Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 191: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 176

December 1960

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #63

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"Goliath! The Monster That... Walked Like a Man!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #10)

"I Was Trapped by the Mole Men!"

(a: Don Heck) ★

"The Dangerous Doll" (a: Jack Kirby & George Klein) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #20)(r: Crazy #76)

"I Took a Journey Into Fear!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Fear #6)

A Hollywood special effects man is just shooting the bull with his assistant about giant monsters from other planets conquering man when, coincidentally, they receive word that a behemoth has just surfaced on the Atlantic coast. The Navy sends a warship out to meet the critter and the great, gilled goliath explains that he comes from Atlantis and is a scout for his race. The rest of the Goliaths intend to join up with him and conquer the surface world just as soon as he sends the green light.

Days later, Goliath is surveying New York, getting ready for the invasion, when he spies something huge in the ocean. He approaches and is dumbfounded to discover it is a blue man from outer space at least three times his size. It introduces itself as "Ulvar from the planet Centaurus II" and declares Earth his own. His buddies are on the way from Centaurus II and they love a good fight. Goliath concedes that his Atlanteans would stand no chance and slinks back into the ocean. A few days later, our special effects man is tearing apart the gigantic blue prop and bragging that mankind will always be ready to defend its territory.

"Goliath! The Monster That... Wore Men's Briefs!" is not a bad little epic saga (at least it feels like an epic even though it's only seven pages), with a clever twist, but I question how Mr. SPFX managed to build his prop so fast. Good thing the Atlanteans aren't known for their brain power since Goliath never even guessed this could all be a trick, not even when Ulvar never moved a muscle. This is another of those Kirby/Ditko stories I ate up as a pre-teen in the pages of Where Monsters Dwell.

After the death of his father, Sir Norman Ramsay inherits the family business, a series of mines (we're never told just what comes out of these mines) that pad his wealth very nicely month in and month out. When a group of miners arrive at Norman's house to request a raise in pay, he tosses them out on their sooty asses, telling them never to darken his door again. The nerve of these commoners!

Soon thereafter it's time for the boss to inspect mine number four and, as is his ritual, he demands that no one accompany him. Bad idea. Once deep into the mine, there's a cave in and Sir Norm is surrounded by underground beasts. Yes, it's at this point that our protagonist screams "I Was Trapped by the Mole Men!" The rough-skinned and hairy beasts throw Norm into a cage and discuss their next move. "Oh," sighs the despondent and suddenly remorseful Ramsay, "I sure treated other men like dogs and if only I could have a second chance I'd sure make up for my poor behavior." 

As if fate had stepped in, Norm's foreman (the guy who tried to discourage his boss from going alone) crashes through the wall and fights off the mole men. He breaks the lock on the cage and grabs Norm, heaving him out of the underworld and back to the surface. With a handy stick of dynamite, the menace of the mole men is ended and Sir Norman ponders his place in this universe. From an unrealistic callousness towards his toilers to greatest guy in the world (the panel where Norm hosts the weekend weenie roast and balances twelve of the miners' kids on his knee was somehow left off the climactic series of amens), "Mole Men" is almost worth reading through for a good laugh. Almost. 

Ever since he lost his job at the plant, Timothy Jones is broke. The schlub is so poor he can't even buy his "lame" daughter a toy for her birthday. Luckily, as he's walking around one day in an open field (as all unemployed men do at one time or another), he happens upon a strange doll and takes it home for Cathy. Turns out the dolly is an alien from space and it has bad ideas about world domination. "The Dangerous Doll" has no qualms about letting Cathy see it move around and talk but Dad never has a notion that the thing is more than just a plaything. One night, the doll suddenly rises from Cathy's bed, sensing that "they" are coming and preparations must be made. 

