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

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 141

March 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #56

Cover by Bill Everett

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

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

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

"Hide-Out!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

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

"The Shock!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Uncanny Tales # 53

Cover by Bill Everett

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

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

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

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

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

"Nerve-Wracker!" (a: John Forte) ★

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

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

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

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

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

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

World of Fantasy #6

Cover by Bill Everett

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

"The Three Heads" (a: Dave Berg) ★★

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

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

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

"Monkey Man!" (a: John Forte) ★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!