''Forbidden Worlds'' was a
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
comic
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicat ...
from the
American Comics Group
American Comics Group (ACG) was an American comic book publisher started in 1939 and existing under the ACG name from 1943 to 1967. It published the medium's first ongoing horror-comics title, ''Adventures into the Unknown''. ACG's best-known cha ...
, which won the 1964
Alley Award for Best Regularly Published Fantasy Comic. It published 145 issues between July/August 1951 to August 1967.
Publication history
''Forbidden Worlds'', a 52-page comic with the initial subtitle "Exploring the Supernatural!", debuted in October 1951. Due to pressure from the
1954 Senate subcommittee hearings on the dangers of comic books, the comic changed its title (and focus) to ''Young Heroes'' from March 1955 to June/July 1955 (publishing issues #35–37). However, in August 1955, ''Forbidden Worlds'' reappeared with (another) issue #35 and the altered subtitle "Stories of Strange Adventure".
Issue #101 (Jan./Feb. 1962) saw a price raise from 10 cents to 12 cents. From #108 on, ''Forbidden Worlds'' became sporadically bimonthly instead of strictly monthly. #114 and #116 were special issues called ''Forbidden Worlds presents Herbie'', featuring
Herbie Popnecker
Herbie Popnecker is a fictional comic book character who first appeared in '' Forbidden Worlds'' #73 in December 1958, published by American Comics Group. He was created by Richard E. Hughes (using the pseudonym "Shane O'Shea") , who first appeared in ''Forbidden Worlds'' #73 (December 1958). Issues #125 to #138 all featured
Magicman on the cover. The final issue was #145 (August 1967), when the company stopped producing newsstand comic books.
Most of the contents of ''Forbidden Worlds'', from 1957 to 1967, including the features "Magicman" and "Herbie", was written by
Richard E. Hughes under a plethora of pseudonyms. Artists who contributed included
Pete Costanza for ''Magicman'' and
Ogden Whitney
John Ogden Whitney (May 1, 1919 – August 13, 1975) was an American comic-book artist and sometime writer active from the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of comics through the 1960s Silver Age. He is best known as co-creator of the aviator hero Skym ...
for ''Herbie''. Other occasional contributors include
Hy Eisman,
,
, and
Chic Stone.
An October 1, 1952, "Statement of the Ownership, Management, and Circulation" published in ACG's ''Forbidden Worlds'' #15 gave the publisher's name as Preferred Publications, Inc., 8 Lord St., Buffalo, New York" and the owners as Preferred Publications and "B. W. Sangor, 7 West 81st Street, New York, N. Y." The editor was listed as Richard E.Hughes, 120 West 183rd St., New York, N. Y." and the business manager as "Frederick H. Iger, 50 Beverly Road,
Great Neck
Great Neck is a region contained within Nassau County, New York, on Long Island, which covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine incorporated villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Poin ...
, Great Neck,
L. I., N. Y."
References
External links
Grand Comics Database Project''Forbidden Worlds''at Comic Book Plus
American Comics Group
an
at Toonopedia
Comics magazines published in the United States
Fantasy comics
1951 comics debuts
1967 comics endings
Magazines established in 1951
Magazines disestablished in 1967
American Comics Group titles
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