Turns out, much to my relief, that Dolly is not the scout for Earth's invasion but just a precocious kid who flew off in the family spaceship and became stranded on Earth. His mom and pop land and reward Tim and Cathy for taking good care of their little brat. The Earth lets out a sigh. If you want to see what a big difference an inker can make, look no further than the job Ditko does for Kirby on "Goliath" and Klein's work here. Ditko has a cleaner style while Klein's is rougher. That's not a putdown, though; Klein's inks give Kirby's pencils a creepy vibe that enhances the atmosphere of the first few pages of "The Dangerous Doll." Oddly enough, we're never told the whereabouts of Mrs. Jones; is she dead or just "got a thing goin' on"? So many of these strips at this time were climaxing with the same dull panel of word balloons emanating from Earth, characters ruminating about God and the powers that be and man's inability to make a great cup of coffee and...

Last up is the best of the bunch, "I Took a Journey Into Fear!" It showcases Otto, a scientist so obsessed with time travel that he shoots a colleague and steals his lab equipment. Once the experiment proves a success, Otto finds himself trapped in a dingy dungeon, prisoner of a past barbaric race. Or something like that. Luckily, Stan/Larry deliver an effective climactic twist that made me smile. That's worth an extra star right there.-Peter

Strange Tales #79

Cover by Jack KIrby & Steve Ditko

"I Was In the Clutches of the Living Shadow"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #31)

"The Ghost of Grismore Castle!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Vault of Evil #14)

"I Found the Perfect Hiding Place!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Thing on the Moon" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Journey Into Mystery #14)

Mystery writer Philip Lawson just knows that flying saucers are real but, dagnabbit, everyone laughs in his face and tells him he's crazy! Then, one day, while Lawson is walking through a field attached to his luxurious home (mystery story writers were paid much better then than now), enjoying his pipe, Lawson looks on in awe as a flying saucer lands nearby. What are the chances that a UFO would land right in front of the only guy on Earth who believes in them (and, indeed, was just pondering them!)?

Climbing out of his jeep, Lawson is assaulted by a group of aliens, living shadows, that tell him the story of their past. They've been landing on Earth for some time now and blending in with the shadows. That's how they've remained out of sight for so long!!! They take Lawson to a nearby mountain prison but he manages to escape and get word to the United Nations. At first the delegates scoff but when our reporter turns out the lights and the living shadows are there in the room, the men hurry to action. 

Most of the living shadows are rounded up but leader Kaa gets away in his spaceship, leaving an "I'll be back, suckas!" message in the clouds. Lawson and the military are left to ponder life and extraterrestrial invaders. "I Was in the Clutches of the Living Shadow" is not one of the more memorable Kirby/Ayers monster strips; the art is rushed and the story padded. I think Ditko might have been able to bring more pizzazz to this one than Ayers. I had to laugh when Lawson begins his long and boring story by confessing that, as a mystery writer, he could "sense when there was danger in the air" just before the UFO landed. A decade and a half later, Kaa would return to give The Incredible Hulk fits!

Practical joker Otis Norton is really getting on the nerves of anyone around him. One day, as he's walking with Victor, the pair walk past the haunted Grismore Castle and Otis wagers that Victor couldn't last a whole night in Grismore. Not one to turn down fifty bucks, Victor agrees and, that night, enters Grismore. A little hesitant, but he still enters. Meanwhile, oafish Otis has set the castle up with plenty of scary obstacles and it isn't long before Victor runs screaming from the building.

Willing to show who's got the most nerve, Otis heads into the dark house alone. He is immediately set upon by ghosts and ghoulies and soon flees from Grismore in a shaking panic. The next day, Otis tells his buddies that he's done with practical jokes as Victor stands nearby revealing (to us) that he's really a ghost. Though the script for "The Ghost of Grismore Castle!" makes no sense whatsoever, it's got some dynamite graphics from Mr. Ditko. The castle is stocked with cobwebs and even the ghostly sheets look cool. 

