The 66-foot-tall, 240-foot-long Great Sphinx of Giza has always loomed large in young imaginations, and comic book editors were well aware of it.
Between mid-1950s and the mid-1960s, for example, weird and/or monstrous variations on the theme appeared in DC Comics’ Mystery in Space 36, House of Secrets 1 and 4, Action Comics 240, Showcase 16 and Wonder Woman 113. The Nile giant also reared its head in Marvel’s Uncanny Tales 40, Pines’ Adventures of Mighty Mouse 129 and Charlton’s Atomic Mouse 28. In their respective titles, the Archie Comics superheroes the Fly and the Jaguar would face Cat Girl, a foe who actually was the Sphinx.
And in Journey into Mystery 59 (July 1960), Marvel gave us a sphinx from space that called itself, of all things, “Shagg.” After quietly absorbing information about Earth for centuries while disguised as a statue, this robot warrior from the “third galaxy” is accidentally awakened by a pith-helmeted explorer.
Rampaging inexorably through Paris and New York, Shagg is startled to realize that, because its revival was an accident, it can expect no military support from the third galaxy.
“I cannot conquer an entire world by myself — not while you have nuclear weapons,” the Sphinx thinks. “I must wait for the others! But I’ve already begun — how can I stop now! Wait! I know! I know how we can yet win!!”
Using “cosmo-gamma electromagnetic waves,” Shagg instantly repairs all the damage he’s caused and wipes human memories of the knowledge of his attack, returning to his long, motionless vigil in Egypt. The only evidence of the threat he poses remains in the explorer’s notebook, but will anyone believe it?
By March 1960, when Shagg appeared on newsstands, Marvel was well into its “giant monster” phase. Another such cover-featured creature, the flaming giant Dragoom, appeared in Strange Tales 76 that same month.
“Besides the obvious impact of The Adventures of Superman television program, science fiction movies of the early 1950s (like Destination: Moon), movies with knights at mid-decade, and the Western films and TV shows throughout the decade all directed comic book trends,” observed Bill Schelly in the American Comic Book Chronicles. “To that list must be added a rash of movies featuring giant monsters such as Them! (1954) with giant ants, Tarantula (1955) with a huge spider, It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) with a gigantic octopus, The Beginning of the End (1957) with giant locusts, and The Blob (1958) with, well, an enormous blob. Even giant-sized humans became threats in The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958).
“These movies inspired Stan Lee (with Martin Goodman’s blessing) to create comic book equivalents with three new books launched in the last months of 1958: Strange Worlds, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. By Tales to Astonish 6 (I Saw the Invasion of the Stone Men!) and Tales of Suspense 6 (I Hear it Howl in the Swamp!) dated November 1959, the monster theme was established, whether the grotesque menaces came from alien planets, deep in the earth or scientific experiments gone awry.”
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