Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 125: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 110

June 1956 Part IV

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Uncanny Tales #44

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Out of the Swamps!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★★1/2

(r: Uncanny Tales #2)

"The Frightened Man!" (a: George Roussos) ★★  

(r: Dead of Night #2)

"She Came from Nowhere!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Beyond Belief!" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #4)

"Planet of Doom" (a: Bob McCarthy) ★★1/2

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

(r: Dead of Night #2)

"Out of the Swamps!" is a preachy about a genius scientist, Dr. Carl Mandel, who discovers a heretofore undiscovered species of simian-like creatures in the swamp. He quickly gives them a name: Lemur Squamata! The egghead takes the little critters back to his lab and discovers they're extremely intelligent and breed fast. He builds a domed world for the Lemsquas and watches as they solve all the mysteries of the world: atomic fusion, non-aggressive behavior, eggplant that tastes good, lots of stuff.

Not wanting to be disturbed during his research but wanting to share the info (especially about tasty vegetables) with the rest of the world, Mandel contacts a billionaire (after all, he muses, billionaires have everything they want already and won't use the info for selfish means--and this guy is super-smart?) and spills the beans. Over the next few days, Mandel listens to the radio as the world becomes a new, better place. But, of course, nothing good lasts long and the billionaire arrives at the lab, wanting to know how Mandel came to all his conclusions. When he finds the lemurs, he throws the scientist into a locked room and contemplates being master of the world. 

Luckily, the Squamata clan are a deeply loyal bunch and come to Mandel's rescue, vowing to head back into the swamps to avoid any more calamity. Not a bad little fantasy tale, with some of Dick Ayers's best work, ruined only partially by the reminder in every other panel that mankind should learn to live together as one and all that tommyrot. I love how the little rug rats even have small microscopes inside their dome. I can see the Prof ordering tons of metal and plywood from Home Depot to supply this little utopia.

In the second preachy this issue, "The Frightened Man," tyrant Franz Hyle feels satisfied and all-powerful now that he's chased his main rival, Professor Rolfe, out of the country. But with the arrival of a Plutonian in Camilandt, Hyle begins to question his staying power. The outer space man (who can read minds) feeds Hyle info on all his most trusted men and staff, reminding him that it's usually the most trusted who are turned first. Hyle has his entire staff arrested but is astonished when the Plutonian unmasks and reveals himself to be none other than... Professor Rolfe. The manipulator explains that the only people left surrounding Hyle are his enemies. Like "Out of the Swamps," "The Frightened Man!" lays it on thick but benefits from some nice Roussos graphics.

Salesman Harry Long breaks his number one rule of driving across country (don't pick up hitchhikers) when he stops for a young lady alongside a country road. But she's so beautiful! The girl climbs in the front seat and explains that she must get to Clarksville immediately. Just then, a car comes along and runs Harry off the road. The woman explains that the two men will say they're cops but they're not and she'll explain later. Harry rolls his eyes and wonders why he didn't follow rule number one. But she's so beautiful!

The men roughly throw Harry and the girl in their back seat and speed off. Thinking a girl this beautiful could not be a criminal, Harry lunges for the wheel and the auto crashes into a tree. Harry and the beautiful girl hoof it into the forest. Once they've found a safe spot, the girl finally introduces herself as Princess Darla of Ornil, a planet in another dimension. Back on Ornil, there was this big revolution and a group of scientists created a "time flaw" that allowed the Princess to slip through onto Earth. The two goons are henchmen sent to Earth to bring her back. She can stay as long as she wants to but they have a limited time before they vanish back to Ornil. Why she wanted to come here and how she found that fabulous dress and why Clarksville are questions best not asked. All we really need to know, as Harry reminds us every other panel, is that she is beautiful!

Harry finally comes to his senses (it happens when the Princess insists that Harry give her his car keys so she can drive on to the Inter-Dimensional Time Flaw Convention in Clarksville) and runs toward the highway with fake cops at his heels. The boys disappear as promised and Harry is picked up by a delivery truck. He tells the driver he's heading to Clarksville to meet up with the most beautiful girl in the world! "She Came from Nowhere!" is dopey fun as long as you don't slow down and question the odd choices the scripter (Carl Wessler?) made. We never do find out what Darla's mission here on Earth might be or why she needs to get to Clarksville so badly. Were the events of "She Came from Nowhere!" the inspiration for Boyce and Hart? Who knows?

