Forbidden Worlds #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeForbidden Worlds #1 launched ACG's second major horror-fantasy anthology title at a moment when the publisher was already defining the genre's early possibilities — its sister title, Adventures Into the Unknown, had pioneered the first ongoing horror comic in America back in 1948, and Forbidden Worlds extended that mission with a 52-page debut subtitled 'Exploring the Supernatural!' The series ran for 145 issues across sixteen years, earning the 1964 Alley Award for Best Regularly Published Fantasy Comic and serving as the stage on which Herbie Popnecker — one of the medium's strangest and most original characters — would eventually debut. The premiere issue also brought together a remarkable constellation of early-career talent, with interior art confirmed to Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson, making it an artifact of a pivotal creative moment just before both artists found their most celebrated venues. As the opening chapter of a series that navigated the Comics Code era while maintaining consistent quality, it represents a durable model of independent anthology publishing at a time when the genre's survival was far from guaranteed.
In "Demon of Destruction," Don Brady stumbles into a decades-old supernatural mystery when he takes refuge in his uncle’s isolated estate—only to accidentally free Marzo, a powerful entity bound by ancient magic. With three wishes at his disposal, Brady must navigate the perilous consequences of his newfound power, all drawn in bold, dynamic art by Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta, with sharp lettering by Ed Hamilton. The cover, a striking piece by Ken Bald, captures the eerie tension of the moment.
When Don Brady seeks quiet in his uncle’s isolated estate, he stumbles upon a hidden chamber and awakens Marzo, a trapped entity bound by ancient magic. Freed by accident, the demon offers Brady three wishes—each one a dangerous bargain with a price yet to be paid.
When Ken Cummings' wife Beth vanishes from their locked room, his investigation uncovers a terrifying secret hidden in library archives: the night manager Hans Brunt may be Count Von Brunt, a centuries-old vampire from German folklore who was thought long dead. Now Ken must follow the creature to its lair and confront the horrifying truth about his wife's fate—if he survives the encounter.
When a reporter digs into a connection between man-eating wolves terrorizing Central India and a local scientist's mysterious past, he uncovers a secret that Dr. Ambrose Walker has spent ten years protecting—one bound to his daughter Canisa in ways neither wolves nor reason can fully explain. As Larry Davis presses deeper into the truth, he discovers that some dangers don't stay buried, and some legacies are far older and stranger than any headline could capture.
When German forces launch a desperate 1918 assault near the Belgian town of Bethune, a handful of British riflemen find themselves vastly outnumbered and facing annihilation. Just as the situation seems hopeless, a spectral cavalry emerges from the fog—mounted on white horses whose hooves never touch the ground—and charges directly at the Kaiser's advancing army. What happens next tests whether these ghostly riders are merely a trick of mist and terror, or something far more extraordinary.
When brilliant scientist Dickson Prescott meets the captivating Jane Crothers at a robot exhibition, he believes he's found love—but his new wife's presence at his mountain laboratory triggers dark suspicions in his assistant Sue Jackson, who harbors feelings of her own. As Prescott pursues a lead on the legendary Bulmere Robot, a supposedly impossible creation from a century past, the true nature of the forces gathering around him begins to emerge from the shadows of history. What started as a chance encounter at an exhibition spirals into a nightmare connected to a woman hanged for murder in 1853—and the doll that may have given her immortal form.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 22 grades ▾
Find on ebay
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
ACG — formally Preferred Publications, with Benjamin W. Sangor and later Fred Iger as key business figures — launched Forbidden Worlds in July/August 1951 as a deliberate companion to Adventures Into the Unknown, capitalizing on that title's steady sales to expand the line's supernatural footprint. Editor and de facto creative director Richard E. Hughes oversaw both titles and would go on to write the majority of Forbidden Worlds scripts under a variety of pseudonyms. The debut issue featured a Ken Bald cover and interior art by Frazetta, Williamson, and Paul Reinman, giving the book an immediate visual ambition uncommon for a first issue from a small independent publisher. When the Senate subcommittee hearings of 1954 pressured the industry, ACG briefly renamed the title 'Young Heroes' for roughly three months before restoring the Forbidden Worlds banner under the revised subtitle 'Stories of Strange Adventure.'
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published July/August 1951 by American Comics Group (indicia publisher: Preferred Publications, Inc.), with a cover price of ten cents and a page count of 52 pages.
- Cover art by Ken Bald; interior art credited to Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, and Paul Reinman, among others — making this one of the earliest published collaborations between Frazetta and Williamson.
- Launched as the companion title to Adventures Into the Unknown (1948), which ACG had established as America's first ongoing horror-comics series, well over a year before EC Comics entered the genre.
- The lead story features an atomic physicist named Don Brady who unwittingly frees a demonic entity called Marzo (the Spirit of Destruction), who then offers Brady three wishes in exchange for his freedom — a classic folk-horror premise executed in the horror-anthology style ACG had refined.
- The series debuted with the subtitle 'Exploring the Supernatural!', which was later changed to 'Stories of Strange Adventure!' after industry pressure following the 1954 Senate subcommittee hearings on comics.
- During the 1954 backlash, the title was temporarily renamed 'Young Heroes' for approximately three months before reverting to Forbidden Worlds.
- Forbidden Worlds ran for 145 issues through August 1967 and won the 1964 Alley Award for Best Regularly Published Fantasy Comic — the first known comic-book fan award of its kind.
- Issue #1 was reprinted in the Dark Horse Comics hardcover Forbidden Worlds Archives Volume 1 (November 2012), which collected issues #1–4 with an introduction by comics historian Dan Nadel; an earlier collected edition from PS Artbooks (2011) also reprinted issues #1–5.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Doc Weird's Thrill Book #1 (1987), Adventures into the Unknown #1 (1990), Web of Scares Special Collector's Edition #4 (2010), Forbidden Worlds Archives #1 (2012), Atlas Artist Edition #2 (2024), Gespenster Geschichten #952, Showcase #[nn]
Key issues in Forbidden Worlds
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.