Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 127: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 112

July 1956 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Marvel Tales 148

Cover by Bill Everett

"Where Did They Go?" (a: Jim Mooney) ★1/2

"The Many Worlds of Henry Adams!" (a: Werner Roth) ★★1/2

"The Hollow Suit" (a: George Roussos) ★1/2

"Earthquake!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★

"Scared Away!" (a: Bob Bean) ★★

"The Despot!" (a: Joe Certa) ★★★

The 148th issue of Marvel Tales gets off to an illustrious start with a marvelously inane yarn about UFOs and missing showgirls. I've no complaints about the Mooney art but the payoff (the dancing gals are the aliens) of "Where Did They Go?" is fumbled so badly it's hard to understand just what's going on. Never mind that, we've got five more tales to wade through...

To escape the pressures of his everyday life, Henry Adams heads into the desert where he finds a strange blue stone. As he holds the rock in his hand, he disappears and finds himself in a "state of transdimension." Henry travels through a set of dimensions that test his patience and skills, and all the while he must hold on to the blue stone. As he enters the 7th dimension, he loses his grip on the stone and finds himself back in his old life again. He heads back to the desert, determined to finish this time.

Though I found "The Many Worlds of Henry Adams!" to be quite confusing at times (in one world, Adams must fight off a pit of vipers while another man is at his back, so I assume others are on the same journey), I still admire it for the chances it takes and the deep message not found in any of the other stories in this issue.

Three hoods hide from the law in a museum in Mexico and learn about Cortez and his band of merry Atzecs [sic] but it's the lost chest of gold, which fell in a "raging mountain river," that perks them up. Hearing a noise, they turn to witness a terrifying sight: "The Hollow Suit" of an Atzec warrior shambling after them. They run out of the building but the clanking creature follows. Finally, they knock it into a river and then realize which river they've knocked him into. The river!

They hire a diving bell and plunge to the bottom of the river, where they discover a mysterious dry cavern. In the dwelling, they find several chests of gold but they also run across an army of Atzec hollow suits. Without missing a beat, the three stooges head back to the surface world where they turn themselves in and receive protection. "The Hollow Suit" is a groaner and even the eight-year-old target audience wouldn't get chills. The Roussos art is far from outstanding but at least you can tell what's going on and the artist spent a bit of time on detail.

The great Bill Everett contributes the three-page "Earthquake!" When our world is rocked by natural disasters, blame falls on invisible rays fired from the moon. In the end, the solution is more down-to-earth. Though the Everett work is, as always, solid, I'd prefer he was on something a little more substantial than talking head panels.

The first manned flight into the density of space drills into a new world but the crew is attacked by a giant with a ray gun. They turn tail and drill back down into the Earth. Turns out the giant is a kid in a space costume who ran across the tiny people in the park. I like the Bob Bean graphics in "Scared Away!" but the big twist is hardly earth-shattering. It actually raised more questions than it asked (How do the "little people" know there's something above the "density"? Where do they get their oxygen from if they live in the center of the Earth?). A moderately entertaining bit of fluff.

Even after "The Despot!" has defeated all enemies and become the ruler of the world, he worries he'll be overthrown by a public that has no enemy. He invents a race of warriors on the moon and lets the population know the aliens are about to attack, transforming his sleepy public into an armed mob. The dictator boards a rocket to the moon, vowing to destroy all adversaries. The ship gets to the moon, the dictator fires a couple of rockets for the hometown crowd, and then he watches in horror as cannons rise from the craters and fire back. The surface of the moon is unpopulated but the underworld evidently holds surprises.

Best Story of the Month award goes to "The Despot!" which ends with a twist that elicited a smile from this hardened old vet. The GCD credits Jack Oleck as the writer, which is odd since, as far as I know, this would be his only Atlas credit. It does jibe with the type of clever material he would contribute to the DC mystery line a decade later. The Joe Certa art is cartoony in a 1960s superhero strip sort of way but it works nonetheless. A solid sci-fi yarn.-Peter

Mystery Tales 43

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Idol" (a: Pete Morisi) ★1/2

"Punishment!" (a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) ★

"Waiting... Waiting!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★

"The Man Who Failed" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★★

"The Silent Ones" (a: Robert Q. Sale & Charles Nicholas[?]) ★1/2

"I'm Afraid!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★

Disregarding a menacing curse, Fred Harris buys a jungle idol known as "The Yearning One" from a buddy and immediately regrets his rash decision. He takes the idol to his apartment where he and his girlfriend, Julie, study it, when all of a sudden Fred and Julie find themselves transported deep into a sweltering jungle. The idol makes the trip as well.

A savage tribe comes upon the hapless couple and threatens to shrink their heads since, as the head native explains, the Yearning Idol is the god of their enemy, the Worubi tribe. Fred and Julie can only wait while the native women toss garlic and carrots into a big pot. Fred uses his noggin and gets them out of a precarious situation. They find themselves back in their apartment, counting their blessings. Fred grabs an old Jungle Tribe Mythology book and explains to Julie that the wood the idol is carved from gives off hallucinogenic vapors; therefore their trip was just that... a trip! "The Idol" starts off interestingly enough but then falls into the familiar post-code trap of unsuspenseful suspense. The explanation at the end definitely doesn't help.

Simon Andrews travels to the future where there is no violence and, therefore, no laws. He steals some gems but is captured before he can climb back in his machine. He bargains with the government officials and they let him take his booty back to their past/Simon's present. But on the way, his machine blows a fuse and the poor dope ends up a rich man in the dinosaur era. "Punishment!" is the best title I could come up with for this nonsense. The author doesn't even let us in on Simon's time machine; it's as if he had written a five-page story and Stan cut the first page out! Awful, almost primitive art by Andru/Esposito. Yeccch!

Some okay Gene Colan graphics are about all you'll discover in "Waiting... Waiting!" wherein a trio of youths wander into a strange town where the occupants are anything but hospitable. Though one cute girl is kind to them, they end up scramming out of town. And just in time too. The town is actually an A-Bomb testing site and the villagers are mannikins. Why? How am I supposed to know? The most hilarious thing about the story is the three teenagers who seem almost on the verge of lapsing into full J.D. mode any moment if not for that dang Code.

Dr. Earle Fulton is "The Man Who Failed." At least, until now he was. Fulton invents a formula for a protein that will "supply all the nourishment man needs to live" and he's on the cusp of becoming the most important and famous scientist of all time. The tests on lab rats and monkeys go wonderfully (well, I mean, great until the ape disappears) and it's time to conduct human experiments. 

The subjects are prisoners of the worst kind: lifers, murderers, comic book salesmen. Fulton gives the injections and the cons disappear, only to reappear later, smarter, and bigger. In fact, they're brilliant giants! But, luckily for the Prof, the formula has some flaws and the inmates return to normal very soon. Fulton sighs and admits he's a failure to the public at large but inside he knows he's God's gift to nutty professors. 

