Weird Thrillers
Entry updated 9 December 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1951-1952). Approved Comics (see Ziff-Davis). Five issues. Artists include Allen Anderson, Vic Martin and Norman Saunders. Script writers include Robert Bernstein and Vic Martin. 36 pages per issue, comprising 4-5 long strips and a short text story, plus assorted brief strips – in #1 and #2 these are usually science-related non-fiction, such as where life could exist on Mercury when one side permanently faces the Sun (see Scientific Errors); #3 has one on the virtues of glass space suits.
For its first two issues Weird Thrillers is an sf comic, but then supernatural Horror comes to dominate. The sf tales are competent to good, but usually lack surprise; the artwork is consistently strong, until a slight decline with #5.
#1's opening story, "Sandflower of Venus", is probably the comic's best: a visiting actress, on hearing of the title plant's rarity, sends her browbeaten fiancée Brad to acquire one. He is warned by Melinda Brown, a local girl, that "the Giant Swamp Spider of Venus cultivates the sandflower, and uses it to lure human beings to their destruction"; even if successful, thieves would murder him for the plant. (We are told Venus Spaceport is "a haven for all the cutthroats and pirates in the system".) Nonetheless Brad fights off the spider and gets the sandflower, making it back to Spaceport – but as predicted is attacked by criminals. Found by Melinda, he is led through underground tunnels to safety: the actress is duly dropped for his rescuer. "The Menace of R Day" is set in 1999, when rebellious Robots replace the President of the World with one of their own. Scientist Bruce Kaine and his assistant Vina Talbot discover the truth, so are whisked off to the secret robot HQ, an artificial Island far out to sea where a robot army is being prepared. They escape and put sand in the robots' supply of lubricating oil: thus the coup is foiled. "The Monster and the Model" has a city blackmailed by "master of black Magic" Dr Diablo, who manifests demons and monsters to haunt the inhabitants; a detective discovers these are the product of science, created by "Doc Hoodlah, crooked Scientist and swindler", who has discovered a means of broadcasting images without the need of a screen.
In #2's "Fisherman of Space" a Scotland Yard detective notices similarities between the mysterious disappearance of famous people in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages and the present day – the first two blamed on Zeus and Satan respectively (see Gods and Demons, Mythology). He discovers the truth: "the fisherman of space", created accidentally in prehistoric time from the "swirling gases of space", lives on a volcanic island where nothing dies (see Immortality); bored, it captures Earth's leading minds and athletes as servants. Being made of gas, the creature is destroyed by dry ice, which turns it to rain. "The Last Man" (see Last Man) is set in 2994: Dan Vickerson spends a week exploring the ocean floor (see Under the Sea) in his caterpillar-tracked vehicle. Returning to the surface he discovers everyone has been killed by a giant gas cloud from space – this possibly inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's The Poison Belt (March-July 1913 Strand; 1913) – except museum worker Betty Wriston, who was in an airtight room (to prevent aged documents disintegrating) when it arrived. We next learn the cloud was created by a criminal gang to facilitate a robbery – they had only intended to wipe out a city, but lost control of the cloud. They expect to find treasure hidden beneath the museum that dates from the age of the atomic Wars, when it was called "the reservoir of the future"; but they die in a booby trap. Dan and Betty discover the "treasure" to be children in Suspended Animation, setting up an Adam and Eve scenario without the problem of genetic bottleneck. "The Cycle of Time" has a thief running over his apparent double; shrugging it off, he meets Aliens from Alpha Centauri whose transport can travel through time and space: they take him on a trip (see Time Travel), eventually returning to 10 minutes before they met – he kills them, planning to become rich from the device, only to be run over by a car (see Time Loop; Time Paradox). "Murderer's Mask" has a nephew buying a fearsome mask from a strange shop, intending to scare his sickly, rich uncle to death: it does, but the mask also moulds his face to match its appearance.
In #3's "Princess of the Sea" a royal mermaid removes a struggling deep-sea diver's helmet, explaining his ability to continue breathing is due to "the strange chemical properties of the water in this area". She takes him to her underwater kingdom; romance follows, also fighting a sea Monster and rejecting an opportunity to return to the surface. "The Shadow on the Screen!" has a man discovering his television shows the following day's events (see Time Radio) – bets and investments are duly made – but also the image of a woman's face: she turns out to be the nurse present as he lays dying after an accident. In "Death x 2 = 0!" a crook murders his henchmen so he can have all the money for himself; then a falling power line electrocutes the getaway car, creating his double (see Doppelgangers) – neither wants to share the loot with himself. #4's "The Tentacles of Death" is set in 2230, a time of enlightenment; a scientist learns the inhabitants of the planet Genero still practice human sacrifice: shocked, he investigates, to find the king is under the influence of his superstitious grand vizier, who uses the sacrifices to appease a monster. The scientist electrocutes the monster, but not before it kills the vizier. Whilst everyone else is Caucasian, the vizier's features are far-eastern (see Race in SF; Yellow Peril). #5 is all supernatural horror with no sf elements, save for a stolen "secret industrial formula" that acts as the motive for a vengeful ghost in "Payment in Full". Also seeking revenge is the ghost Cat in "The Stalking Doom", who causes an actor to be impaled in an iron maiden: its name is Saki, which al though it does not talk may be a nod to that author's "Tobermory" (27 November 1909 The Westminster Gazette). Another story has a hunter shoot the King of Birds, whose subjects take retribution; another is set in Haiti, though with ghosts (see Supernatural Creatures) rather than the traditional Zombies. [SP]
further reading
- Weird Thrillers – Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2022) [graph: collects all five issues: illus/various: hb/Norman Saunders]
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