This post is brought to you by Monster, Monster 2 and Monster 3 by G. W. Thomas. These collections are filled with posts from Dark Worlds Quarterly. In fact, they are the only way to read these early pieces written by GWT. Volume 1 looks at subjects from Slime Monsters, Alien Space Bats, Vampires in old creepy castles, out in space and even in fantasy fiction. Volume 2 has posts about writers like S. P. Meek and Francis Flagg as well as L. Sprague de Camp’s Pusadian fantasy and the Cthulhu Mythos. Volume 3 has plentyof Edgar Rice Burroughs and Cthulhu Mythos. Each book is a semi-connected weave of Pulp and even older SF/F/H.
As the title indicates I did a post about all the giant spiders over at ACE Comics. I also did two posts on Giant Spiders in the Pulps too, first in Weird Tales, then NOT in Weird Tales. Of course, these days everybody thinks J. R. R. Tolkien invented spider monsters (In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.) Well, not true, I did do a post on Giant Spiders in Heroic Fantasy Comics. So I guess what I am saying is…here’s some more!
ACE wasn’t the only publisher using creepy crawlers in the Golden Age (1936 to 1954 or so). You will find Marvel’s early Atlas here, along with ACG, Harvey, EC, Pines, Fiction House and others. I noticed a couple of things while compiling these stories. First, Spiders get covers. At least half of them were the cover story. The other thing is that many of these stories appeared in July. Like the plant monster showing up in May (allergy season), spiders are most obvious in the summertime. Imagine some 1950s kid reading about killer giant spiders just before he discovers a large barn spider near his house! (It probably doesn’t work out well for the arachnid.)
The earliest spider tales were not strictly Horror stories but superhero, Jungle hero and Sci-Fi comics. The emphasis here is action and monster violence. As such, the giant spider is little different from a rampaging elephant or vicious lion. We won’t get the spider’s POV until the Horror comics. Not all the writers are known but indicated where I can.
“Shock Gibson” (Speed Comics #10, July 1940) was written by Maurice Rosenfield and Bill Scott as ‘Maurice Scott’. Shock is up against a scientist who can grow things to a large size. Gibson faces off against cockroaches and other bugs, too. He burns the web and the spider, too.
“Org’s Giant Spiders” (Jungle Comics #15, March 1941) was written and drawn by Fletcher Hanks. I would have expected more giant spiders in the jungle comics and those starring Kaanga or Sheena, but… it’s the more fantastical Fantomah. The ambitious Org discovers a species of giant spiders in a hidden valley and learns to control them. Fantomah has to get all skull-faced to defeat him.
“The Web of the Monster” (Startling Comics #12, January 1942) has some unscrupulous showmen wanting a new freak to headline their show. Biff goes after a giant spider. We get to watch it eat a leopard in its web. Biff brings it back alive and catches the bad guys too.
“Monsters of the Inner-World” (Planet Comics #19, July 1942) was written by Hugh Fitzhugh (house name). Reef and Vara go in search of a secret land on Neptune. They evade underwater dangers only to find the pass guarded by a giant spider. Reef punches it to death.
1948 came and the all-Horror comic was invented at ACG with Adventures Into the Unknown. From this title will proliferate dozens of Horror titles from several publishers including the famous EC brand. Now we will get the were-spiders and other creepy arachnids.
“The Vampire Spider” (Adventures Into the Unknown #50, December 1950) has Scientist, Karl Grutz, inject himself with a serum that turns him into a giant spider. The ‘vampire’ of the title comes from the monster’s hunger for blood. Grutz is killed by an eagle, making his size only about that of a dog.
“The Spider!” (Marvel Tales #101, June 1951) was written by Hank Chapman. A first person narrative of how a farmer grew a spider to huge proportions. He calls it ‘Taranta’. Finding it harder and harder to hide and feed the beast, he pushes it into a raging torrent to drowned. But before it falls, the spider infects the farmer, turning him into the next spider.
“The Spider Waits!” (Marvel Tales #105, February 1952) gives us another first person tale, with a man who is afraid of spiders meeting a beautiful woman who turns out to be a black widow of sorts.
“Demon Flies!” (Witches Tales #8, March 1952) What can you catch demon flies with except a demon spider? The scientist who sets a spider to catch his flies ends up in the web instead.
“A Sucker For a Spider!” (Tales From the Crypt #29, April-May 1952) was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. A twisted tale of banker Stoneman and his blackmailing teller, Spurd. Stoneman sticks a poisonous spider in Spurd’s bed but ends up crashing in the jungle where the spiders have their way… Karma is a bitch!
“The Ghost Spider of Death” (Startling Terror Tales, July 1952) has the vampire-like Count Rorret (Terror spelled backwards!) kill a beautiful maid so she can be a ghost. To do this, he has a giant spider suck out her blood.
“The Web of the Spider” (Witches Tales #12, July 1952) has Professor Hugo Durando create a potion from giant spiders that turns him into one as well. (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Spider!) As a giant spider, he robs banks. While feeding a woman to his pet giant spiders, Durando turns human as the potion suddenly wears off. Lunchtime.
“The Red Spider” (Witchcraft #3, July-August 1952) begins with Damon wanting to capture one of the legendary red spiders of a remote village. When he kills one, it screams like a woman before transforming back into Ellie. The werewolf legend with spiders.
“Were-Spider’s Doom” (Forbidden Worlds #12, December 1952) has entomologist Vespid on Bald Mountain looking for something. He meets a strange woman who turns out to be a were-spider. But the man is a were-wasp, and he has found what he is looking for.
“Collector’s Item” (Strange Adventures #28, January 1953) was written by Jack Miller. Adrian Hammer is a crazed bug collector. Too bad when alien space spiders come to Earth, he ends up in their collection.
“The Web of Horror” (The Purple Claw #2, March 1953) features occult detective/quasi-superhero, The Purple Claw aka Dr. Jonathan Weir. A valley in the Alps is haunted by a giant spider. Claw shows up and kills all the villains. Ah, the Golden Age.
“Spiderman and His Web of Doom” (The Thing #7, March 1953) was written by Walter Gibson, the man who penned all those Shadow novels. Mr. Nemo is a giant were-spider. It takes Jerry to defeat him, rescue his female prisoner and burn down the house.
“More Deadly Than the Male” (Weird Mysteries #7, October 1953) happens in the year 2253, where Earthmen are speeding off to Alpha Centauri. Captain Pope rescues a beautiful blond on a distant planet, beating a pterodactyl monster to death. He later takes her to bed only to find out she’s really…well, you can guess. (That never happens to Kirk.)
“The Spider Man!” (Uncanny Tales #26, November 1954) has Professor Kravadka hating the human race for supposed slights. He plans his vengeance by raising giant spiders to terrorize humankind. He waits and waits and finally dies, not realizing he is trying to breed two male spiders. Revenge is in the details!
Conclusion
With the stories in ACE Comics, all the spiders are were-spiders. The giant spider with a human head is quite common. We see all that here again too, but with more variation. (“The Vampire Spider” in Adventures Into the Unknown #50, December 1950 might be the first one, so ACG may have been the originator. I’d have to do more research to make that a definitive statement.) Sometimes the spiders are just big bugs. We also see the origins of Spider-Man here, with old Atlas Horror comics housing the germ that will become Peter Parker and the radioactive spider. Of course, Ol’ Pete gets powers rather than becoming a blood-sucking were-monster. That is the Silver Age doing what it does best, making everything NOT scary. Still, sometimes Spider-Man seems like a fair trade for Golden Age gore.
Mythos Horror & Ghostbreakers at RAGE m a c h i n e
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