There's some fun stuff here if you don't think about it too much. I love when the guard at the prison who's there to oversee the inmates at the testing tells the egghead that he's going to get something to eat and he'll return soon, leaving Fulton at the mercy of the prisoners, giant or not. The formula itself is a bit of a mystery; it's never really explained past the "this will make it so man will never have to go hungry again" part.

A crew of space travelers land on a faraway planet that makes no sound. The inhabitants welcome them (without talking) but two of the visitors decide to take advantage of their hosts and steal priceless gems from their rooms. They try to take off on their rocket ship but are caught by the commander, who explains that "The Silent Ones" don't need to speak since they can read minds. Last up is the truly awful "I'm Afraid!" wherein mountain climber Hans Mueller falls into a crevasse and discovers an underworld race of ice men. Vic Carrabotta's scratchy art is perfect for this unreadable mess.-Peter

Mystic 49

Cover by Bill Everett

"Girl in a Trance" (a: Lou Cameron) ★★

"Prisoner in Nowhere" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"The Pushovers!" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★

"They're Coming Closer" (a: Bob McCarthy) ★1/2

"Behind the Mask" (a: Dave Berg) ★★

"Torn and Tattered" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★

After Steve Morgan met pretty Joan Brent at a party, he had a string of successes at work and Joan was not surprised by any of the promotions he received. One evening, he spies on Joan from outside her window and observes that she's a "Girl in a Trance"; he concludes that her deep love for him allows her wishes for his success to work like magic. Surprisingly, the next day all of his promotions turn to demotions and he is fired from his job! After he leaves the office, a bolt of lightning sends a tree crashing into the roof of the building where he worked. Steve realizes that Joan's magic saved him again and he can't wait to tie the knot!

I know I'm grading on a curve after reading the terrible Marvel Tales 148 and the marginally better Mystery Tales 43, but I thought this was a pretty good story with decent art. It must not have been written by Carl Wessler because I was able to follow the plot from page one all the way through page four. The panel of Joan I've reproduced here looks like a swipe from a photo, but it's still nice to look at.

A psychiatrist named Paul Machas has an unusual patient named Philip Jason who believes that he has the power to enter a parallel world where he is Jason the Ruler. Machas insists that Jason is imagining the whole thing and decides that the only way to cure his patient is to go along with the delusion. Machas takes Jason's hand and (of course) is transported to another dimension, where Jason the Ruler wants to make him "Prisoner in Nowhere" as punishment for not believing him. Machas makes a run for it before heading to Jason's palace, where he grabs a guard's sword after receiving a shoulder wound. Machas convinces Jason to send him back home and, when he returns, the psychologist is certain he imagined the whole thing. But why is his shoulder injured and where did the sword come from?

 How many of these stories do we have to read where someone thinks he imagined an unusual experience and can't explain an object that he brought back with him? It's so predictable. Pete Morisi is not an artist I'll be looking for a "best of" collection by anytime soon.

Howard Phelps is a traitor! He agrees to destroy his munitions plants throughout the world in exchange for $10 billion dollars, thus ensuring a successful Martin conquest. General Xua's spaceship sets off for Mars but the crew notice a light on Earth and decide to take it back to the Red Planet. Everyone on Earth is saddened by the loss of the light; when Phelps's son explains how much it means to him, Howard's attitude changes. He tells the Martians that the deal is off and they come to take him back to Mars. On the Red Planet, Phelps explains to the emperor that the light is very important to the people of Earth, so the emperor calls off the invasion. No reader is surprised by the last panel, which shows that the State of Liberty has been returned to its place in New York Harbor.

I knew right away that the light in "The Pushovers!" was the Statue of Liberty. Wessler's script makes such a point of hiding the details of the light that the whole, dopey story hinges on creating suspense that is relieved by the final panel's revelation. When the secret is this easy to guess, reading the story (a long four pages) becomes an exercise in tedium.

King Hazid hires a soldier of fortune named Jock Nelson to help fight off a robot army that Rudolf Dailer has raised to overthrow the monarchy. When Nelson hears that the robots are remote-controlled, he knows he'll succeed. A cry goes up that "They're Coming Closer" but, when the robots approach the palace, Jock uses his own transmitter to jam the remote-control signals controlling the robots, which fall to the ground. Nelson is paid his $50K fee and is surprised to see that the king is also a robot, whose signal was unintentionally jammed and who is in the process of being repaired.

The only thing surprising about this three-page dud is that it takes place in an unnamed southern European country; it's probably Hungary, whose people revolted in the fall of 1956.

Pulp fiction writer Kip Cornell is stuck as he nears the conclusion of his new story, "Behind the Mask." Who is the masked villain? His editor, Lee Mitchell, telephones to demand the finished script and, as Kip hangs up, the story on the page begins to play out in real life. A masked man kidnaps him at gunpoint and demands the story before taking him for a ride in his car. The ride is interrupted by a police roadblock; the cops take Kip to the location of his story's climax, where the masked man is revealed to be Lee Mitchell, the editor!

It doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense but having a pulp writer suddenly find himself in the middle of the story he's writing is kind of fun, especially when illustrated by Dave Berg. Berg's art is a mix of standard, early comic art style and the style he'd later use in Mad Magazine for his Lighter Side series. All Kip Cornell lacks is a Bergian pipe.

A "Torn and Tattered" old rug lies in a waterfront shack where a man sits, alone in his misery. The carpet recalls the old days, when it was a magic carpet woven by a holy man and given to the great chieftain, Ben Youssef, who used the carpet to perform many great deeds. Over the years, the carpet traded hands many times, finally ending up in the shack, where the man wishes he could travel to South America to aid his family. Suddenly, the carpet takes flight, whisking the man to his destination. In the end, all that is left are a few tattered threads.

Paul S. Newman turns in a decent script for this issue's closer, with Manny Stallman providing workmanlike art. The Atlas comics line looks to be on its last legs as of the issues dated July 1956.-Jack

Next Week!
The Return Absolutely
No One Requested!

The Hitchcock Project-Final Arrangements by Robert Arthur [6.36]

by Jack Seabrook

Each morning, Rutherford Parnell sits and daydreams, fascinated by an idea. His shrewish wife Elsie has been confined to a wheelchair for a decade, ever since she was injured in an auto accident while Rutherford was driving. Mrs. Casey, the eighth in a series of companions that he has hired for his wife, arrives only to announce that she has found another job. Resolved to carry out his plan, Rutherford rides the bus downtown but disembarks early, telephoning the office to say that he won't be in to work today.

The unhappy husband visits a funeral home and makes arrangements, asking the funeral director to come to his house this evening but omitting the name of the deceased. Back at home, Rutherford dismisses Mrs. Casey and confronts his wife, showing her poison he bought at the drugstore and calling it "'something to help you escape your constant loneliness and bitterness.'" He pours a large glass of milk and adds a generous helping of poison. After some last bitter words are exchanged, Rutherford tells Elsie that he cashed in his life insurance policy. He asks her if she'd like to go to a rest home and, after she defers, he swallows the poisoned milk, telling her that she will soon realize that things at home were not so bad.

