Weird Horrors
Entry updated 4 August 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1952-1953). St John. 9 issues. Artists include Lou Cameron, William Ekgren, Bob Forgione, Joe Kubert, Gus Ricca and Al Tyler. 36 pages, usually with 4-5 long strips and a short text story, plus fillers such as gag pages. Whether by coincidence or in tribute, the font used for "Weird" on #6-#9's covers is similar to that used for mid- to late 1920s issues of Weird Tales.
One of the glut of early 1950s Horror comics, Weird Horrors' stories contained ghosts (see Supernatural Creatures), the Medusa and Zombies, as well as subjects mentioned below. Two of the covers, by William Ekgren (see Strange Terrors), are memorable; of the stories, "The Werewolves Howl" and "Map of Doom" are probably the strongest, the latter helped by the Joe Kubert art. Bob Forgione's work for "Monsters from Outer Space" also has some nice touches.
"The Werewolves Howl" (#1) has nurse Josephine LeBlanc hunting Werewolves: athletic, dressed in red dress and cape, she has canine repellent daubed on her shoes and a flask of Vampire vapour, the latter to kill a child-abducting werewolf. A strong female lead (see Feminism), Josephine might be considered a Superhero if she had an alter ego. Another story in #1 features a vampire fog. "Invasion from the Past" (#5) has a Scientist building a Time Viewer, but an envious assistant's toying with the Invention causes creatures from the past to break through into the present (see Time Travel), killing him and running amok. These include a giant (see Great and Small), a dragon (see Monsters) and other Mythological beasts. Fortunately they are killed by the tolling of bells. "Monsters from Outer Space" (#6) has two soldiers enter a flying saucer (see UFOs) that lands near Seattle; it carries them to a Spaceship disguised as an Asteroid that contains a Telepathic Alien and his Robot crew, seeking specimens and worlds for his species to conquer (see Imperialism; Invasion); he is outsmarted by the humans. "Out of the Crystal" (#7) has a professor studying the occult and discovering how to create gold; he traps his assistant in a crystal (see Magic) so the secret of alchemy will be his alone. "Vengeance of the Vikings" has frozen Vikings discovered in Greenland: they are restored to life when a fire melts the ice (see Suspended Animation). In "Map of Doom" (#9) a couple find a World Atlas that states it was "first used in 79 AD", they note this was before the invention of printing and was the year of the Vesuvius Disaster: furthermore, the maps are contemporary and feel three dimensional. Touching them causes actual damage in the real world; having proven this by hitting the map of Iceland with a hammer, they decide to use if for blackmail. "The Return of Professor Black" (#9) has a professor escaping execution by using black magic to Time Travel back to Ancient Greece; this requires the transfer of someone from that time to the present, so a nod to the Law of the Conservation of Mass (see Physics) might be intended. [SP]
further reading
- Weird Horrors – Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2023) [graph: collects issues #1-#5 of the comic: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/unidentified]
- Weird Horrors – Volume 2 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2023) [graph: collects issues #7-#9 of the comic plus issues #1-#2 of Do You Believe In Nightmares: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/William Ekgren]
links
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