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June - July 1968 |
"Once upon a nightmare, four total strangers aboard a chartered plane hurtled to earth in a flaming, screaming crash that should have left them in ashes! Yet they lived! And that fantastic fate bound them as one - brothers against darkness, soldiers against fear - the Challengers of the Unknown!" Which is not to say they always agree. Ace strides into their hotel room in a new and garish suit: purple brocade jacket over black bellbottoms. "Yeccch!" says Red. "What is it? Animal, vegetable, or -" "Miserable!" finishes Rocky. Ace is unfazed. "A top European designer wanted to dress five leading Americans! So I got an engraved invitation and these threads - for nothing!" "You still overpaid," snipes Red. |
Never mind. Ace is off on a date. He tosses his uniform at Rocky to put away. "Sure. But tell me. Who was your slave last year?" Ace departs. And Rocky notices that Ace's uniform has been chopped up. Why? Across town, Ace shows up for his date an hour early. The gorgeous brunette protests she's not dressed. Ace laughs, "We caught a good tail wind flying in! Also, I was using a new super fuel - your perfume!" She replies, "Then fly back out and keep circling until I'm ready." Ace notices she collects little dolls. "And big men," she adds. The unnamed temptress kisses Ace, but reaches behind and snips his hair! Then she sends him packing, to return in an hour. |
Ace doesn't get far. On the sidewalk, he clutches a pole for support. "I feel - like I'm - dying!" Ace's date sneak off to a roomful of creepy characters "who have sworn to know the unknowable." And we learn her name. Mistress Wycker! She has brought - the thing! Five sinister figures join hands over a star-shaped table and chant. Mistress Wycker garbs a doll with yellow and red cloth cut from the victim's uniform... |
Cut to Ace, who's crawled into a cab choking. He needs his hotel. "Hotel, my neck!" says the cabbie. "You need a hospital!" In the dark room, Mistress Wycker weaves Ace's hair into the doll's, then sketches features with blackest coal... The cabbie hands Ace to interns at the hospital. He's in incredible pain, but they've never seen its like. Mistress Wycker heats a needle in flames and thrusts it through the doll's head... |
And Ace goes mad with pain!  |
In the dark room, Mistress Wycker sees Ace's face writhing in flames. She's failed, for the subject still lives. Believe it or not, her scheme to kill Ace is simply an initiation into this secret society of sorcerors, the Legion of the Weird. They are, Count Karnak, a warlock. Kaftu, master of the black arts of Ancient Egypt. Hordred, with the blood of ancient druids of Stonehenge. And Madoga, last of the great Indian medicine men, master of the forces of nature. Mistress Wycker has "three centuries of witchcraft" behind her, the last witch of Salem! And she vows to find Ace and destroy him! |
That might not be necessary. The three Challs cover their ears as Ace cries in agony, "Somebody - please help me!" But Rocky is muttering, trying to remember a rhyme - and does! "Lock of hair, his garment
tear, |
It's the curse of Mistress Wycker, burned as a witch at Salem! Rocky learned it from his Granny Stopes as a kid in the Ozarks. Prof buys into "20th Century witchcraft" right away. Red disbelieves in "black cats and flying brooms", until a doctor notes that Ace WAS missing a lock of hair! Okay, concedes Red, "I changed my mind all of a sudden. On to Granny's." Prof knows someone who runs a TV station back in the Ozarks. (How? one wonders.) At a local television station, Rocky gets a link to talk to Granny Stopes. (See Rocky's bio.) Strangest of all, Granny Stopes anticipated his question, knowing he needs to fight a witch! |
For that, you need a "geechy bag". Like some bizarre cooking show, she relays instructions via television. Burlap, a whole nutmeg, and so forth. "An' now y'all got a fus' class geechy bag! It's gotta be flang right in the witch's face! An' the victim, he gotta flang it!" Oh, no! Oh, yes! Thus Rocky carries a comatose Ace out of the hospital. Red rubs the geechy bag over a "witch compass" (dowsing rod). The rod wants to jump from Red's hands - and they follow! |