Jonathan Black uses his genius for evil when he invents the devilish Gas-X, a formula that lifts houses and buildings off of their foundations. Black intends to extort governments for millions, holding anything that's cemented down as hostage. It's only when a freak accident lifts his house into the stratosphere that Black's dastardly plan is ruined. I love how Black is still rambling on about his plot after he's left Earth's gravity and, ostensibly, the oxygen that allows him to breathe. It's "Beyond Belief!" Bad guys always dressed so nicely in the 1950s.

In the far-off future of 1971, those stinkin' Commies are at it again with their selfish, dangerous ego trips. This time, the Russkies (well, they're not identified as such but this is a Stan Lee-edited funny book so...) are packing rocket ships with thousands of jailed dissidents and shooting them into space, headed for the planet Sirius-XM. It's a win-win for the Commies; they get rid of bad eggs and they possibly discover if humans (and Russkies) can survive on another world. Think of the opportunities! Galaxy-wide dominance!

Well, the rocket ships keep blasting off but the top brass never hear anything back from the test pilots, so eventually they man a craft with high-thinking tyrants with an eye to discovering if the planet is a green Eden waiting to be conquered or a graveyard of useless vehicles. They land on Sirius and are greeted by an old man, who explains that he is the last surviving member of the expeditions; everyone else was killed by the planet's deadly atmosphere. Hearing this, the new crew hop back on board their tin can and exit stage right. The old man heads back to his shining metropolis and tells the rest of the explorers that their ruse worked. Three sermons in one issue is overload but at least each of the stories has dynamite art. "Planet of Doom" might be the most gorgeous of the trio. 

Finally, we have the dreary and cliched "The Girl Who Didn't Exist!" Junior archaeologist Augie Walford falls in love with an ancient statue of the gorgeous Claudia Caligara that was unearthed at a Roman site. Obsessed with the work of art, Augie enters an underground passage that leads to Ancient Rome, where he immediately gets off on the wrong foot with a local tough. The bright side is that he meets Claudia, who quickly falls for the pith helmet the digger wears and declares that this is the man she will marry.

Augie gets caught up in some Roman gladiator nonsense in the arena, defeats the mighty Justinian, and is convinced by Claudia to stay in the past. Back in the present, his old digging buddies look far and wide for the missing Augie but to no avail. The new statue they've just unearthed is the spitting image of their lost companion. Time travel tales can be a lot of fun but this one follows a worn-out road (in fact, the pavement has turned to dirt) and the climax, with the newly discovered "Caesar Augustus" sculpture, breaks a rule that even Claudia knows about: What you left behind, does not exist! The art, by the usually reliable Paul Reinman, is sub-par. Far from sub-par is the wonderfully atmospheric cover by Carl Burgos, which almost brings back the glory of pre-code Atlas in one image.-Peter

World of Mystery #1

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Metal Men" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★1/2

"I Am Your Master!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Man Hunt!" (a: Bob Powell) ★

"When the Clock Stops" (a: Ed Moore) ★

"The Long Wait" (a: Bernard Bailey) ★★1/2

"Mission to Earth" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★★

Just what the newsstand needed in 1956, another package of safe sci-fi/fantasy tales to complement the thirteen other safe packages marketed as funny books by the company. World of Mystery would survive for seven (mostly bi-monthly) issues, axed like just about everything during the implosion of Summer 1957. If nothing else, at least the premiere issue presents a stunning Bill Everett cover.

Speaking of stunning art, let's welcome back one of the masters of 1950s science fiction/fantasy art, Angelo Torres, after a one-year hiatus from Atlas. "The Metal Men" tells the tale of an expedition to Mars and what the explorers find. Martians have been driven underground by the very robots they created. The Earthlings help the Martians win their world back and learn a lesson in doing so: always make sure you can unplug your great invention! As noted, Torres delivers graphics worthy of the EC sf comics and turns what would have been just an average lecture on trusting too much in technology into a gorgeous sermon.

