Thing, The [comic]
Entry updated 22 July 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1952-1954). 17 issues. Charlton Comics. Artists include John Belfi, Steve Ditko and Bob Forgione. Script writers include Carl Memling. 36 pages. 4-5 long strips and a short text story per issue, often with 1-2 short filler strips.
This comic contains "weird tales of suspense and Horror" introduced by an unseen narrator named The Thing; sf stories appear regularly, though with gaps in the early half of the run. After a strong start with #1 and #2, The Thing goes into temporary decline, but does eventually recover, with #10 onwards being good – particularly #13-#15. There is an occasional series of retold tales, such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" (May 1842 Graham's Magazine) in #2, with the King of Hippotamia partying in his castle as outside the peasants die of the titular plague; and Hansel and Gretel in #11, where a young married couple whose car has broken down ask an old lady for refuge in her isolated house. The old lady, then the couple, are revealed to be ghouls (see Supernatural Creatures); other examples are mentioned below. "The Worm Turns" in #15 can be considered a classic, with cover and strip artwork by Ditko. The Thing was one of the horror comics that ceased publication following Fredric Wertham's criticisms of the genre and the subsequent creation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954.
#1 opens with "The Creature From Dimension 2-K-31" where Scientist Dr Riko finally manages to send a gorilla to Dimension 2-K-31. He wrongly deems the experiment a failure, as the "buoyancy of displaced matter" should have meant a creature of equivalent size was exchanged with that dimension, but none has appeared in his laboratory. However, US troops fighting in the Korean War find themselves confronting a hideous Monster, who transforms into their sergeant, causing some confusion, then escapes. The magnetism of the Koreans' new Russian tank somehow causes the Creature to be absorbed by it: the tank is then captured by US troops and is shipped to America. In a sub-plot we learn the Shapeshifter was a Weapon created by a 2-K-31 scientist: he, and the dignitaries he was showing it to, are killed by the angry gorilla that suddenly appears. Another of #1's strips is "Hellfire of Doom", in which people in a City begin to spontaneously combust; a blackmail note demands ten million dollars, otherwise all will burn. A journalist observes: "Half an hour ago we learned that Dr Hirozi, the famous insane scientist, escaped from his rest home. Maybe he is behind all this" (see Mad Scientist). In fact, the journalist had freed the doctor, killed him, then – the reader infers – taken his portable infra-red Ray. This strip's dialogue is noticeably odd. The issues other two stories are straightforward horror, though "Grunwald" has a new lighthouse keeper meeting his two assistants – "Hans Kruger, an ugly hunchback and Arturo a bald dimwitted man" – who look and behave like refugees from a mad scientist's laboratory: the story itself see the lighthouse assailed by a horde of shipwrecked rats.
The story of the Creature continues in #2: it escapes the tank to wander a USA now blighted by fungal growths, with most people having "open sores and cancer-like irritations" (see Pandemic); the rest of the world is similarly afflicted. The Creature becomes the scapegoat for this Disaster, though a scientist argues the cause is "the Gravity pull of that new planet moving into our orbit". The monster also senses the pull, so travels to and destroys the planet. However, on its return it collides with a meteor and is absorbed and imprisoned by its metal, crashing with it into the Earth. Aside from the previously mentioned Red Death story, the issue also has "The White Rat" where a scientist develops a muscle-building formula that temporarily turns him into a giant (see Great and Small): unfortunately one of his lab rats has drunk it too.
