WORLD OF MONSTERS: JOHN GIUNTA

Showing posts with label JOHN GIUNTA. Show all posts

Sunday, February 22, 2026

POETRY OF THE WEIRD

Besides the usual stories, each issue ofWEIRD TALES usually contained several poems, as well. Here are a few examples from January 1948.

Illustration by John Giunta.

Illustration by Fred Humiston.

Monday, October 6, 2025

TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS NO. 7

Today I present the 7th and final issue of Archie's horror-comedy series, TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS (November 1962). If some of the stories look to you like they were drawn by Dan DeCarlo, you'd be right. DeCarlo drew "Three Eyed Mad Doctor" (a sort of spoof of the film DR. CYCLOPS), "The Spell" and "The Ark Lark". A good run of a humorous horror comic.

TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS

Vol. 1, No. 7

November, 1962

Close-Up, Inc. (Archie Adventure Series)

Editor: Richard H. Goldwater

Cover: John Giunta

Pages: 36

Cover price: 12 cents

CONTENTS

"Three Eyed Mad Doctor"

Script: George Gladir

Pencils: Dan DeCarlo

Inks: Rudy Lapick

"Captain Shark"

Script: George Gladir

Art: Joe Edwards

"The Spell"

Script: Frank Doyle

Pencils: Dan DeCarlo

Inks: Rudy Lapick

"The Remarkable Power of Mr. Hurd"

Script: ?

Art: Joe Edwards

"The Ark Lark"

Script: George Gladir

Art: Dan DeCarlo

"Ghost Town"

Script: ?

Art: Joe Edwards

Read the other six issues of TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS HERE.

Friday, December 29, 2023

BY CROM THE BARBARIAN!

It's not often that a comic book character that appeared in only three stories got so much traction. In this case, it's one by the name of Crom the Barbarian. The name rings with some justified familiarity as Crom is the Cimmerian god that Conan occasionally issues both oaths and curses. The comic book Crom even has a dark-haired partner named Tanit which isn't too far away from Bêlit, and both were coincidentally queens. Crom does his own oath-swearing, and as he can't likely swear to himself, so he instead directs his to the Norse gods Thor and Freya.

The series is written by prolific author Gardner F. Fox and it is likely that he that floated this story idea to the editors at Avon, who first published them in OUT OF THIS WORLD #1 and STRANGE WORLDS #1-2. John Giunta was the artist.

Crom chronology:

OUT OF THIS WORLD #1 (June 1950) "Crom the Barbarian!"
STRANGE WORLDS #1 (November 1950) "Crom the Barbarian in The Spider God of Akka!"
STRANGE WORLDS #2 (April 1951) "The Giant From Beyond"

Two of the stories were recycled in Avon pulp digests as a part of a color comics insert:

OUT OF THIS WORLD ADVENTURES #1 (Avon, July 1950 - reprints STRANGE WORLDS #1)
OUT OF THIS WORLD ADVENTURES #2 (Avon, December 1950 - reprints OUT OF THIS WORLD #1)

But wait -- that's not all! Crom was resurrect by AC comics in their 1990 all-reprint issue, BARBARIANS & BEAUTIES #1. Published in 1990, it included the third and last Crom story, "The Giant From Beyond!" from Avon's STRANGE WORDS #2.

And finally, if you are an underground comics fan, in 1972 Bob Sidebottom and California Comics (San Francisco, CA) published four issues of BARBARIAN COMICS. While not related to Fox and Giunta's hero, issues 2-3 contained a barbarian strip titled "Crom" (underground comics were not apologetic as to where they derived their material!). I'll be posting these issues soon.

NOTE: Crom the Barbarian has recently been re-introduced to old fans -- and hopefully some new ones -- with the continuing story of the short-lived hero. Go HERE to visit the website.

Gardner Fox wasn't done with writing about sword and sorcery, either. Besides writing the scripts for scads of comic books, a decade later he wrote a number of books concerning sword-wielding heroes; the Llarn books were a ERB-inspired off-world adventures and Kothar and Kyrik were red-blooded sword and sorcery tales in the tradition of REH and Lin Carter.