Number 268

The Glittering Nightmare

John Forte was a solid artist from the golden and silver age of comics. His work was known to me mainly in the late 1950s in the ACG mystery comics, Adventures Into The Unknown and Forbidden Worlds. A few years before his death in 1965 he went to work for DC Comics, and in a brilliant assignment by editor Mort Weisinger was picked to do the "Tales Of The Bizarro World" series in Adventure Comics.

"Bizarro World" was my favorite feature, but its oddball humor was ahead of its time. I was upset when it was canceled for "The Legion of Super Heroes." Oh well. DC Comics reprinted all of the Adventure Comics "Bizarro World" stories in 2000 in book form, so I could enjoy them all over again.

"The Glittering Nightmare," written by ACG editor Richard E. Hughes under one of his pen-names and drawn by Forte, is from Forbidden Worlds #76, 1959. It owes something to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Hughes wasn't above borrowing ideas, and like most comic book writers, turning them into Bizarro versions of the originals.

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Mr. Door Tree at the Golden Age Comic Book Stories blog shows us some excellent Frank R. Paul original art from old covers. Go here and scroll down. There's lots of good artwork to look at otherwise, too. Enjoy this blog. This stuff is really great.

Anyway, the story is that the paintings were saved from the trash when publisher Hugo Gernsbach was cleaning out his office. There was a time when Gernsbach appreciated Paul's artwork, selling it in the form of full-size prints. Here's an ad from a late 1920s Air Wonder Stories: