Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 158: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 143

April 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystery Tales #52

Cover by John Severin

"Mystery of the Silent Fog!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

"The Fish Men!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★★

"The Betrayer" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"The Too-Perfect Crime!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"The City That Died!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

"Midnight on the Moor!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★

After a rollicking storm leaves the town of Middleton enveloped in a thick haze of "silent" fog, the townsfolk become rattled and start throwing out crazed theories about what's happening to them. When the town idiot ventures into the fog and returns with a wild tale of seeing outer space all around the town, the mayor posits that the town is the target of an experiment by government scientists to see how normal people react to space travel. 

He orders his friends and neighbors to go home and dress in the craziest costumes they own. Soon, the fog lifts... Was it just coincidence or the result of a crazed liquid lunch in the Atlas break room? The goofy last panel sure doesn't solve the "Mystery of the Silent Fog!" nor does it edjamucate us on the disasters a non-silent fog could put into motion. The art by Bernard Baily is the safe, stiff, boring work we've seen become the norm around these parts.

During a routine dive in his bid to be the man who discovers Atlantis, deep-sea diver Hank Ferris stumbles upon a series of holes in the bottom of the sea. Upon further investigation, he finds the portals are actually windows above the world of "The Fish Men!" The gilled goons capture Hank and explain they were just about to commence their worldwide invasion of the surface world and Hank is invited along to watch. 

Hank shivers in fear as he realizes the gill men easily outnumber his surface world brothers and sisters. But, in the grand tradition of War of the Worlds, nature steps in to halt the illegal immigration of these sea thugs. The sun burns their scaled skin and the warriors are forced back into the depths to plan another invasion some rainy day. A perfectly enjoyable (albeit completely inane) fantasy that neither taxes the brain nor scars the eyeballs. The Marvin Stein art at times reminded me of Don Heck's work.

After a vicious bout with amnesia, Paul Declaire heads back to France in order to discover the identity of the man who betrayed his platoon in WWII. Eleven men died that day at the hands of the Germans, with only Paul surviving. Now, he hears the voices of those long-dead comrades in his head, begging him to find "The Betrayer"! Well, let's help Paul solve this mystery. He's the only one who survived. Everyone else died. He had amnesia for years and couldn't piece it all together. I think I've got it...

In the three-page mundanity known as "The Too-Perfect Crime!," Roger Reynolds invents a camera that can shrink its subject to miniature size so, naturally, Roger starts photographing expensive sports cars on the street and taking them home in his pocket. Later, he reverses the process and sells the autos for big bucks. But when the cops get suspicious, Roger turns the camera on himself so he can hide. Problem is, once the detectives have left, the dope can't reach the camera to revert himself back to normal size.

Bart Graham and his fellow explorers stumble upon a priceless cache of gems buried under an ancient Mexican temple. Bart wants to split the profits with his partners but they, understandably, remind Bart that anything found on the expedition belongs to the museum! Bart's having none of that crap so he grabs the jewels and disappears into the night. He soon comes across yet another ancient temple, but this one is populated by ancient citizens. Has Bart stepped into a time warp? Well, kinda, but don't expect a sane rationalization to "The City That Died!" Instead you're going to get another of those cockamamie Atlas scientific theories guaranteed to made you giggle. The Winiarski art continues Atlas's backslide in the graphics department. What was once dependable has become spotty.

Another ridiculous denouement awaits those who make it through the four pages of "Midnight on the Moor!," wherein businessman Ken Barrow becomes stranded in Edinburgh mere hours before an important board meeting. His only way out is a haunted stretch of swamp. Will Ken make it? The only way I made it was focusing on the joys of Mort Drucker's penciling. Mort singlehandedly represents the word "art" in this dismal issue of Mystery Tales.-Peter

Mystic #58

Cover by Bill Everett

"Those Who Vanish!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

"The Straw Man!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★

"The Day the World Ended!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"Dinosaur" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

"The Swami Strikes Back!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Maha the Demon!" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

Unlike Mystery Tales #52, Mystic #58 has more than its share of good art and it gets started quickly with the atmospheric work Richard Doxsee contributes to "Those Who Vanish!" Clyde Duvlin is a genius inventor who just can't stand to be patient and wait his turn, so he schemes to rid himself of the upper rungs of management at World Electronics. Clyde invents a camera that transports its subject to wherever the developed picture is mailed and he takes advantage of the US Postal Service by mailing pics of all his bosses to places hither and yon.

Laughably, it seems those supervisors can't get back to the US and Clyde becomes the man in charge at WE. Unfortunately for him, his gorgeous wife is proud of the beautiful colors found in her hubby's developed pics and sends one she took of Clyde to her brother... who's serving time in a Chinese prison! That climax is alternately brilliant and giggle-worthy. Also hilarious is that Clyde invents this dazzling camera but doesn't realize its true power until his wife mails a pic of herself to her mother and is teleported to the old lady's living room. File Doxsee in with Angelo Torres and Al Williamson as pencilers who can lay out work that is alternately brilliant and sketchy but all the while dazzling.

Farmer Paul Miller always sees to it that "The Straw Man!" in his field is dressed to the nines in good times but pestilence and drought have struck Paul's farm and he decides it's time to pack it in and sell the land. A preacher comes to Paul's farm and begs him to pray to God for rain but Paul tells the holy man that he's all prayed out. Suddenly, it begins to pour and the priest points to the straw man, who's now in a kneeling position. The lord works in mysterious ways, indeed. There's no rhyme or reason as to why Paul had to endure all his traumas when a religious scarecrow watched over his farm the entire time, but I'm not one to pick nits. I wouldn't have been able to identify the art as belonging to Joe Maneely had it not been signed; gone are the detailed, gorgeous visuals Maneely was once responsible for and in their place is something very average and very 1958 Atlas.

