Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 164: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 149

June 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #62

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Secret of the Pet Shop!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★

"No Way Out!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

"Something is Outside the Door!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★★

"Thru the Dark Tunnel!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Secret!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"It Comes Out at Night" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★★

How does Mr. Allen make a profit from his pet shop when he practically gives away his merchandise to all the neighborhood brats? When pressed, Mr. Allen will confide in folks that he lives for the joy in a child's eyes and that he has a "private means" of his own to make ends meet. Four local hoods begin noticing Mr. Allen's way of doing things and force the old man to hand over his private stash. Bad idea.

"The Secret of the Pet Shop!" is one of those Atlas tales that probably would have had more teeth had it been written during the pre-code era. You've got menacing youths and the big reveal (SPOILER ALERT: Mr. Allen's pets can transform into giant beasts when provoked) would have led to bloodshed had not the CCA been looking over the writer's shoulder at all times. As it is, it's a nicely illustrated JD tale with a safe, happy ending.

In the jungles of South America, Joe Foss is working on a railroad when he accidentally breaks through a rock wall and discovers a city of gold behind it. Thinking nothing of his co-workers, Foss sets off an explosion to make the hole larger, chops chunks off the gold buildings and then sets to work getting his haul out of the city. That's when the ancient Incan tribe shows up. "No Way Out!" has some spectacular Torres art (again, think Williamson, Krenkel, and even Frazetta, style-wise) but the script goes nowhere... literally. The final panels are of the tribe marching Joe back to their city for some undisclosed fate, as if there should be a fifth page of content

With his incredible new telescopic lens, Horace Peyton is able to take photos of objects millions of miles away, including the farthest planet in the galaxy, Desida! Horace takes his picture but, as the hours pass and the photo develops, Horace notices strange, shadowy shapes forming on the picture. Soon, the figures become clearer; they are monsters from outer space coming closer to Earth! What in the world can Horace do to keep these creatures from reaching the observatory? The goofy script and sharp Bob Powell art are a winning combination that make "Something Is Outside the Door!" a fun little distraction. When the things arrive at Horace's door and begin pounding, there's legitimate suspense, an element not found in too many Atlas strips of 1957.

Harry Hilton gives his buddies down at Pop's General Store hell for being so henpecked and refusing to accompany Harry on his quail hunting expedition. Then Harry gets home and the ol' ball-and-chain puts Harry in his place. If Harry doesn't get to painting the kitchen immediately (it does look like crap), he can expect bread and water for supper. The Mrs. ain't up for arguing. Well, Harry ain't one to take crap from the pals around Pop's kettle stove, so he shows the old lady and gets up really early to head out for hunting.

He and pal Fred Selby (the only bachelor in town) get separated in the forest when it starts raining and Harry finds himself in a strange cave. Exiting the rear, our he-man discovers a sunshiny day. Figuring Fred headed on home, Harry plans on minimizing the damage by painting the kitchen for the rest of the day but, once entering the house, he meets up with the Mrs., who walks right by him without a word. More ominous is the exact duplicate of Harry painting the kitchen. What gives? Who knows? "Thru the Dark Tunnel!" is another of Carl Wessler's magical scripts that gives no explanation for events and then gives no apology. There's a Harry-twin, a dark cave, a happy ending (Harry journeys back through the cave, heads back home, and everything is normal again), a cautionary lesson for rebellious hubbies, and come up with your own reasoning, ya dumb eight-year-old kid.

Combining two of the favorite pastimes in the Atlas Universe of 1957, "The Secret!" sees a quartet of stinkin' Commies drilling through a stone wall to find out what the big new American military weapon could be. The men are astonished when two American agents/scientists (?) materialize before their eyes and admit the big secret is invisibility! 

Young Billy Grayson can levitate, lifting himself into the skies and flying, but his ma and pa (think, oh, I don't know, the Kents, back in Smallville?) discourage him from doing so. Ever since Ma and Pa found him wandering the countryside and took him in as their own, they knew he was special and should keep his gifts undercover, lest he be taken away by the government and studied. So Billy promises he'll keep it on the downlow.

Years pass and Grayson grows up to be a respected astronomer, blazing new trails for science. As an elderly man, now retired, he looks up to the stars and remembers his gift for flight. Up, up, and away he goes right to another planet, where he is welcomed home by the officials who placed him on Earth to study our culture. Billy Grayson is finally home! I have to say that "It Comes Out at Night" (a really dumb title, but I guess better than the obvious alternative, "The Man Who Could Fly to the Stars With No Problem Breathing!") is a whole lot better than my cynical synopsis. Sure, there's more than a hint of Superman mythos, but our uncredited scripter does a good job of keeping sappiness at arm's length and the climactic reveal comes off as heartwarming rather than maudlin. The Doxsee work adds an exclamation point.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #47

Cover by Bill Everett

"Bring Back My Body!" (a: George Woodbridge) ★★

"It Hides Under the Ground!" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

"They Can't Find Me!" (a: Manny Stallman & Bob Fujitani[?]) ★1/2

"The Blinding Flash!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Face in the Darkness!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

"He Sits in the Fog!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★★

Craine has a special power; his spirit can leave his body and he can drift anywhere he wants while his body remains in a yoga-trance. Rather than do something good for mankind, Craine decides he's going to kill Burton. Why? Because Burton gets all the attention down at the clubhouse and that really irritates Craine.

