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!"