Among the sorcerors, Ace's face grows larger in the flames. He's approaching! Kaftu offers "the wisdom of countless pharoahs". Hordred "must use druid power! I shall turn the very stones against them!" He does. Riding atop the Chall's station wagon, pointing the way with the dowsing rod, Red is almost killed by a toppling stone statue. The car barely swerves in time. Kaftu sics "the Black Hawk of the Nile" on our heroes. Red swings the dowsing rod without effect. |
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The giant hawk's got him by one leg while he clings to the car. "He's tryin' to take me home!" Prof leans from the car and shoots with a .45. And the bird explodes into feathers! "How'd you do it, Prof?" "It's an anti-witch stunt our forefathers put a lot of stock in. I rubbed the bullets with garlic before we left!" The Challs reach the building where the Legion hides. Madoga "will call down Spirit of North Wind! Strong like giant bear - cold like death!" The Challs wade against an indoor blizzard! |
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Red reaches the elevator, but Prof has a premonition and jerks him back. Sure enough, the elevator would have cut Red in two! The Legion panics. Count Karnak orders the sacred file cabinets hoisted and hauled out just as the Challs arrive. "We've got to catch up to the girl! It's our last chance to save Ace!" Carrying Ace, Rocky begs "C'mon legs! Gimme just a few more miles per hour!" Ace is still blacked out. Rocky calls, "Come on, Ace-boy! We'll do it together!" Wrapping Ace's hand around the geechy bag, Rocky helps toss it (flang it) right into the witch's "lovely, nasty puss!" |
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Mistress Wycker melts like the Wicked Witch of the West. Ace comes to. "H-hi, buddy? What are you carrying me for? Put me down!" The Challs rejoice. Prof says, "We took care of the lady, but the others got away?" "What lady?" asks Ace. "What others?" He'll find out soon enough. Burned into the wall are the words, |
Check out the second story for Red's rebirth as Seekeenakee... |
Comments This is the Challs' first brush with the supernatural menaces, and they come off just fine with a combination of conventional and unconventional weapons - such as bullets rubbed in garlic - and their tradework teamwork, as when Rocky carries Ace on his back. Nice to see even real spooks can't spook the Challs. The Legion does return in the next issue, where "None Shall Escape the Walking Evil!" (COTU 63) before a final "Rendezvous with Revenge" (COTU 66). |
DC was entering a new occult phase where every superhero would meet ghostly threats. This was due to a long run of Bat-craze superheroics having finally fizzled, and the surprise popularity of the TV show DARK SHADOWS. DC never could resist a craze, no matter how trite or limited. Even upcoming comics were given spooky treatment. One shows a scarecrow silhouette of a cowboy. "Will our new Western hero save the West - or ruin it?" (Bat Lash turned out to be a comedy-adventure series.) Another ad shows a girl and ape in silhouette. "Angel and Ape. Who are they? What are they?" (Another silly comedy, that's what.) |
In the letters column, "Let's Chat with the Challs", readers are smug. "Of course I knew Red would return. A mere bomb couldn't eliminate a Chall. Even you, their very creators, have tried to bump one off and failed. And if you can't do it, nobody can!" Another fan writes, "We were overcome with remorse, then more tear-jerking emotion than had ever been seen" The editors note, "We had every intention of keeping Red permanently out of the picture, but we were hit with such an unprecedented barrage of mail, begging us to restore him, we had no choice." |
A girl fan would "like to suggest Bob Brown resist in the future drawing all the Challs as intensely muscle-bound" and that "new villains are given more than muscles and malignity. As for the title, 'The Thing that Could Not Die!' shades of Saturday afternoon horror movies!" Challs' Chit-Chat explains "Two Hours to Die" was a reprint. Someone asks who's the team leader, and gets "Haven't we said often enough he's Ace?" A fan asks how Scientist X, who landed in 1945, could watch a Mustang drive by. Ye Eds cop out. "Who said it was that car, and how come you placed it back in that year, Rich?" (It was a Mustang, and they said he landed 20 years ago.) |
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Here's a nice casual pinup of the boys from COTU 62. |
And here's a rare glimpse at some original Bob Brown art offered on eBay. Note the bottom of the page is reserved for a Revell model car ad.  |