ACG’s three horror main titles provide the last hooray of lycanthropic tales. Nothing really new here except a couple of movie or book inspired tales. We get more animal-named girls with Felina and Lupal. You’d think guys would be wise to this and avoid these beauties.
“Red Moonlight!” (Adventures Into the Unknown #44, June 1953) was written by an unknown author but drawn by Jon Blummer. Jake Connors is lost in the jungle. He stumbles upon Felina, a woman with a red jewel at her throat. Jake wants to steal the stone but Felina is strong and has sharp nails.
He encounters a red panther and is surprised when it doesn’t attack him. Later he knocks Felina out and takes the stone. She can’t help but turn into the red panther and kill him.
“Domain of the Were-Beast”(Out of the Night #9, June-July 1953) may possibly have been written by Richard Hughes, with art by Frank Simienski. Alan and Margot Thornton are in the jungle looking for some lost men. Their plane is brought down by the famous hunter, Wolfram Dumond. Dumond , a werewolf, has a castle and weird inhuman servants that do his bidding. The hunter also likes to hunt the deadliest prey, man. He even has the heads of men on his wall, the missing men Thornton is looking for.
Alan and Margot are given a head start with Dumond tracking them with his servants. Alan builds a pit trap but it doesn’t stop them for long. Thornton resorts to magic, using the M’Banga Shrub to conjur up the ghosts of the previous victims. The ghosts kill Dumond and his servants disintegrate.
The inspiration for this one is obviously “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell in Colliers‘ January 19, 1924 with several big film adaptations in 1932, 1945, 1956, etc. One last time we see the ghost destroying werewolves idea that only ACG loved.
“The Youngest Werewolf” (Adventures Into the Unknown #45, July 1953) was written by an unknown writer with art by Peter Riss. A Professor Sader comes to the school to lecture the children on the falsehood of superstition. Taking the Prof’s advice, some boys go through the haunted woods. Little Ronny disappears. Later newspaper reporter Nan Darr and police detective Joe Benson go into the woods and see children turning into wolves.
Ronny returns home eventually, but Joe wants to talk to Sader. The professor performs a rite that removes the werewolf curse from the boy. Sader sees the detective and reporter are getting close to figuring things out: Sader is the leader of the werewolves. He changes with the full moon and attacks the couple. Joe is ahead of him, having made a silver bullet. The professor dies and the children are safe.
“Terror Island”(Forbidden Worlds #20, August 1953) was written by an unknown author and drawn by Charles Nicholas. The writer combines The Island of Dr. Moreau with a character from The Heart of Darkness. Joan is worried about her brother, Bob, who has gone to a remote island to work with famous scientist, Dr. Kurtz. Her beau Jim goes with her to the island. They are attacked by a leopard man but saved by Dr. Kurtz.
They go to the doctor’s lab and see a lizardman. Jim tries to punch the scientist but the leopard man stops him. The couple are tied up on slabs about to be injected with animal serum when an apeman attacks Kurtz and frees the pair. There is an explosion and Kurtz and the apeman are killed. Joan sees the ring on the apeman’s hand. He was her brother, Bob.
“The Westphalian Werewolf” (Adventures Into the Unknown #48, October 1953) was written by an unknown author and drawn by Ed Moritz. A traditional tale from Germany has two men capture a white wolf by accident. They want to sell it to the zoo but one night one of the men is strangled to death. The other is sentenced for the crime. Later they find a man in the wolf cage with marks of a trap on his leg.
“Werewolves of the Steppes” (Out of the Night #11, October-November 1953) is a text story by an unknown author. This short piece, not really a story, suggests Napoleon lost in Russia because of werewolves. A great idea that isn’t developed.
“The Werewolf’s Fangs” (Forbidden Worlds #24, December 1953) was written by an unknown author and drawn by Harry Lazarus. In Alaska, Dirk Thorpe is chased by wolves. He is rescued by Lupal, a woman dressed in fur. She curses Dirk with lycanthropy. He wants to kill her but if he does he will lose his invulnerability.
When they return to town, Dirk calls off his wedding to Martha and marries Lupal. Martha marries Frank instead. Lupal and Dirk kill some townsfolk at the full moon. Lupal knows Dirk is still in love with Martha so she kidnaps her. Dirk strangles Lupal, making himself vulnerable. Frank shoots him dead with an ordinary bullet. Northern love triangle, werewolf style!
“Process of Elimination” (Out of the Night #13, February-March 1954) might have been written by Richard Hughes with art by Dick Beck and George Klein. Michael Stone is in the hospital and wants to tell his story to the doctor. He had a friend named Paul who he thought might be a werewolf. Paul later introduced Michael to Magda, a beauty.
They eventually marry and go on a cruise for their honeymoon. The werewolf strikes again. Michael confronts Paul this time, but finds out Mike is hiding from the werewolf. The lycanthrope is actually Magda. Stone’s doctor tells him to rest and that he has a visitor. Magda is there to make sure he never tells another living soul…
“Big Kill!” (Out of the Night #14, April-May 1954) might also have been written by Richard Hughes with art by Sam Citron. Kurt is a ruthless hunter with a large scar on his face. He savagely guns down a female leopard with young. Later he tries to shoot an albino leopard but the native scout stops him, calling it Roola Walli. It is taboo to hunt this creature.
Kurt storms off and goes after it anyway. He tracks it to a graveyard of animal bones. The ghosts of these animals surround him, when the Roola Walli claws him. We see that the creature has become a white woman in white leopard furs. Kurt wakes up to find himself transforming into a white leopard. He tries to get back to his hunting partner, Ben, before the transformation is complete. He fails. Ben shoots him then sees that the animal’s face has a scar just like Kurt’s.
With this issue of Out of the Night we say good-bye to the pre-Code werewolves of ACG. The Comics Code came in shortly after and the comic switched from the supernatural to more Science Fiction-based stories. The comic wasn’t the same.
Thank you for these articles on ACG titles.