Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 155: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 140

March 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Marvel Tales #156

Cover by Bill Everett

"How High is High?" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Door to...?" (a: Gray Morrow) ★

"Which Face is Mine?" (a: Syd Shores) ★1/2

"The Secret Formula!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Sounds in the Night!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★

"Forbidden... Keep Out!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★1/2

Famous architect J. R. Alton talks a construction crew into building a two-mile-high skyscraper but one of the builders becomes suspicious when he overhears Alton talking to a mysterious voice from another planet. The voice reveals that the plan is to build several tall skyscrapers to throw the Earth off its axis. Then the invading warriors of planet Kotto will swoop in and take over. But Alton's plans go awry when his fellow Kottoians desert him. "How High is High?" is a meandering mess that requires a massive suspension of disbelief.

In the three-page "The Door to...?," a hypnotist is called in to help a high-level prison beef up its security by fooling its inmates into believing the complex is the promised land. Equally vacuous is "Which Face is Mine?," wherein a thief learns how to change his facial features thanks to an arcane spell. After pulling a heist, the crook flees from the police and changes his face to elude capture, only to inadvertently switch to the guise of a wanted felon. "Shoot on sight!" screams the wanted poster and the cops do. 

Paul finds a book on alchemy and rushes back to the shabby home he shares with his two buddies, Ralph and Chuck, sure he's found the key to Midas's fortune. Luckily, Ralph is a chemist who quickly whips up "The Secret Formula!" that enables the man who drinks it to visit the future. Ralph takes the jump a year into the future and discovers that old man Craig, who lives down the road apiece, is sitting on a worthless piece of farm acreage that hides a huge deposit of oil. 

Ralph returns to his body and tells his buddies they must buy the land pronto and then sell it at a premium, but one more visit to the farm is Ralph's undoing as he falls for Farmer Craig's gorgeous daughter and cannot go through with the deception. Paul and Ralph decide to kill Paul before he can disclose the master plan, but their evil plot backfires. If you paid attention to my star rating up top, there's no secret that "The Secret Formula!" is a stiff, but I almost recommend a reading just to experience the goofiness and complexity of its final panels.

Young Seth Collins panics and deserts his military squad during the War of 1812, then spends the rest of his life hearing the calls of his comrades. Seth grows old and soon his grandson, Roy, enlists. It's at that time that the cries in Seth's head disappear. He's found peace at last now that his grandson has volunteered to sacrifice his own life. Tedious and moronic, "Sounds in the Night!" is comprised mostly of panels of Seth looking depressed and his wife begging him to tell her what's up. The jingoistic climax is 100% pure Wessler (with perhaps a nudge from Stan "Stinkin' Commies!" Lee). The Torres art is nice to look at, but if you put a dress on a pig...

Easily the Best of the Issue Award goes to "Forbidden... Keep Out!," a simple but effective undersea adventure. Doctor Lane and his gorgeous daughter, Sharon, have come to a remote Pacific island in search of "a race of underwater men" living somewhere near the island. Sharon can't help but blunder into danger after danger until she's rescued by two handsome, virile examples of male machismo, George and Phil, who volunteer to help the Lanes with their research. 

After a couple more mishaps (including a "herd" of attacking sharks!), the doctor throws in the towel and suggests that perhaps there are things man is not supposed to know... or something along those lines. As George and Phil wave goodbye, Dr. Lane wonders how the two men got to an island one thousand miles from civilization without a boat. I loved that last line and, believe it or not, never put two and two together until it was spelled out. An enjoyable little yarn with some swell Mac Pakula cheesecake art saves Marvel Tales #156 from being a total failure.-Peter

Mystery Tales #51

Cover by Bill Everett

"Inside the Mummy's Case" (a: Joe Orlando) ★

(r: Journey Into Mystery #16)

"The Lizard" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo (?)) ★★1/2

"What World is This?" (a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) ★

(r: Vault of Evil #18)

"The Strange Seeds!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

"I'll Get You Later" (a: Dave Berg) ★

"Four Empty Chairs!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

(r: Uncanny Tales #9)

Museum guard Joe Waters is receiving telepathic messages from within the coffin of a centuries-dead pharaoh, promising endless wealth if Joe will only lift the coffin lid. Just in time, the museum's curator stops Joe from making a terrible mistake and both watch as a deadly booby trap is triggered. Now, together the two men will destroy the evil force "Inside the Mummy's Case"! Dreadfully dull fantasy ends with a cliffhanger, but that's okay... I don't need another page.

The sharp Williamson/Mayo art is pretty much the only reason to wade through "The Lizard," about a scientist who climbs into the Tibetan mountains to work on his "growth accelerator," an invention that will (naturally) benefit mankind. His test subject, a cute little lizard, is splashed with the growth serum during a raging storm and escapes into the mountains, terrorizing the populace before our egghead tracks it down. But, no worries, it was all the obligatory dream and now the big brain must decide whether to push on with the test or heed the warning. This is post-code, so we all know which path he ventured down.

Fleeing from the cops, Cole stumbles into a town of frozen people. "What World is This?" mumbles the moronic thief, not bothering to inspect the still-life figures closer. If he had, he'd notice they're all dummies and he's entered a faux town set up for an atomic bomb testing. Whoops! This plot had been swirling around the Atlas bowl for years and every now and then got plucked for use. The awful Andru/Esposito art certainly doesn't help matters much.

