Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 165: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 150

June 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystical Tales #7

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Secret of the Haunted Picture" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

(r: Beware 7)

"Hide and Shriek" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

(r: Journey Into Mystery #12)

"The Living  Shadows!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

"It Happened in the Attic!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

(r: Marvel Chillers #1)

"Too Smart to Live!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"The Man Who Can't Be Stopped" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

Artist Nelson Arne is in a bit of a slump... well, maybe the word "slump" doesn't apply. Nelson doesn't have a career at all, thanks to his unimaginative doodles and some prickly critics. Then one night, while feeling sorry for himself, Nelson meets a man in the park who promises he can grant the artist fame and fortune for one year if he then hands over his soul.

Nelson scoffs and tells the man to go away (important detail that). The next day, two delivery men arrive at Arne's door and drop off a pane of glass meant to replace one that had broken in his apartment. Nelson looks long into the glass and a nightmarish scene appears. Overtaken by the horrid image, he begins to copy it on his canvas. The result is a masterpiece that immediately sells for a really big price. Sure enough, Nelson Arne the artist has arrived. After one year of success, the bill comes due. There's a twist in the climax of "The Secret of the Haunted Picture" that is simultaneously effective and ridiculous. This could be the first "bargain with the devil" story since the code came along (even though Satan is never named); odd too since Arne never agrees to the pact. 

In "Hide and Shriek," George Karus loves a good practical joke, as long as it's being played on someone else. At one of his ritzy parties, the wealthy Karus stages a couple of particularly annoying acts of "humor" on his guests, leaving them fuming. To make amends, he announces there will be a treasure hunt and the winner will take home fifty grand. But, while the hunt is on, his guests all disappear and in their place stands Khala, Voodoo Headman of the African Veldt! Years before, George had played what he considered to be one of his best jokes on Khala, but the native found it somewhat less funny. Now, Khala tells George he must play this new kind of game, find the guests by the stroke of midnight, or face the consequences. Poor George has never been on the receiving end of these games and he's not finding this very funny.

Howard and his friends find an old map to a buried treasure, but the dang thing has no landmarks other than a tree and some rocks. How will they find out where this incredible sum is buried? Well, naturally, they decide to visit a swami and contact the spirit of the dead man who wrote the map! When the mapmaker, Lloyd Barton, materializes, he brings with him his beautiful fiance, Alice, and the two promise to lead the men to the treasure. Are Lloyd and Alice really spirits or con artists running a game? Well, at the climax of "The Living Shadows!," you certainly find out. It's a wordy and dopey tale, one that would have fit more comfortably in the pages of an Atlas romance title, but it's fairly entertaining. The Wildey art, however, is very 1940s and fits well with the story's World War II setting.

Roger has always been a selfish man but when his best friend invents a time machine, Roger does the unforgivable. Believing he can go back one hundred years and talk his great-grandfather into better investments (and thereby establish a larger inheritance for himself!), the scalawag steals the device and heads back in time. These time travel novices never end up better than before their trip and Roger, the lunk-headed protagonist of the three-page "It Happened in the Attic!," is no exception. 

Running from the law, Mike Morse falls off a cliff and finds himself trapped in a steep ravine. Luckily, a hiker comes along and offers to help the wanted man; unluckily, the new guy meets the same fate as Mike and very soon there are two trapped rats. The newcomer seems to have a case of amnesia and, quicker than you can say "I know I'm trapped in an Ed Winiarski strip where all the characters look alike anyway," Mike has convinced his would-be rescuer that he's the fleeing felon. Pretty brilliant scheme until the new guy starts thinking like a criminal. "Too Smart to Live!" has utterly atrocious graphics (Winiarski has a problem with human anatomy here as the arms of our characters seem to change shape and size every other panel) but I was surprised by the clever twist. Could be I'm that guy just searching the penny jar for a dime.

Professor Thornton has invented a gizmo that enables his mind to be a receiver of other thoughts. Yep, he can read minds! So, naturally, the brilliant and really smart genius decides to use his tool to rule mankind. Alas, poor Thornton didn't bank on the fact that the machine allows him to read billions of minds at the same time. The result is brain overload. "The Man Who Can't Be Stopped" is a strange title for a story about a deviant egghead who's stopped in the first couple of pages. The artwork is average; this one won't be found in any Best of Joe Orlando collections.-Peter

Spellbound #34

Cover by Carl Burgos

"In the Room of Darkness" 

(a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★1/2

"The Man Who Was Twice" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

"The Missing Nail!" (a: George Roussos) ★

"The Silent Shriek" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Mysterious Cargo" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

"The Crooks Who Couldn't Be Caught!" (a: John Forte) ★

Swami Ram is helping rich Mrs. Peters contact her dead husband, Walter, through his mystical powers and doing a pretty good job, according to the old woman. That is, until the sage delivers a note supposedly written by the deceased, not knowing Walt couldn't write! The twist for "In the Room of Darkness" is pretty silly stuff (yeah, I know, it's all pretty silly stuff), considering the woman is buying the fact that her dead husband is actually contacting her but not quite buying the fact that St. Peter might have given Walter a lesson or two in penmanship before sending him through Heaven's turnstiles. GCD claims this one is penciled and inked by the great Williamson and Mayo, and those guys are so much more knowledgeable than I, but if it's Al & Ralph it's not their finest hour.

