Number 1603: Heap big origin

“It walked in the woods. It was never born. It existed. Under the pine needles the fires burn, deep and smokeless in the mould. In heat and in darkness and decay there is growth. There is life and there is growth. It grew, but it is life and there is growth. It grew, but it was not alive. It walked unbreathing through the woods, and thought and saw and was hideous and strong, and it was not born and it did not live. It grew and lived about without living.”  Theodore Sturgeon, “It”

The classic story by Sturgeon, published in 1940 in John Campbell’s Unknown, has had an influence far past its initial publication.The novelette was hailed by readers as a classic. As far as I can tell the first “It” copycat was the Heap, who was a German flier of World War I. He died and then was resurrected during the next war as the shambling creature called Heap.

This is the origin of the Heap, told in Air Fighters Comics #3 (1942). The Heap was created by Harry Stein and artist Mort Leav, and probably wasn’t conceived as a permanent addition to the title. After appearing a few times, in 1946 the Heap found his way as a permanent back-up feature (sometimes featured on the cover) until Hillman closed out its comic book line in 1953.

The swamp creatures have come and gone in comics. They are always popular. Heap was, also, I believe, or he wouldn’t have been wandering about in different areas of the world for those years. But to the best of my knowledge all of those swamp creatures go back to Theodore Sturgeon’s incredible original story.

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 ...AND AS A BONUS FEATURE TODAY, HOME BUYING TIPS FROM PANIC AND JACK DAVIS

Today my son and his wife take possession and move into their new home in Western Pennsylvania. Mrs Pappy and I have their children staying with us, which is how we help the process. After all,we live 1600 miles apart (and it is a good excuse for me not to do any furniture moving and heavy lifting).

The last issue of EC Comics’ Panic (1955) featured this funny and well-drawn satire, “House Hunting.” The thing about the best satire is that it never gets too far from reality, just basically pointing out absurdities in any situation, such as looking for a house.

Number 1520: Everything I know about cheating spouses I learned from EC Comics

I was sheltered as I was raised, not allowed to make a fist until I was 23 (as actor McLean Stevenson used to say). Well, it wasn’t quite that bad, but up until I entered puberty I had no idea about The Real World Out There, the one where people who are married are sneaking around on each other. Puberty coincided with reading used copies of EC Comics, which I bought mail order (50¢ each!) from Bill Thailing in Cleveland, Ohio. Hoooo boy, did I learn a whole lot from them!

First and foremost I learned that when a wife or husband is cheating they will either kill their spouse or be killed by their spouse. Then they will return from the grave to wreak revenge. I believed the first, but not the second. No, revenge could not be that easy. In that era, as I later found out, many places, including New York where most comic book people lived and worked, had very tough divorce laws. So you couldn’t say, “Why don’t these wronged people just get a divorce?” Actually they could, because before divorce laws were liberalized, proving adultery was the one surefire way to obtain a divorce. Then, as now, some people try to get around any kind of divorce by just murdering their spouse. Seems awfully extreme to me, but it is bread-and-butter to writers of horror, mystery fiction and true crime books.

These pages by Ghastly Graham Ingels are scans of original art from EC’s Crime Suspenstories #7 I found a few years ago on Heritage Auctions. What impresses me isn’t the shopworn triangle love/revenge plot, but Ghastly’s treatment. His gothic style made even something like the circus look creepy. His characters can be unattractive, causing one to wonder how they could be involved in an affair. But then, as I emerged from my cocoon of naïvete thanks to EC Comics, I found that adultery is more a crime of opportunity and less about meeting some good-looker who sweeps you off your feet.

Number 1509: Moon Girl and the day the world trembled

Moon Girl was EC Comics’ answer to DC’s Wonder Woman, without the kinky stuff. My opinion is that Moon Girl was too tame. Maybe she needed something a bit kinky to bump up sales, but Moon Girl went into oblivion in the late forties, so it’s moot. You Golden Age fans remember that EC publisher Maxwell Charles Gaines had started All American Comics in a joint publishing venture with DC Comics, then ultimately sold it to DC. Gaines founded Educational Comics, EC, and ran it until his death in a boating accident in 1947. The rest of EC history is well known, and some of these early EC Comics are collectible because of being ancestors to the notorious later New Trend titles.

Sheldon Moldoff did the artwork for “The Day the World Trembled!” As you may also recall, he was with Gaines from the start, drawing Hawkman in Flash Comics. The story is the lead from Moon Girl, #6 (1949) the last issue under that title. Next two issues would be Moon Girl Fights Crime, then A Moon...a Girl...Romance, which eventually became Weird Fantasy, one of the more odd evolutions of titles in comics history.

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More Moon Girl here. Just click on the thumbnails.

Number 1504: Jack Frost in the Land of the Lost

Brrrr. Much of North America and the United States is gripped right now is what is called a polar vortex, with record-breaking cold temperatures. Jack Frost is definitely nipping at our noses and any other exposed parts.

Speaking of Jack Frost, I’ll bet you wouldn’t place Jack Frost under the ocean (nor would I), but here he is in The Land of the Lost #3 (1946). The story is written by Isabel Manning Hewson, the creator and writer of the then-popular radio series, and illustrated by Olive Bailey.

I have shown other episodes of this charming series, published by EC Comics when EC stood for “Educational Comics,” under the ownership of Maxwell Charles Gaines, father of William Gaines, who went on to a wholly different style of comics when he took over the company after the elder Gaines’s accidental death in 1947.

Stay warm!

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More Land of the Lost. Just click on the thumbnails.