Sentenced by the stinkin' commie Russkies to twenty years' hard labor in Siberia, peacenik Ivan Lenov has little hope for the future until Mars has a terrible space storm and shoots seeds at Earth. "The Strange Seeds!" land right in Ivan's garden and he tends them carefully. A few months later, plant men rise from the soil and inform Ivan that they're forever in his debt and will grant him any wish he speaks. Wanting only to see the downfall of the dictator, Ivan asks his new friends to get rid of the prison guards. That wish granted, the walking foliage return for further instructions. Unfortunately, Ivan learns he aimed too low as the snow falls and the Martians wilt away. New guards are assigned and life in the Russkie wasteland resumes its tiring schedule. But, he realizes, the sun will return some day and so will the plants. This Winiarski-led snoozer culminates in one of the obligatory Atlas freedom speeches of the mid-50s.

Perpetual loser Barney Beale finds a briefcase filled with dough, twenty grand to be exact, on his kitchen table. Inside, a note explains that the case is from five years in the future and Barney can have two thousand bucks if he leaves the rest alone. The future friend will be coming back for the rest. But who is the future friend? If you've read any Atlas SF/fantasy time travel yarns, you know who wrote the note before the first page is turned. Dave Berg usually contributed solid graphic work, but his art on "I'll Get You Later" is primitive and ugly.

A truly awful issue of Mystery Tales comes to a truly awful finish with "Four Empty Chairs!," the story of an old man in a mansion who dines with the titular furniture every night. The town gossips want to know what's going on, so they hire a lip reader to have a look. Do you really need me to go on? Well, the old man and his invisible family are aliens waiting to be struck by lightning bolts so they can go back to their home world. Their dream comes true and the town really has something to talk about. Hey, you wanted me to go on. But now I'm done!-Peter

Mystic #57

Cover by Bill Everett

"Trapped in the Ant Hill!" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

"The Midnight Visitor!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★1/2

(r: Chamber of Chills #20)

"The Strange Prison!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #37)

"He'd Rather Die Than Tell" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Room of Shadows!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"You Can't Hide from the Eye!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

A scientist named Perry Moore invents a serum that temporarily shrinks living tissue. He accidentally cuts his arm and some serum enters his bloodstream, causing him to reduce to the size of an ant. Outside, he is frightened of the threatening bugs and crawls into a hole, only to find himself "Trapped in the Ant Hill!" Perry observes ants trying to develop a serum to grow to the size of humans, whom they hate, and when he reverts to normal size he vows to devote himself to finding a new way to kill ants.

Syd Shores does a decent job of depicting tiny Dr. Moore and the big insects he encounters. My favorite sequence is when he discovers the ant laboratory, with diagrams of ants and humans and a very frustrated ant scientist.

Leon Aymler is an author who is hard at work on his book when he's interrupted by "The Midnight Visitor!" The strange man holds a gun on Leon and demands to know how he learned everything in his book. Leon insists it's fiction but the visitor shows him that it's not and that he's the traitor whose story Leon told. Leon begs for time to write a sequel in which the villain is caught and punished and the visitor agrees, certain that it won't come true, but as soon as Leon writes that FBI men entered and captured the traitor, it comes to pass. Leon and the visitor both faint due to the sudden shock.

Though the visitor insists that there's nothing supernatural going on here, the opposite proves to be the case. The uncredited author provides no explanation as to why the words Leon write come true and I had to think, as I was reading, that if I were the traitor, I would not have let Leon take the time to write a brief sequel in which I got caught. Why risk it?

Tad Branton is new to skin diving and passes out the first time he tries it. He awakens in the Underwater World, where he is given the tour by a gorgeous gal named Pisca, who happens to be the daughter of the king. The man who marries her will receive a chest of treasure, so Tad does the usual Atlas thing, marrying her and then swimming to the surface with his treasure. Oddly, his boat is floating right where he left it, but Tad can't breathe air and passes out. This time he wakes up behind the bars of "The Strange Prison!" It seems the king had doctors operate on Tad so he can only breathe water, not air. Now that he's screwed up, he'll spend two years in the underwater slammer before another operation makes him able to breathe air again and he's returned to the surface world. Oh, and the treasure chest? It was full of shells, which are priceless underwater!

Sadly, Bill Everett is only given three pages in which to work in this story, but they allow him to draw mostly underwater panels, which are colored blue and black and hearken back to his days drawing the Sub-Mariner for Timely. It always cracks me up when the underwater babes are wearing bikinis; this one's top is made of two strategically placed seashells.

Why does Andrew Korvak run through Spain, France, and Italy tightly clutching a black box and never letting go? "He'd rather die than tell." Finally falling to his death from a roof, Andrew reveals that the box contains an indestructible crystal ball that shows a picture of his crime--robbing and murdering the gypsy who owned the orb! Ed Winiarski's art is mediocre, as usual, but this story is odd in that there is no dialogue save for two panels on the final page, where Korvak reveals that the crystal ball was indestructible. The story is told in captions and wordless panels, which is not a bad thing. Many Atlas stories could do with fewer words.

After years of searching, Beldick finally locates "The Room of Shadows!" in the Cambodian jungle. All his assistants desert him but he doesn't care, since he knows that, inside the room, he'll be granted three wishes. Beldick pushes past the temple priest, who insists that his wishes will come to naught, and reaches the room. His first wish is to be the wisest man in the world, but Beldick is not happy to inhabit the body of a sick old man. His second wish is to be as rich as Croesus, but when he is given the ancient king's wealth he understands that it holds little value today and is too heavy to move. A match carelessly tossed aside starts a fire and Beldick's last wish is wasted on preserving his life from the flames.