While the other wives boast of their husbands' virility, paychecks, and bravery, Joyce Haywood can only remain mum. Her husband Henry is a timid, sexless, half-man and she's so ashamed of him that she pays brilliant and really smart inventor Bernard Baldwin a small fortune to create a robotic twin of Henry to prove her friends wrong. While the real Henry is off on a business trip, the women invite Joyce and "Henry" along on a boating excursion and a fierce storm hits, tossing the women off the catamaran. Rather than hide under the picnic basket, "Henry" dives overboard and saves the girls from a watery doom, becoming the talk of the town for his bravery. Henry comes home from his trip and professes surprise that the women are bragging about his masculinity just as the doorbell rings. (To no one's) surprise, it's Professor Bernard here to deliver Robo-Henry with apologies for his lateness. You mean... brave Henry was the real Henry? Well, there's one more twist that makes "The Man Who Was Twice" much cleverer than its lame title. And then there's the tame GGA from Doxsee, who makes it worth the look as well.

A brilliant but forgetful chemist takes his horse in to be shod but forgets the incredible serum he created (to send man back to ancient times) on the back seat of the carriage. Not bothering to wonder if the substance is toxic or not, the blacksmith downs the potion and is sent twirling back to the time of King Richard III. King Dick is just as unhappy about his horse throwing a shoe and takes his wrath out on the hapless blacksmith. "The Missing Nail!" has a moronic script that's good for a few laughs but the whole thing seems like a mini-history review, complete with bad textbook illustrations.

When brilliant but meek inventor John Kent brings his new bug-killer gizmo to Mr. Carpenter to manufacture, the businessman is not impressed. That is, not until Kent warns the entrepreneur that if the machine's high frequency is turned way up, it could kill a human. Coincidentally, Carpenter is looking for a way to murder a business associate and get away with it! "The Silent Shriek" is just as mind-numbing as the previous tale and not much better to look at. 

In the three-page "The Mysterious Cargo," the world one hundred years in the future has witnessed severe climate change due to atomic testing and the temperature has increased dramatically. Within a specially refrigerated vehicle, two men race against time to deliver a precious item to a faraway museum. The item in question is a surprise but more surprising is how accurately the (uncredited) scripter predicted our current ecosystem's problems. Last up is "The Crooks Who Couldn't Be Caught!," wherein small-time crook Al Jenkins hits the big time when he starts dating a gorgeous telepath who doesn't seem to catch on when Al keeps asking her to read the minds of jewelry store owners as they're opening their safes. But the joke's on Al: the babe-a-licious blonde is really a stinkin' Commie sent to enlist an oaf to help her steal top secret blueprints from the defense department! 

And so closes the final issue of Spellbound after a long and bumpy run, the first victim of the apocalyptic "Atlas Implosion of 1957" (a good history lesson on the Implosion can be found here). Though there wasn't much to shout about in the eleven post-code issues (with Bill Benulis's "Eye Over the City" back in #24 being the only obvious standout), the pre-code version could be counted on for some solid thrills and chills. Two of the stories featured in those first 23 non-CCA issues made my "50 Best Atlas Stories" list: Bill Everett's "Horror Story" (from #2) and Tony DiPreta's "The City" (#18). -Peter

Strange Stories of Suspense #15

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Doomsday!" (a: George Woodbridge) ★1/2

"The Liquid of Life!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"The Man Who Forgot" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

"The Sinister Suit" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★

"I Went Inside the Hidden World!" (a: William Weltman) ★

"The Terrible Timepiece!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

When Tanya the gypsy looks into her crystal ball and says what she sees, you'd better listen! She announces that a stranger fleeing like a fox will arrive at their camp and, sure enough, a crook on the run named Foxy Bertram turns up. The gypsies take him in and Tanya tells him that a falling, glowing rock will play a great role in his life. He discovers a gold nugget and convinces the gypsies to leave the area by telling them that a meteor is hurtling through space and will soon crash on the campsite. After they leave, Foxy stakes his claim and encounters "Doomsday!" when his prediction comes true and the meteor lands right where he's kneeling.

Who would have thought that would happen? George Woodbridge's art on this one is average and the reader can't say they're surprised by the ending, since Tanya spelled it all out for us.