So, one afternoon, he lets his butler know he'll be meditating and sends his spirit over to Burton's flat. There he attempts to murder the man but quickly discovers that Burton might have an equally effective countermeasure Craine had not planned for. Realizing he'll have to replan the deed, he heads back to his body, only to discover he had a heart attack while his spirit was elsewhere. "Bring Back My Body!" will probably elicit more chuckles than chills but it does have a decently grim finale. Craine is just as dumb as your average Atlas scientist, possessing a power he could use for good but opting for evil just out of jealousy and spite. Some decent work by newcomer George Woodbridge, who'll only hang around for a few months and contribute five stories to the Atlas post-code H/SF library before settling in for a long run over at Mad.

Looking to get out of the country in order to avoid the service, 25-year-old Otto Krantz uses his make-up genius to apply prosthetics that help him look like a man in his 60s! Then, while researching how old men talk and behave at a nearby museum, he overhears two elderly gentleman discussing Odin's Chariot, a mythological vehicle used to transport dead men to Valhalla. One of the old guys remarks how he'd give most of his fortune to own the chariot.

Ding! Ding! Ding! goes the bell in Otto's head and before you can say "Ragnarok" he's signed a contract with the men to find the chariot (believed to be buried in the hills of Norway) and receive a fortune in dough for his troubles. When he gets to Norway, Otto assembles  lumber and paint and creates a chariot, believing the old men foolish enough to pay for anything. To authenticate his "find," he hires men from the local village to dig the thing up and sign affidavits to that effect. When the chariot has been unearthed, Otto heads into the hills only to discover the workers have unwittingly stumbled upon the actual chariot! "It Hides Under the Ground!" is another amusing, semi-entertaining strip, with most of the giggles going to opening panels, where Otto lays out his grand plan to avoid the draft!

"They Can't Find Me!" details a disenchanted military scientist who's working on an invisibility formula but can't get anyone to pay attention to his theories. Then the stinkin' Commies arrive at his door and promise him the moon if he'll only steal the American government's top secret Process X-9 and bring it to their headquarters. Now he's pissed at both sides so he gives the men a little demonstration of what he believes will be the most revolutionary weapon in the history of mankind. He takes his serum and stands back, daring the men to see him. They all laugh because he's clear as day. Too late, this nitwit egghead discovers his formula makes him invisible only to himself! 

"The Blinding Flash!" is a total groaner about an egghead who invents an "Atom Power Machine" that can project one's image into the past. There, ostensibly, the image can change the future. The scientist can't get anyone interested in his gizmo (everyone is "too afraid of the consequences") until a two-bit hood needs to go back in time and find the lighter he dropped near a safe he cracked. Hilarity and huge coincidences ensue. 

In "The Face in the Darkness!," wealthy businessman and part-time mystic arts enthusiast J. Alfred Torgan searches high and low for a swami who can actually connect him to the dead. When he reveals a seer to be a fake, he runs them out of town. But when he stumbles upon Swami Leon, he gets a strange feeling that this guy is for real. Truly awful writing (slowly... piece by gauze-like piece, like a cloud buffeted into a strange configuration by high winds in a storm-blackened sky...) and amateurish art make this one to skip at all costs. 

Last up is "He Sits in the Fog!," wherein Carter tries to convince his business partner, Prentice, to float him a loan against the company's assets. Prentice refuses, citing several recent similar loans and a high probability that Carter's gambling debts might bankrupt the company. That's when Carter turns to murder. He fixes Prentice's breaks and, just like that, Carter is sole owner of their business. As he boasts of getting away with murder, a fog surrounds him and gets thicker; we learn eventually that Carter has died in the gas chamber. That final panel is quite effective but the build-up is odd; the protagonist brags about getting away with the crime but we're never even let in on the investigation of the case. We simply move from the act to the punishment. Still, that grim climax beats anything else in this mediocre issue of Journey Into Mystery.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #58

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Graveyard" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"Who Waits in the Fog!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

"Age of the Iron Men!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★1/2

"The Thought Stealer!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★1/2

"He Hides By Night!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"I Dare You to Move!" (a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito[?]) ★★

The captain of a ship called the North Star has a plan: he'll steer his ship into a "Graveyard" of weeds in the Atlantic and collect the insurance money, certain that he and his first mate will be rescued by the Rose Wilson. As the ship is drawn into the weeds, the crew abandons it, but the captain and first mate stay aboard to make sure it's hopelessly stuck. They finally exit in a small rowboat and are dismayed to see that the Rose Wilson is also among the ships in the graveyard.

Richard Doxsee could have done more to illustrate this story, perhaps showing more of the abandoned ships in a moody way, but instead he chose to depict numerous panels of the captain and the first mate talking to each other. At least the story has a beginning, middle, and end, sans Martians or Commies.

Abner Gough runs from his miserly uncle's house, clutching a valise of stolen cash and worried that he will be discovered to have killed the old man. In the fog, he encounters a mysterious man who says that the police are on his trail and hands him tickets to a ship headed for Paris! Abner is unable to enjoy Paris, certain that everyone is watching him and that they know what he's done. The shadowy figure gives him tickets to Rome, where the same thing happens, then to Athens, Cairo, and Johannesburg. Finally, the figure reveals himself to be a dead ringer for Abner, who realizes he can't run from himself and turns himself into the police. They don't know what he's talking about, since the coroner said that his uncle died of a heart attack!

"Who Waits in the Fog!" suffers from the Atlas curse of having too many twists, none of which are particularly interesting, and from the mediocre stylings of Frank Bolle, which don't make any of the fog-enshrouded mystery evocative.

In the year 2026 (!) engineer Marc Braydon creates humanoid robots that begin to take over the jobs of mankind. As the decades pass, the "Age of the Iron Men!" takes hold and robots gradually enslave humans until people revolt and turn on their machine overlords in 2056. But wait! It's only a movie! The robots in the audience are anxious that humans might really revolt, unaware that underground meetings are already underway.