Robert Q. Sale's art isn't getting any better, is it! This story is yet another variation on "The Monkey's Paw," and every reader old enough to read knows full well what's going to happen long before page four arrives.

"You Can't Hide from the Eye!" is the bitter lesson that Floyd Ryder learns after he invents a super high frequency TV camera that can look through walls and see things far away. He makes a deal with a gangster to let the crook use the camera to look into banks and witness safe combinations, but after a series of successful robberies the police arrest Floyd, who did not realize that what he saw on his screen was also being broadcast to every TV set in the city!

An uneven issue of Mystic ends with a dud. Even Joe Orlando can't enliven this snoozer, in which TV is both the source of wealth and the downfall of a greedy inventor.-Jack

Next Week...
Is Our Special No-Content Holiday Issue
But in Two Weeks...
A Shocker From Reed Crandall!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 154: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 139

March 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Adventure Into Mystery #6

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Wax Man!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"Who Goes There!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"Secret of the Glittering Glob" (a: Syd Shores & Christopher Rule) ★★1/2

"The Man Who Wasn't!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★★1/2

"The Eye That's Never Shut!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★1/2

"The Day of the Wreck!" (a: John Forte) ★★★

Professor Edward Decter looks into a microscope, sees a tiny man pointing at him from the slide, and turns to wax! The police want to know how something like this could happen but Dexter's colleague (who also seems to be named Dexter) has no clue. When the cop asks why the biggest brains in science can't figure this mystery out, the egghead replies, "Look what it did to Dexter. You want to be the next one who takes a peek? Fair point.

When the police leave, Dexter giggles at how dumb the police are and lets us know that there never was an Edward Dexter; Dexter simply made a wax dummy of Dexter and propped it up in the lab. His insane plot is to be the only man brave enough on the planet to look into the microscope (at a blank slide) and the notoriety will make him famous and land him a big grant. He calls the Daily Bugle to report the news. Just before the big public demonstration is to be held, Dexter has a "final private rehearsal," takes a peek into the microscope, and is horrified to see a wax dummy of himself propped up across the lab. 

Deciding for some reason that he's being punished for his own bad behavior, Dexter heads out into the streets to convince people he's a fraud, with no luck. Back at the lab, the local wax museum curator wonders what the big fuss is. Since Dexter was a famous celebrity, he'd made a wax dummy of the professor for exhibition! "The Wax Man!" has one of the looniest plots in Atlas history but features  some first-class artwork by newcomer Doxsee and what may be the first mention of the soon-to-be-famous Daily Bugle newspaper. This story proves just how untrained the local New York police were in 1957.

An ex-con, searching for the loot he hid in a ghost town years before, runs into the ghost of his dead cellmate. "Who Goes There!" is as contrived and nonsensical as the first story but doesn't supply the goofy fun. Much better is "Secret of the Glittering Glob," wherein mining engineer Burt Rogers discovers Earth's "rarest substance," Gravium, and muses to a reporter that the small bit pulled from the drill site might be worth five million. That night, noted criminal Lou West and the nicest-dressed hoods in America head to the lab with an eye to making the Gravium their own. Bad idea--as Lou soon learns, the Gravium wants to go home. Fanciful yarn with some sharp pencil work by Syd Shores that is reminiscent of 1940s strips. 

In a far-off, stinkin', commie country, party member Anton Kovack begins questioning his loyalty to a vicious, conniving government and invents a machine that transports prisoners who are about to be executed to a far-off land. When the party leader discovers Kovack's act of treason, he sentences Kovack and his wife to death. But, of course, before their executions, Kovack and the Mrs. vanish and reappear in the free zone of Germany! I'm not a fan of the Stan Lee commie-baiting fantasy yarns that permeated his funny books in the 1950s, but the lazily titled "The Man Who Wasn't!" has got some extra imagination and what might be the best Dick Ayers art of the decade. Unlike Bill Gaines, Stan was perfectly happy to toe the government line and avoid rocking the boat. No thinly veiled "witch hunt" strips in Stan's comics, no-sir-ee. End of rant (for now).

"The Eye That's Never Shut!" is a three-pager about a thief who steals the gem from the fabled One-Eyed Sphinx of Greece and then faces a harsh retribution in the story's clever climax. Last up is "The Day of the Wreck!" starring Duke Eldon, whose college friends berate him for spending so much time with Betsy. Nope, Betsy ain't a dame, Betsy's a car that Duke's built from scratch; the kid pours every waking minute into the heap and it pays off. Very soon, Betsy is blowing the competition off the highway. Then Duke meets Kathy and his attention is diverted from his steel and chrome love. Betsy ain't happy about that at all. To say, "The Day of the Wreck!" resembles Stephen King's Christine would be an understatement. A very solid issue.-Peter

Astonishing #59

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Eyes of Mala-Tor" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

(r: Creatures on the Loose #26)

"The Girl Behind the Glass!" (a: Jay Scott Pike) ★

(r: Strange Tales #177)

"Just Make a Wish!" (a: John Tartaglione) ★1/2

"Behind the Veil!" (a: Vince Colletta (?)) ★

"Who is the Master?" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★

"The Trapped City!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★1/2

A kindly explorer, searching for diamonds in Africa, helps out a native tribe when a flood threatens to wash away their village. In return, the adventurer is given a statue named Mala-Tor and told the figure has certain powers. That's evident when the explorer stumbles over a cache of diamonds in a field. For many years after, the statue watches over the man, rewarding him with wealth many times over. Then, one night, a thief breaks into the man's house and steals Mala-Tor but doesn't get far when the statue orders a tree to (gently) grab the guy. The police arrive and (even more gently) haul the robber away. "The Eyes of Mala-Tor" is about as harmless and unfrightening as a horror strip can get; the final panels, where the tree captures the purple-trousered criminal and then sets him down once the police arrive, are in stark contrast to a few years before when that tree would have squeezed the life out of its victim.

