The Tomb-Spawn

 

cover art by Margaret Brundage

The May 1934 issue of Weird Tales is justly remembered as containing Queen of the Black Coast, one of Robert E. Howard's most important Conan tales.

But there are other gems within. Clark Ashton Smith, for instance, contributed a story from his Zothique cycle: "The Tomb-Spawn."

Smith had several story cycles going during his career. The Averoigne tales were set in a fictional province in Medieval France. The Hyperborea stories were set during a pre-Ice Age civilization, full of sorcery and cosmic dread, similar to Howard's Hyborian Age in its setting. 

The Zothique stories are also filled with sorcery and cosmic dread, but are set in the far future. Technological civilizationis long-gone and forgotten, replaced by magic.  The Elder gods have returned. The sun is red and dying. Zothique is the last surviving continent. That last continent has a history of its own probably at least as long as contemporary mankind does now, but it still represents humanity's last gasp.

"The Tomb-Spawn," like many of these far-future tales, has Death looking over your shoulder pretty much the entire time you are reading it. Two travelers, Milab and Marabac, here a tale about an ancient sorcerer-king named Ossaru, who keeps an alien being called Nioth-Korghai in a chamber beneath his palace. 

(Smith was influenced by Greek mythology in his Hyperborea tales, but there might be a bit of influence here as well, as this set-up--though not the rest of the story--reminds me slightly of the myth of Minos and the Minotaur.) 

The creature was Ossaru's advisor and aide, but eventually dies from unknown causes. Later, when Ossaru also dies, he has arranged for his mummy to be lowered into the same chamber that houses the body of Nioth-Korghai is entombed, with both corpses protected by magical wards.

Millennia go by and no one now remembers where Ossaru's capital was located. But when Milab and Marabac are ambushed in the desert by cannibalistic humanoid creatures, then stumble across the ruins of that city while fleeing. In search of water, they end up in the tomb, where they find...

Well, see for yourself what they find. You can read the story online HERE. I was reminded of the story when it was featured on the excellent HorrorBabble podcast recently, so you can also listen to it being read there:

Death Follows Orders

 

cover art tentatively credited to George Roussos

Adventures into Darkness #5 (August 1952) was the first of ten issues in that series. Often that means that it took over the numbering of another comic book after that first comic's cancellation. But in this case, the first issue was simply designated #5. It was a practice at Standard Comics to start at least some of their titles with #5, under the belief that a comic would sell better if it looked like it had been around for awhile. (A few other publishers used the same tactic.)

Numbering shenanigans aside, Adventures into Darkness is a fine example of atmospheric horror stories that would soon be sent into Comic Book Limbo by the Comics Code. One of the stories, for instance, is "Death Follows Orders," written by an uncredited writer and drawn by Jerry Grandenetti.

It's a five-pager that sets up its premise and tells its story quickly and skillfully. A French farmer and his daughter are digging a new well when they stumble across an old cellar full of dead Nazi soldiers. The men had apparently been trapped their during the war.

The officer is holding written orders and, now that the dead men are "free," they decide to follow those orders. They then march off to the nearby village to take it over. Violence follows--the Nazis might be dead, but their weapons still work.

The farmer tries to stop them, but is overwhelmed and told he'll be shot. But the daughter has noticed the Nazis are fearful of fire and guesses why. She snatches the written orders out of the Nazi officer's pocket. Her dad manages to set fire to those orders. Once the orders vanish, the Nazis collapse. They are now permanently dead.

It's an effective little story, keying off the fanatisim of hard-core Nazis, but still highlighting the heroism of those who oppose them. Grandenetti's art is effective and atmospheric. 

You can read it yourself HERE. 

Next week, we'll visit with Gold Key's version of the Mighty Hercules. 

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS TANKS vs DINOSAURS MONTH!

A Ross Andru cover from 1961.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Lone Ranger: "Feud on Boulder Creek" 8/25/43

Rustlers plan to start a range war in order to make their own jobs easier. 

Click HERE to listen or download. 

The Mighty Hercules

 

For January's Cover Cavalcade, I had declared that month to be HERCULES MONTH and featured comic book covers showing versions of the demi-god as imagined by various comic book companies.

One of those covers was one of two Gold Key comics featuring stories based on the Saturday morning cartoon The Mighty Hercules, which ran in syndication from 1963 to 1966. Jimmy Tapp, a Canadian broadcaster, was the voice of Hercules through most of its run. The cartoon consisted of concise 5-minute adventures, running in 30 minute blocks.