"Final Arrangements" was
first published here

A short story with a predictable twist ending and two-dimensional characters, "Final Arrangements" was published in the July 1961 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. It's author, Lawrence Page, is a mystery man who has no other stories to his credit in the FictionMags Index and about whom I was unable to uncover any information. Is the name a pseudonym? The issue of the digest in which it appears also includes stories by William Link and Richard Levinson, Jack Ritchie, Henry Slesar, Bryce Walton, Donald Honig, Mann Rubin, Avram Davidson, and Helen Nielsen, all of whom either had episodes of the Hitchcock TV show based on their work or wrote teleplays for it, sometimes both. If Lawrence Page is a pseudonym for one of the authors who has another story in this issue, the most likely candidate is Henry Slesar, who wrote so many episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; however, when the story was collected in anthologies, including the 1980 volume, The Best of Mystery, it was also credited to Lawrence Page, so it may well be that "Final Arrangements" was the only story he ever had published.  IMDb lists him as Lawrence A. Page, but the source of the middle initial is unknown. Read the story online here.

Martin Balsam as Leonard Compson

The July 1961 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine most likely hit the newsstands before July and the TV version of this short story aired on Tuesday, June 20, 1961, so it appears that the producers of the TV show purchased the rights to the short story and filmed the adaptation before the magazine went on sale. Chosen to write the teleplay was Robert Arthur (1909-1969), who was born in the Philippines, where his father was stationed in the Army. He earned an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Michigan before moving to New York City in the early 1930s and becoming a prolific writer of short stories. He later was an editor at Dell and Fawcett but is best known as the ghost editor of many of the Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. He also wrote a beloved series of books about Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators for young adult readers. In 1959, he moved to Hollywood to write for television and edit screenplays. Before that, he won two Edgar Awards as a writer for radio. Many of his stories were adapted for TV; five episodes of the Hitchcock TV show were based on his stories but "Final Arrangements" was the only teleplay he wrote for the series. There is a website devoted to him here.

Vivian Nathan as Elsie

Arthur makes significant changes to the characters and the story structure, though the payoff is the same. The TV version begins with a scene where Leonard Compson (as Rutherford Parnell has been renamed) visits the mortuary, seeking information; he chooses the most expensive casket before revealing to Simms, the mortician, that "'there isn't any deceased...yet.'" Adding this scene at the start of the story creates intrigue about what Leonard is up to and who is in danger of losing their life. In the second scene, Leonard is at the office, speaking to Elsie on the telephone. She is lying in bed and she voices a litany of complaints; we understand that Leonard is henpecked and the scene ends with him taking a life insurance policy out of his desk drawer, but we don't yet know who is insured.

O.Z. Whitehead as Simms

Scene three is completely new, as Leonard visits a curio shop where he is clearly an old customer. The owner, Mr. Bradshaw, shows off odds and ends including a tribal mask, a blowgun that shoots poison darts, and Persian daggers. Leonard's interest in the poison darts is tamped down by Bradshaw, who explains that he would have to remove the poison before he could sell them. Taken together, this first trio of scenes suggests that Leonard is considering killing his wife.

In scene four, Arthur makes a big change when he demonstrates that, rather than being confined to a wheelchair following an auto accident, Elsie is a malingerer who doesn't seem to have much wrong with her at all. Dr. Maxwell pays a house call and we learn that Elsie has considered herself an invalid since a trip to Haiti fifteen years before when she fell while climbing on old ruins with Leonard. The reference to a trip to Haiti ties in with Leonard's interest in curios and sets up the show's final shot. In this scene, Elsie gets out of bed and walks around, something she is unable to do in the short story; she complains of pain and the doctor recommends exercise. Leonard arrives at home and, after the doctor leaves, Elsie accuses him of wishing her dead, something he immediately denies. The viewer is becoming more and more certain that Leonard plans to do away with her, especially after he reminds her that the doctor said that she could live another thirty years.

Slim Pickens as Bradshaw

After the commercial break, Leonard pays a second visit to the mortuary, which corresponds to the single visit in the short story. He sets up the finale by paying in advance for the most expensive funeral and asking Simms to come to his home the next evening at eight p.m. to "'collect the party.'" The viewer at this point assumes that Leonard is being cagey about identifying the person who will die because he is planning to murder Elsie, but in reality, he is planning suicide. Another new scene follows, as Leonard encounters a young boy named Billy on the sidewalk near his home. Billy's bicycle nearly runs into Leonard and causes him to drop a lucky amulet, a foreign object that he must have bought at the curio shop. Leonard counsels the boy on not taking a wrong turn and ending up in a stagnant swamp, and he buys movie tickets from the boy but absentmindedly forgets to take them.

Bartlett Robinson as
Dr. Maxwell

Billy brings the movie tickets to Elsie, who is sitting on the porch. She is rude to the child, insisting that she is not well enough to go out and learning that Leonard told Billy about an impending long trip. The clock reads 7:30 p.m. in a brief scene where Leonard buys rat poison at a drugstore, requesting something painless and quick. The druggist assumes that Leonard feels sorry for the rats but, as we will see, he is protecting himself.

Susan Brown as
the secretary

Finally, the time is 7:55 p.m. and Leonard is at home, where he pours the rat poison into a glass before filling it with milk. There is a brief echo of the scene in Hitchcock's Suspicion where Cary Grant carries the glass of milk up the stairs to Joan Fontaine as Leonard brings the poisoned glass of milk into Elsie's bedroom and puts it on the table beside her. She confronts him about the upcoming trip and he replies that he quit his job and cashed in his $5000 insurance policy, most of which he has already spent. Leonard tells Elsie that they are almost broke and she is as "'strong as a horse'" before the doorbell rings.

Leonard orders Elsie to answer the door, taking control of their relationship for the first time, and she complies. The episode's big surprise then occurs in a shot filmed from Leonard's point of view as he drinks the glass of poisoned milk and Elsie is seen through the bottom of the glass as she leaves the room. Simms enters through the front door, having arrived to pick up the corpse, and the final shot shows Leonard lying dead, a smile on his face, holding his lucky amulet, which the viewer assumes he hopes will guide him in the afterlife.

Despite Robert Arthur's extensive revisions to the short story, "Final Arrangements" plays flat, mainly due to the decision to portray Elsie as an utter shrew with no sympathetic aspect. In the short story, her behavior is understandable if not excusable; she was crippled in a car accident and blames her husband for taking away her health and her freedom. In the TV version, Elsie is a malingerer and it seems like Leonard should have put her in her place much sooner than the final scene.

George Kane as
the pharmacist

This is the only episode of the ten-year Hitchcock TV series to be directed by Gordon Hessler (1925-2014), who was born in Berlin, raised in England, and came to the U.S., where he served as a story reader for Alfred Hitchcock Presents before being promoted to story editor, a job he held from 1960 to 1962. He went on to be an associate producer and later producer on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour from 1962 to 1965. He directed for TV and film from 1965 to 1995, including an episode of The Night Stalker and the film, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973).