I'm not well-versed enough in the history of science fiction to say where this idea originated, but I have to hand it to Carl Wessler and Joe Maneely for telling a captivating story in a mere three pages. It's fun to read it 70 years later and compare what happens in the comic to what has happened in real life.

An amateur chemist named Amos Kirk accidentally invents a gas that allows him to become "The Thought Stealer!" He can see what other people are thinking and, like every other Atlas character, decides to use this newfound ability to get rich quick. After trying to blackmail three strangers, it turns out that they were all innocent and Amos misread what he saw in their heads. Unfortunately, one of them turns out to be a detective, and he sees to it that Amos's blackmailing days are over.

We can always count on Mort Drucker to turn in solid work and this story is no exception. The plot is one we've seen before.

After a robbery, Freddy Galt kills his partner, Joe, and goes on the run with a satchel of stolen loot. Thinking the police are on his trail, "He Hides By Night!" and follows a shadowy figure into a cave, squeezing his thin frame through a crevice. Night after night, the figure's arm reaches through the crevice to pass Freddy food until Freddy is too fat to exit and the figure reveals itself to be Joe's vengeful ghost.

Bottom of the barrel stuff, this story features some of the worst art we've seen from "Solly" (as he signs his name on page one) Brodsky in an Atlas comic. 

Mason makes it to Tibet, in search of the cave of light, where anyone who enters will live forever. The High Lama says the cave is not for ordinary men, but when Mason holds him at gunpoint, the Lama leads Mason to the cave, where he meets the wise old Li Orn. Feeling rays of light passing through him, Mason feels immortal but is shocked when Li Orn explains that his life will end the moment he leaves the cave. Uncertain as to the truth, Mason is stuck inside, as if Li Orn had said: "I Dare You to Move!"

The GCD questions whether Mike Esposito inked Ross Andru's pencils this time out, and I don't think so, since the panels don't have the usual cartoony look that we see from that duo. Instead, it has the feel of a page by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, oddly enough--see the panel reproduced here.-Jack

Mystic #60

Cover by John Severin

"The Children's Hour!" (a: Gene Colan) ★ 1/2

"The Mystery of the Tattooed Man!" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★ 1/2

"You Only Live Twice!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"What Happened to Doctor Dorrm" (a: Sid Check) ★★1/2

"The Changing Man!" (a: John Forte[?] & George Klein) ★★

"Nothing Can Save Us!" (a: Jay Scott Pike) ★1/2

Hiding from the law, Duncan Larkin and two partners in crime hide out at the home of his Aunt Alice and Uncle Jim, chasing away the children who play outside. The first time the kids return, Duncan chases them away again, but the second time, when he hears their voices by the nearby swimming hole, Duncan finds not children but gremlins, who drag him into a hole in the ground. The cops soon arrive to take away his colleagues.

Once again, an Atlas twist comes not out of left field, but out of a far stranger place. "The Children's Hour!" features fair to middling art by Colan, which means it's better than what we get from most of the Atlas regulars. Why do gremlins play outside the home of Aunt Alice and Uncle Jim? Your guess is as good as mine.

Curtin and his gang have to get away fast, even if it means forfeiting half a million bucks. They charter a plane and head for Haiti, but engine trouble means a crash landing in the water, where they are rescued by an old sailor who has a treasure map tattooed on his chest. Curtin and his gang force the man to take them to a nearby island, where they dig down fifty feet before finding millions of dollars in gold and jewels. The tattooed man fades away and reveals himself to be the ghost of Captain Kidd; too bad Curtin and his gang are so far down that there's no way to climb out!

Al Williamson and Ralph Mayo do stellar work on "The Mystery of the Tattooed Man!," which makes up for the plot. I'm not sure four men could dig down fifty feet in the course of a day, especially after surviving a plane crash and time in the water, but I'll stop quibbling and enjoy the visuals.

The cops interrogate a man with amnesia who was found with a silver cigarette case in his possession. Accused of killing Paul Winslow, the man runs for it, climbs a bridge, falls into the water, and vanishes! Suddenly, he's observing the events of a week before and understands that his cousin caused amnesia by tripping him and is now trying to frame him for murder. The man turns out to be Paul Winslow himself, and when his memory returns he clears everything up for the police.

Far from a classic Bond novel or film, "You Only Live Twice!" in this instance is yet another piece of birdcage liner created by the dynamic duo of Carl Wessler and Robert Q. Sale. Sale's characters are just plain ugly and their poses sometimes defy human anatomy. It's so bad it's almost proto-Underground Comix.

Beneath the waters of a hidden lake, somewhere in Africa, live a race of fish people who have long had to limit their population growth due to lack of space. Brilliant Dr. Dorrm leads them to the surface in airtight tanks; they ride to the nearby sea and enter it, certain that it will provide all the room they need to expand and prepare for world domination. If only they'd realized that they can't survive in salt water!

It had to either be air or salt water! The highlight of this three-pager is the terrific artwork by Sid Check, whose fish people look back to (or forward to) the denizens of Atlantis in Sub-Mariner comics. The panels underwater are colored blue and black, which makes the panels above the lake seem even more bright and colorful.

Burt Carter returns to his wife Lil after disappearing for three days and explains how a bolt of lightning made him "The Changing Man!" Burt was riding home one night on a bus as a thunderstorm roared outside. He was looking at the other passengers and imagining that their day jobs were easier than his. A bolt of lightning hit the bus and suddenly Burt found himself in the body of a man he thought was a clerk--he's really a steeplejack, washing windows on a skyscraper! Burt falls and finds himself in the body of the next man, who digs tunnels through rock way below a river! Burt is trapped in a cave-in and finds himself in a third body; this guy is a test pilot! A fire erupts in  his plane and he's back home in his own body, explaining what happened. But wait! There was another man on the bus! Burt suddenly finds himself transformed into the tubby driver, promising his wife he'll be back to normal tomorrow.