I remembered at least occasionally watching it when I was a little one, though my only strong memory is of Newton, Hercules' centaur sidekick with an annoyingly high-pitched voice. But I didn't remember enjoying it and, when that comic book cover reminded me of the cartoon, I watched a few on YouTube. They really are fun.

With just five minutes to tell a story, the cartoon wastes no time. For instance, "Wings of Mercury" starts with Newton and the Greek Hero Theseus sitting together in a field. A giant bird (one of the Stymphalian birds) swoops down and snatches the Wings of Mercury that Theseus was carrying.

Hercules arrives and says glad to get the wings back for a hero like Theseus. Newton asks about Theseus' heroism, so Hercules explains. This sends the cartoon into a flashback, in which Zeus gives Theseus the wings so that he can quickly reach Cyprus and defeat an evil statue that is essentially firing a barrage of laser beams at everything.

Theseus defeats the statue, but now he's lost the wings. Hercules uses his ring to activate his super-strength (a feature of this version of the demi-god) and gives the bird what-for. The Wings of Mercury are recovered and everyone (well, except the evil statue and the bird) is happy.

It is indeed fun. The animation is limited but imaginative and and stories gallop through their five minutes with unironic charm and fun. I am, of course, a little annoyed at the mixing of Greek and Latin names. I get that Hercules (the Latin version of the name) is too ingrained in our culture to ever allow Heracles, but if its ZEUS on the throne of Olympus, then the wings should have been the Wings of Hermes. Oh, well. The cartoon does deserve credit for using a "Stymphalian Bird" rather than a generic monster to snatch the Wings. 

In a few weeks, we'll begin a look at the Gold Key comic book version of the Mighty Hercules.

Here's the episode. Enjoy.

Mr. Young of the Boothill Gazette

 

Cover art by Jose Delbo

From 1971 until 1974 (issues 88 through 110, with a few issues being skipped within that run), Charlton's Billy the Kid included a back-up feature titled "Mr. Young of the Boothill Gazette," with art and scripts by Pat Boyette. The premise is a fun one--in 1875, a young greenhorn from back East comes to the town of Boothill, Texas to work as a reporter. His editor mostly puts him to work sweeping the floor, while printing innocuous articles about Ladies' Aid Society. There's a lot of lawlessness in Boothill, but the editor (Maxwell Cosswell) doesn't want to rock the boat. Or get shot.

But his new reporter, Abel Young, is full of ambition and a firm sense of right and wrong. By golly, he'll confront evil whereever he finds it--despite the fact that he's completely hopeless in a fight. 

In Billy the Kid #89 (February 1972), Abel learns that a gunman named Fife Anson is planning on killed a gambler named Burley Meade. When Abel objects to this, Anson throws him into an open grave. Though terrified, Abel still wants to stop the murder.

He confronts Anson again in a saloon, but that simply gets him punched and thrown out the back door. Meade is coming in that way with the intent of back-shooting Anson. Desperate, Abel conks Meade over the head with a bucket. Then, when it looks like Anson is going to shoot HIM, Abel even more desperately attacks him and manages to knock him out. 

When Meades starts to regain consciousness, Abel knocks him out again as well, saving himself with a pair of last-resort lucky punches. The two gunmen are arrested by the sheriff and peace is temporarily restored to Boothill.

Boyette does some fun panel design during Abel's two-page confrontation with the bad guys, laying them out in a diagnal pattern that emphasizes the action quite nicely. Abel comes across as a bit self-righteous at times, but he is of course correct in objecting to murder and the self-righteousness can be an aspect of his naivety. He's an interesting character and we might return to Boothill again to see what he's been up to.

Next week, we'll discover that even dead Nazis will continue to follow orders..

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS TANKS vs DINOSAURS MONTH!!!

A Ross Andru cover from 1960.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Black Museum: "A Lady's Shoe" 1952

A small dog and a lady's shoe come together to solve a murder.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

"...if I’m to answer for all the corpses I’ve made, ’twill be a wearisome reckoning.”