On the eve of war, brilliant scientist Dr. Eric Norath discusses the future of Earth with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. Both women declare hatred for war and the men try to explain calmly that those stinkin' evil commies will stop at nothing to rule the world. Something must be done to stop the Red Threat!!! A few days later, Norath is working in his lab when he accidentally tips over a vat of a solution he's working on (let's call it... oh, I don't know... how about oxychloride x?) and the liquid begins eating a hole through everything it touches.

Word is sent out to the government that nothing can contain the chemical and Americans watch as it dissolves miles of earth and moves downward, seemingly to the core of the planet itself. When the government appeals to the stinkin' commies to ally with them to find an antidote, the entire world joins forces and a solution to the solution is found. The Nations are at last United in peace while Mrs. Norath scolds her husband for dumping the juice and holding the antidote the whole time. With "The Day the World Ended!," writer Carl Wessler probably counted on very few of his 8-year-old readers being familiar with the old Lights Out radio show and its 1938 episode "Oxychloride X," which Wessler happily ripped off, later cashing his $27 check from Stan. 

Explorers in the Amazon run across some preserved dinosaur eggs and are elated by their historic find. Well, almost all of them, that is. All but Osborne, who hates mosquitoes and animals and vegetation and just wants to go home. So Osborne hides the eggs, stomps some fake dino tracks in the dirt, and waits to see what happens. His colleagues are mortified and skulk out of camp the next night, leaving Osborne alone. Surveying the camp, he finds giant prints in the dirt that he didn't make! Anything Bernie Krigstein worked on automatically becomes readable and the delightful (and delightfully simple) "Dinosaur" is a perfect example. The script (by Krigstein himself?) is almost a comedic romp, filled with funny dialogue and sight gags, and Bernie lays out the story in his trademark multi-mini-panel style. If only we could have had whole issues filled with Krigstein's work.

Egregious in both art and script, "The Swami Strikes Back!" tells the tale of a group of college punks who kidnap the titular entertainer to teach them how to project their spirit. In this way, they can rob a bank. Hard to believe a four-page story could take so long to read but allow for nodding-off time. Nap time continues with "Maha the Demon," about a museum guard who unwittingly unleashes an ancient pharaoh onto present day streets. The "stranger in a strange land" angle is amusing for a couple panels but then the entire affair ends tediously.-Peter

Mystical Tales #6

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Iron Trap" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"The Forbidden Room" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★1/2

(r: Tomb of Darkness #11)

"The Sinking Man!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

"He Hides in the Tower" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★

"In the Dark Attic!" (a: Dave Berg) ★1/2

"The Clock Strikes Thirteen" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

An unhappy physicist named Andrew Kastro is experimenting with atomic matter when it explodes, causing a brief flash of light and making everything in the room giant-sized! After two hours, he grows back to normal size and it dawns on the genius that it was he who got smaller while everything around him stayed the same. Like most Atlas protagonists, Andrew's thoughts turn to crime, and he decides that he'll shrink himself down and steal a valuable pearl from a museum. All goes as planned until Andrew forgets about the two-hour limit on his small size and is caught in "The Iron Trap"--a ventilating shaft--as he exits the museum with the pearl.

Groan! Dick Ayers was uninspired and his art is lifeless. The story isn't much different from "The Too-Perfect Crime!" in this month's Mystery Tales in that both deal with someone who accidentally discovers how to shrink himself and turns to crime. You'd think these brilliant scientists would see the pitfalls.

Helen is an aging woman whose husband forbids her to enter "The Forbidden Room" in their mansion. She can think of little else and finally opens the door one night while her husband sleeps. Inside the room she sees... her husband, who welcomes her! As she reaches for him he disappears; she passes out and wakes up on a psychologist's couch, where she is told that she is really an aging spinster about to wed who has finally conquered her fear of marriage, which was represented by the forbidden room. Got it? Even Joe Sinnott can't make this interesting.

The sole survivor of an explosion on a ship, Andrews finds himself on an island that is strangely familiar. He recognizes one thing after another and finally comes to a time machine; pushing a button, he finds himself back in the water, just having left the sinking ship and heading for the island, where the events will play out time after time.

"The Sinking Man!" is only three pages long and still seems tedious, but the art by Angelo Torres is at least bearable, if hardly his finest work.

From the moment Tony Lund sees Dorwin Manor, he becomes obsessed with the idea that there must be money hidden in the basement. He meets and seduces Madge, a pretty servant who works at the manor, and when she is about to elope with him he sneaks into the basement and finds the cash. Arnold Dorwin catches him in the act and a gun battle ensues, but Tony ends up locked in the attic after Arnold turns out to be a ghost and Madge discovers Tony's treachery.

I have to hand it to Bernie Krigstein--he put more effort into this terrible script than most Atlas artists would have. "He Hides in the Tower" has enough twists, turns, and verbiage for a ten- or twenty-page story, yet none of it is interesting or original.

A young man is used to using his handsome face to cheat people, so when he is approached on the street by a wrinkled old man offering to paint his portrait, the young man jumps at the chance, figuring he can cheat the old man out of some valuable pictures. Up the stairs they go till they are together "In the Dark Attic!," where the artist seems to paint an imaginary portrait on an imaginary canvas. In the end, the old man wraps the imaginary canvas around his face and, when the young man emerges into the daylight, he does not realize that the old man's wrinkled face has replaced his own.

Dave Berg's particular art style, which tends to exaggerate faces, is perfect for this tale, though the denouement will surprise no one.

