Guogg
During the 1960s I was a big reader of the Silver Age comics. I especially enjoyed such types as Unknown Worlds, Forbidden Worlds, Adventures Into the Unknown, and similar genre.
In one of the many I read was one story titled GUOGG. Guogg was either a town, monster, or a hut. The idea was this tiny little hut in some remote village that turned out to be a man-eating monster. I think the hut ate people. If you go in, you don’t come out.
Well, I have been looking for the comic that carried that story. For the past 25 years I have tried to locate it. I’ve gone back and read every comic of that type that I have to try and locate it. I have not been successful.
Does anyone recall this story and perhaps know what comic and issue this was in?
I would be grateful to find this information.
David Chilton
Replies
It doesn't ring a bell, and I've checked all the usual places. I'll keep my eyes open. In the meantime, maybe other Legionnaires will have better luck!
-The Guogg name recalls Marvel's early 60s monster comics, but if it were from one of them, I'd expect the monster to be listed at the GCD. The cover-format of monster and outlandish name ("Xom!" etc.) came into use in the course of 1959.
-An early 60s Marvel monster story wouldn't kill an innocent character that way, but it might give a guilty one his comeuppance that way. I think the premise sounds too grisly for early 60s DC. If you read it in the later 60s, when standards were beginning to become looser, it could've been a pre-Code reprint.
-Would you know if the story was in colour? If not, it might have appeared in a B&W magazine or reprint book.
-The story your description called to my mind was the Dr. Strange story "The House of Shadows!" from Strange Tales #120, but in that one, the house doesn't eat people, just scares them silly. It doesn't have a name.
-The GCD's notes on the above story compare it to a 1964 episode of The Outer Limits, "The Guests". I've not seen that, but if it influenced your story, it would be a terminus post quem.
-You mentioned ACG: have you considered Charlton or Western (Gold Key), perhaps the latter's Twlight Zone or Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery? Or Harvey's Alarming Adventures?
-There are some quite grisly stories, by the standards of the time, in Dell's one-shot Tales from the Tomb and the first issue of its ongoing Ghost Stories. Some of those stories could not have been published under the Code, which Dell titles didn't carry. I've not read the later issues of Ghost Stories: this page says the stories in the next couple were toned down. Dell also published two The Twilight Zone issues before breaking with Western, and afterwards an ongoing The Outer Limits.
-Have you considered DC's horror titles from the later 60s, such as Tales of the Unexpected/The Unexpected, or the later issues of The Spectre? Marvel also started new horror titles at the end of the 60s (Tower of Shadows, Chamber of Darkness).
Wow, Luke, if you can't research it, who can?
It sounds to me a very plausible fit for ACG. Especially if a plucky couple are involved, who get engaged at the end! As the PS Artbooks collection of ACG titles continues, it's very likely we'll stumble across Guogg.
Are you sure about the spelling, David?
I found it. The story title is actually "Quogg!" It was a five-page story by Lee and Ditko in Tales to Astonish #30 (APR62).
The synopsis in GCD is "A fugitive hides in an enclosure said to contain a horrible monster, and realizes too late that the monster appeared to be an ordinary hut."
Woo-hoo! Go Richard!
Thanks, Richard.
All I can think of to say is "WOW!!!" and I am astounded that so many of you responded to assist me in this search. With an incredible special THANK YOU to Richard. This has been nagging at me for many years and I've never given up. I've googled the word "Guogg" at least a thousand times with no results. Looks like I've misspelled it all these years. I'm new to this website and I had no idea that there were so many detailed Silver Age Comic enthusiasts out there. Thanks to all, and Richard, if you're ever in Nashville I'll take you to lunch at this quaint restaurant I know of that looks like a pleasant little grass hut. Or maybe we'd better just go to McDonalds.
You're very welcome. Actually the Captain's question about the spelling caused me to play with different variations. I did a Story Title search on the Grand Comics Database, which I've found it hard to live without:
http://www.comics.org/
David Chilton said:
Nashville, eh? I'm right down I-40 in Elvistown. Pleased to meet you, neighbor.
And, yeah, the Legion of Superfluous Heroes is chockablock with some of the savviest comics fans you'll ever see. Which now includes you!
David Chilton said:
Yes, the crack research team here is first-rate. I once mentioned a half-remembered comic from my earliest days in this hobby, and Mr. Silver Age found it in three-and-a-half hours!
Mr. Silver Age said: