Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Valley of the Worm!" Conclusion

We Have Already Witnessed...

James Allison lies on his deathbed, re-living a past life.

A millennia or more ago, he was Niord, a barbarian prince and warrior, defending his people, the Aesir, from all manner of threats, both human and inhuman.

Aided by Gorm, a Pict he defeated in battle but refused to kill, who then became an ally, he guides his people to a new home...

Note: Though Niord says his people are of "Asgard", it's doubtful, even though this tale is now canon in the Marvel Multiverse, that he refers to the mystical Asgard of Norse legend.

Bonus: Here's the title page from the story's first publication in Weird Tales V23N02 (1934), featuring both Niord and the "Worm", illustrated by Hugh Rankin.

Next Week:

A New World of Wonder

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Valley of the Worm!" Part 1

We've Spent a Month in A Futuristic Dimension...

...now let's go the other way, to a world where technology is non-existent and only a strong sword arm will keep you alive!

To Be Concluded Next Wednesday!

Based on a short story by Robert E (Conan the Barbarian) Howard, Adaptors Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway and penciler Gil Kane & inker Ernie Chua/Chan turned in an absolutely magnificent version of the tale using a lot of Howard's own prose in captions and dialogue!
Though meant as a stand-alone story in it's initial publication in the pulp Weird Tales and subsequent reprintings as well as this adaptation in Marvel's Supernatural Tales #3 (1973), it has since been incorporated into both the Conan Mythos and the Marvel Comics Universe in the 2020 Marvel mini-series Conan: Serpent War! which included Conan and other Howard characters as well as Moon Knight and Khonshu!
Trivia: There was another REH tale featuring James Allison (the dying protagonist in this story) called "Garden of Fear".
It was adapted by Roy Thomas, Barry Smith & Sal Buscema as a Conan story in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian V1N9 (1971), eliminating any references to Allison in the present day!
Allison's ancient incarnation in this story was Hunwolf the Wanderer and the tale was first published in the second issue of the pulp Marvel Tales, published by Martin Goodman, the first publisher of Timely/Atlas/Marvel Comics!
There were seven James Allison tales.
Who sez comics ain't educational?

SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Headless Horseman Rides Again" Cover

Here's the cover from the never-reprinted 1973 story we ran this week HERE and HERE...

...and here's the original art by penciler Gil Kane and inker Ernie Chua aka Ernie Chan!

Bonus: here's the Gil Kane layout that Chua/Chan lightboxed to produce the final art!

The creative process is an absolutely beautiful thing, eh?

Happy Halloween!

Reading Room SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Headless Horseman Rides Again!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Upstate New York crime lord "Bones" Bullinger murdered reporter Matt Carter to stop the newspaperman's investigations into the underworld.

But Carter's widow, Kim, and his best friend, private eye Duke Durbano, kept the investigation going.

So "Bones" hired NYC hitmen to kill the pair.

The assassins failed (though they don't know it) and "Bones" (in an elaborate disguise) is about to eliminate them...

Written by Gary Friedrich at the same time as he was co-creating the flaming-skulled motorcyclist known as Ghost Rider, this tale from Marvel's Supernatural Thrillers #6 (1973) was left open-ended with the possibility of the Horseman returning as a "Spirit of Vengeance" to deal with other criminals.

Note: 1973-75 featured the appearances of several avenging supernatural characters including Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, Man-Thing, Scarecrow (aka Straw Man), and the return of The Spectre in extremely-gruesome (for the Comics Code era) tales.

Illustrated by penciler George Tuska and inker Jack Abel, both of whom worked in comics during the horror comics era and were quite familiar with how to tell a terrifying tale!

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(No Trick, we promise!)

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Reading Room SUPERNATURAL THRILLERS "Headless Horseman Rides Again!" Part 1

We presented the Washington Irving version of The Headless Horseman HERE!

Marvel did a never-reprinted sequel set in the "present day" almost 50 years ago!

What do they see?

Could it be...?

Find out Thursday!

This book-length story from Marvel's Supernatural Thrillers #6 (1973) was the final one-shot tale from the short-lived comic before N'Kantu the Living Mummy took the book over for the remainder of its' sadly-short run.

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