Villagers are shaken when "The Clock Strikes Thirteen," thinking that the imported edifice bears a curse. Little do they know that Fuller faked the thirteenth strike, certain that everyone in town will be so focused on the clock the next day that he can rob the local bank. Rob it he does and, when he's trying to get out of town, he's easily captured. It seems the thirteenth strike presaged someone about to suffer a great loss, and that someone turned out to be Fuller.

It's back to Earth after some pretty decent art this issue, as Howard O'Donnell puts no effort into illustrating a story that is needlessly complicated and has yet another letdown of an ending.-Jack

Spellbound #33

Cover by Carl Burgos

"At the End of the Dark Hall" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Don't Throw That Switch" (a: Ted Galindo) ★

"The Gypsies' Secret!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★1/2

"No Way Out!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Fury of Nick Foster!" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★

"The Unhuman" (a: John Tartaglione) ★

Pierre Denoir steals a woman's purse and flees through the fog-shrouded Parisian streets, ducking into a building and racing down the stairs. "At the End of the Dark Hall" he opens a door that reveals a group of criminals seated round a long table. Pierre recognizes them and remarks that they are all supposed to be dead! They chase him around for a while and he at first begs to join them and then grabs a gun and takes a wild shot before racing back up the stairs and into the waiting arms of the police. The fog has lifted and they point to the sign above the building entrance that reads "Mme. Rousseau's Wax Works."

It's nice to admit that, for once, Carl Wessler surprised me with the ending of this story. I was expecting Pierre to realize that he was dead just like the rest of the criminals. Instead, we get the old bit about the wax dummies seeming to come to life. John Forte's art, which I don't usually like very much, is rather evocative in the panels with fog and in the candlelit cellar.

Walter Garland learns a terrible secret from his dying grandfather--the old man has spent eighty years maintaining a machine that kept an unknown person from aging. The old man dies before he can tell Walter the young man's identity (hint, hint) and Walter quickly determines that his sworn enemy, Howard Blye, must be the man! Walter confronts Howard, who cries "Don't Throw That Switch!" and begins to pay blackmail money and welcome Walter into high society. Walter falls hard for Howard's fiance Joyce and, in order to get rid of his rival, turns off the machine. Not surprisingly, the young man who has been kept vibrant for eight decades turns out to be Walter.

Unlike the prior story, I knew what was going to happen in this one by the end of page one. The art by Ted Galindo does nothing to elevate the tired storytelling.

Tony Hayden is a con man who travels from town to town selling fake patent medicine at sideshows and carnivals. In one location he happens on a gypsy settlement and thinks he can make a quick buck selling his "medicine" (flavored water) to the seemingly ignorant folk. His spiel is interrupted by Kazar, a burly, bald Roma who says that Tony's product is fake and no substitute for the real thing that Kazar doles out. Kazar agrees to give Tony his secret formula to help his people and Tony promptly makes up more fake bottles of medicine and sells them as if they were Kazar's elixir. The people revolt once the trickery is discovered and they beat Tony and leave him in an alley. Kazar appears and cures Tony with his own formula before disappearing and leaving Tony to lament his failure to recognize a genuine cure-all.

"The Gypsies' Secret!" benefits greatly from fine work by Angelo Torres, who seems to rise to the occasion when given anything resembling an interesting script. This time out, the story mostly makes sense and has a satisfying ending, though I question why Kazar was so willing to give Tony his formula when Tony is obviously dishonest and Kazar could simply have given it to his own people himself.

Caught again on his sixth attempt to break out of prison, Blackie doesn't plan to give up, even though it seems that there is "No Way Out." A new prisoner says he's a chemistry professor and tells Blackie about a formula he's made from powdered wings that will give anyone who drinks it the ability to fly. Blackie takes a drink and is flying over the prison walls when he finds himself drawn toward the searchlight--too bad he didn't know the wings were those of moths!

Robert Sales's art isn't getting any more attractive and this three-pager is just plain silly. Some of Sales's panels really look like he's struggling with anatomy and perspective.

Nick Lazarus is a deep sea diver hired to recover undersea plant specimens for a scientist. Sick of encounters with sharks, Nick is excited to receive a radio message inviting him to join a salvage job where he thinks he'll get rich. The scientist insists that Nick finish out his contract, so Nick lies and says he sees nothing but rocks on the ocean floor. He tosses the ship's charts of the ocean floor overboard to force the scientist to abandon the mission, but when Nick brings up samples of undersea rocks he learns that they mention a treasure house in Atlantis, whose riches Nick will never find now due to the loss of the charts.

Holy cow, what a complicated way to get to yet another Atlantis ending! Harry Lazarus's art is mediocre and the script, undoubtedly by Wessler or Oleck, adds nothing new to the Atlas canon.

Who is leaving the mysterious notes that answer the major problems faced by scientists working on Project Satellite? Dr. Taylor decides that one of his fellow scientists must be "The Unhuman," a mutant with super brain powers. Dr. Fenn is shot and dies just before he reveals the identity of the unhuman. After Dr. Taylor rules out the other two, he is shocked when Dr. Fenn appears, having faked his own death. Taylor says the world isn't ready for Fenn's brilliance, so Fenn agrees and vanishes. This story should have vanished! The world wasn't ready for such uninteresting art and prose.-Jack

Next Week...
More Krigstein Magic
To Save Us From Madness!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 157: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 142

April 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #60

Cover by Bill Everett

"The House of Fear!" (a: John Forte) ★

"The Monster in the Mist!" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★1/2

(r: Monsters Unleashed #7)

"The Trap!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

"Secret of the Golden Idol" (a: Syd Shores) ★★1/2

"Trapped by the Little Men!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

(r: Chamber of Chills #13)

"When He Presses the Button!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

Leo Lucas inadvertently shacks up in a haunted house one stormy night and must fight for his life to escape. The next night, he's relating the story to his buddies and one of them, the egotistical Rod Bailey, claims there's a rational explanation for everything and, for fifty bucks, he'll stay the night in the house just to prove his theory. The boys take him up on his offer and that night Rod finds himself in "The House of Fear!" Dreadful stuff with a twist that's been done a thousand times before and the uninspiring art adds nothing.