In the ridiculous "I Am Your Master," jailbird Lank Hull (no, seriously!) happens upon a passage in a book in the prison library on mesmerism that enables him to hypnotize anyone around him. He entrances the guard and convinces him to free him. In the outside world, he puts the whammy on the first blonde waitress he runs across and convinces her to marry him. Though his betrothed, Rita, knows about the nineteen years remaining on his sentence, she agrees to run off with him anywhere he goes. They hop on a plane bound for Argentina but the jumbo jet heads for the prison instead. 

Lump manages to get to the pilot before he lands and they turn the plane around. The couple then try a train; same problem. Last chance, they board a luxury liner bound for Europe but, hours later, Lank looks out of his porthole and sees the familiar sight of his old address, the prison! Attempting to hypnotize the captain proves fruitless and, suddenly, Lunk finds himself back on his jail bunk, a doctor examining him. A guard explains to Lint that he had messed up by practicing his hypnotic powers in the mirror, thereby mesmerizing himself! It was all a dream. Groan.

Hardboiled P.I. Joe Bolton (think Bogie) is hired by a gorgeous blonde (Marilyn) to find her great-great-great grandfather who disappeared 150 years before after building a "crude flying machine" and was never seen again. Witnesses have sworn they've seen an old man fitting gramps's description wandering the city streets.

Never questioning the color green, Bogie heads out to track down a man who couldn't possibly still be around. There's a really lame expository (the blonde is actually an agent from Neptune, here to nab the runaway old man) that doesn't fill in some important blanks (like why this old timer would head to Earth in the first place), but the extra info would require more wordage so actually I'm okay with it.

Scavenger Dolf Anjov rummages through the wreckage of a bombed town and discovers a grandfather clock he believes he can get a pretty penny for. As he's hoisting it on his back, an old man emerges from one of the buildings and warns Dolf that the clock has a curse on it and the owner must wind it every day or die. Dolf scoffs and heads out of the village but each day he doesn't wind he discovers he's growing weaker. Could the old man have been right? The Carl Wessler script is lifeless but Ed Moore's art is really what sinks this one for me. Amateurish and undemanding, Moore's pencils represent crude doodles and haste.

Two shipwreck survivors land on an uncharted island and are welcomed by natives who claim they are ruled by a "metal god." The head native tells the men to wait on the beach and he'll go grab the boss. Indeed, the head man is made of metal, a robot built years before and similarly shipwrecked on the island. Excited to see what real men look like, the robot heads to the beach but slips on a rocky cliff and does a reverse corkscrew into the ocean, never to be seen again. Supremely silly (but for once, intentionally so), "The Long Wait" is the perfect bag of Doritos after a steady meal of week-old fish.

Two Saturnian couples, the Gaals and the Kzojs, are tasked with flying to Earth and bringing back two young couples for scientific study. Whichever couple brings back their prisoners first will be granted ascent to royalty. We follow the Gaals on their journey to middle America and their blending into the culture, making friends with the neighbors, especially the Walkers. Agreeing the Walkers are the perfect couple to bring back to Saturn, Hak and Vat Gaal lure their new buds into a spaceship disguised as a house and blast off back to Saturn. Once there, the Gaals surrender their prizes up to the Grand High Minister, only to discover they kidnapped the Kzojs! Hilarious sci-fi from pulpsmith Carl Wessler, "Mission to Earth" was successfully adapted into the Robert Silverberg soft-core porn novel, Sin Aliens, wherein Hak and Vat land in a neighborhood populated by swingers. 

Well, no, that actually didn't happen, but a man can dream, can't he?-Peter

World of Suspense #2

Cover by Joe Maneely

"When Walks the Scarecrow?" (a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) ★★★

"Inside the Cave!" (a: Hy Fleishman) ★★

"The Man Who Saw Too Much" (a: Jim Infantino) ★1/2

"Hiding Place" (a: Lou Cameron) ★★1/2

"The Man from Nowhere" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

"Who Lurks Down There" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

When a scarecrow is struck by lightning it comes to life! The first people it meets run in fear, but the creature quickly observes that the dam above the valley is leaking and, if the leak is not stopped, the valley will flood. Dragging itself to the dam, the scarecrow observes that the man in charge is sick in bed, so it does the only thing it can and stops the leak with its own body. Two days later, the man in charge sees sticks, rags, and straws plugging the leak and, down in the field, the farmer sees that his scarecrow is gone.

