Ace Aquila

Richard E. Hughes, who also wrote under the pen name Ace Aquila, was born in 1909 and died in 1974. An American writer and editor, he is best remembered as the guiding hand behind the American Comics Group, serving as its editor from the company's founding in 1943 until its closure in 1967. During the latter half of that run, from 1957 onward, he wrote the vast majority of the publisher's stories, often using a variety of pseudonyms. His most enduring creation is Herbie Popnecker, a seemingly ordinary boy with extraordinary powers, which he co-created with artist Ogden Whitney under the name Shane O'Shea. Under the Ace Aquila byline, he contributed to numerous anthology titles, including *Creepy Worlds*, *Unknown Worlds*, *Uncanny Tales*, *Adventures into the Unknown*, *Forbidden Worlds*, and the Western series *Blazing Six Guns*. His work for these series, which spanned from the early 1960s into the mid-1980s, helped define the tone of ACG's horror, fantasy, and science fiction output. Though he never received major industry awards during his lifetime, Hughes's prolific output and his role as the primary architect of ACG's line have earned him a lasting place in comic book history.