A scientist and his crew are searching the sea for "The Monster in the Mist!" According to legend, a giant sea serpent cruises the waters and Professor Kerrin is bound and determined to catch a glimpse of said behemoth. An eerie mist rolls in and they come across a deserted island; suddenly the monster appears and threatens them. Just as it is about to destroy the boat, the saurian disappears and Prof. Kerrin opines that "for a few moments, time turned backwards" and he and his crew were witnessing an event from 1519! 

Despite biting off a little more than it could chew, "The Monster in the Mist!" is a fun and nicely etched little thriller, granting us a reprieve for just a moment from haunted buildings and warring Venusians and giving us a taste of what was to come in a few years. We could use a few more of these tales.

"The Trap!" is a cockamamie bit of nonsense about a businessman who discovers an auditor is in the office to do his books. Ordinarily not a problem, but this guy has been embezzling a ton of dough from the company, so he gets the bright idea of kidnapping the auditor while he whips up a new set of ledgers. Unbeknownst to our loser protagonist, the agent is a robot and he's quickly replaced by a newer, more efficient model. It's disheartening to see how bland Tony DiPreta's work had become by 1957; the eeriness of his older work gave way to simple sketching and no enthusiasm. The robot reveal is thrown in almost as an afterthought.

In "Secret of the Golden Idol," a petty thief steals a priceless statue that supposedly holds the secret of unlimited wealth. Try as he may, the dope just can't figure out the clues and ends up behind bars. There's really not much to this one, but it possesses a certain charm (the thief believes the idol's eyes--one red and one green--are telling him which direction to turn in search of his fortune) and Syd Shores's graphics are certainly a cut above those of DiPreta and Forte.

The three-page "Trapped by the Little Men!" is on the must-skip list, but for those who just have to know I'll synopsize as "man wakes up to find he's a prisoner of small people and then discovers he's a descendant of Gulliver." This reveal is a surprise to no one but the dope in the story. More lifeless Morisi art.

The Ace Detective Agency sends their best man, Haley, out to find an eccentric scientist who's become the heir to a fortune. When Haley tracks the egghead down, the goofball is working on a time travel machine and insists he has no time for business. He flips a switch and Haley ends up back at the beginning of the story. "When He Presses the Button!" advances the genre of time traveling not one iota but extra points go to the uncredited writer (I'd guess Wessler) for repeating the opening almost verbatim on the closing page. These guys weren't paid much, so hats off to this guy for padding his script.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #45

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Demon's Shadow!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★★

"Which One of Us Is Me?" (a: John Forte) ★★

"The Eyes That Never Closed!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"Something in the House" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"A Scream on the Screen!" (a: Christopher Rule) ★★

"What Happened to Harrison!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★1/2

Greedy explorer Jory is searching for the Temple of El Kasid, rumored to contain a priceless collection of golden idols. Jory finds his temple and enters the secret room containing the treasure but then discovers that the statues are of explorers before him. Suddenly, lasers shoot from the eyes of one of the idols and Jory becomes the latest exhibit in the temple. 

Joe Benton comes home one night to find a doppelganger has taken his place at the kitchen table. His wife Alice doesn't recognize him and begs her husband to call the police. The cops arrive and haul Joe off to jail, where he sits and tries to make some sense of his day. Turns out Joe was run over by a truck that morning and killed but had begged the strange, robed figures who were about to take him to the afterlife to wait until he "straightened out his affairs." The double was their way of helping Joe out. Mystery solved and affairs arranged, Joe accompanies his guides to whatever awaits him in death. The plot is a bit confusing at times (at what point will Joe #2 just up and disappear from Alice's life and will she discover he was at the dinner table while he was also on a morgue slab downtown?), but I applaud the bullpen writer for at least injecting some imagination into "Which One of Us Is Me?"

The publisher of a "tell-all" rag blackmails a brilliant scientist who has created an x-ray camera that can see through the walls of the city's most popular celebrities. The newsman intends to use the tool as a way to increase his circulation despite repeated warnings from the egghead. Joke's on our blackmailer in the end: every time he's opened the camera to change film he's received a dose of high radiation. In the final panel of "The Eye That Never Closed!," our doomed protagonist ponders his remaining time on Earth. The reveal might have been more of a shock if the scientist hadn't repeatedly (and I do mean repeatedly) warned his blackmailer of the dangers of his experimental creation.

Larry and Kit Keith buy an old house and begin to fix it up but they quickly learn the structure is a money pit. They pour their life savings into the building but new cracks form every day. Still, they love that house! One night,  a quartet of armed robbers break in and hold the Keiths hostage, explaining they just robbed a warehouse and need a spot to chill. No one would think to look for them in this old dump. But the thieves soon learn there's "Something in the House," something that's protecting the Keiths and isn't happy about the break-in. Unremarkable script and art.