Three issues without sf follow. In #6, "Vengeance Will Be Mine" tells of an embezzler framed for murder by a company to cover for larger financial shortfalls. A scientist who believes galvanic current can resurrect the dead acquires the executed body: his theories prove partially correct, as he creates a ghost that kills him, then its murderers, before dissipating. #7 has "Spiderman and His Web of Doom", with a man who can transform into a giant spider and drinks blood. In #9's "Operation Massacre" a scientist fits Robots with a "brain wave antenna", controlling them with his thoughts: however, an insane colleague kills him and retunes the antenna so he controls the robots. He orders the robots to massacre all humans; they start with him, freezing when his brain waves cease. #10's "Flower of Evil" features an arrogant horticulturalist who berates rivals after winning a contest: "You old goats make me nauseous! I beat you good – and you snivel!" He acquires a fast-acting growth serum from a late rival's daughter, whom he murders and feeds to the giant Venus flytrap he has sprayed with the formula; he is then attacked by giant ants and, backing off, is also consumed by the flytrap. "Rain of Terror" has a scientist's briefcase stolen: the thief is disappointed that it contains only packages of tiny eggs and throws them away; shortly after, the city is infested by small but savage biting spiders. #11's "Beyond the Past" has a professor borrow the Necronomicon (see Cthulhu Mythos) from a library and, despite his daughter's foreboding, spends the evening translating; out of curiosity he recites the invocation for "Xnapantha" and later his daughter, awoken by his screams, discovers the torn remains of his body. "Deep Freeze" has a military operation in the Arctic free a frozen Dinosaur-like monster. "The Mummy's Curse!" in #12 has a scientist reviving the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian witch: she kills him and plans an Identity Transfer with his daughter; fortunately the daughter's boyfriend uses the witch's spellbook to foil her. The aforementioned "The Worm Turns" in #15 has a young scientist create "a super-species capable of resisting any germ, virus or animal on the face of the Earth" (see Biology), believing by studying it he can defeat cancer and prolong the human lifespan. His girlfriend protests, so in a fit of passion he kills her. The monster – wormlike with a red face and teeth – is without the checks and balances that limit other creatures: it grows and grows, escapes and reproduces, devouring all. However, humanity survives in the one place this menace cannot reach – inside the worms themselves. #17 reworks Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871): here Alice is a spoilt brat and Wonderland a grimmer place (modern readers might that note the "spoilt" Alice capably defends herself against all but the final threat – see Feminism).
Ditko illustrates thirteen stories in #12-#15, as well as their covers (plus that for #17): his cover for #12 was his first. Aside from "The Worm Turns", the closest to sf is #14's "Doom in the Air" where a nuclear bomb test revives a corpse, who is now able to enact his revenge on his murderers. The rest are fantasy-based horror, but most are strong. For example, #12 has a retelling of the Cinderella tale, with her stepmother and stepsisters being vampires, as is the prince. "Library of Horror" in #13 has a writer who has lost his touch find the library of the title: the owner shows him a chamber filled with "The Ancient Books of the Dead" whose resources can be his if he brings the owner a body – dead or alive – every visit. He agrees, and as he reads gains visions of the hell-like Beyond, from which he draws inspiration: he eventually discovers they are not visions. "Avery and the Goblins" is also good. #14 retells Rumpelstiltskin, with the title character being a demon; "The Evil Eye" is also of note. As so often with Ditko, his talents can raise sometimes mediocre plots to a higher level.
The Thing's other horror tales feature many Vampires, plus Zombies; Demons (see Gods and Demons); ghosts (see Supernatural Creatures), including ghost pirates; a mummy that comes to life and invokes its gods; and waxworks of historical killers, real and fictional, coming to life. A womanizing professor spreads a story of a local gorgon to explain the murder of his wife and others, only to find one of his students is the real thing. A detective who hunts a Werewolf serial killer is prone to blackouts, after which he invariably finds a victim nearby; neither he nor colleagues seem capable of realizing the obvious. A man whose gaze can burn kidnaps and blinds a surgeon, who responds by killing him and replacing his ruined dead eyes with the kidnapper's, thus gaining his powers; he does not plan to use them responsibly, but makes the mistake of looking into a mirror. [SP]
further reading
- The Thing: Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2013) [graph: collects issues #1-#9: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/Bob Forgione and Al Tyler]
- The Thing: Volume 2 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2013) [graph: collects issues #10-#17: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/Bob Forgione and Vince Alascia]
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