Ralph Porter puts on his diving suit and descends to the ocean floor to plunder a sunken galleon's gold. While avoiding hungry tiger sharks, he sees people swimming under water with no breathing apparatus and follows them, finding an ancient Spanish civilization that features the Fountain of Youth. Ralph assumes that these folk are the same as those who were on the sunken galleon--they drink "The Liquid of Life!" and never age. The governor is not interested in Ralph's plan to bring machinery down to bottle the stuff and throws him in  jail. That night, Ralph escapes, grabs a sample of the special water, and returns to the surface, where the others on his ship scoff at his claims. Ralph drinks the water and suddenly begins gasping for breath--he now has gills and must be tossed back into the water to survive.

Leave it to Carl Wessler to present us with such a dizzying series of twists and turns that lead to a clunker of a finale. At least we have four pages of Richard Doxsee's artwork to enjoy; he has quickly joined the top tier of Atlas artists in 1957.

The first man to test a new time machine is disappointed to land on a deserted island, not knowing the date or where he is. As time passes and he struggles to survive, he becomes "The Man Who Forgot," unable to recall anything but his own name. He spies a ship and hopes to be rescued. At the same time, the inventor of the time machine realizes that the man will never return and crosses his name off the list of those willing to try it; the name is Robinson Crusoe. Hoo boy, this barely has enough to fill three badly drawn pages! In this month's Spellbound we had an appearance by Richard III and now we get this. The well is running dry.

At the 10th Street Rescue Mission, a bum named Danny puts on a fancy suit that had belonged to John Fletcher, a millionaire who disappeared last week and whom the police are still looking for. Danny takes a nap on a park bench and awakens to find himself in Fletcher's bedroom, where the butler tells him that the car is waiting. The chauffer takes off and Danny finds himself locked inside the car and left to drown when the driver leaps out just before the car sinks in a lake. Danny wakes up, back on the park bench and still clad in "The Sinister Suit"; he leads the cops to the lake, where they find Fletcher dead in his car, clutching a note that implicates the chauffeur.

When I see that Ed Winiarski or Robert Sale has drawn a story in an Atlas comic, my expectations are low and I am rarely disappointed. But when I see that the artist is Bernie Krigstein I expect more than we get in this tepid mystery-fantasy It looks like he, like the rest of the Atlas crew, is playing out the string until the big implosion.

A pair of scientists invent a microscope that shows them a microscopic world and that would allow someone to shrink to tiny size and visit the world for an hour before returning unharmed. The janitor overhears the men talking and, when they're gone, looks through the microscope and sees a giant diamond! He enters the machine, shrinks, visits the tiny world, steals the diamond, and returns to normal size, but when he reaches into his pocket he realizes that the diamond stayed microscopic.

Once again, I saw that one coming a mile away. William Weltman's art reminds me a bit of the work of Steve Ditko in certain panels, but overall it's nothing special.

A petty thief named Konrad Brugy robs an old man and drops his pocket watch as he runs from the police. Returning to look for it, he finds that it was crushed beneath their boots. Konrad visits a pawnbroker and buys a replacement that doubles as a very special stopwatch--when he presses the button, everything around him begins to defy gravity. Like every other Atlas protagonist, Konrad sees this as a way to make money and takes it to a series of important people, demanding ten million dollars for it. He finds a buyer in Colonel Ivan Gorovsky, whose government is about to drop a bomb on Konrad's Soviet-bloc republic. Konrad joins the colonel in a bomber plane, assuring him that the stopwatch will keep the plane in the air if it's hit by enemy fire. Sure enough, this comes to pass, but when the bomb is dropped it floats upward due to the anti-gravity field and blows up the plane.

"The Terrible Timepiece!" is yet another Wessler story with so many twists and turns needed to set up the conclusion that it is a chore to plod through, even at a mere four pages. Poor Paul Reinman wasn't doing his best work by the point in his career. All in all, a poor issue.-Jack

Strange Tales of the Unusual #10

Cover by John Severin

"Menace of the Unseen Man" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★1/2

"The Man Who Said 'No'" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

(r: Journey Into Mystery 16)

"Don't Answer the Phone!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★1/2

(r: Uncanny Tales #9)

"Mass Murder" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★

(r: Vault of Evil #18)

"The Threat!" (a: Paul Reinman (?) & John Tartaglione (?)) ★

"The Nightmare Men" (a: Mac L. Pakula)

(r: Uncanny Tales #9) ★1/2

A hobo named Barney Lowry is given two hours to get out of Haysville, but when he eats some berries from a tree just outside of town and becomes invisible, Barney heads right back into the sleepy borough. His invisibility wears off and he is jailed, but a few more berries allow the "Menace of the Unseen Man" to begin as Barney escapes from his cell, robs a jewelry store, steals a police car, and heads into the countryside. Eventually, Barney gets tired and lies down for a nap in a new building under construction; too bad for him it's the new jail and he wakes up back in a cell and visible!