Through all his wife's protests, Bert Bates continues to screw with the insides of his TV, trying to get a better picture. It works even better than Bert could dream as the set begins broadcasting shows and news from the following day! Bert dreams of calling his bookie and his stockbroker immediately with the news that the Edsel will soon be the biggest selling car in America and wife Helen fancies herself in a mink stole bigger than that of  Wilma McGillicuddy down the street. All goes super until the news flash that Bert Bates was electrocuted in a freak accident the night before. After the event does indeed occur, Bert lies in his hospital bed and realizes he let his greed overcome his happiness with life. Helen sighs and admits that Bert will just have to get that second job in order for her to wear mink. For a three-pager, "A Scream on the Screen!" is not bad and elicited a few grins from this old grump.

In the closer, "What Happened to Harrison!," Professor Sims creates a machine that can "send a man's subconscious back in time" but Professor Harrison isn't buying this theory. He challenges Sims to test his theory in front of a board of scientists and Harrison agrees. The test subject turns out to be a man who saved Harrison's father from drowning years before and the experiment begins. Harrison smells a rat and attempts to throw the demonstration off but fate intervenes and tragedy strikes. A very predictable conclusion, especially since Prof. Sims warns against the outcome all through the story. A very average final piece to a very average issue of Journey Into Mystery.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #56

Cover by John Severin & Carl Burgos

"The Man Who Went Too Far!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

(r: Amazing Adventures #22)

"They Won't Die!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★1/2

"Your Life for Mine!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"The Wrong Choice!" (a: Werner Roth) ★

"The Voice in the Night!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

"The Impossible" (a: Bill Everett) ★1/2

(r: Amazing Adventures #25)

Martin has created a ray to find out if there is life in outer space. Despite the warnings of his friend York, Martin points the ray skyward and succeeds in pulling a transparent, shadowy man from space down to Earth. Martin spends five days trying to communicate with the man from space, but York thinks Martin is "The Man Who Went Too Far!" and is about to smash the ray machine with a wrench when Martin intercedes. In their struggle, the ray is pointed downward and unexpectedly draws up a creature from below the surface, a creature that can move through earth and stone with ease. Martin and York look with horror at the footprints left by the unseen creature, which is heading for the city.

Richard Doxsee's art is the highlight of this wordy tale that must have been penned by Carl Wessler. It keeps circling around a slightly interesting premise but never quite gets there, and the conclusion is disappointing, promising carnage without actually showing anything but footprints.

During the war, Dan Morley survived a shell blast but was certain his buddy, Phil Brice, was killed. Later, when Dan learns that Phil survived, Dan begins to research other men around the world who mysteriously were not killed in tragic accidents. Looking for a reason why "They Won't Die!," Dan theorizes that the Other Men, as he calls them, must be aliens or something else unusual. He speaks to an FBI man without success and becomes paranoid, but when Dan is packing to leave he is confronted by Phil Brice. In his rush to get away, Dan falls out a window, but he is shocked to feel his body healing rapidly after a fall that should have been fatal. Phil patiently explains that Dan is one of the men who possess a strange power to heal themselves; Phil adds that they plan to dedicate themselves to the service of mankind.

This big yawn of a story is fortunate to feature the art of Pete Morisi, who enlivens the dull proceedings with a few nice depictions of Dan falling out of a window.

Paul Carew is a scientist whose experiments in time travel use so much energy that they have damaged all the nearby houses. When his neighbors complain, Paul lies and says he'll give up his work but instead goes inside and cranks the machine up to full power, bringing a man forward from centuries ago and taking his place in the past. Paul looks around the man's laboratory and realizes he's taken the place of an alchemist whose neighbors have formed an angry mob--a mob that plans to do away with Paul!

"Your Life for Mine!" is dreadful, with Kirbyesque art by Marvin Stein that looks forward to the style that will dominate Marvel comics in several years.

A modern pirate ship run by Captain Tovar is sunk by a police craft and Tovar descends through the water to find himself in Atlantis. An old man called the Wise One tells Tovar he can have one wish, but Tovar wants three things: to return to the surface, to be big and muscular, and to be rich. When told he must pick one, Tovar makes "The Wrong Choice!" and ends up seven feet tall and burly, thinking he'll dominate those around him. Sadly, he discovers that the denizens of the undersea kingdom are all much bigger than he is!

It seems like we see a variation on this twist ending every few issues in Atlas comics, with a character either ending up too big or too small--usually too small. Here, Werner Roth's panels don't add much to the convoluted tale, which starts out above the water but ends up with yet another greedy man getting his just desserts.

In a Nazi prison camp in 1944, PFC Bill Sanders makes a little soldier doll for his daughter but must endure cruelty from Sgt. Fritz Bruner. One night Bill escapes and is chased through the countryside by Nazi soldiers, including Bruner. Suddenly, Bill hears "The Voice in the Night!" giving him instructions on which way to turn to make his escape. The voice, which seems to come from the doll Bill made, successfully guides Bill to safety. Eight years later, Bill is in the audience at a ventriloquist's show when he hears the same voice coming from the dummy onstage. Bill realizes that the ventriloquist is Sgt. Bruner, who was throwing his voice in the woods in order to aid Bill in his escape.

There's a lot to like in this one, even though the surprise ending is hard to swallow. Bruner is a terror in the prison camp and makes it clear that he wants to be the one to catch and kill Bill when they're in the woods, so it seems implausible that he was really the one who helped Bill escape. Still, the sheer wackiness of the story and some smooth art by Frank Bolle make this the most enjoyable entry in this issue.

Many years ago, the people of a small, landlocked country with no large bodies of water were confused by persistent maritime distress signals. The calls are traced to the home of the Minister of Enlightenment, who discovers that the S.O.S. calls were coming from a ship in a bottle.

