Witchcraft #2 (May-June 1952) featured “The Northern Horror”, a comic written by an unknown author but drawn by A. Albert and Joe Kubert. Once again the prize is uranium and the reward is horror…
Professor Michael Sloane heads an expedition in the Arctic to locate uranium. A local Eskimo, Arnook, warns him of bad spirits. When they find an old Viking shield, Arnook tells them they will be slain by the Golden Sword of Spirits.
That night a parade of ghostly Vikings is seen by those in camp. Sloane writes it off as an illusion caused by the Northern lights. Mac, Sloane’s younger assistant, leaves to find out who is behind the illusion.
The men go to Arnook, who repeats his warning. They search for Mac and find him dead. He has been stabbed to death with a glowing, golden sword. Sloane figures Mac tripped and impaled himself on the lost artifact.
The Eskimos, except for Arnook, run off. He tells the scientists they are close to the home of the spirits. This proves to be a Viking longship. The men enter the ship to find the old Vikings frozen solid. In the hold of the ship they find boxes of gold. (I’m pretty sure Viking ships didn’t have holds the way larger vessels did. The author should have done a little more research…) Sloane warns them not to move the gold because it might throw the ship off balance. They hear screams.
Going back on deck they find some of their team missing. Arnook wants nothing to do with the treasure. He and Sloane are outside the ship when they hear a loud noise. The ship sinks under the ice, killing those inside. Arnook insists the spirits have been satisfied, while Sloane offers a rational explanation about gasses escaping, and causing the the boat to sink. We are left to decide for ourselves.
Once again Vikings have entered our strange Northern. “The Northern Horror” is different in that no overt supernatural phenomenon happen, or at the very least, it is debatable. You can accept Sloane’s lame-ass explanations but you won’t. I suppose it should remind me of Quest of Qui, the Doc Savage adventure but I think more of Farley Mowat. Two Against the North (1956) and The Curse of the Viking Grave (1966), which deal with the Barrens. Mowat is more famous for Never Cry Wolf (1963), though he also wrote speculative non-fiction like The Farfarers (1998).
