WEREWOLF HUNTER "Priestess of the Spider Death" / "Mistress of the Web"

It's a double-feature Halloween treat...

..with two versions of the same tale, true believers!

The original version of this terrifying tale is from Fiction House's Ranger Comics #15 (1944)!

But, when it was re-presented in Fiction House's Ghost Comics #3 (1952), not only was it partially-redrawn (beginning at page 3) to remove a page of story, it was re-written (from the splash panel onward) as well!

Fiction House did a lot of this sort of editing when reprinting material in the late 1940s since th earlier magazines, like Rangers Comics, were 60 pages, but the later books like Ghost Comics were only 36 pages!

Lily Renee illustrated the original version.

But, judging from the crudeness of the art modifications, she didn't work on the modified reprint!

BTW, we're part of the amazingly-kool CountDown to Halloween 2019 Blogathon!

Click HERE to see the other pround participants!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order...

Lily Renee, Escape Artist

by

Trina Robbins

WEREWOLF HUNTER "Puppets of the Witch Queen"

After a round-robin of various artists...

...the series settles down with the woman who would become the strip's signature artist, Lily Renée!

As we mentioned last week, the new artist, Lily Renée escaped real-life horror!
In 1938, after the Germans annexed Austria, the then-teenage Lily Renée Willhelm was sent by her parents to England.
In 1940, she was reunited with her family (who escaped from Austria) in NYC, and finished high school.
Lily had an artistic flair, so she became both a clothing catalog model and illustrator.
In 1943, she answered an ad from pulp/comic publisher Fiction House for an illustrator.
With most of their regular contributors in the military, the editors immediately put the young artist to work on several existing strips including the sci-fi series Norge Benson and Lost World, the horror strip Werewolf Hunter, and wartime spy series Senorita Rio!
After the war, Lily married fellow artist Eric Peters and collaborated with him on St John's Abbott & Costello comic series in the late 1940s!
Trivia: in interviews, Lily stated she tried to steer the Werewolf Hunter strip away from lycanthropes since she claimed she couldn't draw them well!

BTW, we're part of the amazingly-kool CountDown to Halloween 2019 Blogathon!

Click HERE to see the other pround participants!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order...

Lily Renee, Escape Artist

by

Trina Robbins

WEREWOLF HUNTER "Tentacle Terror from Beelzebub's Void!!!"

Now is that a catchy/kitchy title, or what?

For a guy called "Werewolf Hunter", Prof Broussard doesn't spend much time actually hunting werewolves!

This never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Ranger Comics #13 (1943) takes Broussard even further afield thanks to future Supergirl artist Jim Mooney, though the writer using the pen-name "Armand Weygand" remains unknown!
But the biggest change will occur next week as an artist who escaped real-life horror takes over the strip!

BTW, we're part of the amazingly-kool CountDown to Halloween 2019 Blogathon!

Click HERE to see the other pround participants!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order...

Cycle of the Werewolf

by

Stephen King & Berni Wrightson

WEREWOLF HUNTER "Dungeon Dweller of Horror House"

Professor Broussard didn't hunt only werewolves...

...but anything otherworldly that threatened mankind!

We've skipped ahead several issues to show how the series evolved into the Professor going after anything paranormal!

You'll note a new aspect added...volume numbers indicating the stories are from Broussard's journals.

Note the volume numbers don't actually match the number of stories presented!

This tale is "Volume VI", yet it's the fifth tale in the series!

Was an earlier story scrapped?

We'll never know!

This never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Ranger Comics #12 (1943) presents the change of concept along with a new art team, penciler Saul Rosen and inker Jim Mooney, though the writer using the pen-name "Armand Weygand" remains unknown!

BTW, we're part of the amazingly-kool CountDown to Halloween 2019 Blogathon!

Click HERE to see the other pround participants!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order...

Cycle of the Werewolf

by

Stephen King & Berni Wrightson

WEREWOLF HUNTER "Introduction"

Here's a long-lost supernatural series that most comics fans have never heard of!

Not surprising, since it never made the cover of it's home title, Fiction House's Rangers Comics,  even once!

When Fiction House's Rangers of Freedom Comics shortened its' name to "Rangers Comics" as of #8 (1942), the editors jettisoned several backup features and added new ones, including this series.

Seemingly-inappropriate for a military-themed comic, the strip survived until #41, ironically just when horror comics were coming to prominence!

Written by an anonymous writer under the pen-name "Armand Weygand" and illustrated by Gustaf Schrotter, this premiere presents the main characters cleanly and concisely and sets up the premise.

It's the most sedate and "traditional" story in the series, which will eventually jump into other supernatural threats and even time-travel!

Buckle up and be here next Thursday!

It's going to be fun!

BTW, we're part of the amazingly-kool CountDown to Halloween 2019 Blogathon!

Click HERE to see the other pround participants!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order...

Cycle of the Werewolf

by

Stephen King & Berni Wrightson