Forbidden Worlds #11
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeForbidden Worlds #11 (November 1952) is a representative artifact of ACG's pre-Comics Code horror anthology output — a period when editor Richard E. Hughes and his stable of artists were producing bold, uncensored supernatural fiction for a mass newsstand audience still processing the trauma of World War II. The issue's reported inclusion of a Hitler-themed story reflects a broader post-war impulse in pre-Code comics to confront recent history through genre horror, a storytelling approach that would be effectively foreclosed by the Comics Code Authority just two years later. As the concluding issue in PS Artbooks' second hardcover reprint volume (which collected issues #6–11), it has been recognized as part of the formative run of one of ACG's two flagship fantasy titles, a series that would eventually win the 1964 Alley Award for Best Regularly Published Fantasy Comic.
This anthology issue contains multiple supernatural tales. "The Mummy's Treasure" features a curse that strikes down those who disturb an ancient mummy's resting place. Another story involves a ghost haunting a house, revealed to be the spirit of a traitor who died during an invasion and cursed the dwelling; a professor and his associates must break the curse before dawn by confronting the supernatural evil. A third tale depicts a professor who summons Satan himself, only to have the demon demand his soul in exchange for granting his wishes, leading to the professor's apparent demise and the arrival of a mysterious wax statue at a museum.
When a young boy discovers a mysterious mechanism on an ancient Egyptian mummy case during a game of hide-and-seek at the museum, he sets loose something that the adults around him refuse to believe in. Detective Jerry O'Brien must unravel the truth behind a series of brutal murders as the city descends into panic—but the mummy's curse may prove far more cunning than anyone imagined. Joan Merritt and O'Brien race against time to stop a killer that defies the laws of nature itself, even as the boy who started it all finds himself drawn toward a sinister fate.
When Bob and Enid's car crashes near a decrepit house on a sinister stretch of countryside, they seek shelter for the night—only to find themselves trapped by a ghost determined to keep them inside. As they attempt escape, they discover the house is full of deadly traps and an unseen malevolent force, while the ghost itself seems oddly bent on protecting them from harm. Caught between two supernatural powers with conflicting intentions, the pair must navigate the house's horrors and uncover the dark secret behind what the locals call "the Clutching Curse."
In "The Wax Demons," Professor Sherman’s struggling wax museum takes a dark turn when he strikes a deal with Satan to bring his figures to life—only to awaken the most infamous villains of history, not the heroes he envisioned. With the line between display and dread blurring, the museum becomes a living nightmare where the past’s worst sins walk among the living.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory, raised by witches and sorcerers in 16th-century Hungary, returns alone from her elopement with a mysterious nobleman—and soon peasant girls begin vanishing into the dungeons of Castle Csejth. As rumors spread that the Countess herself has become a vampire, authorities finally move to stop her reign of terror, but not before she's left a gruesome trail of victims in her wake. This tale of historical horror charts the downfall of one of history's most notorious figures and the dark magic that surrounded her crimes.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Forbidden Worlds was conceived as a companion title to ACG's pioneering Adventures into the Unknown, launched in 1951 under editor Richard E. Hughes — who wrote most of the series content under a variety of pseudonyms — with cover art across the early run supplied by Ken Bald. The series was published by Preferred Publications, Inc. (the corporate name behind the American Comics Group imprint), operating out of Buffalo, New York, with business manager Frederick H. Iger overseeing operations. By issue #11, the series had transitioned from a bimonthly to a monthly schedule (that shift occurred with issue #7), placing it firmly in ACG's regular production pipeline at a time when pre-Code horror anthology comics were at their commercial peak.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published November 1952 by American Comics Group (ACG); the 11th issue of the series that ran from July/August 1951 to August 1967 across 145 total issues.
- Cover art by Ken Bald, who provided covers across the early run of the series; Bald is also known for his work on Dr. Kildare, Dark Shadows, and Namora.
- Edited by Richard E. Hughes, who helmed the series throughout its run and wrote much of its content under multiple pseudonyms.
- The issue reportedly contains a story featuring Adolf Hitler as a subject — consistent with the pre-Code era's willingness to engage post-WWII historical subject matter through a horror lens.
- A pre-Code horror anthology issue, produced before the Comics Code Authority's 1954 restrictions reshaped what horror comics could depict.
- Forbidden Worlds #11 falls within the series' first monthly phase; issue #7 (July 1952) had been designated the first monthly issue.
- Collected in PS Artbooks' ACG Collected Works: Forbidden Worlds Vol. 2 (hardcover), which reprints issues #6–11 with digitally restored art and an essay by author Mark Chadbourn.
- The parent series won the 1964 Alley Award for Best Regularly Published Fantasy Comic, one of the hobby's earliest fan-voted awards.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Help! #[nn] (1982), Forbidden Worlds Archives #3 (2014), Gwandanaland Comics #325 (2017), Verbotene Welten #2 (2019)
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