One of the most important shifts in the postwar comic book industry came when the American Comics Group pioneered the fantasy genre with Adventures Into The Unknown #1 in Fall 1948. This went on to become the first continuously published fantasy/horror title. ACG added a second supernatural title, Forbidden Worlds, with #1 cover-dated July/August 1951, offering the same mix of ghost stories; werewolf, vampire, and zombie tales; and other kinds of weird mystery material. However, it was the publication of a third fantasy title, with Out Of the Night #1 (February/March 1952), that fully consolidated ACG's position as a powerhouse in the genre. By 1952 the fantasy genre became the most popular kind of comic book on the market.

     Out Of the Night is one of those great titles that rose up as the fantasy genre caught on and ceased publication abruptly in anticipation of the impending Comics Code Authority, implemented in late 1954. Thus, Out Of the Night comprises a 17-issue run, with the last issue dated November 1954. From a collecting point of view it is certainly easier to attempt a complete run of Out Of the Night than either Adventures Into the Unknown or Forbidden Worlds, both of which lingered till the late 1960s. Such an enterprise is rewarded by an impressive amount of enjoyable pre-code fantasy that shows ACG at its prime.

     The guiding vision behind ACG's efforts was editor Richard Hughes. Hughes was a veteran comic book creator, having worked at Better Publications (Nedor) back when they published their early Golden Age line of superheroes. He wrote many of the stories himself, and they were illustrated by a variety of hands... including a number of capable craftsmen and a fair supply of superb talents. Although ACG seldom resorted to excessive gore or graphic violence, the stories are full of normal people falling into genuinely creepy situations.

     Out of the Night #1, featuring a vampire cover, opens with a story entitled "King of the Vampires". This yarn gives a good example of those classic ACG protagonists, the young married couple. Confronted by fantastic perils of legendary monsters, they fight with common sense and strength and usually manage to overcome the otherworldly foes. Sometimes, as is the case here, it is their love for each other that breaks the binding spells of the black magic working against them. The second story is a long lavishly illustrated werewolf tale. The art by Al Williamson is beautifully realized. Once again, a human male and female battle one of the classic supernatural menaces. This time, the man outfoxes the werewolf with some good old Yankee ingenuity.

     Out Of the Night #2 (April/May 1952) is an awesome package. It has a cool mummy cover and another extraordinary art effort by Williamson on "The Drum of Doom". This is a good story! The plot revolves around an American couple in Haiti who steal a big voodoo drum to use in her dance act back on Broadway. Unfortunately, on the first night's performance in the New York night club, the place is overcome by a horde of zombies...

     After the Williamson yarn, issue #2 offers up another excellent artist for the next tale... one with a much less celebrated name and a unique style. George Carl Wilhelms brings an "old-world" sensibility to his rendering, with a feathering technique that consists of very fine straight lines used for shading and depth. In "The Heart of Horror" we meet another young couple. This is one of those classic scenarios where a human woman must compete for her fiance's affections... with a supernatural rival! The rival, of course, has mystical powers of hypnotic charm, and is in reality a withered crone. Wilhelms' attention to detail on both the succubous and the sweetheart masterfully demonstrates his ability to render the female form."Scorpion from the Stars" is also worthwhile, but in a milder way. This tale centers on a man who plans to murder his twin brother and marry the brother's fiance. His plans are upset when a giant scorpion descends upon the church during the wedding ceremony. This one is hard to take too seriously, but as light entertainment it goes down quite nicely.

     Out Of The Night #4 (August/September 1952) is notable mostly for having another yarn intricately illustrated by Al Williamson, "The Phantom Fliers". Out Of The Night #5 (October/November 1952) features an intriguing tale drawn by an artist who would become increasingly important to ACG during 1953 and 1954, Harry Lazarus. "Adventure Into Witchcraft" is one of those fascinating fables where the main characters include a writer of comic book horror stories, his wife, and the editor for the company that publishes the writer's work.

     Needless to say, the company is the American Comics Group, and the editor is based on Richard Hughes. This writer's reading of occult texts for research has gotten him into trouble, the trouble being another of those super-siren/super-hag femme fatales casting her spell on him. It's fun. Wilhelms also illustrates a tale in #5, "The Vampire Master". This time the fiendish creatures try to take over a riverboat in the Malaysian jungle. It's a pretty standard human versus demon yarn... made lustrous by Wilhelms' master touch.