Bill Everett does his usual fine job illustrating "The Impossible," but I'm slightly confused by the end--is the entire village inside a bottle and the minister saying that life can't exist in such a small form? That's what it looks like. It's a dopey ending to a poor issue.-Jack

Marvel Tales #157

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Secret of Murdock Farm!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

"The Black Blob!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★1/2

"The Man Who Was Replaced" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"Impossible Island" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★1/2

"The Man Who Changed!" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

"It Waits in the Dark!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

Albert Carter works as a soda jerk at a drugstore counter and is unhappy in his work. He finds a newspaper in the cellar and reads a classified ad about a Model T car being sold for $35, so Albert takes a bus out of town to a desolate spot where he learns "The Secret of Murdock Farm!" Intervening when the family who owns the farm is threatened by crooks who want to buy it, Albert falls for pretty Lillian Murdock and fights off the crooks, only to discover that she and her family are the ghosts of people who died years ago. Albert decides a life with a pretty ghost is better than his humdrum existence and runs back toward the farm, begging Lillian and her family to let him join them.

Joe Orlando was such a skilled draftsman that I can't give this convoluted story only one star, but one and a half is the best I can do. Carl Wessler never ceases to amaze me with the amount of pointless twists and turns he can throw into a short story and the utter meaninglessness of most of it.

Herman Miller is a spy who never found anything useful with which to betray his country. Now he's haunted by "The Black Blob!," a floating cloud that no one else can see. The blob tells Herman that it's the harbinger of an alien invasion and it gives him the power to walk through walls and walk on air. The failed spy walks through the thick, metal walls of a government building, hoping he can finally steal some useful secrets. In the morning, he's found dead inside a sealed room that contains lethal rays and a pool of black, oily stuff is on the floor beside him.

As with the prior story, the only thing to recommend this one is the art. Pete Morisi's style is an acquired taste, but I like it. It brings back memories of Charlton and 1970s Atlas comics, which were way more fun than 1950s Atlas comics.

When Phil March returns from his travels a wanted man, he makes his identical twin brother, Ben, "The Man Who Was Replaced." Phil uses hypnosis to confuse Ben and, after a month, he is good enough at the imitation game to fool the secretary at Ben's office. Ben catches on and confronts Bill, who calls the cops on his brother. The cops arrive and arrest both men, one for crimes committed elsewhere and the other for a stock swindle.

The GCD tells us that this tepid tale is written by Jack Oleck, proving that not all the bad stories we're suffering through can be blamed on Carl Wessler. Marvin Stein's art is utterly forgettable.

A Navy patrol plane is forced to make an emergency landing on an "Impossible Island" in the China Sea. They find an alien spacecraft but no sign of aliens until a group of strange, robot-like creatures approach and the men hide in the jungle. After gathering their courage, they discover that the aliens are friendly creatures who welcome humans into the brotherhood of the stars before taking off into space, their survey done.

Even the great Bernie Krigstein  can't enliven this one, despite his trademark page layout that features numerous, small panels. One problem is that the color separation is awful, at least in the copy I'm reading, and this makes it hard to tell what's going on some of the time, especially in the last panel on page two, where it looks like a bunch of animals and birds are wrapped in cellophane.

Carl Mason finds an old locket with mystic symbols scratched into its surface and soon every wish he makes is granted. He becomes greedy and his neighbors and clients begin to resent him. When the police come to arrest him for a swindle, his wishes to escape fail because his wife unknowingly polished all the mystic symbols out of the piece of jewelry. Sam Kweskin's art is below average even for Atlas in 1957 and this three-pager treads well-worn ground.

A pair of old explorers named Brooks and Cain discuss the amazing reappearance of John Calder, who had been missing in the Brazilian jungle for twenty years until Cain saw what looked like a spirit of Calder on the edge of the unexplored territory. Cain followed the spirit deep into the jungle and discovered Calder's body lying next to the legendary tree of life. Dragging the sleeping man out of the jungle, Cain rescued him and explains to Brooks that the tree put Calder in a state of suspended animation and then protected an image of him on the edge of the jungle. Brooks is shocked when Calder walks in and looks as if he hasn't aged in twenty years!

Tony DiPreta's art on "It Waits in the Dark!" is nothing special and the surprise ending is one that has been done before, but the jungle setting and the appearance of some Kivaro (Jivaro) Indians made me give this two stars, making it the least bad story in a dud of an issue.-Jack

In Our Next Issue...
A Double Dose of
Bernie Krigstein!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 156: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 141

March 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #56

Cover by Bill Everett

"Something Is On This Ship!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

"The Metal Master!" (a: Vince Colletta) ★1/2

"More Than a Mortal!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"Hide-Out!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Nothing Can Stop It" (a: Howard O' Donnell) ★★

"The Shock!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★

An aging sailor uses subterfuge and the superstitions of the sea to get himself a good job aboard the Sulu Queen but discovers too late that there might be something to this "haunted ship" nonsense. In the end, he discovers that "Something is On This Ship!" Eye-pleasing Wildey graphics balance out the stale plot.

An artist wishes there were more hours in the day so that he could create more beauty on his canvass so he does what any other painter would do... he builds a sophisticated robot that can paint exactly as he does. But, in the end, should man create artificial beauty, creations without soul, just because he can? I gotta tell you, while I was reading "The Metal Master!," I wished for a robot who could read a lot of these dismal, pretentious Atlas SF tales for me and find something original to say about them. "The Metal Master!" was good for a chuckle or two (chief among them the fact that a painter could suddenly become a brilliant scientist and build an intelligent automaton seemingly on a whim) and its final preachy panel is very prescient in these AI-dominated times. 