Bryan Russell as Billy

Martin Balsam (1919-1996) plays Leonard. Born in the Bronx, Balsam's early stage career was interrupted by a stint in the Air Force during WWII. He then joined the Actors Studio in 1948 and began appearing on TV in 1949. His big break came when he played Juror #1 in the film Twelve Angry Men (1957); this led Hitchcock to cast him as Arbogast in Psycho (1960), where he makes the memorable backward fall down the stairs of the Bates house before he is murdered by Norman in drag. "Final Arrangements" is one of his two appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the other was "The Equalizer." He also appeared on The Twilight Zone and many other TV shows. By the early 1970s, he was appearing mostly in movies. He later was a regular on Archie Bunker's Place, the sequel to All in the Family, and he continued to make regular appearances on TV and in the movies until his death. He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for A Thousand Clowns (1966).

Vivian Nathan (1916-2015) plays Elsie; she was a founding member of the Actors Studio in 1947 and appeared on Broadway starting in 1949. She was born Vivian Firko in New York City and made a handful of appearances on screen from 1953 to 1989. This was one of her two appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents; the other was "Fatal Figures."

Oh, for a time machine!

In smaller roles:

• O.Z. Whitehead (1911-1988) as Simms, the mortician; Whitehead was a member of John Ford's stock company who appeared in such films as The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). He appeared in one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Not the Running Type."
• Slim Pickens (1919-1983) in an odd bit of casting as Bradshaw, who runs the curio shop; his face and voice are instantly recognizable from countless westerns but he will always be remembered riding the atomic bomb and waving his cowboy hat at the end of Dr. Strangelove (1964). Pickens was on film and TV from 1946 to 1983 and was also in "The Jar" on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
• Bartlett Robinson (1912-1986) as Dr. Maxwell; he was on screen from 1949 to 1982 and he was seen in no less than 11 episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Thanatos Palace Hotel."
• Susan Brown (1932-2018) as the secretary in the office where Leonard works; she was on screen from 1955 to 2004, appearing on soap operas such as General Hospital. Brown was also seen in "Cop for a Day" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
• George Kane (1926-2006) as the pharmacist; he was on TV from 1951 to 1964 and he appeared in one film, the adaptation of David Goodis's The Burglar (1957). He was on Thriller twice and he was in two other episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Cop for a Day."
• Bryan Russell (1952-2016) as Billy; his brief screen career lasted from 1959 to 1967.

Watch "Final Arrangements" online here or buy the DVD here.

Sources:

"Final Arrangements." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 6, episode 36, NBC, 20 June 1961.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

Page, Lawrence. "Final Arrangements." Alfred Hitchcock: The Best of Mystery. NY: Galahad Books, 1980. 589-592.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "A Man Greatly Beloved" here!

In two weeks: "Don't Look Behind You," starring Jeffrey Hunter and Vera Miles!

Batman in the 1960s Issue 37: January/February 1966

 

The Caped Crusader in the 1960s
by Jack Seabrook
& Peter Enfantino

Infantino/Anderson

Detective Comics #347

"The Strange Death of Batman!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella

Who is... The Bouncer? Contrary to popular opinion, he's not the guy who throws the drunks out of The Gotham Bar and Grill but a brilliant metallurgist who "stumbled onto an alloy of rubber, steel, and chrome" that allows objects to bounce higher than ever recorded in history. Now, that's some invention! But, instead of applying the find to the greater good and crafting things like airplanes that can never crash, this evil genius uses his "Ellastaloy" to craft a suit that helps him rob banks and amass a fortune so that he can... do something.

Naturally, the crime spree that The Bouncer commences upon catches the attention of the Dynamic Duo (this was one of those rare weeks when the Rogues were all in Gotham Pen at the same time) and the boys head out into the streets to investigate. The Bouncer bounces and the Caped Crusaders are taken completely by surprise, losing the fight in the first round. But at least now they've experienced first-hand the skills of... The Bouncer!

After another failed attempt to capture the extremely fast bouncing villain, Batman concocts a way to eliminate the Bouncer's powers. Just in time too, as the ricocheting rascal has plans to fill the Dark Knight with lead. But wait... there's more...

Right after finishing this compact and simple tale, writer Gardner Fox retreats to his "What If" room (where, doubtless, the question, "What if I were paid better?" comes up daily) and wonders what would have happened if the Bouncer had known what Batman and Robin had up their sleeves and prepared for it? What if the gun aimed at Batman's heart had gone off and killed our hero? Well, naturally Robin would want revenge and the Justice League would mourn their fallen comrade but we also learn that Robin will grow into a scientific genius Bruce Wayne would be proud of (perhaps a little too late since, you know, he's dead and Robin's plan to bring down the Bouncer might have saved Batman's life... but you live and learn). Robin uses science to quash the Bouncer's crime wave and put the fiend behind bars for at least six months (murder is a serious charge even in Gotham).

As he ponders his win in the Batcave and wishes his mentor could be there to share his glee, Robin is startled by a familiar voice behind him. It's the World's Greatest Detective risen from the grave! Well, no, actually it's the Batman of Earth-Two, who had been prodded by that world's Robin to aid this world's Boy Wonder in his path to glory. Robin happily accepts Bruce-2's offer and kindly omits his thought that Robin-2 might just want to get rid of the old man and hog the spotlight for himself. And Bats-2 has brought along a friend... Alfred-2! But, as Gardner points out in the final dialogue box, this is all made up. Forget it. Disregard it. Done.

"The Strange Death of Batman" is enjoyable enough but there's a whiff of "deadline doom" to it. A needle-thin idea that was thrown together at the last second becuz the strip was needed immediately. There's a whole lot of scientific information cluttering up those word balloons as well. The legion of eight-year-old comic buyers must have either been amazed at all the professorial theorems or skipped all the big words and headed to the next nicely-drawn panel. I know I did. Carmine's pencils are the obvious draw here; this is some of the best Bat-art we've seen on this leg of the journey.

At least Fox spared us the three-page origin expository and kept it to a mere three panels. All these super-powered villains seem to arrive at their new vocation through dumb luck or being hit by lightning so why bother drawing it out? This origin even omits the reason that the unnamed metallurgist decided crime was the way to go. I had to laugh at Fox's warning to kids not to skip to the final pages and read the ending first. As Jack notes below, Carmine and Joe were obviously not caught up in the "excitement" of this strip either since their idea of a fabulous suit for The Bouncer is no costume at all. This guy could easily pass as a faster version of Clayface.-Peter

Jack-It's hard to argue that the Bouncer is a silly character when the back-up story features the Elongated Man. I'm more concerned with Bruce Wayne asking Robin if he "dug" something. Bruce Wayne, hippie in training? As for the Bouncer, if he could invent a suit that would protect him when bouncing at great speed or from a great height, couldn't he at least come up with a colorful design? A plain brown bodysuit just doesn't cut it.

