Number 1258: Forbidden Worlds’ sad ending

Kenneth Landau is an artist who appeared in ACG’s pre-Code comics, and so I'm showing a story he did for that company's Out of the Night #14, from 1954. He also appeared sporadically in ACG's post-Code comic books, and I'm also showing you the story he did for the very last issue of Forbidden Worlds #145, in 1967.

Landau worked in animation as a layout artist, and if you look at his listing on IMDb.com, you’ll probably recognize most of the things he worked on.

The story from Out of the Night is typical of the type of horror comics ACG did at the time. There is a likeability to them, and the endings (as in “Out of the Screen”) are optimistic. Good triumphs over evil. Yay. (It doesn't mention that the inventor who wreaked such havoc with his 3D system will be sued after admitting he's responsible for the deadly dinosaur attack.)

But the story from the last Forbidden Worlds has a very different ending for ACG, and editor/writer Richard E. Hughes. If Hughes — who is reputed to have written all of ACG's output under pseudonyms in those years — wrote it* he sacrificed his usual optimistic ending for one of tragedy. I'll let you read it and see.

Landau was a journeyman comic book artist.** He signed his stories, but even without a signature the earlier stories are recognizable by his pen-shading.

 Kurt Schaffenberger did the cover for Forbidden Worlds under his pen-name, Lou Wahl.

*The writer's name on the splash panel is Adam Barr, not one of the pseudonyms attributed to Hughes by the Wikipedia entry on him. That doesn't mean it wasn't Hughes, though. And by the way, “Richard E. Hughes” was apparently a pseudonym for Leo Rosenbaum. Hughes/Rosenbaum died in 1974 at age 64.

**A silly rumor went around for years that Kenneth Landau was actually Martin Landau, the actor. Martin did some cartooning in his time, but he’s not Ken Landau.

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In Search of... Aliens

A reader named Darell writes:

When I was young, before I started collecting comics (I collected and traded them between 1960 and 1966) I used to read my uncle's. This would have been in the very early sixties, 1961 to 63 probably (he was about 16).

I remember him having many comics that had a serial for a few pages in the back of (main) comic book I’m not sure who the publisher was, could have been Charlton, DC, I don’t remember, although it was before Marvel and Gold Key.

In any case, in the serial I’m hoping to chase down, the main character(s) for what i can remember were in contact with another race of advanced men who had tall heads, sort of like an Egyptian pharaohs’ crown and I think their bodies were colored, like light blue or green or? I can’t remember too much. I remember these people were found behind a wall or partition, almost like another dimension and our main characters were interacting with them somehow when they came in contact with them. Sorry it’s not much, but does it ring any bells?

My uncle only had comics like war comics, Magnus Robot Fighter, DC, Charlton, was there an AC?

Comments by Pat: I suggested The Aliens from Magnus, Robot Fighter, but after reading my post on them, Darell responded that while he remembered that series, it was not the one he had in mind.  Any ideas, fellow Silver Age fans?  I don't think it could be Marvel, because it doesn't fit the serial requirement.  Despite what Darell says, I would not rule out Gold Key; they started publishing in 1962, so they would not be entirely outside of the 1961-63 timeframe he mentions.  I don't think it could be ACG; they didn't have any serials that I can remember in any of their science-fiction books.  Charlton, or Dell, maybe?

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Number 1257: Jet Powers and the three million-year-old men!

This is story one from Jet #2 (1951), written by Gardner Fox, and drawn by the Bob Powell studio.

I first saw this comic in its reprint form, Jet Power #2, in 1959. It was published by IW Comics (“IW” stands for Israel Waldman) as Jet Power #2, and sold  at my local grocery store in a three-for-25¢ pack of comics. Years later I managed to buy all four of ME's original Jet issues. I've hung on to them as sentimental favorites for over thirty years. I have scanned and shown these previously, but am in the process of re-scanning and re-presenting them.

As with everything else I do, there's no guarantee of when I'll show them. I gets to ’em when I can; in the meantime enjoy this fast-paced time-travel adventure.

Other re-scans are from Jet #1, and can be found in Pappy's #1127, Pappy's #1141 and Pappy's #1198.

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A Really Big Shoe

Superman gets emphatic at the UN:

This refers to a famous supposed incident when Nikita Kruschev, then ruler of the Soviet Union, supposedly banged his shoe on the desk in anger during a debate at the United Nations. This was, as several sources note, an iconic and comic moment, one that was commonly satirized during the 1960s. But according to the NY Times, it may have never (quite) happened:

Did he or didn't he? A KGB general remembered that Khrushchev banged the shoe rhythmically, "like a metronome." A UN staffer claimed Khrushchev didn't remove his shoe ("he couldn't have," she recalled, because the size of his stomach prevented him from reaching under the table), but it fell off when a journalist stepped on his heel. The staffer said she passed the shoe wrapped in a napkin to Khrushchev, after which he did indeed bang it. Viktor Sukhodrev, Khrushchev's brilliant interpreter, remembers that his boss pounded the UN desk so hard with his fists that his watch stopped, at which point, irritated by the fact that some "capitalist lackey" had in effect broken a good watch, Khrushchev took off his shoe and began banging. When I talked about Khrushchev to veterans of his era in Washington, one eyewitness confirmed the banging. But another eyewitness confirmed the nonbanging. A third, who said he'd been standing several feet behind the premier, insisted that the heel of the hand that held the shoe slammed the desk but that shoe never actually touched it.

So we may never know if Kruschev actually banged his shoe or not. Superman? Hey, it's there in living color.

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Number 1256: Babe the Boody-cutey

It's time to bring back Boody! Boody Rogers, a cartoonist whose stories were not only well drawn, but funny and bizarre. This is a good example. “Babe and the Dying King” is a comical situation that is as strange as it is hilarious.

Hillbillies were in during the 1940s, seen in movies, novels and comic strips, so why not a funny hillbilly comic book? Babe Boone is the female L'il Abner Yokum. Her parents are even “Mammy” and “Pappy.” The comic book lasted for eleven memorable issues, and produced some classic stories. Some of those stories (along with examples of Rogers' Sparky Watts and Dudley) can be found in Boody, the Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers, edited by Craig Yoe, published by Fantagraphics in 2009. Boody is still available from the usual outlets, including Yoebooks, Fantagraphics, or even your favorite comic book store if they will be nice enough to order it for you. It gets my highest recommendation.

From Babe #3 (1948):

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Number 1255: Tarzan and the tyranno

Some poor dinosaur wanders out of the lost world of Pal-Ul-Don, yet another area of Tarzan's Africa containing critters or civilizations hidden from everyone else. Tarzan's pal, Raoul, while sleeping outside (without a mosquito net, I might add) first sees the behemoth lumbering past Tarzan's tree house, and the chase is on.

I feel sorry for the dino, who was just doing what a hungry Tyrannosaurus (or “Garth” as they are known in Pal-Ul-Don) does. He's grabbing a bite to eat wherever he can: a steer, a hippo... He scares some humans (including some who die in a vehicle wreck). But jeez, he couldn't read the signs, could he? “You are now leaving Pal-Ul-Don and entering Tarzan country.” The dinosaur is not the only one in unfamiliar territory. When Raoul reports it to his superior officer he is almost arrested for being mentally ill!

“Nightmare in the Jungle” was written by Gaylord Dubois and drawn by Jesse Marsh. Marsh had done another dinosaur assignment in '60, when he did the movie adaptation of Dinosaurus! for Dell. You can find that full-length comic in Pappy's #1160.

The incredible cover was painted by artist Morris “Mo” Gollub.

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