (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 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 Garden of Horror” (Adventures Into the Unknown #48, October 1953) written by an unknown author with art by Lin Streeter. This story is a rewrite of “The Monstrous Plant”, having a scene with an ax in a greenhouse.
This time the seed comes from an African temple with a rather Cthulhu-like octopus symbol on it. The plant doesn’t have a human face but can conjur up illusions to snare its prey (ala “A Martain Odyssesy” by Stanley G. Weinbaum). It catches Roy by looking like Carla, who has left him because he won’t destroy the plant. The ax comes in handy and the fighting couple are brought back together.
“Tree of Terror” (Forbidden Worlds #26, February 1954) was written by an unknown author with art by Bob Forgione. Barry Jones, a geologist, is in Sumatra with Pete looking for uranium. A beautiful local girl named Keeta is the only one left in her deserted village. Pete disappears. Barry saves Keeta from a man-eating tree.
Later Keeta transforms into a tree monster, her father being a witch doctor, and attacks. Barry shoots her in the chest with his pistol. She turns back into a girl. He picks her up and feeds her to the man-eating tree. He is almost caught by the tree and then the collapse of the pit it sits in.
“The Thing With the Golden Hair” (Forbidden Worlds #27, March 1954) was written by an unknown author with art by Sheldon Moldoff. Philo Kendrick and Jeff Gullen are searching for Maitland in Africa. Maitland has gone in search of a valley created by a fallen meteor. The natives won’t go to the valley because it is tabu.
The two white men shoot their way through to the valley and find strange flowers that look like animals. Then they find a tree that has hair just like Maitland. Too late they realize the truth when roots begin sprouting out of their feet and hands…
This story reminds me of the Weird Tales story, “The Tree-Men of M’Bwa” by Donald Wandrei. Wandrei has a Lovecraftian element that is not found here. Of course, stories like Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Seed From the Sepulchre” also feel back of this but Wandrei has the feet roots.
More next time…
It was claimed that “The Thing with the Golden Hair” received more fan mail that any other story, although I’ve never understood why. I was told by Norman Fruman, an uncredited writer for ACG, that they actually received very few letters on anything.