Joel Barr is a bit obsessed with William Shakespeare, so much so that Joel is convinced that the Bard was "More Than a Mortal!" How else could one man have concocted such masterpieces of literature? So, Joel makes it his life's work to prove that Shakespeare was... I don't know... a Martian or something? In a slightly off-topic sub-plot, we discover our protagonist has killed his uncle for an inheritance and that revelation plays into the "startling" twist found at the story's climax. This is one brutally bad funny book story. Pete Morisi does his best with the meandering script.

Mobster Rick Dawn makes a pretty penny providing shelter for crooks on the lam but he sure wishes he could get rid of a few of his competitors. Imagine the dough he'd bring in if he were the only game in town! Well, as fate (and Atlas Comics) would have it, when he's making that wish, Dawn is (for some reason) palming a peculiar hunk of glass and it's not long before he gets the news that the cops have raided all the other "Hide-Out!" proprietors in the city. Holy cow, could this worthless piece of glass he found in a deserted hovel be his secret weapon? Yes. Do we get any reasoning for this miracle? What do you think? Rick's inevitable fall comes when he accidentally breaks the bauble and police come to arrest him. Now where will he hide? "Hide-Out!" becomes more and more disjointed as the panels stumble on.

In the three-page "Nothing Can Stop It," a brilliant scientist creates a dissolving formula so that he can break into department stores and steal mink stoles for his gorgeous girlfriend, Carol. No, I'm serious. Despite Carol's pleas that a mink stole really isn't her thing (now, diamonds, that's another story...), the egghead pushes on with his research and creates a formula for an acid that eats through anything. Anything. As the scientist and police look on, the acid makes its way through the earth and heads for China, Armageddon its natural goal. Having had enough, Carol spins and heads for the door, swearing she could never love a man who would destroy the Earth. This one is a hoot, a very short burst of hilarity that came as a perfect tonic after the previous three snoozers. Carol's final reaction, blurting out muffled obscenities and insults, is the bee's knees. The list of brilliant Atlas chemists who used their brains for bad behavior is a long and storied one.

Joe Dillon is a real deadbeat, moving from town to town, staying only long enough to accrue lots of bills and skipping out before the creditors can nab him. His latest residence is a real pit but it's cheap. One night, Joe gets out of bed, trips over a frayed wire, and reaches out to the radiator for support. He gets "The Shock!" of his life in more than one way--Joe is teleported to another city! After interviewing startled passersby (remember, Joe is in his pajamas), he ascertains he's in Nebraska, a thousand miles away from his home. 

For some reason, touching that radiator and receiving a shock at the same time gives Joe the power of teleportation! The wheels begin turning and it's not long before Joe has a plan for a big heist involving the safe at his job site. Joe robs the safe and rushes back to his house but is in for a rude awakening when he discovers the electricity has been shut off due to nonpayment! I giggled through this light, breezy fluff, the twist is a good one, and it's always good to see the dependable Reed Crandall show up in an Atlas comic book.-Peter

Uncanny Tales # 53

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Mud Walks!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★★★

"Guinea Pig!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★1/2

"Inside the House of Shadows" (a: Syd Shores) ★

"The Dreadful Discovery" (a: Angelo Torres) ★1/2

"Dead Silence!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

"Nerve-Wracker!" (a: John Forte) ★

Sadistic Commandant Hass has an almost gleeful way about him as he makes his way around the concentration camp he oversees. Is it the fact that he personally sends so many Jews to their death or is it the huge fortune he's got buried under the camp? When two prisoners inadvertently stumble across Hass's hiding place when they attempt to build a Golem from mud, the commandant has them put to death to keep them quiet.

The war ends and Hass goes to prison for his crimes but is released ten years later. He immediately makes his way to the now-closed camp and digs for his treasure, unaware of the muddy figure making its way towards him. I'd have to go through my notes but I'm 99.9% sure this is the first time I've awarded a four-star medallion to a post-code story and "The Mud Walks!" absolutely merits the distinction. For one, it's a lot edgier than any of its contemporaries; revisiting the holocaust a mere ten years later seems like a very risky proposition, especially for a funny book. Sure, many Atlas yarns have featured sadistic Nazis as their evil protagonists but Hass seems much more realized and believable. There are no panels of the commandant behind a desk giving out orders or grinning wickedly over his cache. The panels depicting the doomed inmates are stark and depressing, a job well done by Orlando. Easily the best post-code story I've read thus far,

In "Guinea Pig!," Parker comes across a spell in an old book that can make wishes come true if the subject will speak a Latin phrase out loud. Afraid of side effects, Parker "befriends" a vagrant in the park and brings him home for a hot meal, later convincing the man to read the aforementioned Latin incantation. Once spoken, the man seems to have the power to make all his wishes come true. Convinced of the book's power, Parker reads the phrase and wishes for the vagrant's death but gets his own comeuppance in a clever twist. 

Finally released after fifteen years in the pokey, Charlie Cowan hurries to the spot where he buried thirty-six grand in stolen cash before his partners can catch him. Loot in hand, Charlie sees his old mates coming for him and ducks into a haunted house. Once "Inside the House of Shadows," Charlie discovers the rotted old structure is a gateway to the past. Charlie arrives at the moment he was caught by the cops fifteen years ago. He has only moments to make a fateful choice. You have a choice too and I urge you to skip this one.

Two scientists search for the elusive white whale, a mammal with a brain similar to that of man, but when they finally find a specimen, it gives them pause to reflect on life, destiny, and man's inability to make a good cup of coffee. "The Dreadful Discovery" isn't quite dreadful but it is dreadfully boring and, in the end, quite pretentious. The quasi-Williamson-esque Torres art usually can pep up a dragging storyline but here Angelo's muscular graphics just sit flatly on the paper.