Most interesting of all is DC's use of the "what if" concept years before Marvel's comic book of that title premiered. I love seeing Batman of Earth-Two show up, accompanied by Alfred of Earth-Two, to train Robin, while Earth-Two Robin takes over as Batman! It may be another imaginary story, like so many others at DC, but it tracks what really happened...in comic book reality, that is.

Kane/Anderson

Batman #178

"Raid of the Rocketeers!"

Story by Robert Kanigher

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

"The Loan Shark's Hidden Hoard!" 

Story by John Broome

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Sid Greene

Bruce Wayne's old college chum, Professor Nelson, has a lot of weight on his shoulders due to a family history of military success. He is the director in charge of firing several new rockets and, while their purpose may be left unexplained, the importance of the launches to Nelson's sense of self-worth can't be overstated. Unfortunately, the first two rockets suddenly disappear off the radar and Nelson must push the abort switch.

The next night, Nelson gets ready to launch rocket ship number three, unaware that Batman and Robin are going to follow it in the Bat-Plane to see what happens. The rocket ship again seems to vanish, but Batman and Robin are following close behind and see that it is being pulled to a remote island by a strange ray beam. The Dynamic Duo land on a nearby island and start swimming toward the rocket ship's location but they quickly encounter the "Raid of the Rocketeers!" The men with jet-packs on their backs capture Batman and Robin and take them to the island, where they listen to the grand plans of the King of the Rocketeers--that's what I assume he's called, since he wears a crown on his head that looks like part of a rocket ship.

Peter (Batman) and Jack at a
bare*bones staff meeting

One of the missing rockets is fired into the middle of Gotham City Park with a message scrawled on its side: agree to pay one billion bucks in an hour or the next rocket will carry an atomic warhead! The people of Gotham tell King Rocketman to pound sand, so he sends up the next rocket with a couple of unwilling passengers named Batman and Robin! They manage to free themselves, pull the abort switch, and parachute to safety after a "thrilling" mid-air fistfight with flying Rocketeers, including the king, who should have known better. Gotham is saved and, best of all, Prof. Nelson can hold his head high when his last rocket makes a successful run.

This looks like Big Bob Kanigher's first stab at a Batman story and it's so bad that it's good. I was laughing and cringing as I read it and, by the end, I had begun to wonder if it was intentionally ridiculous. The Gil Kane/Murphy Anderson cover is a knockout, but the Moldoff/Giella interior art is the usual stuff. The Rocketeer island business seems like a James Bond knockoff, which isn't surprising in early 1966, but the billion dollar ransom demand required a spy like Austin Powers to respond.

A pair of Gotham City grifters named Weeper and Rosy lament their lack of funds to bet on a sure thing at the race track. Rosy has been peeping through his binoculars at a room in the building across the street, where he has seen a man putting gobs of the long green stuff into a safe and never taking any out. Weeper refuses to commit robbery, so they head to Sharkey, the loan shark, for a loan at 100% interest.

Sharkey enjoys his massage a bit too much...

That night, while Weeper and Rosy are at the track, Batman and Robin hear an explosion, just the latest in a series of mysterious bombings. They identify the source of the blast and follow a car to Sharkey's office, where Batman fights a huge massage therapist known as Mako. One gang member escapes during the melee. Commissioner Gordon later shows up and Sharkey's records reveal that he was behind the bombings, which were done to punish people who welshed on loans. Robin finds a hidden key and they're off to look for Sharkey's hidden stash.

Mako tries to undress Batman...

Meanwhile, their horse having finished out of the money, Rosy and Weeper head to the apartment with the safe full of money to acquire funds to pay back Sharkey, only to find the safe empty. Batman and Robin show up and discover the missing gang member hiding in the closet with the loot! Weeper and Rosy end up in prison and Weeper reminds his pal that he always says that "crime don't pay"!

As usual, Sid Greene's inks jazz up Moldoff's pencils to an extent, but this story is even cornier than the one before it. The GCD tells us that this issue went on sale on December 2, 1965, and Wikipedia tells us that the Batman TV show premiered on January 12, 1966, when this issue was still on the newsstands. Methinks the folks at DC were upping the camp factor in anticipation of the premiere.

Batman does the old soft shoe...

Oddly enough, in the letters column, ye olde editor quotes a September 2, 1965 article from the Detroit News that says that ABC-TV "'is planning a test film for a possible one-hour weekly program based on the comic strip, The Batman.' All we can do at the moment is confirm the news item, and ask you to watch this department for what we hope will be the most electrifying TV news of the Fall, 1966 season!" I know these mags were put together well in advance of the sale date, but doesn't it seem strange that the editor thought the show wouldn't come out till fall when it premiered the month after this issue went on sale?-Jack

Peter-In "Raid of the Rocketeers!" Robin is caught underwater and remarks that he doesn't even have breath for a one-liner. How do we get a whole strip's worth of Robin underwater? It's not so much the fact that we have to put up with the constant barrage of zingers but that those jokes are so gawdawful ("They look like an unwelcoming committee!" anyone?). The story is brainless entertainment, obviously infringing on Bond territory, though James would probably laugh off the Rocketeers and their goofy outfits. If this was a Marvel comic of that era, the Rocketeers would be commies aiming to stifle world peace rather than just simple criminals out for a big payday. "Loan Shark" is about as bad as they come; awful art and lazy script. Rosy and Weeper come off as a failed comedy team so this might be as close to Abbott and Costello Meet Batman as you'll ever come. The only true dog this month.

Kubert

Detective Comics #348

"Birdman of Bedlam!"

Story by Robert Kanigher

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Bruce and Dick say a goodbye with kisses to Mona, the winner of the Miss USA Beauty Contest (her prize was a date with the playboy billionaire) and watch with awe as she shimmies her tightly-wrapped buttocks and swings her milky globes gets on the airplane and waves goodbye. Minutes later, while driving away from the airport, their glee turns to horror as Mona's plane erupts in flames and crash lands nearby. The Duo race to the crash site and take the time to change into their outfits and discuss possible reasons for the disaster while passengers erupt into flames before their eyes. "Quick, Robin, these people need help!" exclaims the World's Greatest Detective.

The Dynamic Duo evacuate the plane but, sadly, Mona the Most Gorgeous Woman in America is dead. Her dream to build a camp for refugees in Rwanda will never come to be. "Oh well," sighs the Caped Crusader as he turns his attention to the pilot, who has a fantastic story to tell: the jet was attacked by a swarm of birds! Both Dark Knight and Teenage Tornado are flummoxed since there is no sign of an avian at the crash. No feathers, no corpses, not even the tell-tale white splashes on the windshield. What in the world could have happened?