I got a chuckle out of the surprise ending, which makes no sense in light of what happened before (Burt did not change back to himself or return home any of the other times) but is fun, nonetheless. The GCS notes that George Klein did the inks and either Klein or John Forte did the pencils--I agree, since some of the panels definitely look like Forte's work but the strip as a whole does not.

Frank Emmons invents a TV that can tune in someone anywhere in the world, but he's annoyed that his teenaged brother, Barry, keeps tinkering with his inventions. When Frank gives a demonstration to bigwigs from the TV biz, he's shocked to tune in a man who appears to be in the polar region but is really in New York City in 1967! A young inventor's machine to provide cheap refrigeration to every home went haywire and now the ice is moving south from the North Pole, covering everything in its wake. When the man from the future tells Frank the name of the inventor of the ice machine, Frank runs into his lab and smashes Barry's new invention, disproving the claim that "Nothing Can Save Us!"

Jay Scott Pike turns in decent work on the last story in a pretty good issue of Mystic. No reader has any doubt as to the inventor of the icemaker, but the story moves satisfyingly from beginning to end and the art has a '60s DC feel to it.-Jack

Next Week...
The First Casualty of the Atlas Implosion.
RIP Spellbound!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 163: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 148

May 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystic #59

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Sleep-Walker!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

"Jigsaw" (a: Mort Meskin & George Roussos) ★★

"Something Waits on the Mountain!" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

"What Happened to Hassen?" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★

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

"Stormy Night!" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

(r: Beware #7)

Greedy hypnotist Bruno Alban puts Jeffry Hamilton under a trance and learns that, in a previous life, Jeffry was a pirate who stole millions in gold and stashed it away in a safe spot. Leaving his subject under a trance, Albans has the pirate speak and lead him to the treasure. Sure enough, Albans finds the buried chest but isn't paying attention to the pirate's ramblings and misses the part about the booby trap he rigged hundreds of years before. Ka-Boom! Hey, "The Sleep-Walker!" is nothing new, obviously inspired by the Bridey Murphy fad, but it's a lot of fun and I love Doxsee's simple but effective penciling evocative of Reed Crandall. And, hey, someone actually dies in this strip!

The stinkin' Commies send some agents over to steal some of our top-secret materials. In order to break into the base holding said materials, one of the agents uses a gizmo to make him invisible. Thank goodness the Commies are pretty stupid cuz the gizmo doesn't benefit from the cloak of invisibility. In the end, the Good Guys (US) knew what the Reds were up to and laid a booby trap reminiscent of those used by pirates in the first strip this issue. "Jigsaw" would have been a lot more clever without the final three panels of exposition but the Meskin/Roussos art is pretty good.

Somewhere near San Rico lies a deadly patch of air where jets have been slamming into impenetrable barriers and crashing. Also, hey, what about the cattle that seem to be disappearing? The Air Force sends two of its crack pilots, Captains Luro and Bozza, to investigate. As they fly their jets near the danger zone, they are startled and amazed by the sight of two huge vultures flying right at them! The pilots follow the birds back to their aerie, where their master, Dr. Carlos Vega, awaits.

Once Luro and Bazzo set their jets down and approach, Vega explains that he's raised the giant birds, known as "Awks," from eggs and plans to use them to become dictator of San Rico. The boys hoof it to their planes, fire them up, and return to blast the buzzards (and their master) from the sky. The world lets out a collective sigh. How can you not love a dopey strip such as "Something Waits on the Mountain!" which, for goodness sakes, was released a couple months before the premiere of The Giant Claw? Both projects have a serious tone to them that belies the fact that neither should be taken seriously. The Krigstein art is icing on the cake; I'll bet Bernie was laughing the entire time he was at his drawing board.

Abdullah Hassen rules over Khana with an iron fist, having taken control and forced out the previous rulers, the Mafas. Hassen's chief hobby is arresting and imprisoning anyone he doesn't like. One night, a stranger breaks into the palace wine cellar and is seized by the guards. When the intruder is brought before Hassen, the dictator realizes the man is one of the Mafas; Ras Mafa begs the evil lord to allow him to take just the one bottle of wine. Hassen refuses and opens the bottle to taste the vintage wine. Big mistake. "What Happened to Hassen?" has a decent twist but its cartoony graphics are off-putting at times.

"The Fatal Words!" is a humorous three-pager about an old miser who discovers his dog can talk and attempts to make millions exploiting Rover. The dog, not happy with the proceedings, clams up. It's only three pages but it got a few chuckles out of me and the final panel is a keeper. On a "Stormy Night!," the SS Belle Lune is heading right into the biggest hurricane of all time when, suddenly, the engines stop. The men in the engine room have been turned to stone. What the heck happened? Well, the Captain soon discovers his ship has been boarded by the "Conquerors," aliens from a distant planet who are here to scout for an impending invasion. Long story short, Earth is saved by the hurricane, which the little space buggers never counted on. The art and story are both microwaved. Let's pretend this better-than-average issue went out on the high note of "The Fatal Words!," shall we?-Peter

Strange Tales #58

Cover by Bill Everett

"He Floats Through the Air" 

(a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★

"Menace from the Nether World!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★

"The Night of October Third!" (a: Dave Berg) ★

"Man Lost" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"No Place on Earth!" (a: John Giunta) ★★

"The Secret of the Black Tube" (a: Matt Baker) ★★

Brilliant, a genius, and really smart to boot, Earl Ferrol has invented a way for man to fly without the restraint of a jet. He simply jumps out a window and glides. For one nanosecond, Earl gives pause and considers what this breakthrough could mean for modern man... then he steals the jewels from a nearby apartment. Struck by money-lust, Earl goes on a whirlwind theft flight before the cops finally nab him in an ironic twist of fate. Believe me, the Williamson/ Mayo art is the only spark to this groaner. Just once I'd like to see a criminal mastermind scratch his chin and decide he'll use his new invention for something other than personal gain. There are honest geniuses out there in the Atlas Universe, aren't there?