In the maudlin, predictable three-pager, "Dead Silence!," a surgeon pleads with his colleagues to perform a Thoracic Aortic Dissection Repair on a patient in the ER but his cries of anguish fall on deaf ears. They seem to be oblivious to the fact that he's even in the operating room, unmasked and in his street clothes. That is, of course, because they are operating on him! This is a plot that could be placed way in the back of the Atlas Vault of Ideas, ignored for a few years and no one would miss it. While we're at it, hide the story's O'Donnell art in that vault as well. In the equally bad "Nerve-Wracker!," a bored millionaire loves to play elaborate practical jokes on his friend but, in a convoluted and incredibly dopey climax, the buffoon gets his just desserts. Speaking of dessert, I'm leaving this tuna jello behind and searching for another "The Mud Walks!" Pray for me!-Peter

World of Fantasy #6

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Worm's-Eye View" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"The Three Heads" (a: Dave Berg) ★★

"The Machine That Talked Too Much!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★1/2

"He Saw It In the Swamp!" (a: John Giunta (?) and George Roussos)★

"The Child!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★1/2

"Monkey Man!" (a: John Forte) ★

After fleeing the U.S. following an armed robbery, Luke Dowd hides out in the Amazon Rainforest, where he discovers the secret herb that Jivaros use to shrink heads. Luke is determined to use his knowledge for personal gain, so when he returns to the U.S. he evades the police and commits robberies by shrinking himself and squeezing through tiny spaces. "The Worm's-Eye View" is his undoing when he encounters a hungry cat! Luke hides between walls and finds himself stuck in place when the herb wears off and he reverts to full size. The police discover him trapped!

Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man was published in 1956, so it's possible Carl Wessler read it and used the idea for this story. Richard Doxsee's art is above average but the four-page limit forces events to an abrupt conclusion.

On the run from the cops, a crook ducks into an old curio shop where he finds a Central American statue with three heads. He picks up the statue and wishes he could be elsewhere. Suddenly he's spinning and is dumped in the grass outside a ruined temple. He wishes the temple were new again, goes for another spin, and finds himself in a new temple filled with treasure. The man fights off a temple guard and one of the statue's heads breaks off in the melee. More guards approach and the man wishes to escape, but the wish fails! Back in the curio shop, the proprietor finds the statue on the floor, one head broken off, and wonders what happened. He thinks of the legend that the idol grants one wish per head and wonders how the object ended up broken on the floor.

"The Three Heads" is a fairly standard Atlas tale, where there's the germ of an idea but the story is too short to develop it and the surprise ending is a disappointment. Dave Berg's art is nothing special, which makes me think that his years of drawing "The Lighter Side" for Mad were successful more due to the writing than the art, which never changed much.

A scientist named Rupert Rawley invents a machine that can identify and locate criminals just by feeding it a physical clue found at the scene of the crime. The cops are amazed that the machine works, but it can't seem to lead them to the money that was stolen by the thieves! Rawley tinkers and tinkers but nothing works until the cops use the machine when its inventor is not around. It turns out that the machine was able to find all the loot after all, but Rawley was keeping it for himself!

Anyone reading "The Machine That Talked Too Much!" knows early on that Rupert Rawley found the money and was keeping it. The only thing keeping us reading is to find out how and when the cops will see the light. As usual, Bob Powell's graphics are a highlight; his attention to detail and his ability to draw striking panels have not changed since his Golden Age work.

On his deathbed, Ted's uncle gives him a strange bequest--a parrot that belonged to the pirate, Jean Lafitte, and that will bring back one piece of Spanish gold per day when asked. The old man warns Ted not to ask for more but, after his uncle has died, Ted gets impatient and takes the parrot to the swamps outside New Orleans, hoping it will lead him to the treasure. Instead, Jean Lafitte appears and gives Ted a whack. Forever after, Ted is a broken man, haunting the bars with tales of his failure.

The GCD says John Giunta may have penciled "He Saw It In the Swamp!," which was inked by George Roussos. Whoever is responsible has a lot to answer for, because it's just plain bad, both in story and in art.

John and Betty's one-week-old baby boy astounds the world when he begins to talk in coherent sentences. Soon, "The Child" is growing fast and announces that his evolution was speeded up one million years. By age four, he knows it all and has had enough, so he builds a spaceship and takes off, leaving a note for Mom and Dad. They hope for the best for mankind's future.

It's a bit odd that this story manages to be both depressing and hopeful in a mere three pages. It's depressing that everyone doesn't know what to do with the kid and ignores his helpful suggestions for things like conquering diseases, yet it's hopeful (in the usual, sappy Atlas way) because, in the last panel, Dad tells Mom that the child will come back someday to a better mankind. Good luck with that!

"Shanghai" Slader is a crooked sailor who hangs around Miami Beach with a monkey on his shoulder. He tries to teach the monkey to rob purses and pick pockets, but it doesn't go well, despite Slader's attempts to teach his pet and his constant repetition of "monkey sees, monkey does." Slader and his monkey stow away on a ship and end up in the Bahamas, where the sailor takes a job as handyman at the J.P. Henderson estate. That night, Slader robs Henderson's safe and shoots the homeowner when he's confronted. Unfortunately, the monkey finally follows Slader's advice of "money sees, monkey does," picking up the gun and shooting the crooked sailor.

Dreadful stuff. John Forte's art has gone from wooden to just plain ugly, and "Monkey Man!" lacks anything resembling an interesting character or situation. The ending is no surprise to any reader paying attention.-Jack

Next Week...
Jack and Peter Plead With Their Readers
to "Hang On... The Good Stuff Has Got to Be
Right Around the Corner!"