Take away the word balloons
and you can see Wertham was
on to something

The mystery doesn't last long as, hours later, Gotham Airport receives its first message from the mysterious Birdmaster. Batman strokes his chin and asks Robin: "Do you think this evil genius could have something to do with the crash of the jet airliner?" Before Robin can answer, the Birdmaster issues his ultimatum: stay out of the skies or die!

Not one to take a challenge lightly, Batman drives back to the Batcave and winds up the Batplane for action. Sure enough, quickly after taking to the air, the plane is surrounded by thousands of birds of every size and species: vultures, eagles, hawks, McGuinns, sparrows... Bats manages to take out some of them with his Batrockets but more arrive to take their fallen comrades' place. Before long, the boys realize they're not being forced to crash but guided to a certain spot outside Gotham.

Batman and Robin eject from the Batplane and land in a heavily-wooded area. Immediately, they are set upon by a quartet of grown men wearing silly bird suits and gassed into unconsciousness. The men haul the Duo to a high-cliff mansion, a castle owned by... the Birdmaster (cue lightning and waves crashing the rocks)! The boys are brought before the fine-feathered evil genius and dropped in a large cage; Birdmaster explains he wants to add the Duo to his collection of one-of-a-kind birds. 

Not stopping to explain that a bat is not a bird, the Dark Knight instructs Robin to accompany him to the top of the cage. Obviously not one to think an evil scheme through, the Birdmaster has forgotten to put a top on the cage and the boys easily escape, besting the bird-henchmen without much effort. Birdmaster hops into his nearby plane and takes to the skies, forgetting he instructed his avian army to take down any vehicle that flies. The boys watch as the plane heads for the ground; a certain death for the one-and-done Rogue. 

What a difference between last month's serious tone to this month's campfire. "Birdman of Bedlam!" is certainly not Big Bob Kanigher's finest hour and his insertion of at least one bad Robin one-liner per panel is so far away from his landmark work on Our Army at War that I'd never have guessed the identity of the author without a helping hand. Worst quip might be Robin, as the boys are heading for a fiery death, assuring Batman that he only turns green when he's standing on his nose. What does this even mean?

Aside from the awful zingers, though, this one is full of violence. From Mona's meaningless death to the exploding buzzards, Big Bob doesn't hold back. That was the one aspect of his script I appreciated. The Birdmaster's ultimate motivation for all this chaos is a supremely dopey one, almost as inane as the Bird-thug outfits. I want to see the excised panel where Birdmeister convinces hardened criminals that the only way they can bodyguard is by wearing a feathered shawl and a beak cap. 1966 has definitely arrived.-Peter

Jack-The Go-Go checks are here! Did anyone ever get the story behind them in an interview, possibly with Julie Schwartz? Was DC feeling the heat from Marvel and so felt the need to do something to make the tops of their mags stand out on newsstand racks (that's exactly what it was, Jack, according to this fan-written blog post-Peter)? I'd love to know the scoop. Big Bob gets even nuttier this issue, with characters getting killed, plane crashes, and one-liners flying left and right. I love Joe Kubert's art but he doesn't seem quite right for Batman, as shown on the cover.

Next Week...
More Everett
You're Welcome!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 126: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 111

July 1956 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Adventure Into Mystery 2

Cover by Sol Brodsky

"The Straw Man" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★

"The Man Who Saw the Saucer" (a: Bob McCarty) ★1/2

"A Woman Screamed" (a: Ross Andru & Jack Abel) ★★1/2

"The Betrayer!" (a: Bill Benulis) ★1/2

"The Man on the Thirteenth Floor" (a: Paul Cooper(?) & Christopher Rule(?)) ★

"Among Those Missing!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★1/2

A formless creature from outer space lands on Earth and mistakenly enters the body of a scarecrow. When "The Straw Man" moves, it terrifies the drunken tramp sitting next to it and he inadvertently sets the creature on fire. The smoke-thing hops back into its ship, tail between its legs, and vows never to come back. "The Straw Man" is an okay sci-fi yarn but it's never made clear whether the thing is here to invade us or just chill. 

Tired of being ignored in his hometown, Caleb cooks up a tall tale about meeting with aliens from outer space in the woods. He chops a couple of trees down and makes some fake footprints and the villagers eat the fable up like so many M&Ms. Caleb becomes a nationwide hero but finally someone does their homework and discovers the whole meeting was a fraud. Quicker than you can say "Milli Vanilli," Caleb is public enemy number one. He heads back into the woods where... naturally, he bumps into some aliens who hand him a parchment they claim can help Earth rid itself of all pestilence (including reality TV shows). With a gleam in his eyes, Caleb heads back into town where his story is met with derision and tossed vegetables. Poor guy can't catch a break. "The Man Who Saw the Saucer" is a painfully obvious tale that's been done so many times before (and much better). Its sole saving grace is the sharp McCarty art.

Disgusted by his own timidity, meek Myron Midgely hypnotizes himself and gains strength and bravery. Out to test his new-found vim, Myron stumbles into a screaming woman and learns she's being chased by bad guys. Myron gives the bad guys a right cross and he and the woman escape into a nearby amusement park. The girl introduces herself as Sonya and explains that her brother, Stefan, is being held in another country against his will; she's madly in love with Myron and hopes he'll help her and her brother out of their jam. 

Myron immediately agrees and they board a rocket on a roller coaster. The rocket takes flight and Sonya admits she lives on Jupiter. They arrive on the planet and rescue Stefan, but Sonya reveals that the man is actually her boyfriend and she'll always appreciate Myron for his help. Myron screams "No!" and wakes up back in his apartment. It was all a hypnotic dream! Or was it? I liked "A Woman Screamed" for its lunacy and track-changing. The obstacles and adventures Myron encounters seem almost dreamlike, so the ending isn't as much of a cop-out as it might have been. Thanks to Jack Abel's inks, Ross Andru's art is nearly unrecognizable.

Raymond Coates has always wished he had gone down a different path as a young man so that he would have been a better provider for his wife. It gnaws at him and gnaws at him and gnaws at him and... guess what? He finds himself a young man again and takes the road not traveled. Soon he will wish he had just stuck to the first off-ramp. On the Atlas lunchroom wall, I firmly believe, was a "Ten Best Plotlines We Can Use Over and Over" chart and, every couple of weeks, a writer would initial next to "The Guy Who Wishes He Was in the Past" and come up with some kind of thinly-masked variation. It's no surprise that pulpmaster Carl Wessler (author of "The Betrayer!") initialed that one a few dozen times.

In "The Man on the Thirteenth Floor," Paul Lane exits his penthouse suite and enters his elevator, only to be trapped on the 13th floor, where all sorts of magical things happen. When the elevator finally reaches the ground floor and he tells his tale to the bellhop, he's reminded there is no 13th floor on the hotel! D'Oh!

In the finale, "Among Those Missing," psychologist Burton Jannis is tasked with finding out where 32 big brain geniuses have disappeared to. The men have vanished in thin air and the job seems an impossible one, but Jannis (not questioning why maybe the FBI shouldn't be involved) rolls up his sleeves and follows genius #33 all the way to a space/time vortex that takes both to the year 2160. There, the other 32 smart guys explain that the future needs their help more than the present. 