I know we've seen this ending before. Doxsee's art is passable but the story is so tired that there's not much he can do with it.

Jonathan Bascombe is a cruel, rich man who enjoys watching ants climb up the side of a mound of sand and knocking them back down just before they reach the top. A scientist named Max visits and asks Bascombe for money to finish a cellular project, but the wealthy man enjoys barking "no." The next night, Jonathan drives to Max's house to torture him some more but finds no one home. He reads the scientist's journal and learns that he can't complete his serum without a dynamo. Just then, a handy bolt of lightning comes through the window and hits a beaker of serum.

Bascombe blacks out and awakens to find himself at the bottom of a mound that he starts to climb. Just as he nears the top, a giant finger knocks him off. We see that the finger belongs to a little boy who enjoys torturing ants just as Jonathan does; Max the scientist walks by and thinks of his cellular shrinkage serum that just needed a dynamo to activate it electrically. He blames himself and thinks that Bascombe, "The Man Who Said 'No,'" would never have given up.

Angelo Torres makes this obvious story bearable with some nice graphics, but the events are far-fetched and predictable. It's odd that Max ends up respecting Jonathan for being so strong; it's supposed to be ironic, since Bascombe ends up at the base of the mound, but it doesn't really work.

Hal Terrance is a successful businessman until he begins to be tortured by phone calls from Lydia. At a meeting, on a dinner date, in the middle of the night--she keeps calling and it's driving him crazy. Finally, he goes to the police station and confesses to her murder. The phone rings and the detective tells the caller that Hal has just confessed--Lydia replies that no more calls are needed and hangs up.

"Don't Answer the Phone!" is a moody, spooky mystery that works due to the evocative artwork by Gray Morrow. It gradually becomes apparent that the caller is a dead woman, but until Hal's confession, it's not clear what he did. The conclusion is satisfying.

Harrison from the Defense Department lands secretly by parachute on a remote atoll, where he is met by Dr. Peter Farnum, who announces that Operation Nullify is an unqualified success. Farnum and his team have created an atmospheric dust that will protect the nation from atomic bombs. Six months ago, after realizing that there were two methods that needed to be tested and only enough geniuses to work on one, an inventor named Barnaby used a machine to create duplicates of the scientists. The images, or duplicate scientists, went to the Pacific to work, while the real ones worked in the Arctic. Now that the problem has been solved, Farnum uses a ray to dissolve them. Harrison is shocked and accuses Farnum of "Mass Murder"; the scientist is tried in a courtroom, where the prosecutor argues that the images had the power to save mankind and thus the right to live.

For a change, an Atlas story is thought-provoking! In today's world, with A.I. on the rise and 3-D printing creating lifelike duplicates, the question posed by this story could soon be a timely one--how close do the duplicates have to come to having human characteristics before they deserve human rights? The story is so intriguing that even Robert Sale's art is bearable. The only slight glitch is that the images would have dissolved on their own anyway had Harrison not sped up the process. I like that the end is left ambiguous--the story ends before the jury returns a verdict.

Disappointed by his inheritance from his father, Lester Harlow reads his grandfather's diary and comes up with a moneymaking scheme. It seems that the old man had built a machine that brought people over from another dimension and they still live in town. The machine is still running in the attic, so Lester invites the inter-dimensional visitors to his house and issues "The Threat!" Pay him $25K each or he'll shut off the machine and they'll return to their old dimension! The three couples think Lester is nuts, so he turns a dial on the machine and vanishes! Poor Lester did not read far enough into the diary to learn that his father married one of the people from the other dimension, making Lester himself a visitor subject to return.

The GCD suggests that Paul Reinman penciled this three-pager and that John Tartaglione inked it. The pencils definitely look like Reinman's chicken-scratch, circa 1957, while some of the characters' faces do have that Tartaglione look and seem more finished, especially in the last couple of panels. Whatever the case, Wessler's script is terrible! Only he would have a character discover a machine that brings people over from another dimension and immediately have that character's thoughts turn to blackmail.

A tyrant is feared, but every night he is visited in his dreams by "The Nightmare Men," whom he fears are coming to take him away. The only man who can help him is Dr. Peter Rostov, whose brother the tyrant sent to a concentration camp. Rostov agrees to help and that night the tyrant sleeps soundly. The next morning, he is gone! Did the nightmare men finally take him away? Unaware of what has happened, Rostov laments his cowardice in aiding the tyrant.

The lack of an ending doesn't make a weak story worth reading. Mac Pakula draws a few decent panels but that's about it.-Jack

Next Week...
The Implosion Continues to Scorch Earth.
Help Us Bid Fond Farewell to Three More Titles!

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?