Deep-sea diver Jonas Case stumbles across a domed city below the bottom of the sea but, more important, he sees "The Girl Behind the Glass!" and she sees him. An explosion sends him to the hospital for a few weeks, but just as soon as he's discharged the obsessed Case grabs an oxygen tank and (obviously ignoring the human-crushing depths of the ocean) swims down to the dome. Case is delighted to see the gorgeous gal swim up to him but his ardor comes to a screeching halt when he sees the girl has gills and razor-sharp teeth. He zips to the top of the dome, lays explosives, and heads up to the surface, swearing he'll never dive again. I love the panel where, when Case wakes up in the hospital, he asks his surgeon if he's ever heard of cities beneath the ocean. "Why, no, but I have heard of Atlantis!" exclaims the doc as Case slaps himself upside the head.

Dodgy businessman Salinger (portrayed brilliantly by Ernie Kovacs) cheats a man out of his "Just Make a Wish!" contraption but gets his just desserts when the machine turns out to be a bust.

Con man Felix Jordan is convinced he can do what so many others before him couldn't: steal the jewels of the sheik of Wazar. Jordan heads out into the desert and convinces the sheik that he cares not a whit for the vast treasures found in the sheik's boudoir and wants only to marry his daughter. The ruse works, but once Jordan gets a look at the face "Behind the Veil!," he grabs the jewels and hightails it. When he gets the haul to a jeweler to appraise, they open the sack and find only sand. The sheik cannot be fooled!

In the three-page "Who Is the Master?," Professor Norton discovers that canines can read the thoughts of their human masters and may just be waiting for the day when they can take over the world. It's a gentler version of all those "Nature Strikes Back" flicks and novels that permeated the media landscape in the latter part of the 1970s. It's harmless fun, but it posits a question it never even tries to answer; since we never see the dogs talk or even exhibit extraordinary behavior, this could all be chalked up to a nutty professor.

Last up, a freak accident involving an air-purifying spray reduces New York City to Munchkinland and one of the two remaining "giants," "petty New York City employee" Eliot Jones, happily claims the mantle of Big Man in Town. Jones declares martial law and reigns over Manhattan like a despot. But, in Atlas Universe of 1955, these situations usually end in a non-violent resolution. And that's just what happens in the anemic "The Trapped City!," featuring the same kind of leering, mean-faced Dick Ayers villain as in "The Man Who Wasn't!" Not nearly as much fun.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #44

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Menace of the Green Men" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★1/2

"While the City Sleeps!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

"The Strange Power of Henry Grey" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

"The Taboo" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

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

"The Haunted Halls" (a: Frank Bolle) ★1/2

While stealing cash from the cash register in a warehouse, Steve Palmer accidentally kicks over a kerosene lantern and sets the place on fire. He runs out of town and into the woods, where he is surprised to see a slew of green men from another world hanging out in a cave. In a flash, Steve gets the idea to blame his crime on "The Menace of the Green Men," and soon, every crime he commits is attributed to the aliens. When the cops try to capture them, the aliens disappear into thin air! Eventually, the authorities figure out that the green men were never really there and were just images beamed from a planet light years away. Steve is arrested after stolen jewels are found in his home.

We can blame Carl Wessler for the weak story, but it's unusual to see such mediocre art from Al Williamson. Can we blame inker Ralph Mayo? The green men never do much of anything--they just loll around in a cave looking kind of like plastic green army guys.

An animated doll is climbing through windows and stealing jewelry "While the City Sleeps!" The doll is really a midget named Zeno who is made up to look like a doll. He hooked up with a failed ventriloquist named Sylvester and pretended to be his dummy, but Zeno wasn't satisfied with a successful act and began committing robberies. Before the cops come to search Sylvester's apartment, Zeno takes a pill that is supposed to put him in suspended animation for 24 hours. After the police come and see a limp, seemingly lifeless doll, the chemist who gave Zeno the pill rushes in to announce that he mixed up the pills and Zeno will be out cold for 20 years!

There's a hint of "The Glass Eye" in this tale of a midget who masquerades as a ventriloquist's dummy; the short story was well known but the Emmy-winning episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents would not air till October 1957. It doesn't make sense that Zeno appears in Sylvester's act dressed as a dummy and then heads out to commit robberies dressed the same way. Wouldn't one of his victims be likely to say, "Hey! That's the dummy from that cheesy act!"? Sorry, I'm looking for logic in an Atlas story.

Henry Grey is a miserable man who hates everything and everybody. One day he discovers that his hateful wishes can be fulfilled just by thinking. Using "The Strange Power of Henry Grey," the miserable man attempts to ruin his boss's model plane business but merely ends up crashing a plane and breaking his own bones. Ed Winiarski's Henry Grey looks a bit like Lex Luthor but his schemes are much more modest.

