The idea of a Horror comic set in space goes back into the Golden Age. The first company to really refine such a tale was EC Comics. Their Incredible Science Fiction and Weird Science often featured tales set in space. Despite that location and Science Fiction elements, the ending was always one of Horror. I lay this at the feet of two writers: first, H. P. Lovecraft who said his often-quoted message: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown…” Which pretty much says, Horror can take place anywhere there is an unknown thing. Space is filled with the unknown.
The second writer is Ray Bradbury. Lovecraft’s statement is fine and good but how do you make that a story? For that, Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines adopted a story model based on Bradbury’s “Mars Is Heaven” (Planet Stories, Fall 1948). Earthmen land on Mars to find their old hometown there. The captain eventually figures out that it is a mental trap set by the Martians. We get strange or impossible situation with an even odder explanation. The result is usually bad for the players. EC adapted the actual story in Weird Science #18, March-April 1953. For more on Bradbury and EC, go here.
Warren Publications came along ten years after EC Comics faded into our memory. Beginning with Creepy, James Warren established a black & white magazine empire that flaunted the Comics’ Code and did whatever he liked. The majority of the comics were supernatural in tone, with some Sword & Sorcery too. Occasionally, we got to go to space. Here are the first eleven such stories from Creepy. (I should say, Creepy did do earthbound Science Fiction like the Adam Link series but I am focused here on adventures in Outer Space.)
“Incident in the Beyond” (Creepy #3, 1965) was written by Archie Goodwin. An experimental ship with the first warp drive encounters an alien ship and destroys it. After they pass through warp, they arrive back where they started. They encounter themselves earlier in time and are destroyed for being an alien vessel… Gray Morrow was a wonderfully adaptable artist who did SF covers for ACE Books and later Space 1999 comics.
“Moon City” (Creepy #4, 1965) was written by Larry Englehart. We follow Spaceman Will as he helps build a domed city on the Moon. He likens himself to pioneer Daniel Boone. He returns to Earth when done and marries Jennifer. They go to live on the Moon. The only problem is that the test animals have escaped and become feral. Wolves tear the spacers apart when they arrive. Al McWilliams was a reliable jobber in comics. He had worked on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and Flash Gordon in Golden Age. He later worked on the Star Trek TOS comic for Western.
“Strange Expedition” (Creepy #22, August 1968) was written by Bill Parente. An expedition to the Moon is running out of air. Plants found on the surface may solve that problem. Only something is killing astronauts. At first, they think it is aliens but when the Earth rises, we learn the plants are wolfsbane and one of the crew is a werewolf. Robert Bloch did something similar in “Flowers on the Moon” (Strange Stories, August 1939).
“Surprise Package” (Creepy #27, June 1969) was written by Bill Parente. A ship full of invaders are looking for a new world to take over. Dr. Flavious is a werewolf. The crew proves to be made up of vampires and other monsters. The planet they land on turns out to be equally filled with monsters. (Uncle Creepy and Eerie make a cameo.)
“Grub!” (Creepy #28, August 1969) was written by Nick Cuti. The crew of the Leviathan lose a crew member when an experimental creature escapes the lab. They encounter a ship called The Lark that is filled with beautiful women. Everybody is pretty happy until the grub hatched and eats everyone except the captain and his girl. They will reproduce and the grub will feed on their children and grandchildren. Tom Sutton is the artist that appears here the most often. And for good reason. Tom’s Lovecraftian aliens are classic. He would put them to good use in Marvel’s Star Lord comics, in DC’s Time Warp and Mystery in Space and in Charlton’s Space War.
“Lifeboat” (Creepy #34, August 1970) was written by Nick Cuti. The Lady comes to a world where they find one man, Aceles, living in a dome city. Aceles is a superman (based on Steve Reeves of Hercules fame.) He is interested in the female crew member. He injects minds into her because all the other people of his race are housed in his head. This transfer caused her to become a lizard woman. The crew hunt her down then eject Aceles out the airlock. It is a matter of survival of the human race. Creepy #34 was the first issue to get a Science Fiction cover. Ken W. Barr, like Gray Morrow, did SF covers for paperbacks. It is fitting that he was the artist for this first cover.
“Weird World” (Creepy #36, November 1970) was written by Nick Cuti. An astronaut crashes on a planet that has dinosaurs and beautiful nekkid wimmen. He slays the guardian, a giant squidgy, by driving a triceratops’ horns into the thing’s belly. Later, he learns he is actually in an insane asylum for the galaxy’s nutcases. He refuses to stay, even with the beautiful woman, and escapes in a spacecraft. Only he doesn’t. He is insane and will think he is off to another planet. More great Tom Sutton work.
“Forbidden Journey” (Creepy #36, November 1970) was written by Greg Theakston. This one is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in space with spacemen killing each other for Thurium. It turns out that there is no wealth. The last man standing realizes they are on an illegal dumping site. The final revelation is a typically environmental 1970s piece.
“The Cosmic All” (Creepy #38, March 1971) was written and drawn by Wally Wood. The Aldren lands on a distant planet and we get to see the sexiest space suits ever! The crew is attacked by a giant squidgy, a pool of protoplasm the size of a lake. They go to a second planet and are fired upon. The people of the domed cities below shot at them because they came from the slime planet. They land and are attacked. The spacemen blast the entire population. A recording thanks them for the kindness. They warn of the terrible fate awaiting them. We get to see this as the captain and his mate turn into slime. They become one pool of slime and happily go out onto space together. A happy ending! Wally Wood appearing here is a great tribute to the work he did back in the EC Comics and Space Detective, twenty years earlier. And Wally has lost none of his power, only built on his experience, writing and drawing probably one of the most SF and creepy Creepy stories.
“Behold the Cybernite!” (Creepy #46, July 1972) was written by Rich Margopoulos. The Cybernite is a UFO riding squidgy with designs to enslave the human race. A NASA capsule’s reentry causes the saucer ship to crash. Its glass sphere is cracked. The alien hopes to get help from humans. The saucer has landed in a junkyard. A crane throws it into a crusher and the alien is squished. This one reminds me of all the Ray A. Palmer UFO stories after 1948.
“Judas” (Creepy #62, May 1974) was written by Rich Margopoulos. St. John is a determined man. He kills his rival for Project Omega by exploding his simulator. St. John is chosen to go into space and stop an invasion by the Yhan. The aliens try to bribe him by offering him a body that is immortal. He agrees, being the Judas of the title, and is given a robotic body. He asks to meet the high commander, and kills him with his new body. He is now leader of the Yhan. He tells the fleet to return to the homeworld. Earth is saved. The men back at Earth reveal that Project Omega kills its flyer with radiation. They never told St. John that it was a one way trip. They think he is dead but a hero. Richard Corben is another artist who would do plenty of space comics, from covers for Warren as well as independent comics. This is one of the color insets that Warren experimented with to compete with color comics.
Conclusion
All these comics have the classic Warren bummer ending. And why wouldn’t they? Whether a story is about a vampire in a castle, a swordsmen against a sorcery, or men in space, the endings are always ironic and pessimistic. That was what made Creepy and Eerie different from everything else in the Silver Age. Whether you read DC’s Superman line or Harvey Comics’ Richie Rich, you always had shiny, happy people. This was partly because of the Comics’ Code but also the 1950s era that Philip K. Dick railed against in stories like “The Mold of Yancy” (If, August 1955). This counter-culture feel made the Warren comics a natural for the 1960s and the Viet Nam era. The Space Race of the 1950s-1970s gave us these tales of astronauts who come to a bad end. Just wait for Star Wars!
Next time…Creepy Part 2
