The First Nations of the Pacific Coast and Alaska are known for their beautiful art and their spiritual totem poles. For my sister, Sheila and many Canadians, this means Emily Carr and her paintings or the Reconciliation Pole at UBC. But to her older brother, it means terror.
Horror writers, and perhaps even more so comic book creators, have used the totem pole to create chills since 1939. Robert Bloch wrote “The Totem Pole” for Weird Tales in August 1939. The story follows Arthur Shurm, an innocuous museum guard who witnesses the terrible. The narrator meets Shurm in a bar where the man needs a drink badly. Dr. Bailey, a ruthless collector for the museum, has brought a new totem pole for the Native American section in Room 12. Bailey’s partner, Dr. Fiske, had not survived their visit to Alaska. Shawgi, the medicine man of the Shoshoonack Indians created the pole especially for Bailey through some mysterious process.
Shurm explains, “…This may sound long and silly to you now, Mister, but I got good reason to tell you all this. I want to explain what I noticed about them faces. They weren’t artificial enough. Do you know what I mean? Usually Indian carving is kinda stiff and square-cut. But these faces were done real carefully, and they were all different, just like they were sculptures of human heads. And the arms were carved out perfectly, with hands on the ends. That just don’t seem natural. I didn’t like it when I found out — more so because it was getting dark already and those eyes gleamed at me there, just as though these were real heads that could see me. It was a queer thing to think, but that’s the way of life.” (“The Totem Pole” by Robert Bloch)
Shurm over hears Dr. Bailey talking to the pole heads. We learn that all the heads on the pole were a group of chiefs who died mysteriously in a dog-sled accident. As Bailey becomes more agitated, he plans to take the pole down. Later, Shurm sees him enter Room 12 with a can of kerosene. When the screaming starts, Shurm runs for it, ending up at the bar. The narrator gets a cop, and they go with Shurm back to the museum.
What they find is the totem pole clutching Dr. Bailey to it surface. Shurm recognizes the top head on the pole. It is that of the dead Dr. Fiske. The lower heads are covered in blood for they have chewed through Bailey’s body, getting their revenge. The ambitious Bailey had been responsible for Fiske and the deaths of the chiefs.
The inspiration for Bloch’s story isn’t hard to deduce. Firstly, we can assume he visited such museums with First Nations displays. There is no reason not assume it wasn’t the American Museum of Natural History in New York which has a famous collection.
But more important is the story “Lukundoo” from Lukundoo and Other Stories (1927) by Edward Lucas White. This story is about the African jungle, not museums or the Pacific Coast. The plot follows the mystery behind an explorer named Stone who bears bandages on his arms and talks to a weird voice at night. Little shrunken heads are found as well. In the end, we find out that Stone had been cursed by a witch doctor he killed. The shaman reappeared as tiny heads in the man’s flesh. The strange voice was that of the tormenting witch doctor. White takes his time and tells the story through several narrators to prolong that final revelation. Bloch’s totem heads seem a logical derivation. “Lukundoo” was a classic that inspired many writers, perhaps Stephen King’s “I am the Doorway” (Cavalier, March 1971).
Gardner F. Fox is best known for writing comics but he, like Robert Bloch, also wrote for Weird Tales. Manhunt #10, July 1948, has a two page text story by Fox called “Terror of the Totem Poles”. Red Fox, the Mountie, has to deal with a group of robbers who call themselves The Terror of the Totem Poles, evil men who twist native legends to frighten the locals. After robbing them of their best furs, the robbers take a hostage and tie them to the totem pole to freeze to death. The lucky ones get an axe in the head. The idea of white robbers using native legends was a staple of Pulps like Northwest Stories. No actual supernatural events take place in this story.
“The Sentinels of the North” (Airboy v6#9, October 1949) has Airboy and ruthless stakeholders racing to the totem known as the Sentinel of the North. The winner takes all. Airboy loses the race but wins anyway. The story hints at the occult.
Don’t miss Wonder Woman and her totem pole adventure in 1951!
“Wrath of the Totem” (Strange Worlds #6, February 1952) was written by an unknown author and drawn by Norman Nodel and John Forte.
