Hunt For The SOTI Ghost Shark! 0

[howardhallis]

Re-reading "Seduction Of The Innocent" this year is interesting because now I can track down and see most of the references! With the help of SOTIcollector's amazing website LOSTSOTI.org it's great to be able to find and view the comics as they're mentioned in the text. There was one particular story that intrigued me and I realized I had to find it when I learned it was STILL not found. How could this still be lost? How many pre-code horror stories about the ghost of a woman that inhabits a shark could there be? Here's the description from page 106:

"In a typical specimen a man-eating shark changes into a girl. You are shown the gruesome picture of an arm bitten off by the shark with blood flowing from the severed stump. And the moral ending? "No one would ever believe . . . that the ghost of a lovely girl could inhabit a shark's body..."

Ghosts? Sharks? Arms bitten off? This sounds awesome.

So with the help of comics.org and other websites I found a few contenders for what this story could be from BUT none of them have that quote or the exact plot of a woman's ghost inhabiting a shark. The closest any story came was Harvey Comics Hits #59 Tales Of The Invisible #1. It had the shark. It had the girl. It had the severed arm. Although the girl didn't turn into the shark she DID turn invisible (The Invisible Scarlet O'Neil appeared... or disappeared I should say... almost a decade before Sue Storm Richards!) Despite all this, this isn't the exact book since that quote wasn't in there and the plot was different than how Wertham described. Here's some selected images:

Another contender was "MAN-EATER!" from Mystic Comics #22. It had the shark and a bitten off leg, but no woman and no ghost:

Sub Mariner fought some aliens who turned people into shark-people hybrids in Young Men #25 and altough that was disturbing, was still not the story in question

The Golden Age Vision fought a Shark-Man in Marvel Mystery #23 but once again not the golden age shark ghost of a woman:

Finally, Simon and Kirby's classic "Lone Shark" from Black Magic Vol 5 #33. A shark tale told from the perspective of a shark. Interesting but out too late to be included in SOTI

So does anyone else have any clues? I have to read this story and hope my hunt has inspired you to help me find it!

[Point Five]

No idea really. But great stuff here! ^

 

[sfcityduck]

Personally, I think Tales of the Invisible 1 is clearly the book in question.  The description is close enough, and Wertham was not infallible.

[fifties]

I don't see blood flowing from a severed stump in any of the Tales panels in the OP. 

The story is vaguely familiar, and may have actually taken place in a swimming pool.

There were only certain publishers who would have displayed such gore.

[Spyder!]

2 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

Personally, I think Tales of the Invisible 1 is clearly the book in question.  The description is close enough, and Wertham was not infallible.

Not definitive, but this seems like a very strong candidate to be the book in question in my opinion as well. 
This and the “gouger” lost SOTI books have always been the most intriguing to me for some reason. 

[KCOComics]

Awesome topic. Great research! 

From what you uncovered I would say Tales of the invisible 1.