Strange Terrors
Entry updated 14 July 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1952-1953). St John. 7 issues. Artists include William Ekgren, Bob Forgione, Joe Kubert, George Meyerriecks, Bill Molno and Al Tyler. Script writers unidentified. #1-#5 36 pages with 4-5 long strips and either a short text story or a couple of pages of jokes; #6-#7 100 pages ("3 full-length comics in 1") with 13 long strips, plus joke pages and a few short strips.
By beginning with many 1940s reprints before settling into all-new stories, then increasing from 36 to 100 pages, Strange Terrors lacked stability; its tales are predominantly Horror, but many are sf or sf-related. There are a number of good stories, but the comic's main interest is some of the cover and story artwork: #4's cover is one of only three comic illustrations (the others being covers for Weird Horrors #6 and #7) by the obscure artist William Ekgren: both memorable and unusual for a 1950s comic. George Meyerriecks's covers for #2, #3 and #5 are also fairly atypical, not so much for subject matter but for their subdued look. Joe Kubert's cover for #7 is more typical, but also strong. Story artwork of note includes Kubert's "Death's Pool" (#5) and "Cat's Death" (#7), the latter a tale of African Magic and not sf-related. Other stories include interesting artwork, such as "The Devils of Tajumulco" and "Wrong-Way Taxi" (both in #7, a visually strong issue).
In "Vampires Dance at Dusk" (#1) an old lady's relatives believe her doctor is mistreating her. However, he knows her Vampire ancestry is drawing green-skinned, purple-cowled humanoid vampires to her: she is willing to be turned but the doctor is poisoning them with strychnine-laden sheep's blood. "Zombies March by Moonlight" is a routine Zombie tale set in Haiti. The issue's other three strips are reprints. "Birth of a Corpse" (#2) has an old man dying on the operating table: the surgeon thinks he has resuscitated him, but the corpse has been possessed by an Alien "monster from space" who then forces a body swap (see Identity Exchange) and has the surgeon institutionalized. However, he escapes and defeats the aliens arriving to possess more humans. Though identified as being from outer space, the aliens look more like traditional incorporeal demons; the first says things like "yog sothooth", "saakroth elthreth ma" and "the seal of the ancient ones", suggesting H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. "Dr. Webb's Weird Discovery" has a Scientist discovering how to create human animal hybrids ("scrambling the species") using hormone injections: he is particularly keen on big Cat/woman combinations (this story is possibly a reprint; another tale definitely is).
"The Horror of Kila Mountain" (#3) features an evil race long ago banished into a Himalayan volcano long ago; they are now controlling the bodies of mountaineers who die climbing it, having them work to break open their prison. "The Fantastic Story of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon" has two explorers discovering the Babylonians still survive (though for some reason they are short and green); when they try to enslave them the explorers flee into a giant idol, finding a large dynamo inside. The Babylonians "have harnessed some healing Earth current ... I think it's some electrical principle" enabling the idol to emit a Ray that Rejuvenates them. The explorers wipe them out. "Death's Pool" (#5) has the Minotaur (see Mythology) still in its labyrinth, with a cult that sacrifices women to it.
"The Forgotten People" (#6) sees a contemporary Native American doctor Timeslipped back to 1871 where he helps a wagon train being attacked by his ancestors, despite the white people's racism (see Race in SF); no mention is made of the causes of Native American aggression. "Monsters of Another Time" is another timeslip tale: two hunters find themselves in 2150 "when everyone is under the command of the Masters". 150 years previously Scientists had theorized that the "monsters of superstition were really beings that dwelt in the 4th Dimension": when their experiments had reached it, apelike creatures had poured through, calling themselves "the Masters", subjugating humanity and taking all their weapons. The hunters give the surviving humans their guns so they can make more, then are pursued by the monsters – but an arrow made of stones directs them to the "warp in time" that returns them to the present. Back in 1950 they realize they now need to build the stone arrow (see Time Loop). "Peril Haunts the Depths" has two sailors discovering that fish people have conquered Atlantis; the sailors can breathe underwater (see Under the Sea) because there are "air pockets".
"Sword of the Vikings" (#7) has uranium deposits near the North Pole forming a temperate oasis where Vikings still live (see Lost Races); the radioactivity also makes them Immortal. In "The Horn of Palzner" two American soldiers on furlough steal a valuable horn from a Bavarian inn; circumstances then lead to they and the villagers excavating a strange rock formation to reveal a Spaceship, whereupon one of the soldiers blows the horn and turns into a monk, who explains that 800 years ago he had used the instrument to summon the aliens, but it was taken from him before they arrived – now he is going to awaken them and conquer the Earth. Good fortune (that is, lazy plotting) means the monk and aliens are quickly killed. In "Mission Accomplished" a deserter from the Martian (see Mars) army who have come to conquer Earth (see Invasion) tries to provide the authorities with the means to defeat the invasion, but a general shoots him. The general turns out to be a Martian agent – fortunately the deserter had given blueprints to a woman he befriended, and after the agent departs the planet we see her deliver them to the military. "Doctor Ohlmer's Revenge" concerns a scientist working to prolong life, though all he has succeeded in doing is finding a formula that prematurely ages people; this is used on his fiancée and her lover, who have set his house on fire. Other stories include the "Wrong-Way Taxi", which (via a séance) takes troubled people to the Fourth Dimension to recuperate, whilst there are also tales of a lost Aztec tribe whose wealth is protected by devils ("The Devils of Tajumulco") and apemen (see Apes as Human) that hatch from eggs that look like jewels ("The Monsters of Chun Lo"). [SP]
further reading
- Strange Terrors – Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2017) [graph: collects issues #1-#5 of Strange Terrors: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/William Ekgren]
- Strange Terrors – Volume 2 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2017) [graph: collects issues #6-#7 of Strange Terrors: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/Al Tyler]
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