Fleeing from the law in Australia, Mark Slade takes to the water, but a tropical storm requires him to be rescued by friendly natives from the South Sea islands. The natives take care of Mark, whose eyes are drawn to their big pearls. He challenges the native medicine man, Hua Lani, to a contest that Mark easily winds by demonstrating the wonders of matches and guns. After becoming chief poobah on the island, he makes the natives dive for pearls that he stores in a wooden chest beneath the floor of his boat. A shark attack leads the old medicine man to announce "The Taboo" and the natives refuse to retrieve any more pearls. Eventually, Mark realizes he's alone on a tiny island that is surrounded by hungry sharks.

I'll be darned if I can figure out what happened in this one. Somehow the medicine man got Mark to hop in a canoe and paddle out to the boat where his pearls were hidden. He appears to fall off and suddenly finds himself on the world's smallest island. It's no surprise that Carl Wessler wrote this. I don't envy Tony DiPreta trying to make sense of it in pictures.

A little boy named Paul Kiley is a confirmed telepath whose Pop warns him that his unique power may make him "The Outcast!" Paul grows up without friends, since no one wants their thoughts to be known; he gets a job with the police, probing criminals' brains. When a boy is trapped in a mine, Paul becomes a hero by transmitting thoughts to the boy to keep him calm until help arrives. Paul hopes that someday he'll meet more telepaths and wonders if the little boy is one, since he answered Paul's thoughts. Vince Colletta provides crisp, simple illustrations to help this three-pager along to a quick finish.

The Duke of Desmania dies and his nephew, Eric, becomes the new duke. He tells his cousin, Ferdinand, that he plans to open the old castle, which has been shut up for 70 years and which is said to be haunted. Ferdinand is next in line to be duke and murders his cousin in order to speed things up. He marches into "The Haunted Halls" but, when he emerges, everyone acts is if he's not there. When Ferdinand overhears a guard explain that anyone who enters the castle turns into a ghost, he realizes what has happened.

Sadly, the sixth and last story in this issue is no better than the five that preceded it. Journey Into Mystery  #44 is fit for the recycling bin.-Jack

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #55

Cover by Bill Everett

"Menace of the Humanoids!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

"King of the Glacier Men" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo)

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #38) ★1/2

"The Men in the Mole!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"The Ghost Wore Armor" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★

"Shangri-La" (a: Bill Everett) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #24)

"The Puppets of Pierre Garou!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★1/2

George Gaines is an engineer in charge of the first satellite. He feels like he's being followed, but that doesn't stop his determination to complete the project, which also faces funding challenges. Walking home after working late one night, George encounters the "Menace of the Humanoids!" as outer space creatures knock him around. Reporters are nearby and respond to the scene, causing the humanoids to vanish into the shadows. The next day, George explains to his wife that the humanoids were really costumed thugs trying to stop the satellite project, but George won't give up, secure in the knowledge that reaching the stars will free mankind from the "shackels" (sic) of confusion, etc.

Another preachy tale leads off this issue of Journey into Unknown Worlds. Don Heck's art is solid, as usual, and the humanoids are pretty cool, but the story really goes nowhere.

Jaru is a cruel tyrant who has been exiled to the frozen north where he becomes "King of the Glacier Men" when his campfire thaws out cavemen who had been frozen in a nearby cave. Once a tyrant, always a tyrant, and soon Jaru has trained his new people in the art of war and sends them to attack his old kingdom. The cavemen have no chance against modern weaponry and return to the frozen north, where they return to their cave, accompanied by their new king, who freezes in place along with his people.

Warning! Danger! Warning! Another sub-par job by Al Williamson and Ralph Mayo illustrates another convoluted, wordy script by Carl Wessler. Hopefully, before long, the editor at Atlas will hold the Mayo and we can return to higher quality work from Williamson.

The Mole is a big digging machine working its way toward the center of the Earth and "The Men in the Mole!" are three fellows with nothing to live for who volunteered for a mission from which they would be unlikely to return. Art Townes, the navigator, would like to be tall and handsome; Jan Court, the scientist, would like to be young again; and Fred Mace, the engineer, would like to be reunited with his dead wife. The Mole reaches the Earth's core and the trio are shocked to encounter a river, daylight, and a city, whose inhabitants wear purple robes decorated with moons and stars. One by one, the men venture into the city and emerge with their wishes granted! It seems the city's inhabitants are sorcerers who were driven underground and they understand that "all a man is, exists in his mind."

I didn't mind the happy ending this time around. Who wouldn't like to find a hidden city where all your dreams come true? Forte does an especially good job depicting Townes, whose desire to be tall and handsome is granted.

Explorers searching the jungle for Spanish gold happen upon John Orlando, who was with a hunting party when he got lost. The group find a cave nearby with armor from conquistadors and figure that the gold must be in the cave. Later, at the cave entrance, they see a strange sight: a conquistador come back to life, and "The Ghost Wore Armor"! When the ghost approaches the men they shoot at it with arrows, only to discover, later on, that the ghost was Orlando and the solid gold armor was not arrow-proof.

It's never a good sign when I have to read a four-page story two or three times to figure out what happened, but that was the case with this one. I wonder if Atlas was on such hard times that they dropped their page rates; even the usually reliable Forgione and Abel turn in scratchy work here.

Wealthy Walter Grant is being flown in a small plane over the Himalayas when the vehicle is forced to crash land! Grant and the pilot awaken in "Shangri-La," where another American named John Simmons explains that they can live there in peace for centuries. Grant isn't buying it and insists on leaving, an arduous trek throw the snowy mountains that he barely survives. When he's back in civilization, Grant discovers, to his shock, that John Simmons set out to look for the hidden land four hundred years ago!