While at an office costume party (dressed as a sorcerer), Bill Farrin is given the unpleasant news by his boss that he's been fired for not being glib enough. Before Bill can successfully argue his future with the company, the two men are approached by a strange elfish creature who mistakes Bill for his "master." The men are led down a stairway into a dungeon where wait a handful of robed men. Before long, Bill and his boss are told that this band of magicians are about to take control of the world and were just waiting for the Big Poobah (whom they mistake for Bill, obviously) to lead the way. Using his noodle, Bill talks the magicians into putting off the attack for another thousand years when the time will be right. Back at the party, Bill's boss is impressed and gives the man a promotion. Immensely silly stuff this "Menace from the Nether World!" but, as with the previous story, the art keeps you along for the full ride. 

On "The Night of October Third!" salesman Cal Nevin breaks down in a remote part of the country and hoofs it to a lone little house. Inside, the man of the house, a brilliant and really smart Atlas scientist, has been toiling away on a "matter duplicator," a gizmo that can replicate anything (well, anything small enough to fit into its teensy drawer). Dollar signs (literally) flashing before his eyes, Cal waits until the scientist hits the sheets and then starts cloning a ten-dollar bill. Unfortunately, the greedy man is interrupted by the scientist who is shocked at Cal's avarice and demands he stop. In the ensuing melee, a fire breaks out and the scientist's lab is destroyed. The old man ponders a lifetime of work up in smoke while Cal regrets that he didn't have a Ben Franklin on him. 

In the three-page "Man Lost," an explorer spends months traipsing through the African jungles, searching for a scientist who had gone missing years before. He stumbles upon the brilliant Dr. Hansel in a small village, only to discover the egghead has relinquished his throne as "Most Brilliantest Professor in the Atlas Universe" to devote his life to building doll houses! Disgusted, the explorer turns and heads back to the States before Hansel can explain that he's discovered a race of little people! 

Rod Phillips kisses his wife and kids goodbye then heads to the office, where he holds down a 9-to-5 at the Brilliant Atlas Scientist Company. Just another day. But then tragedy strikes when Rod enters the building and no one knows who he is. Like so many protagonists before him in virtually the same situation, Rod is perplexed. He heads back home where his wife tells him she doesn't recognize him and she's waiting for her husband to come home... after he's been gone for a year! What the Dickens? Rod realizes he's disappeared from human consciousness just like his old partner, Harry, and several other brilliant scientists who were working on a "time formula theory."

Suddenly, Harry himself approaches Rod on the street and begs him to follow him to a secret location. There, Rod meets up with all the members of the Disappeared Brilliant Atlas Scientist Club. Putting all their massive thinking caps together, the men of science deduce that something just isn't right, that some unknown force from outer space or another dimension is attempting to thwart their plans for a "time formula theory!" In the end, the unknown powers decide to allow the men to go back to their ordinary lives sans any memory of the theory. You think my half-assed synopsis is complicated, just try reading the word balloons on the final page of "No Place on Earth!" Still, for that thrill alone (certainly not for the cookie-cutter Giant art), I'd semi-sorta recommend this as a decent way to waste a couple minutes.

In the "Stinkin' Commie" Department this issue, we have "The Secret of the Black Tube," wherein said stereotypical Wessler Commies kidnap an American scientist, hoping to discover the secret of his new invention, a black tube that the enemy believes promotes mind reading. It's the typical "the other side is as stupid as we are smart" hogwash that permeated the Atlas titles in the 1950s (and before you jump on me, I'm not saying the "other side" was right; I'm just wondering if we were ever wrong) but I do have to admit the final reveal (the real secret of the tube) is pretty funny.-Peter

World of Fantasy #7

Cover by Bill Everett

"Wheels of Doom!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★

"Someone in the Flames" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"The Girl Who Didn't Exist!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★1/2

"Run for Your Life" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Hidden Hex!" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★★

"The Man in Grey!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★★

Rodney Ames and his brother Edwin are getting up in years and their business is in dire need of cash. Edwin complains about the young guys on motorcycles who make the streets a menace but Rodney thinks it looks like fun and buys one on time. When he zooms off, he looks 40 years younger! Rodney enters a race to win a $5000 prize while Edwin stays home and worries. During the race, Rodney runs another rider off the track to help a third rider win the prize. When he gets home, Rodney discovers that the winner was Edwin, who had also bought a bike and transformed into his younger self!

Manny Stallman's art again reminds me of Jack Kirby's work in spots. The plot in "Wheels of Doom!" is silly and I wish there were more of a focus on the bad young men zooming their cycles through town. 

On the run from the cops, Crane sees Ancient Mayans worshipping at a temple. He faints and, on waking, sees an Indian whom he thinks must be a figment of his imagination. He is taken to the plantation of Juan Lopez, who explains that the local Indians still worship Quetzalcoatl, believing that the god appears in the fires on the pyramid, robed in feathers. Crane cooks up a scheme and dresses like the god, planning to control the natives but surprised to see "Someone in the Flames." The Indians catch him and throw him in a cell, where he is visited by Quetzalcoatl himself! The Big Q turns out to be none other than Lopez, who reveals that he dresses as the god to control the Indians.

The first two stories in this issue are credited to Carl Wessler and Jack Oleck in the GCD and, sadly, Oleck's tale is even worse than Wessler's. So much for my faint hope that new blood might improve the writing at Atlas.

