Weird Terror
Entry updated 8 July 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1952-1954). 13 issues. Allen Hardy Associates. Artists include Don Heck, Pete Morisi and Rudy Palais. Script writers include Burr Dett and Ellen Ludwell. 36 pages. Four strips per issue, plus one or two short text stories or non-fiction pieces (one is a glossary of such terms as Cockatrice, Demonology and Sadism). There were several reprints: #12 and #13's strips consisted entirely of these, whilst other issues even reused strips from earlier issues of the comic.
As the title conveys, this was a Horror comic, but – as was often the case – one that occasionally mixes in sf or related tropes. #1 opens with "Hitler's Head" about a Gestapo colonel who flees to South America at the end of World War Two: he had been in charge of a concentration camp but angered Hitler by refusing to kill any more inmates as the war was clearly lost (see Holocaust Fiction); but Hitler now works for the Devil (see Gods and Demons) and drags him down to Hell. "Portrait of Death" reveals that an artist famed for his pictures of ogres and Monsters draws them from life, as his basement has access to the ancient tunnels where they dwell (see Underground); this was probably inspired by H P Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" (October 1927 Weird Tales). A journalist who discovers the truth is ordered to remain silent to prevent the public panicking over the horrors that dwell beneath their feet. #2's "The Evil Ones" falls between two stools, unable to decide whether to be Fantasy or sf: a morgue statistician's (see Soft Sciences) research reveals fatal accidents are deliberate acts. He then sees a humanoid creature, Invisible to everyone else, causing "accidents": following it, he arrives at an underground grotto filled with lights and Technology, where it joins others of its race. No one believes him when he tries to notify the authorities. "Isle of Doom" has Scientists arriving to study a volcanic island newly emerged from the sea: they find a tower, inhabited by a Lost Race which does not respond well to the head scientist's greed damaging a golden idol. The building is identified as the "Tower of Bable" [sic] and the volcano the gateway to Hell. In #4's "Night Air" a doctor's new wife explains her father had been a witness in a Budapest trial that led to the burning of a warlock, and so the family is plagued by Vampires: his disbelief leads to her death and, as the jury disbelieves his explanation, the doctor's execution. The vampires are atypical, being dragon-like demons. This issue also has "Explorer", about Vasco da Gama's killing and dismemberment of 30 fishermen at Calicut – "a story shunned by the history books but known to the historians", retold as set in the modern day with a tyrannical European state sending the vile Leopold Damon to the Africa interior to claim the source of uranium (as opposed to spices in India) previously located by another explorer. Presumably the Belgian Congo is being referenced (see Imperialism; Politics).
#5's "Full Moon" has a young bio-chemist finding the "hidden writings of Loup Garou", his training suggesting the chemical formula described is valid. Naturally he tests it on himself during a full moon ("the moonlight probably has some subtle effect on the reaction"): "It worked, but I seem to have a desire to kill", and indeed he does. It is left open whether he actually becomes a Werewolf or is insane. In "Big Screen" a scientist completes an Invention to convert mysterious space signals to sound and vision (see Communications), discovering they are instructions to Alien agents preparing for an Invasion of the Earth: both his wife and officers from Military Intelligence turn out to be these agents in disguise; our planet conquered, he ends up in a cage with a sign that reads "The Last Man on Earth". #7 has "Turnabout", where genius engineer Walt Barker, frustrated that his racing car (see Games and Sports) never wins due to rivals' unscrupulous tactics, builds a Robot brain (see AI) into his vehicle. Now he is winning races, his rivals try to sabotage the car, but it kills them. Apparently disenchanted with humanity, it somehow builds another car as a companion and drives off, leaving Walt behind. Four months later the City Motorcadia is discovered in the desert: inhabited by robots, impervious to atomic bombs and with entry forbidden to humans. Eventually it joins the United Nations, then two years later Walt is invited to be the first human to enter the city to see their "new product for the world market" (see Economics) – about which he exclaims "My God! They've created a human being!" as we see a sexy young women on an assembly line. Whether she is organic or an Android is unclear.
#8's "Step into my Parlour" has two crooks deciding to rob a blind woman; however she is an alien deemed a criminal by her world for not liking human flesh, so sent to ours as punishment (see Crime and Punishment) until she can prove she has begun eating people by providing the bones. The men are dult consumed. "Man Ape" in #10 has a scientist in Africa killing Peter, one of his assistants, then transplanting the brain into a gorilla. The gorilla kills the scientist – who does not seem to have considered the possibility his victim might be upset – and kidnaps the other assistant's girlfriend. In the jungle other gorillas are "leaping and stamping to their weird, primitive rhythms" (one is beating a drum), so the gorilla Peter decides to kill their leader and become their king. However the other assistant ends up shooting him. "Death Kiss" has a professor who, unable to get women to kiss him, builds a kiss-crazy android. However, suddenly realizing her strength would kill him, he diverts her to the waterfront taverns: she ends up kissing some of the men there to death. On her return to the professor's laboratory he tries to kill her, but though badly damaged, she manages to deliver a fatal smooch. #11's "Day of Doom" is set in 1987, when the Chairman of Great Amerco Corp uses his wealth to learn the day the enemies of the USA will attack, but doesn't inform the US Government: "I'm not sharing it with weaklings ... only the fittest will survive" (see Social Darwinism). When the nuclear attack and US military retaliation take place (see World War Three), the Chairman, his cohorts, beautiful women and two thousand minions have retired to an Underground City: as one smugly observes, "Genius does not come with moral grounds". When another observes there are no technical men, no brains, among the support staff, he is told that only brawny men will be needed to combat any survivors (see Post-Holocaust). In 1995 the Geiger counters confirm it is safe to return to the surface. However, they find a thriving civilization: the fittest survived and mutated (see Mutants), and though some are Monsters, they get along. In this new world the chairman and his acolytes are the weaklings, not fit to survive. In #12's "China Doll" a young woman, to her cost, discovers the owner of a weight-loss saloon converts his clientele into china dolls; his laboratory suggests the technique is scientific rather than supernatural.
With decapitated heads, bodies hanging from gibbets and other violent imagery, Weird Terror was one of the many comics that ceased publication following the outcry created by Fredric Wertham's writings and the subsequent creation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954. The artwork is often suitably ghoulish; the stories vary, with some just going through the motions while others are more memorable. A few seem skewed to an older audience: sexual references are more overt than is usual and there are political themes (see Satire) – though crooked businessmen are common villains in comics, "Day of Doom" goes deeper than normal, whilst "Explorer" suggests the history you learn is whitewashed, and perhaps the news too. Unusual too is the comeuppance of one antagonist: death from cancer. [SP]
further reading
- Weird Terror: Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2016) [graph: collects issues #1-#7: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/Don Heck]
- Weird Terror: Volume 2 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2016) [graph: collects issues #8-#13: in the publisher's Pre-Code Classics series: illus/various: hb/Don Heck]
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