“I had never really payed any attention to funny books before then,” said Mr. Shumway in a 1988 interview conducted by Comics Media while Wally was staying at the Dunwich Hospital for Extreme Twitches & Hysterics. “I was just setting there drinking a Moxie and eating some Turkish Taffy and suddenly I thought starting a comic book was the best idea in the world.”
Comics Media: “that was it? The idea just came to you, there was no other inspiration?”
Wally Shumway: “No that was pretty much it, well there was also this big bald headed fellow who was all of a sudden just setting next to me who said I should call him Uncle Aleister, he was always there encouraging me.”
CM: “Uncle Aleister?”
Wally Shumway: “Yes, I think he was English, and no one but me ever seemed to be able to see him, never did found out what his last name was, funny huh? Anyway he gave me a lot of the ideas I used in the comic, plus he would leave from time to time saying he was going to `do some pushing' on some people and after that sure enough people who before had said there was no way I could get a comic like Girls' Black Magic Romances published, or if I did get it pass the Comic Code Authority changed their minds and it sailed right through.”
Indeed shortly after Wally's sudden “inspiration” he found himself in the offices of National Periodical Publications with stories he had somehow quickly written and drawn at various rest stops and hotel rooms en route from South Dakota to New York, although he had not really shown any artistic talent before that trip.
There Wally and his project was discouraged, and at times laughed at outright by those in the then struggling comic book industry. Then strangely and with no problems it was approved, passed the censors and hit the stands with a February, 1955 date for the first issue. While never well distributed, and no real numbers existing on it success (no one in comics at the time, even those who wrote and produced for it would talk about it on being contacted) it still appeared for 223 monthly issues, ending with the July 1973 issue featuring a story entitled “I double dated with Anubis.”
1. Becky Smith, Voodoo Queen! 12 pages
2. Dead Reckoning With Roses (with recurring character Mrs. Polly: Romance Necromancer) 8 pages
3. Captain Tootsie ad 1 page
4. Letters to the Secret Masters (letters from readers) 2 pages
5. My Ice Skating Date on the Astral Plane 9 pages
1. My Hidden Troll Girl Heart 16 pages
2. Letters to the Secret Masters 2 pages
3. Sam Spade Wildroot Hair Tonic ad 1 page
4. Nostradamus' Prom 13 pages
1. Exguytu Chickoyonum! 22 pages
2. Undead Letter Page 1 page
3. Mid-Summer Nights Blind Date 9 pages
1. She Stole My Heart, Then She Stole My Body! 10 pages (With only 69 issues so far this was the 23rd body swap themed story)
2. My Candy (Pentagram) gram for Valentine's Day 10 pages
3. Love & Runes. Letter page 2 pages (this was the 15th time the title of the letter page was changed.
4. My Boyfriend is the Reincarnation of my Great Grand Mother! 9 pages
5. Half page In House ad for Brave & Bold # 30 and the second outing of in Justice League of America “The Case of the Stolen Super-Powers!” out that month, bottom half of page given over to Tootsie Roll ad.
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