The story's not much and the twist ending holds little surprise, but Bill Everett turns in three nice-looking pages, making me wish he had more time to draw interior stories in addition to all those covers.

The children of Le Bain, a small city in France, are always delighted by the return of "The Puppets of Pierre Garou!" The old puppeteer has a way of creating incredibly lifelike puppets and putting on entertaining shows. During one performance, three hoodlums who are on the lam from the cops enter the tent and witness Pierre refusing to sell one of his puppets for 100,000 francs. Thinking the puppets valuable, the hoods visit Pierre after the show and demand that he tell them the formula to make his puppets. The old man demonstrates, step by step, while the hoods feast on grapes in a bowl on Garou's table. In the end, the men don't feel so well, and Pierre reveals that the real way puppets are made is by visitors eating magic grapes! The next day, Pierre's show includes three new puppets who look just like the hoodlums.

Reed Crandall provides lovely, carefully drawn panels in this story, which is most enjoyable until the cop-out in the final panel, where our pal Carl Wessler has Pierre confide in the reader that the spell wears off after a year and the hoods will then grow back to normal size. Still, an Atlas comic at this stage that includes art by Don Heck, Al Williamson, Bill Everett, and Reed Crandall is certainly above average.-Jack

Next Week...
It Ain't Henry Pym...
But He's Pretty Darn Close!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 153: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 138

February 1957 Part IV

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Uncanny Tales #52

Cover by Bill Everett

"Someone is Out There" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

"Inside the Iron Man" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"Ju-Ju!" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

"Man in a Trance!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★1/2

"The Edge of Madness!" (a: John Tartaglione) ★

"Those Who Disappear!" (a: John Forte) ★★

During a violent hurricane, three escaped cons hold a house full of innocent people hostage. The owner of the house, elderly Lil Mason, warns the trio that her husband, a pilot, is on his way and won't be happy when he gets there. She shows the men a letter her hubby wrote from Cuba, promising his wife he'd be on the next plane back. The thugs laugh and admit they'll be amazed if the guy can fly a plane through the eye of a hurricane. Knock... knock... and the door is opened. There stands Mr. Mason. The goons are amazed.

After a brief tussle, the leader of the cons pulls a gun and shoots at the newcomer, who dodges the bullets as if they were fired in slow motion. Terrified, the criminals hightail it and are swept away by the force of the storm. Mr. Mason disappears and his wife shows her bewildered guests the envelope holding the letter, postmarked twenty years before. Mr. Mason had vanished without a trace in a plane in Cuba. We've seen this one a million times before (but then we've seen all of these a million times before, haven't we?), but "Someone is Out There" is a bit more bearable thanks to the nifty noir-ish art of Joe Sinnott. 

"Inside the Iron Man" is yet another drab, lifeless stab at the commies. This time, a scientist in the "West" creates a robot that can listen in on conversations inside the war room belonging to the "East." Pete Morisi may have been as bored as I was with this one. In "Ju-Ju!," a trio of explorers land on the wrong side of a native medicine man who can shrink humans to a foot tall. One of the adventurers makes a break but doesn't get far through the high grass. In the end, we discover that the medicine man shrunk him down. But good news!, we're told in the final panel that the drug he was given wears off after a short period of time. No harm, no foul, in the post-code era. The script is short on thrills (pun intended) but at least the art is cool in an early-1950s, retro way.

Basil Murdock forces Roger Denning, the great-great grandson of the Earl of Dussex, to go under hypnosis in order to contact his famous ancestor. It seems as though the Earl had a fortune in gold hidden and Murdock wants to know where the trove is buried. With a gun in his ribs, Roger becomes a "Man in a Trance!" and does indeed speak to his great-great gramps before relaying the directions to Murdock. The hypnotist heads to the island of palm trees to find his treasure while Roger has the last laugh: his gramps told him to send Murdock on a wild goose chase while divulging the real location to his descendant. I enjoyed this little sf/con yarn with its humorous last panel (Murdock beginning on his 551st palm tree, exclaiming that the riches must be under the next dig) and distinctive Colan art.

In "The Edge of Madness!," college student Walter Benson discovers that everything on campus has changed. His classes are populated by kids he's never seen before; there's someone else living in his dorm, the dean doesn't recognize him, etc. etc. etc. Turns out, we discover in a dopey last page revelation, that Walter is a brilliant scientist who sent himself back into time and then comes back into the present as his younger self. Please don't ask me to translate that.

Bus driver Rick Nolan picks up a mysterious rider on a dark road one night and he and the bus disappear for two weeks! When the bus and driver finally get back to the station, the police are there ready to arrest Nolan for grand larceny. It's then that he spills the beans... the rider was the brilliant (but perhaps a bit unhinged) scientist, Emil Harsch, who had invented an anti-gravity device that elevated the bus into the heavens. Of course, no one believes Nolan and he's fired from his job.