     By this time, the ACG machine was in high gear. They had launched a fourth fantasy title with Skeleton Hand (#1 September/October 1952). Out Of The Night #9 (July 1953) features three imaginative yarns, beginning with "The Weird Wager". This interesting tale deals with Death and Satan making a bet about which one of them is more frightening to mere mortals. "In the Wake of the Bomb" is a convoluted atomic bomb, anti-Commie, alien invasion mixture... which is done in a broad black humor and is blissfully bizarre. "The Fountain of Age" is not as good a story as the other two, but the concept of this magical fountain in the Kalahari desert of southern Africa is sound. A uranium prospector drinks the water, takes on the "ju-ju curse", and begins to age decades in the space of weeks. This is a perfect example of the far-away wonders and pseudo-legends that were tasty ingredients in so many ACG stories... strewn about like little nuggets of folklore for us to treasure.

     By late 1953, as seen in Out Of the Night #11 (November 1953), ACG had started putting a little more graphic violence into their content. It seems as if Hughes added this despite himself, to keep up with the competition. Still, the overall ACG product shows reasonable restraint. In the cover/lead story, "The Electric Spirit", a convicted murderer, after death in the electric chair, comes back as a high-voltage ghost... out to zap the judge and jury who condemned him. He offs the judge by causing his electric blanket to burst into flame and dives into a swimming pool to fry several jurors. Then a scientifically-minded news reporter starts to track him down. "Beware the Bejango!" is the story of a savage encounter with giant lizard-men deep in the South American jungles. Lazarus art breathes some life into the predictable plot. "The Awful Mr. Ishveli" is an incognito agent from Hades looking for mortal volunteers for eternal punishment. And he finds one, a greedy soul who meets a grim fate.

     "Music for the Dead" is on the cover and leads off Out Of the Night #12 (January 1954). Solid illustration by old pro Sheldon Moldoff combines with another of those marvelous ACG magic devices - the "Flute of Haydi", which, upon discovery in an ancient Persian Temple, functions to summon the spirits of the dead. It's an effective chiller told with visual crispness. This issue closes strongly as well, with a Lazarus-drawn opus titled "Out of the Past". After two hunters shoot down a pterodactyl in a Maine marsh, two news-hounds (one of each sex of course) ride out in search of a story. What they find is a mad scientist who has perfected a formula for reversing the evolutionary process. Will the mad scientist be stopped before he plunges the hypo into the reporter that will send him back to the stone age? This is truly one of the key questions of "fifties fantasy", and it's answered "in the nick of time"...

     The standout item in Out Of the Night #14 (May 1954) is the cover story, "Out of the Screen". This zany spoof (played perfectly straight) features a 3-D movie where monsters actually do emerge from out of the screen. This concept has been rounded out into a full and cohesive story that works just as well straight as it does as spoof (the classic 1950s blend). The elegantly vivid art is by Kenneth Landau, who drew a number of exciting stories for ACG during the end of the pre-Code era.

     Out Of the Night #17 (November 1954) ends the run with a fairly impressive entry. Landau illustrates "The Terror of the Labyrinth", and, once again, his fine-line style accomplishes intense imagery. The last story is a memorable finale, "The Fantastic Fan". A young woman married to a wealthy older man buys an "evil looking" fan at a curiosity shop to use with the devilish costume that she is wearing to the upcoming masquerade. The fan really is the devil's tool, and it activates criminal impulses within its owner. After killing her husband and her lover, the woman starts to realize that she is accursed... alas, by then it is too late! The final payment on the fan from hell must be her life.

     But no one was more scared at the end of 1954 than the publishers and creators of four-color fantasy and horror. Looking at a chart of year by year comics sales the Code's adoption came just as the industry jumped off a cliff. Of all the weird tales this is always the weirdest... the untimely death of a beloved genre. Only the strong survive; and though ACG was among them, Out of the Night faded into the night. However, looking back, the title stands as a splendid showcase for one of the key purveyors of pre-code fantasy. The magazine that dared to bring us dark delight... of phantoms and monsters and things that bite... the title that shows ACG at its height... through three great years. ..is Out Of the Night!

Pat Calhoun has been collecting, researching and appreciating comic books since the early 1960s, and is a nationally recognized comic book historian. Pat resides in Santa Rosa, California.