Forbidden Worlds, ACG's companion to Adventures Into the Unknown, ended its run at #34 (1954), the last issue before the Comics Code kicked in. It was replaced for three issues with Young Heroes, a more Code-friendly book, numbers 35-37. But Young Heroes didn't last, and Forbidden Worlds came back with an issue dated about a year after #34, continuing the numbering from #35. Confused? Comic books used to change their names but not their numbering (trying to get around a postal regulation for second-class mailing permits), but sometimes they were caught and had to re-number. That may be what happened with Forbidden Worlds

Okay, that's our comic book history lesson for today. Within the pages of FW #34 are a couple of stories that show a change in direction for ACG’s supernatural titles to fit into the new Code, and a last blast from their pre-Code past. The newer-styled story is “Day of Reckoning!” which is science fiction with art attributed by the Grand Comics Database to Paul Gustavson, and the catchy-titled “My Fanged and Fiendish Darling” is a werewolf story, common in ACG’s titles until the Code. It's drawn by Emil Gershwin.

“Fanged and Fiendish” is very odd. A married woman and single man share a secret; they are both able to sit at home and send their “wolf-beings” into the night to rip and tear innocent passers-by. No credible reason is given for Karen taking up such a lycanthropic lifestyle except that she is “...so lonely that maybe even terror is welcome!” It’s a crazy plot, but that wasn’t uncommon for ACG.

The Grand Comics Database gives Ken Bald credit for the cover.

“Love is for the Living,” from ACG’s Romantic Adventures #5 (1949), isn’t all that original. A drab governess goes to work for a handsome widower with a small child, then has to win the love of both. What struck me when reading the story was that it reminded me of The Bad Seed, the popular novel/play/movie, about a young blonde child who commits murder.

Maxwell Anderson's 1955 play was adapted from the novel by William March, published in 1954. Life magazine covered the play and its young actress, Patty McCormack, in a January, 1955 issue. Here's the first page of the article:

The comic book story appeared about five years before the novel, and I'm not claiming it had any influence on the novelist. It's just an interesting coincidence. Stories about children who murder aren't all that rare. But the drama of the attempted murder does add some depth to an otherwise shopworn romance plot, and it helps that the Romantic Adventures story is well illustrated by Emil Gershwin. Were I to give advice to someone in the same position as governess Celia Parrish I'd tell her even though it looks like she's won the love of the father, I wouldn't turn my back on his daughter.