Nathan Finch buys a big seaside house on the New England coast for a low price and is unconcerned that it's said to be haunted by "The Girl Who Didn't Exist!" She's a pretty gal named Johanna and her ghost appears on the widow's walk one night when Nathan gets dressed up to resemble the whaler she'd loved. Romance blossoms and Nathan goes to the wharf one night to leave with her on a whaling ship. She reveals that she knew who he was all along and they agree to keep their torrid affair going at the house.

For once, the ghost is really a ghost and not a Martian or a projection or a trick by the cops! That has to be worth something, right? The art by Tony DiPreta isn't very impressive.

Ignoring his father Ivan's advice to "Run for Your Life," Jan Hublo is captured at an anti-Communist revolt in his Eastern European country. Ivan finds a book on sorcery and, the next morning, conjures a cloud that enters the prison where Jan is held but fails to set him free. Attempts with fire and invisibility the next day also fail, and the day after that, evil Col. Rokell orders Jan to be shot at dawn, only to find that the young man has vanished! When the colonel rushes out to find Jan he is mistaken for the prisoner, arrested, and executed by firing squad.

Reading an anti-Communist story by Carl Wessler that is illustrated by Robert Sale makes death by firing squad look good in comparison. There is really nothing positive to say about this one.

Wealthy Richard Knox buys a farm in Pennsylvania Dutch country and orders his workman to paint over all the hex signs because he thinks they're silly superstitions. Right away, the community is shaken by a big storm, a fire, and a tornado. The neighbors aren't happy but Knox won't back down. Eventually, everyone and everything calms down. Knox does not realize that his farm contains "The Hidden Hex!" that grew up in the middle of his crops when his workman planted them just so.

Sam Kweskin's art is not bad and I gave this one an extra half star for the early appearance of a crop circle in a comic book. Did Carl Wessler know that they would be a big thing in a few decades?

In the year 6956, a Troubleshooter escapes from the locked closet where he was held, bound and gagged. He reports to his superior officer that he was slugged by a Destroyer, who took his orders and time-travel clearance. The troubleshooters travel to the past to prevent dangerous discoveries from being made, while the Destroyers do the opposite. The troubleshooter rushes back to the 20th century but is too late to prevent the Destroyer from whispering in the ear of a man in a lab and telling him the final element that will lead to creation of an explosive that will destroy the world. Fortunately, the man in whose ear the secret was whispered is only a janitor, who has no idea what the Destroyer was talking about!

Grey Morrow's solid artwork elevates this story, which benefits from an intriguing concept and a conclusion that I did not see coming. Easily the best story this issue, "The Man in Gray!" saves World of Fantasy #7 from being consigned to the recycling bin.-Jack

Next Week...
Hey, At Least We've
Got the Art, Right?

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 162: Atlas/Marvel Post-Code Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 147

May 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #57

Cover by Bill Everett and Carl Burgos (?)

"The Man in Black!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"Smash-Up!" (a: Syd Shores) ★1/2

"The Man Who Stole the Sun!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"When Vernon Vanished" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"It Happens at Night!" (a: Fred Kida) ★

"Someone is Following" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

In an attempt to further his control over his people, Buloff the dictator declares a national holiday in his own name and proclaims that all his subjects must smile on this day of celebration. Though his flunkies warn him this might actually cause more consternation than celebration, Buloff stands firm.

While the festival is going on, "The Man in Black!" suddenly appears on the street, sporting one of the most frowniest frowns ever to grace a human face. When he learns of this act of disobedience, Buloff orders his guards to arrest the man but when they attempt a capture, the protestor disappears. We discover that the stranger was actually from another dimension where everything is the counterpart to Earth (his frown is a smile, etc.). The man in black is gone but the seeds of rebellion have been planted.

Yeah, that climax is pretty silly and a whole lot of preach but I gotta say this tale sure sounds familiar, as if ripped from the pages of today's headlines. We thought Atlas might score a bullseye on space flight and time travel someday but it turns out the prediction of a dangerous, egotistical dictator who loves to slap his name on everything he comes in contact with and sends secret police out to do his dirty work was the most on-the-money prophecy ever.

Two men crash their small plane in an uncharted territory of the Yucatan jungle and discover an ancient race of men who drink from a fountain of youth and really hate outsiders. After being captured, the two explorers escape and briefly debate heading back for some of that fabulous water but decide that it's a beverage no normal man should drink. "Smash-Up!" begins with an exciting adventure into the jungle and sorta sputters out right in the middle of a debate about ancient races and eternal youth. The Syd Shores art is so-so, with some panels showing a certain style and flair while others look like poor Syd fell asleep on his pencil and just sorta made lines on the paper.

Joe Hill is jackhammerin' a city street when he suddenly falls through the asphalt and discovers a hidden world underneath. Joe meets the people of the underground city and learns that they derive their heat from a giant diamond that sits in the middle of town square. In the great tradition of Atlas explorers before him, Joe decides that the gem can make him a rich man above ground so he makes plans to steal it. Like those pioneering thieves before him, it does not go well for our protagonist. I can see our (uncredited) writer sitting in the Atlas breakroom, spinning the "The Man Who..." wheel and landing on "...Stole the Sun" and then coming up empty for an original plot. I did laugh out loud when Joe broke through to this fabulous Verne-ian city after barely cracking the surface of the road. How did no one ever run across this paradise before?

