The werewolves of Ace’s The Beyond are a mixed bag of hairy horrors. We get the traditional tale, usually attached to a love triangle. Occasionally we get an unusual idea, like a flower that creates werewolves, combining it with a plant monster. In another case, the tale is set in the Arctic, making it a strange Northern. One of my favorites has a werewolf in Scotland Yard take on another beast on a rampage. Most of the artists chose to draw their lycanthropes as wolf men. The movies had been doing that since Henry Hull in The Werewolf of London (1935). All the authors are unknown except for Robert Turner.
“The Werewolf Strikes” (The Beyond #1, November 1950) begins with a man being torn apart by a werewolf. The killer is Professor Drago, a mad scientist who searches for a cure. He hires a new assistant, Joel, who is soon to be married to Gail. Joel grows suspicious when he sees what Drago is working with. The Professor changes into a wolf man and attacks Gail. Joel shoots him and ends his reign of terror.
“The Shrieking Terror” (The Beyond #2, January 1951) has a werewolf attacking people. The cops look at the local circus for an escaped wolf. We meet the circus’s lion tamer, Rance Rogers, and Chuck the Geek. Suspicion falls on Chuck when someone releases the circus’s animals. Who is the werewolf? Like some werewolf films and movies, the mystery is part of the fun.
“The Legend of the Long 3rd Finger” (The Beyond #3, March 1951) has a rich man, Aristede Chauvet, cursed by his dying wife, Marie. Their son has a long middle finger, the sign of being a werewolf. Chauvet remarries and has a new family. When a beast kills the local sheep, the creature tells his new wife who he is, the first child of Chavuet. The werewolf tries to kill Madame Chauvet but is saved at the last minute.
“The Demons of Walpurgis Mountain” (The Beyond #5, July 1951) offers us Karl Polter, a sensitive artist who lives in a wax museum filled with horrors. Karl grows jealousy over Bertha, when she goes on a picnic with Eric. Karl transforms into a werewolf and attack them. Eric is killed. Other rivals meet the same fate until Karl attacks Bertha herself. The locals kill him then burn his museum to the ground. The use of “Walpurgis” in the title is a nice nod to Dracula. Jonathan Harker arrives at Dracula’s crib on Walpurgis Night.
“The Valley of the Macabre” (The Beyond #8, January 1952) begins with Dr. Hugo Jacoby lecturing on lycanthropy and its origins, a near East flower that infects the victim. Glenn is an opponent to the doctor, working for an anti-superstition league. To prove his facts, Dr. Jacoby takes Glenn to the Valley de Lupo. At their hotel they are informed that the law forbids people to leave their rooms during a full moon. The innkeeper shows Glenn a scar on his arm where a werewolf bit him. Later he sees a girl killed by a beast.
The next day the two walk in the woods to look for the lycanthropic flower and are attacked. Dr. Jacoby shoots the wolf man dead. Glenn gets stung by the flower by accident. He changes into a werewolf. The change is only temporary. When he changes back he finds he has killed the professor. He returns and the others in the party demand to know where the professor is. Glenn changes again and is shot dead.
I enjoyed this more than the previous ones, partly because of the different plot, but mostly because of Dr. Hugo Jacoby, a ghostbreaker if there ever was one.
“Horror Blown in Glass” (The Beyond #9, March 1952) has Anton, a poor artist, wanting to marry the rich Maria. He will do this by winning an art contest in Prague. Anton needs good materials for his art so he takes silicon from a forbidden graveyard, the berg tanaus, the site of witch burials. With this, he creates a bust of a satyr. The fumes transform him into a werewolf.
Anton wins the contest but Maria refuses to marry him. She is interested in a man who looks like the satyr statue, a man Anton created. He kills the man, then goes after Maria. A mob chases him into his workshop where he falls into the crucible. The berg tanaus has reclaimed its own.
“The Spell of the Hanging Tree” (The Beyond #10, April 1952) starts with violinist, Pierre Poulanc, beginning hung for murder. We go back in time to see his father reading in a book of magic that says the wood of the hanging tree is enchanted. He makes a violin from it and gives it to Pierre. He becomes famous with the instrument until it is stolen. Pierre’s reputation is instantly hurt by the critics. He violently attacks them.
When another man buys the violin, Pierre changes into a werewolf and attacks him. The violin is sold to another and again Pierre kills him. The third owner is smart enough to defend himself and slashes Pierre’s hand with a sword. Pierre gets the violin but his father destroys it and the curse. Pierre will now hang.
Artists and musicians do not fare well in these comics. It is a long standing trope that “sensitive types” are unstable and usually monsters of one sort or another.
“When the Wolf-Man Prowls” (The Beyond #13, July 1952) has a plane crash in the Carpathian Mountains. Only a baby survives to be raised by wolves. He gains the face of a wolf as he grows up. (They don’t explain where his clothing comes from.) An anthropologist, Dr. Lazlo Lengy hears of the Wolf-Man and traps him in a cage. He cures the man’s lycanthropy and takes him on as his nephew, naming his Druga.
At university, Druga becomes a runner. He tastes blood and his lycanthropy comes back. He kills a girl at night. When his uncle hears of this, he tells Druga he must be destroyed. Not surprising, Druga kills him too. Yosef and the hunters discover Druga in the woods killing deer. Druga takes a shine to Yosef’s girl, Clarissa. He attacks. Yosef has had the foresight to create a silver bullet and ends Druga.
“Fanged Nemesis of the North” (The Beyond #14, August 1952) was written by Robert Turner. Riches found on the gold fields becomes a curse for the man who betrays his pal. I’ve written about this comic at length here.
“Werewolf: Blood on My Hands” (The Beyond #21, July 1953) has a werewolf in Capetown jump onto a ship and go to England. He goes on a rampage in London. Greg Cooper of Scotland Yard goes after the beast in a similar form. He captures the beast but can’t talk to him since he doesn’t speak English. Dawn comes and he has to leave the monster behind. He returns in human form with Bobbies but the beast has escaped his ropes. Cooper transforms himself again and defeats the marauder. Unfortunately, his boss has silver bullets and shoots Cooper with them. This monster-on-monster idea was recently used in the film, Morbius (2022), where two vampires duke it out.
The Beyond #21 (July 1953) also had “True Tales of the Supernatural #41”.
“Fangs of the Fiend” (The Beyond #27, July 1954) has two rivals fighting for the affections of Eloise. Dr. Arduino, a dentist, chloroforms his rival, the handsome Felix, and turns his teeth into fangs. Eloise is horrified by Felix’s new choppers. Felix confronts Arduino but he is powerless to hurt him. Until he changes into a werewolf!
He finds some wolves to serve him and starts killing people. Felix bursts through a window into the room where Arduino and Eloise are being intimate. The dentist gets a mob of hunters and a bear trap. They catch Felix and pull out his fangs, turning him back into a man permanently. Unfortunately for Arduino he was bit during the operation and becomes a werewolf. They pull his teeth but he only half-transforms, ending his life as a weird freak.
If you’ve been bitten by the werewolf bug, here are more Golden Age goodies from ACG.
All of these ACE comics are available for free at DCM.