Shortly thereafter, a huge ocean liner goes missing and a ransom note demanding one hundred thousand dollars is found on the dock. The ship owner pays the ransom and the Oceanic reappears at the harbor, but then dozens more crafts disappear overnight! Suddenly, one of the brighter cops exclaims, "Hey, this is just like that bus a few weeks ago! You think maybe the driver was telling the truth?" Ya think? Meanwhile, Nolan has tracked Harsch to his home and pulls a gun on the scientist, ordering him to tell the truth to the cops and clear Rick's good name. Rather than surrender, Harsch elevates his house into the sky and snickers. Nolan discards his overcoat, revealing a parachute (a "memento from the war"), and jumps out the door. He heads to the cops and lets them know what's going on and the world waits for Harsch's house to return to Earth. "Those Who Disappear!" is simultaneously the stupidest and most enjoyable yarn this issue. The panel where Rick Nolan reveals his parachute will go down as one of the most WTF? moments in post-code history.-Peter

World of Mystery #5

Cover by Carl Burgos

"She Stands in the Shadows" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"Nelson's Nightmare!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★★★

"The Thing in the Bottle" (a: Herb Familton) ★

"The Bottomless Box!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Human for a Day!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"The Voice from Nowhere" (a: John Forte) ★

Joe Black is doing a long stint in the stir thanks to his JD buddies, but when all seems lost he gets a visit from a gorgeous blonde. Sure, the chick is in Joe's head, a literal "dream," but it gives Joe something to strive for. Then, one day, Joe gets the vibe that his dream girl is in big trouble, so he breaks out and runs to her aid.

Joe saves her from being run over by a truck and the woman begs Joe to turn himself in and accept his punishment for escaping. Joe agrees and... wakes up. It's all a dream. Just then, the guard tells the con he's got a visitor. Joe beams when he walks into the room and sees... his dream girl! "She Stands in the Shadows" is not much if you're looking for reading material, but Joe Orlando's art is to die for. With some help from Veronica Lake, Orlando keeps our mind off the words and urges us to keep turning pages.

Nelson is having visitors in his sleep quite different from Joe Black. "Nelson's Nightmare!" features dead men that were ruined in life by Nelson's business moves. Now they're out to get him for his cunning skills and cutthroat practices. But Nelson discovers that he always awakens before the dirty work can commence. Armed with this knowledge, Nelson goes to sleep with a smile on his face, unaware that his butler has slipped a sleeping pill into his cocoa and marshmallows. "Nelson's Nightmare!" reminds us that Dick Ayers could pump out some quality graphics now and then when a good script showed up on his desk. I was surprised by the last panel twist; in the post-code era, that is definitely something to shout about.

Bob comes to rich businessman Harry Blaine's private island looking for a job, but the zillionaire doesn't think Bob can handle the pressure of the corporate world. Suddenly, right at that very second, as if by magic (who woulda thunk?), a bottle drifts onto the beach and Bob jokes that the "ancient Persian vessel" just might hold the famed genie and all their wishes will come true. He rubs the lamp and, sure enough (who woulda thunk?), he was right. Out pops the genie, but this guy's not your average friendly bottle captive--he's out for blood. Luckily, Bob has just the right business techniques after all and talks the big guy back into his lamp. Suitably impressed, Harry Blaine signs Bob to a ten-year, forty-thousand-dollar annual salary with competitive bonuses and use of the island on holidays. Two pages into "The Thing in the Bottle" I was wishing I could find a genie to whip me up a solid tale with decent art. 

But Herb Familton's work could be mistaken for Gene Colan's or Bill Everett's when compared to Ed Winiarski's art in "The Bottomless Box!" Joe Flemming is out mucking about in an atom bomb site (hey! it's perfectly safe, since the last bomb was detonated a year ago!), as you are wont to do when bored, when he literally stumbles upon the titular crate. After he tosses a few articles in the box (again, as you are wont to do), he comes to the startling revelation that anything placed within disappears! He takes it to the nearest bank and sells it to the bank manager (still sounding plausible) as a security device. Thieves rob the bank and take the box, unaware of what they've got until they get back to their headquarters and find an empty vessel (an analogy for this here story if there ever was one). Joe breaks through the door and, backed by the entire NYPD, busts the bank robbers. "The Bottomless Box!" could very well be the worst Atlas sf/fantasy tale of 1957 and, let me tell you, I certainly hope so. The graphics harken back to the bad old 1940s when scratches passed for comic art and scripts excelled at curing insomnia. Writer Carl Wessler does, however, get credit for eliciting a few (unintentional) giggles during Joe's rummaging through the radioactive debris in the New Mexico desert. Your mileage may vary.

King Naza of the Subland sends his two most clever subjects, Laris and Turo, up to the surface world to bring back a human for study. Naza sends the two spies separately, each without the other's knowledge, so that they may cover more ground. Naza's plan is to conquer the surface world and extend his property holdings. Once in our world, the spies are able to change their appearance, becoming "Human for a Day!" and heading out to find the first helpless human they come across. Guess what happens! 

Last up, "The Voice from Nowhere" continues the downward slide this issue offers up. Hillbilly Rufe Perkins accidentally dials the wrong number on his phone and gets a message informing him that, if he sends five dollars to the Sacred Bleeding Heart of Jesus, located somewhere in Los Angeles, California, all his dreams will come true. So he does. Rufe is given an address and told that a huge amount of cash is hidden at the bottom of an abandoned well; when he investigates, sure enough, there's a sack of loot! But, unfortunately, the green belongs to a gang of bank thieves. Uh-oh. "The Voice from Nowhere" is drivel, absolute mind rot, but I almost want to recommend it for its one-page epilogue where one impossibility is stacked upon another. Almost, I said.-Peter

World of Suspense #6

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Old Man of the Mountain!" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"Come Into My Parlor" (a: Pete Morisi) ★★

"Six Strange Words" (a: Syd Shores)

(r: Frankenstein #13)  ★1/2

"Run, Coward, Run!" (a: George Roussos) ★1/2

"A Scream for Help" (a: Syd Shores & Christopher Rule) ★★

"Foster's Fear" (a: Bob Powell) ★★1/2

Climbing a snow-capped mountain, Hans Knorst proudly thinks of himself as fearless. He hears a cry from below and rescues "The Old Man of the Mountain!," who explains that he was not in danger and is immortal. The old man had been an alchemist centuries ago and had discovered the secret to immortality, which made him arrogant. One day, a huge storm swept him onto the top of the mountain, where he was destined to live out his endless years. He urges Hans to admit that the elements are stronger than he and turn back, but Hans shoves the old man aside and climbs almost to the peak. Suddenly, a big storm arises and, when it subdues, Hans finds that the snow has disappeared from the mountain. He resumes his climb to the top, unaware that he is now a tiny figure climbing an ant hill in a public park.