Rod Mitchell is assigned to investigate the strange disappearance of Lloyd Vernon so he heads to Vernon's hometown to sniff out some clues. While he's there, he falls in love with Vernon's daughter and, alas, discovers the "vanish without a trace" gene is hereditary. "When Vernon Vanished" is one of Carl Wessler's worst scripts ever (and that's saying something); a silly romance tale without one iota of energy or wit. The Winiarski art matches the script's mediocrity to a T. Equally dreadful is the three-page "It Happens At Night," where a down-on-his-luck investor (down to his "last ten thousand!") receives what he perceives to be messages from the neon lights in a building across town. His wealth becomes massive but, in the inevitable downer of a climax, a patrolman informs the once again destitute former millionaire that the building in question was shut down years before. 

The graphic style of Richard Doxsee (reminiscent of George Evans) elevates the finale, "Someone is Following," from the usual Atlas Stinkin' Commie pap into a striking visual journey. "Red Scourge" Ah Ling comes to Hanchu to crack down on resistors to the Commie way. He orders his thugs to burn down a temple to show who's boss but then must deal with a superhuman shadow man who thwarts the evil military presence and restores peace to Hanchu. The twist is both expected and clever. Doxsee has come right out of left field and, in the three months since he made his debut with "Inside the Pharaoh's Tomb" in Journey Into Unknown Worlds #54, he has become one of my favorite Atlas artists.-Peter

Marvel Tales #158

Cover by Carl Burgos and Sol Brodsky (?)

"I Saw the Hidden People" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Secret of the Black Stone" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Man Who Moved!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"Nightmare's End!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Lost... One World!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

"They Think I'm Dead!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

The penultimate issue of the first incarnation of Marvel Tales begins with "I Saw the Hidden People." Evan Ralston moves to the country to get away from it all and start a farm but discovers his crops aren't growing as fast as he'd like. So Evan goes out and buys a crop-dusting plane and gets to work with the fungicide; usually chemicals can produce a few nasty side effects but Evan gets a whale of a result. When he finishes dusting, a town materializes where his motley crops stood.

He meets a few people on the town's main street and one, a gorgeous babe named Dolores, explains that the town is called Oronaldo and that it disappeared one hundred years ago during the gold rush. Yep, this here town is awash with gold! As Evan explains, you can't keep a town that suddenly appears out of nothing a secret for long. Especially if that town is carved in gold. "I Saw the Hidden People" is not that bad of a tale (penned by Our Man Wessler) but the art is a seesaw of decent and awful. Forte can pencil a really nice dame but some of his characters suffer from odd anatomy (see that splash for proof--both men look as though they've become victims of a head shrinker).

In "Secret of the Black Stone," a sculptor discovers a strange black rock that he takes home to make statues out of. He accidentally discovers that the rock can give him power to make other men do his bidding. His grand vision of robbing candy stores is dashed by a really smart cop who immediately figures out what's going on and shuts down the mad sculptor. The script is just as bad as most of the drivel pumped out by Carl Wessler but we should be able to count on a decent bit of work by Paul Reinman. Not here, where the artist seems rushed and uninterested. But then I was uninterested, too, so I don't blame the guy.

Spin that wheel!!! "The Man Who..." lands on "Moved!" this time. If you think that's anti-climactic, read on. Winston J. Cobb is an entrepreneur, a man who's mastered the business of transporting people, and the man in front of him is wasting his time. Mr. Groves is trying to sell Winston J. on a new form of transportation: teleportation. Cobb asks for a demonstration but when Groves waves his hands and says "Voila!," the big man is still in his office. He tells Groves to leave and the man promptly does, in thin air as a matter of fact. Then Winston walks out his office door and realizes he's on a deserted Pacific island. At least this one is only three pages long.

Joe Lester's been having a really bad dream every night. He's the passenger in a car driving through the city when a figure darts out in front of the car and, just before the driver runs the shadow down, Joe whips out his medal he received for placing 13th in a first grade geography test. Danged if that medal doesn't stop the driver from killing that pedestrian every time. But the nightmares are taking their toll on Joe's health and his girl, Fran, is worried sick about her guy. Thank goodness they've both got a swell friend in Harry, who comes over to make sure the couple are coping. If only Joe and Fran could see into Harry's dark heart. He's got his eyes set on making Fran his squeeze and no bedridden pansy will get in his way. 

Harry steals Joe's medal to further erode his friend's mental state, but the joke's on Harry. He's the guy in the dream and without that special medal to stop the car's driver from pulling a hit-and-run, Harry becomes roadkill! By this time, effective twists were long gone and "Nightmare's End!" doesn't stray from the formula one iota. 

Floyd Nolan is just as stupid as every other Atlas thief; he steals thirty grand and tries to hide it in the basement of the boarding house where he lives and accidentally receives a whopper of an electric shock. He awakens to discover one month has gone by and he quickly devises a way to hide the moolah and escape police suspicion at the same time: shock himself 150 years into the future. I could have told this nitwit that something would go wrong. "Lost... One World!" (obviously "The Man Who Could Use Electricity to Transport Into the Future!" was already being used) makes little to no sense (how does Floyd know the shock won't kill him this time, let alone propel him farther into the future?) and is adorned by what look like grade school doodlings.

In the finale, "They Think I'm Dead!," a circus midget (hey, it's the uncredited writer's word, not mine, so take it up with him!) named Captain Small (!) stumbles onto a formula that can transform him into a normal-sized man. When he gains those extra feet of tallness, he wants no one to know who he was in his previous incarnation, so he fakes his own death. Ironically, he's arrested for murdering his former mini-self! After serving his time in jail, he's released and finds he can't get a job. Ironically, he wishes he was a midget again (oof, there's that awful un-PC word again, sorry!) and hits the road as a silent hobo. I'm not going to go out on a limb and proclaim that "They Think I'm Dead!" is a great comic book story, but it beats the hell out of its competition this issue and the ironies are effective. Otherwise, you can throw Marvel Tales #158 into the slab without so much as cracking the spine.-Peter

Mystery Tales #53

Cover by Bill Everett & Carl Burgos

"The People Who Couldn't Move" (a: Dick Giordano) ★1/2

"That's What You Think!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

"I Died Too Soon" (a: Marvin Stein) ★1/2

"The Hired Hand" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"He Lived Again" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"What Happened in Room 14?" (a: John Forte) ★★

Jack Tyler may be down to his last dollar, but when he arrives in Wardsburg he promises himself that he'll leave as a rich man. At City Hall, he hits on pretty, blonde secretary Marsha Bentley and quickly secures a job from Mayor Hoskins, who will pay $40/week for Jack to wind the clock in the tower every day at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. That evening, Jack and Marsha admit they're already madly in love with each other before Jack goes to wind the clock.