Yeah, I was lost too but since I'm always bitching about cliches and dopey plots, I have to give the unnamed scripter props for dreaming up a wild (if a little over-complicated) story here. It's the most imaginative if not the most enjoyable Adventure into Mystery this issue.-Peter

Astonishing 51

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Mutant!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★★

"I Flew in a Flying Saucer!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"I, the Wizard" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Perilous Paintings" (a: Kurt Schaffenberger) ★

"Spaceship" (a: Mort Meskin &  Bill Draut (?)) ★★1/2

"Blackout!" (a: Jim Mooney) ★

Five years after the disappearance of The Great Connel, a mutant who provided wonder, peace, and happiness to his fellow humans, we finally discover where he vanished to. Connel lived in a high tower overlooking the city, working his wonders to better mankind but, deep inside, he's just a real lonely guy. A mutant, yes, but a lonely mutant! One day, while Connel is moping and feeling sorry for himself, an alien materializes in his apartment and explains that the Great One was sent to Earth as a child to lead Earthlings down a path to glory. Now that Connel's work is done, the alien gives him a choice: he can stay here on Earth or go back to his home planet.

Connel opts for the former and the alien bids him farewell and transforms him into just another average Joe on the street. Five years later, he smiles and heads home to his wife and family. "The Mutant" is a charming, intelligent fantasy, with a happy ending that avoids the maudlin; it's also one of the first uses of a mutant in a Stan-edited funny book but certainly not the last. Robert Sale's art is adequate but it's a shame we didn't get "The Mutant!" as envisioned by Bill Everett, who contributed the snazzy cover.

Author John Farrar writes a book on his experiences called "I Flew in a Flying Saucer!" but runs up against skeptics who view his non-fictional account as rubbish. Turns out they're right, but Farrar gets a second chance at the space trip. Rubbish. Even more rubbishy is "I, The Wizard," wherein a sorcerer coaxes a king into making him the royal wizard but then runs into a brick wall when he courts the king's daughter. Paul Reinman, whose work used to overcome even the worst of scripts, continues to exhibit a decline in quality.

Artist Arthur Kent is obsessed with the work of artist "ZIS," an anonymous genius whose private stock of oils was just discovered in an archaeological dig in Italy. Kent steals the case of paints and begins his masterpiece, "The Burning of Rome." When Kent is almost finished, he's leaning into the mural to get a pesky corner piece when he falls into the canvas!

Yes, Kent is a victim of that pesky Atlas Time/Space Portal and he lands smack dab in ancient Rome as its skies are red with flames. A mob sees him and chases him into what he discovers is the studio of ZIS! Thinking quick, Kent paints the entrance to the Holland Tunnel and leaps into the canvass, escaping back into our time through sheer magic! Deciding the paints of ZIS are best left alone, Kent grabs hold of a handy blowtorch and destroys the evil colors forever. "The Perilous Paintings" is lifeless; there are no surprises, no excitement, no originality. If I never read another time warp story, it'll be too soon.

That goes double for spaceship stories. Oh, here we have another one. But at least this one is a bit different. Mac Shaw is homeless and really cold. While searching for shelter, he stumbles on a "Spaceship" parked in a vacant lot. He enters, appreciating the warmth, but is taken aback by a group of men clad in spacesuits. They explain to him that they're from Saturn and will be parked here until the spring; Mac is welcome to food and drink if he'd like. Not questioning whether Saturnian food is digestible by a human being, Mac digs in and he and the men become fast friends.

Spring arrives and the Saturnian group leader bids Mac farewell but tells him he can keep the ship! The next afternoon, his cozy den is invaded by lots of people. When Mac exits the ship and protests, he discovers the craft is part of a carnival ride! Well, this one doesn't make much sense (how could Mac not have known he was in a carnival ride... and... um... did the ride have a porta-potty?) but it tickled my funny bone enough for me to give it a thumbs-up.

In 1929 England, ace pilot Sam Destry enters an aviation race and breaks all known records, flying an incredible 240 miles an hour. He flies so fast, in fact, that he has a "Blackout!" He comes to and discovers he's flown through the Atlas Time/Space Warp Continuum (we know because he sees Dr. Burton Jannis of "Among the Missing" waving at him through the cockpit glass) and lands in the future. Destry is amazed but this reader is not. Between the sleepwalk of a script and the by-the-numbers Mooney art, "Blackout!" is a dud.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery 36

Cover by Bill Everett

"I, the Pharaoh" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

"He Hides Among Us" (a: Herb Familton) ★1/2

"The Floating City" (a: Christopher Rule?) ★★

"Something is Happening in There!" (a: Carl Hubbell) ★

"The Lost Land" (a: Ted Galindo) ★1/2

"The Beasts!" (a: Paul Hodge) ★1/2

Ted Craven is an Egyptologist who is becoming too wrapped up in his work. His obsession with Pharaoh Ras Hati-Kah is even influencing his dreams, in which no one believes that he is Ted Craven and everyone insists that he's the pharaoh. Gradually, he begins to resemble the ancient Egyptian more and more until finally his shrink explains that he really is Ras Hati-Kah and Ted Craven is only a dream.

"I, the Pharaoh" is an intriguing story with an ending we've seen before. I wonder what Carl Wessler might have done if he were not limited to four pages? This seems like it could have gone on longer and would have benefited from more space. Joe Sinnott's art is fun, especially the way he draws Ted gradually morphing into Ras.

During a visit to Mars, Professor Lister scoffs at a suggestion by Dr. Hoskins that a Martian baby taken to Earth would have descendants who look like Earthlings. Hoskins brings home a green baby and treats it so that it turns into a handsome Earth boy named Stephen Dowell, who is quickly adopted but whose heritage is kept secret. The boy grows, excels at sports, and gets engaged to a pretty socialite named Louise Wharton. Fellow student Chip Ladby is jealous and discovers Stephen's secret, but Hoskins tricks Chip into thinking that he may be a Martian, too. Chip leaves town and Stephen weds Louise; only Dr. Hoskins knows that she is also secretly a Martian and that's why she was so attracted to Stephen.

Whew! "He Hides Among Us" is confusing and ends with another conclusion out of left field, as so often happens in Wessler's tales. The art by Herb Familton is interesting; it looks in numerous panels like he studied the work of Wally Wood and did his best to imitate it. I Googled Familton and couldn't find any evidence that this is a Woodian pseudonym.

Kirk Lamont is an architect who designed a futuristic suspension bridge that collapsed. Although many people laugh at him, Lamont is soon hired by a mysterious man named Blane to build "The Floating City" in the desert. With Blane's help, Lamont designs a city of buildings that float in the air, supported by guide wires. When it's finished, Lamont asks where all of the staircases and elevators are, when people arrive from outer space who can float through the air. Lamont rushes to tell his fellow Earthlings about the wondrous city, but when they return the city is gone. Though he's thought mad, Lamont is secure in the knowledge that his modern design worked.