Groan! John Forte's by-the-numbers artwork does nothing to enliven this tale, where the twist ending is so inexplicable that a final panel is required where the old man explains what happened. He tells the post-code readers that Hans will return to normal size once he reaches the peak and learns humility.

A cheerful old woman named Mrs. Butler says "Come Into My Parlor" when Paulson and Cass, two men with guns who are on the run after a stickup gone wrong, appear at her door. The woman's cheerful attitude and lack of fear begin to make the men nervous, and when she tells them that people in her neighborhood suspect her of being a witch, they don't discount the possibility. Mrs. Butler receives a phone call and does as she's told, instructing the caller that her maid is away. Soon, the police show up and arrest the men, revealing that Mrs. Butler is deaf and her seeming ability to have a phone conversation tipped them off.

"You Got to Have Luck" aired in Alfred Hitchcock Presents on January 15, 1956, and had a similar plot and conclusion. In this story, one of the crooks remarks that it's 1956, which makes sense, because this story must have been written later that year and gone on sale in December 1956 or January 1957. The GCD tells us it's written by Jack Oleck, who may have seen the TV show and kept the clever twist ending in the back of his mind. He adds a weird element by suggesting that Mrs. Butler may be a witch, and Pete Morisi's competent artwork does the rest.

A desperate man addresses the reader, explaining that his car got stuck in the mud during a storm and he came upon a hut. He entered to find a little old man with a long, white beard and pointy ears. The man sat in a rocking chair in front of a roaring fire, and the visitor sat with him and observed that the old man lifted his hand, mumbled some words, and logs floated over onto the fire. The visitor confronted the old man, who explained that he was the last of the sorcerers and could gain great power by uttering "Six Strange Words," which consign a person to limbo. The visitor forced the old man to tell him the words and the visitor whispered them, after which the old man disappeared. The visitor then turns to the reader, telling him that he knows too much. The visitor whispers the words again and realizes that he can no longer see the reader but can now see the sorcerer.

Syd Shores does a decent job with the art, but I'm befuddled by the ending. Does the speaker consign himself to limbo by whispering the words when he's alone? That's my best guess. A little clarity would've helped. Too bad the Old Man of the Mountain wasn't around to provide a last-panel explanation.

In the trenches during WWI, Jean Mornet's fellow soldier, Pierre, reminds him that he comes from a long line of brave soldiers. Jean is having none of it and runs away, hearing echoes of "Run, Coward, Run!" in his head. An explosion knocks him off his feet and he awakens back in his hometown of Avignon, where he realizes he's a ghost. He sees that his family thinks him a hero until Pierre arrives to set them straight; they destroy Jean's picture in their shame and anger. Suddenly, he's back on the battlefield, and this time, after the explosion, he acts heroically, saving his fellow soldiers from an enemy patrol. Was it all a dream? Perhaps, but if it was, why does Jean retain objects he picked up while he was in Avignon?

I could count on my fingers the number of Atlas post-code stories where the writing was better than the art; this is one of them. The story of Jean's transformation from coward to hero is straightforward and clearly told, despite the corny twist ending. The art by Roussos is uninspired and does nothing to deepen the tale.

Carl and his men have been searching for the ancient Aztec city of Mauhautec for five years without success, but Carl's not giving up, even though everyone else has had it. He finds the city's location by looking at some old documents from a mission, but, after six months of unsuccessful searching, no one else wants to follow him. At the end of a long day, Carl stumbles into the city of gold, where the Aztecs tell him it was cursed and only appears one day every hundred years. Carl sees that sundown is fast approaching, so he grabs a pile of gold and makes a run for it, but all the others on his team hear is "A Scream for Help" from Carl, who fails to make it out of the city before it disappears for another century.

I don't know who thought to cross a search for Aztec gold with the plot of "Brigadoon," but I was half expecting Carl to burst into song. A few bars of "Almost Like Being in Love" would not have been unwelcome. Syd Shores is fast becoming one of the better artists in the post-code Atlas titles; here, he's aided by inker Christopher Rule, who (according to Comiclopedia) would soon become Jack Kirby's inker when the King returns.

Foster knocks out Anderson and steals his purse, only to find that "Foster's Friend," his devoted dog, Blackie, begins to follow Foster everywhere, like a conscience haunting him for his misdeed. Foster finally drives to a cliff on the edge of town and is about to shoot the dog with a rifle when he loses his footing and falls, breaking his leg. The police arrive and find the stolen purse, which contained dog candy as well as cash. Was the dog haunting Foster, or did it just smell the treats?

Bob Powell to the rescue, with lovely art that elevates a story we've read many times before in one form or another. After reading umpteen Atlas post-code comics, I'm tempted to go on the hunt for a book to learn more about this fine comic artist.-Jack

Next Week...
We Answer the Burning Question...
"What was Stephen King Reading in 1957?"