 

cover art by Stephen Fabian

A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at a Robert E. Howard story that was unpublished in his lifetime, despite being quite good. Today, we'll look at another one--"The Isle of Pirate's Doom," a novella REH wrote in 1928. It eventually popped up in various paperbacks. Nowadays, we're living in an REH Renaissance, where most if not all of his stuff can be found online or in various reprints.

cover art by Ken Kelly

(This reprinted two Black Vulmea stories along with "The Isle of Pirate's Doom)

The narrator of the story is a shipwrecked sailor named Stephen Harmer. He's been alone on a remote island for a time when a boat full of pirates lands nearby. 

One of those pirates is the beautiful Helen Tavrel, who is only 20-years-old, but has already built up quite a reputation as a freebooter.

art by Bill Cavalier

As Harmer hides nearby, he sees that Helen is having a rather violent disagreement with the other pirates. Shenanigans ensue. Several of the pirates end up dead, while Harmer and Helen team up. At first, they don't get along as Harmer seriously disapproves of pirates. Eventually, they begin to warm towards each other.

The story, in the meantime, moves from the island jungle through a swamp into an ancient temple in which legend says a fortune in jewels is hidden. Sword fights, poison snakes and booby traps quickly follow. 

It's a fun story that seems to be leading up to a lovey-dovey ending between Harmer and Helen, but REH throws in a bit of a twist, implying he might have instead tossed the two into more pirate adventures rather than a wedding chapel had this first story sold.

Helen isn't quite as epic as Belit, Valeria, or Red Sonya, but she's still pretty cool. "The Isle of Pirate's Doom" is a fun tale. You can find it online HERE. 

Tanks, Planes and Automobiles

 

cover art by Russ Heath

So how does a pilot get a medal for a ground action and a tank commander get a medal for an air action? It's a question that has plagued the greatest military minds through the ages. But in G.I. Combat #115 (Dec '65/Jan '66), writer Bob Kanigher and artist Russ Heath give us the answer.

Jeb Stuart and his crew stop at a forward airbase, where Jeb gets into the cockpit of Johnny Cloud's P-51--pretty much sitting on Johnny's lap--to examine the plane's controls. When the Luftwaffe attacks and begin strafing the base, Johnny is forced to take off with Jeb STILL on his lap!

Despite having to fly the plane while reaching around Jeb, Johnny still manages to shoot down a German fighter. But return fire jams his gun.

Fortunately, Jeb was carrying his Tommy gun and, working on concert with Johnny's skilled manuvering, he manages to shoot down two more enemy planes. Thus he earns a medal for air combat.

It's fun to look through this sequence and realize that we are never given an angle that allows us to see how Johnny is managing to fly with Jeb in the way--which would have involved foot pedals for the rudder as well as controls on the instrument panel. DC war comics were never noted for realism, so it really doesn't matter, but its fun to realize that poor Russ Heath might not have been able to draw a believable way of Johnny doing this, so drew the action so that we never see what he's doing.

Out of curiousity, I looked up the take-off procedure for a P-51. It involves adjusting the fuel mixture (controls near his left elbow, setting flaps (controls also near his left elbow) and rudder (floor pedals), releasing the brakes (toe portion of the rudder pedals) and using the throttle for speed (once again, on the left side of the pilot). I suppose Johnny could have still reached a lot of his controls, stuck his legs past Jeb's legs to reach the pedals and reached around Jeb to work the stick and fire the machine guns. So maybe it's possible?

Once again, I realize the sequence isn't meant to be realistic--just look cool. And it does indeed look cool. But I am who I am and I had to look it up. 

Anyway, not long after, Johnny is flying a mission and has to crash-land on top of a haystack. It turns out the Haunted Tank is hiding in that haystack, having run out of ammunition. But now the tank is basically hauling around a plane equipped with multiple heavy machine guns.

Working in concert with Jeb's skillful manuevering, Johnny manages to take out two enemy tanks. At one point, he refers to his guns as "wing cannons." If we take that at face value and conclude that Johnny's plane was equipped with 20mm cannon rather than the usual machine guns, then perhaps this feat becomes possible. Though, once again, the sequence is meant to look cool, not be realistic. And it does indeed look cool.

So that's how a pilot gets a medal for ground combat and a tank commander gets a medal for air combat. But then, after the medal ceremony, Johnny and Jeb's jeep is ambushed by German troops. The ensuing brawl with the Germans earns them both medals for infantry combat.

It's a fun story--a typical example of how Kanigher could come up with a gimmicky plot and depend on the magnificent artists he worked with to bring it all to life.

Next week, we will meet a comic book character I've only just learned about--Mr. Young of the Boothill Gazette.