"When Walks the Scarecrow?" works due to the art by Andru and Esposito, who do a fine job of portraying a creature whose arms and legs are barely solid enough to keep it standing and moving forward. The scarecrow's sacrifice is no surprise, and the story doesn't include the scene on Maneely's cool cover, but it still succeeds as a four-page diversion.

Scientists are puzzled by a strange specimen until an engineer named Fred Hawkins bursts in to explain! One day he was out for a drive in the country and happened into a cave, where a strange gas made him shrink to a few inches tall. He met a race of tiny men "Inside the Cave!" whose ancestors were shrunken by a magician in the Middle Ages and who long to mingle with normal-sized people. Their solution is to have invented a gas that shrinks humans; they plan to shrink everyone down to their size. The engineer convinces them that the best way to accomplish this is to pump the gas into people's homes through a gas main. He hooks up the gas to a big pipe and pumps it all out, not telling the wee folk that it's really a waste pipe that leads to the ocean.

Fred gets away from the little people, passes out, and wakes up normal-sized. He tells the scientists that the gas must have hit a full-grown whale in the ocean and shrunk it into the tiny specimen they have been examining. Hy Fleishman's art is nothing special, but I have to wonder why the small people in the cave thought it was a good idea to shrink everyone else down to their size. They should have used their ingenuity to invent a gas that made them bigger!

A man looks out of his window and sees that the next town over has been flooded. Two days later the newspaper reports a flood the day before and the man realizes that he saw the future. A doctor doesn't believe him at first, until "The Man Who Saw Too Much" sees a forest fire the day before it occurs. Scientists examine him and decide that his vision of the future was caused by exposure to the glare of an atomic explosion while crossing the desert, but since he's nearsighted he can only see the next day. The top eye surgeon is brought in to operate to fix the man's vision, but when he looks out the window, he sees strange animals, including a purple cow. The scientists scoff, unaware that the man can now see far into the future and observed a zoo of animals collected from outer space in the year 2356.

Another weak effort by Carmine Infantino's younger brother fits this one-note story. It's odd that the man sees a scene from 400 years in the future and remarks that he can see "thousands of years ahead." Maybe the atomic blast hurt his math skills. It's not a huge leap from this to the Marvel super-heroes whose powers were the result of exposure to radiation.

Pointy-eared aliens approach Earth in their spaceship, confident that humans are small, timid creatures. They land and set out to visit a city. Later, Morton Jones receives a new camera for his birthday, but every photo he takes shows the aliens! The police start a dragnet (using an actual net) and every photo Jones snaps shows the invisible creatures. Finally, when Morton takes a coffee break, the tiny creatures sneak out of their "Hiding Place" in the camera; it turns out they were the small ones, not humans!

An extra star for the surprise ending, which I did not guess in advance. Lou Cameron's art has a Golden Age/newspaper comic feel to it and is above average for the pages of Atlas. I'm puzzled by the dragnet; I've never seen police use an actual net to go through the streets before. I thought it was more of a conceptual net than a literal one.

Linda thinks Joe is a bore and suggests taking a break. He goes home and decides to try shaving with foam to shake things up (he really is a bore!). A genie pops out of the can of shaving cream and is Joe's double, so Joe suggests the genie take Linda out and show her a good time. Fake Joe grabs Linda, who is impressed with his new sports car and speedboat. They land on an island that sinks underground (this has to be a Wessler script from the sheer randomness of the events) and fake Joe has to suit up as a knight and joust with another knight for Linda's hand. The other knight wins and Linda runs into fake Joe's arms. They return to the surface, where real Joe shows up. Fake Joe insists he's won Linda, but she does the right thing and runs back to real Joe, happy to share his boring life. Guess what? None of it really happened and it was all the genie's work.

Tony DiPreta's art is so angular in  spots in "The Man From Nowhere" that it almost looks like something by Salvador Dali, though I don't think that was intentional. The story is all over the place and ends up right where we all knew it would.

A young sponge fisherman named Jaime discovers an underwater city led by Ponce de Leon, who found the Fountain of Youth and remains young. Jaime drinks from the fountain and escapes to return to the surface, planning to bring others to the strange land. When his diving helmet is removed, he is wrinkled and his hair is white.

Yep, I don't get it either. Steve Ditko's art is pretty good, with the occasional awful panel, but the story makes no sense to me. If Jaime drank from the Fountain of Youth, why is he suddenly old?-Jack

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