Tom Maddox comes to Vancouver Island to take advantage of the Salish people. He steals their furs and makes advances to Uma, the young maiden, to buy time to steal more. He is determined to get a bear skin for his girl back home. He sets a bear trap then sets in it while trying to escape the god of the totem. His end is cold and ironic. In this tale, the image of the totem god chases the evil-doer.
“The Horror Heads” (Beware #11, August 1952) is not a story about totem poles but a version of “Lukundoo” set in Asia.
“Beware the Phantom Spear” (Web of Mystery #19, July 1953) was written by an unknown writer and drawn by Jim McLaughlin.
Archaeologist, Harlan Borden, discovers a treasure in a temple of the dead of the Tlinglit of the Yukon. A shaman’s magic pouch draws a spirit that tries to kill him. But Borden drives the spirit back into the pouch. He now plans to go to the Arctic to steal the treasure. His wife goes with him. At the village he witnesses magical ceremonies like the giving of three spears to Chief Ikowa. Borden murders the man then rifles the treasure hut. Ikowa’s spirit throws a phantom spear at him, nailing him to the totem pole. The pole grabs him (in a most Robert Bloch fashion). The villain is absorbed into the pole…
“Totem Justice” (The Beyond #25, March 1954) has a murdering prospector living off his ill-gotten gains until the North calls him back. As the title implies, justice will out.
“The Totem!” (Strange Stories of Suspense #6, December 1955) has a boat load of fishermen turn greedy when they find an Inuit man with a golden totem pole. The pole destroys their boat and all its crew. The final scene shows the individual creatures from the totem plotting their next kill. The author is not known.
The Silver Age offered a Stan Lee and Steve Ditko two-parter. Read it here.
“The Secret of the Totem Poles” (The House of Secrets #10, May-June 1958) features Tumac, the shaman who talks to his totem pole. The white men who hire him to look for water ridicule his beliefs, but they are proven wrong when Tumac saves their lives thanks to the totem.
“The Return of the Totem” (Strange Tales #75, June 1960) is a nice departure from the usual evil totem stories. In this one, the pole becomes an actual monster like something from an early Jack Kirby comic that a brave shaman defeats. The authorship is uncertain but it might have been written by Stan Lee.
“The Human Totem Poles” (House of Mystery #126, September 1962) has the Wade Expedition of relic hunters turned into totem poles and ghosts. Only when Pete defeats the giant heads (?) do his friends get rescued.
“The Totem Threat” (The Unexpected #147, June 1973) has greedy seal hunters tricking the locals but they end up like everyone else… Written by Carl Wessler.
“Legend of the Totem” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #50, October 1970) has a native legend of Yolakata, a powerful spirit who controls the horned bear and the giant lizard. When the horned bear shows up to kill a family, the chief’s spirit does too to save them. Written by Arnold Drake.
“To Ward Off Evil” (Ghostly Tales #125, September 1977) has Lenny Sykes exploiting the natives but a shaman’s prayer finds Lenny on top … of a totem pole. Written by Nicola Cuti.
“The Night the Spirit Totem Talked” (DC Special Series #7: Ghosts, December 1977) recycles the same plot again. Written by Carl Wessler and drawn by Bill Payne, a trapper murders a young Eskimo boy and a shaman’s totem pole will reveal the killer. He lights it on fire and gets caught in the flames. Vengeance isn’t always supernatural.
“Low Man on the Totem Pole” (Elvira’s House of Mystery #10, December 1986) has a man looking for his son when he sees his face on a totem pole on TV. After going to the northern community, he finds his son but only after destroying the pole. Unfortunately, it was the power of the totem that held back his son’s lycanthropy. Written by Stan Timmons.
We can see from these comics that certain tropes remained in the horror genre after Bloch’s tale: human heads becoming part of a pole, dead bodies attached to the poles, evil-doers getting their comeuppance, the real power of First Nation’s beliefs. What is different is that Bloch told his story removed from the North, while the comics preferred to do it “on location”. This is by no means a complete list so here are some other totem covers just for fun.