This story is unremarkable and Christopher Rule's art isn't worth mentioning.

A creep named Ebenezer Prystone looks at a barn and is certain that "Something is Happening in There!" A bald man in a lab coat orders Eb off his property, so Eb tries to rouse the townsfolk into putting a stop to whatever is going on, certain that it's along the lines of what happens in the copy of Shock Science Fiction that he likes to read. Eb breaks into the barn and sees what looks like a time machine. He bumps into it, passes out, and awakens in the future, where he is chased by aliens. He blacks out again and awakens in the barn, where the man in the lab coat tells him that it's not a time machine but rather a new type of automatic car wash and Eb must have dreamed it all. But how does he explain the piece of alien clothing in his hand?

Good Lord, this is the pits. The story is dumb and the art is about as bad as it gets in an Atlas comic. Carl Hubbell later went on to ink 1960s Marvel comics.

Three Western fellers are prospecting for gold in the desert when a powerful wind lifts them off their feet and transports them to "The Lost Land," where everyone lives in peace. They can't resist a pile of gold, however, and their failure to resist temptation means they are swept back to the desert, where a single nugget of gold is all they have left of the wonderful life they could have led.

It's hard to get much accomplished in three pages and this story is simple, but Ted Galindo succeeds in providing some decent Western-themed panels, especially the ones that are monochromatic.

Prof. Henslowe has spent twenty years trying to find a way to elicit speech from "The Beasts!" When he gets a spider to ask for food, he plans to show everyone that he was right all along. The next day, the prof takes his talking spider to the university to show off the fruits of his labor, but a janitor sees the arachnid crawling across the floor and whacks it with his push broom. So much for twenty years of effort!

My brief summary doesn't do justice to the utter nonsense in this story, which sadly features dreadful art by Paul Hodge. There's a flashback to the prof's attempts to display a talking horse, which made me think of Mr. Ed, a show which would not hit the airwaves for another five years. I was also reminded of the great Warner Bros. cartoon, "One Froggy Evening," when a theater crowd jeers at the prof's failed attempt to make the horse speak. But the biggest smile of all came at the end when the janitor whacks the spider. I know I've seen this somewhere before but reading so many comics has turned my brain to mush. Wait! I have it! It's the end of The Fly, a film released two years later! Rod Serling, The Fly--was everyone reading Atlas comics???-Jack

Journey Into Unknown Worlds 47

Cover by Bill Everett

"They Wait in the Shadows!" (a: Bob Forgione) ★★

"The Iron Men" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★1/2

"The Girl Who Vanished" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

(r: Worlds Unknown #5)

"No Escape" (a: Mac Pakula) ★★1/2

"The Strangers" (a: Herb Familton) (r: Amazing Adventures #27) ★1/2

"A World There Was" (a: George Roussos) ★★

Winter has just begun on an alien planet that is very much like Earth, and the first humans to colonize it watch with apprehension as aliens approach for the first time. The pink-skinned aliens arrive and, having read the humans' thoughts, they unveil a fully-decorated Christmas tree and wish the newcomers a Merry Christmas!

Peter often remarks that the stories in Atlas comics rise or fall on the art, so it's a good thing Bob Forgione is competent, since "They Wait in the Shadows!" is as corny as it gets.

The small town of Wellsburg cautiously welcomes the first of "The Iron Men," a robot who replaces the police force at half the cost. Another mechanical man soon replaces the mayor and more robots follow, taking the places of bankers and heads of industry. Florian Rath, who makes and sells the robots, grows rich but, when he breaks a few traffic laws, the heartless robots sentence him to prison and he realizes that his greed was justly rewarded.

Another story that goes nowhere, and with mediocre art to boot. The irony of Rath being arrested and imprisoned by the robots he created is weak.

Don Mace is an unhappy young man who is out hiking in the mountains when he spies a pretty young woman. Moments later, she becomes "The Girl Who Vanished"! She appears and disappears, telling Don to forget that he saw her. He observes a young man who looks just like himself come and get her before a group of men in futuristic garb emerge and chase Don, finally overpowering him. The pretty girl tells him that they are from an unknown world that is parallel to our own and she urges the men to let him go. The time flaw between worlds closes and Don is left alone, until he runs into a woman who looks just like the one from the parallel world.

The art by Syd Shores on this story is decent and he does a nice job drawing the blonde from a parallel world, which helps. The story is predictable.

Certain that past, present, and future all exist simultaneously in different warps, Paul Westlake invents a gizmo that allows him to return to boyhood and back with the press of a button. Joe Simpson, the janitor, walks in and hands Paul his mail, which includes a check. A mysterious person has been sending Paul a check each month for years and Paul decides to solve the mystery with his time penetrator. He pops back to the past and observes his father yelling at his business partner, whose unwise speculation ruined the firm

Back in the present, Paul vows revenge on his father's partner and, when Joe the janitor again enters the lab, Paul realizes that the old man with the broom ruined his father's life and has been sending checks all along to try to make amends. Paul decides to use the time gizmo to flee to the future to avoid having to decide what to do about Joe, but when he gets there, Joe walks in to deliver the mail and Paul realizes that there is "No Escape."

The GCD suggests that this may be another Wessler script and I can believe it, because it has an interesting premise and a finale out of left field. I like Pakula's art, which is cartoony but solid, except for a panel on page two (reproduced here) with a bizarre example of forced perspective. I also like the subtle touch in the last panel, where Joe the janitor is wearing a futuristic outfit (purple tights and a yellow cape) but otherwise looks exactly the same as he did in the present.

An alien ship lands at an Earth military base and the human officers observe that the creatures piloting the ship appear humanoid. Suddenly, a ray beam shoots out from the ship and the men spring into action, though a fighter jet is quickly dispensed with by a ray from the spaceship, which flies off. Hours later, two see-through tubes descend to Earth, containing what look like alien robots. The humans assume the aliens must have built the robots to resemble themselves but, when the ship lands and the aliens emerge, it turns out that the ones who look like robots are the aliens and the ones who look like aliens are the robots.

This three-pager tries to make a point about hubris and assumptions but falls flat. Familton's art still resembles that of Wally Wood in spots but there are too few pages to do much analysis.

After landing on a mysterious planet, a trio of astronauts realize that it is telepathic and will display whatever they imagine. A blue sky, a grove of trees, and a futuristic city all appear and vanish as the men think of them. Once they depart, the planet itself evaporates and they realize that it was actually a telepathic cloud of space gases that formed itself into the planet of which they were thinking.

"A World There Was" has decent art by George Roussos but nothing particularly interesting happens. The twist at the end is supposed to be that the entire planet was a creation, but this doesn't really come as a surprise.-Jack

Next Week...
The Shocker of All Shockers!
The Death of Batman!
No, Really! It Says So In the Title!