After his task is done he tells Marsha he plans to rob the local bank and she reluctantly agrees to skip town with him. Days later, Jack notices the townsfolk rushing inside at the first hint of rain. Two nights later, he enters the bank to rob it, only to find local citizens, "The People Who Couldn't Move," standing around and not moving. The mayor yells at Jack for forgetting to wind the clock and, as soon as the winding is done, the townsfolk start moving again, rushing in out of the rain. Hoskins tells Jack that they're all robots he built 30 years before to do all the hard work for mankind. Jack drives off alone, figuring that Marsha is a robot, unaware that she is not and has also left town, assuming for some reason that Jack is a robot.

And so begins another Atlas issue with a lousy, mixed-up story by Carl Wessler that features some of the worst Dick Giordano art I've ever seen. Why isn't Marsha a robot? Don't ask me. She must have been awfully desperate to fall for a jerk like Jack in a matter of hours.

Jessup is disappointed when his rich uncle dies and only leaves him a pair of eyeglasses, but when he puts them on and realizes he can see the immediate future, he does what every other Atlas protagonist does and tries to come up with a way to cash in. Instead of heading for the racetrack or the casino like anyone with sense, Jessup goes to the bank and waits till he sees the guard go on a coffee break. He then forces the bank manager to put all the cash in the bag. Before he can leave, the guard returns and foils his plans, explaining that he noticed how Jessup's eyes looked scared but vicious when he put on the glasses. "Anyone could see he was about to do something bad evil."

Frank Bolle's art on "That's What You Think!" is even worse than Dick Giordano's was in the first story. Jessup is such a dolt that he deserves what he gets. It astounds me how many people in the 1950s thought of little else than how to rob a bank.

Frank Neely escapes from prison before his scheduled execution and heads for town, looking for Sheriff Joe Jessup. On the sidewalk, people walk by as if he's not there, and in Mike's Diner, everyone seems not to see or hear Frank. He hears a radio report that he was executed and exits, passing Sheriff Jessup, who seems not to see him. Frank runs out of town, certain he's dead. Sheriff Jessup and men with guns turn up and arrest him. The sheriff tells Frank that when he heard of the escape, he told everyone in town to put on an act, figuring that it would keep innocent bystanders safe.

"I Died Too Soon" continues this issue's string of losers. It seems like Atlas comics are at their last gasp. The story is poor and the art is nearly as bad.

Suddenly appearing on Earth as a scout for an invasion, an alien disguises himself in a three-piece suit and tie and shows up at a farmhouse, where an elderly couple take him on as "The Hired Hand" to do chores. He says a few magic words and splits wood, but the couple are not surprised. He chants an incantation and plows a field, but he still doesn't get a rise out of the old folks. He teleports instantly back to his home planet and reports, causing the general to abandon the invasion plans because the Earthlings must have secret powers stronger than those of the invaders. Back on Earth, the elderly couple (wait for it) wonder where the hired hand got to, lamenting their poor vision.

If you didn't see that one coming, you must be as blind as these old folks. Hand in your Bad Comic Fan card and go back to Comic School! Marvin Stein's art is on par with everything else in this issue.

Ben Thompson is hiking through the frozen north when a crevice opens up and he falls. He begs for his life, promising to reform, and is saved when a soft ledge breaks his fall. Ben recalls refusing to help an old prospector named Larson two days ago, when Larson offered to cut Ben in on his big uranium discovery for a bit of grub and Ben grabbed his map and sent him away hungry. Ben is saved by some hikers and immediately forgets his promise to reform. On his own again, Ben locates the place to dig for uranium and suddenly hears Larson warning him of another crevice about to open up. Ben thinks Larson is a ghost and runs off, falling off another cliff to his death and leaving Larson, who is perfectly fine and had been rescued by others, to ponder why Ben didn't take advantage of his second chance.

Empty moralizing, bad plotting, and shabby art are to be found in the pages of "He Lived Again." Is Atlas on fumes and using file stories that weren't worth publishing the first time around?

Columnist Ned Barker writes the Inside Broadway column for the newspaper and relishes in skewering talent and ruining careers. He sees the act of a magician named Presto the Great and the review that follows causes the performer's engagement to be canceled. One day, Ned sees Presto on the street and follows him to a shabby hotel, where he stays in room 14. Ned sneaks in and sees Presto practicing before a mirror and not doing badly at all. Suddenly, Ned is tossed into another dimension where Presto is a great magician staying in a fancy hotel room. Ned wants to promote Presto, but the columnist's appearance makes Presto lose his mojo. He can't send Ned back to his home dimension, so Ned is forced to wander the streets, jobless.

By default, "What Happened in Room 14?" is the best story in this poor issue of Mystery Tales, even though it's not very good. John Forte's people can tend to look wooden, as they do here, and I have to say that Ned Barker reminded me of myself and the way I've criticized this issue. At least I'm still in my home dimension. I think.-Jack

Next Week...
More Williamson/Mayo Magic!