He might be ugly but Harry Stubbs is a really smart guy; smart enough to build a time machine out of toothpicks, empty beer cans, and dead rats, anything he could find in the alley garbage cans. The plan is to steal the Crown Jewels, which are being exhibited in a nearby museum, hop in his (untested) time machine, and travel back to 100 BC. There he will sell the jewels and live like a king with hot and cold running chicks. Girls love money even if it belongs to a guy who looks like Ernest Borgnine. Harry grabs the jewels but sets off an alarm (who would suspect that priceless jewels might be guarded?) and runs from the cops. He hops in his time machine with the loot and hits "Go!" Unfortunately, the destination was not on the travel brochures. As I was reading "I Found the Perfect Hiding Place!," I kept wondering if Stan and Larry wrote the script in the Atlas lunchroom, both of them snickering and assuring each other that their target audience was too stupid to question how it is all these Atlas dopes could invent time machines but not keep a high-paying 9 to 5.

In 1970, the Earth is overpopulated and astronaut Dan Carter is tasked with visiting the moon to ascertain whether earthlings can survive and thrive in its atmosphere. Dan and his crew arrive and are on recon when they are attacked by "The Thing on the Moon." After some hellacious moments, a loud voice breaks the silence and announces that the moon was long ago claimed by the city of Atlantis and no other visitors are welcome. The giant is a robot security guard who's there to make sure there's no trespassing. The boys climb back into their ship and wonder if the robot was put there before or after the fall of Atlantis. The reveal is a good one but what startled me the most is the fact that NASA bothered to send Armstrong and Aldrin up in space suits with, like, oxygen and stuff. In 1960, you could still breathe on the moon without any aid. Makes you think.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #14

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"I Created Krang! The Most Fantastic Monster the World Has Ever Known! (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Fear #4)(Weird Wonder Tales #14)

"Behold! I Am the Master of Time!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Tower of Shadows #8)

"The Thing in Human Form!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Chamber of Darkness #8)

Professor Carter makes a presentation at the Science Institute, arguing that if insects were to grow to giant size, their strength and power could be harnessed to serve mankind. Carter is working on a growth serum but gets no support from the stuffy characters at the Institute and must make his way to Europe to locate the final ingredient from the bark of the Krakow tree.

Once in Europe, Carter sets up shop in an abandoned castle, aided by Ludwig, the caretaker. The serum is completed and Ludwig tests it out one night after Carter has gone to bed. Unfortunately, Ludwig uses too much fluid on an ant and it quickly grows to massive size! "I Created Krang! The Most Fantastic Monster the World Has Ever Known!" thinks Ludwig, and before you know it, Krang is menacing the professor and speaking due to rapid brain growth.

Really not such a bad idea,
if you think about it.

Krang wants the growth serum so it and other insects can take over the world. The giant insect chases Carter around for a while, eventually making its way to the nearby village but not doing much damage before Carter is able to defeat it by means of a giant anteater that he created using more serum. Good thing he thought to add something to the formula to make the anteater shrink back to normal size after an hour! In the end, the professor rips up his notes, having learned that there are some things man was not meant to know.

"Krang" is not bad and mainly serves as an excuse for Kirby and Ayers to draw panel after panel of a great big ant. I liked that Carter had to go to Poland, presumably, for the tree bark, and there just happened to be an abandoned castle with a helpful, hunchbacked caretaker on hand.

An antique dealer invents a time machine so he can go back in time and pick up items that will be valuable antiques when he brings them back to the 20th century. He heads back to 18th-century France, grabs a bag of stuff, and returns to the time machine, chased by angry villagers. He pulls the lever and nothing happens! Oops! Since there was no electricity in the 18th century, his electric powered time machine won't work.

"Behold! I Am the Master of Time!" features more gorgeous art by Ditko in service of a weak plot. First of all, when the guy builds his time machine, he remarks that he learned how to do it using an ancient book of black magic. Why would it need electric power? The machine looks like a big cube made of adobe. Second, Ditko must have realized that the story lacked visual excitement, so he drew a giant image of Father Time in several panels, though the character has nothing to do with the story.

Mars and Jupiter have been at war for five years when Martians discover than an Earth scientist has discovered a powerful new secret weapon. A Martian named Ogor travels to Earth to capture the scientist and grabs him during a costume party where no one realizes that Ogor's costume is not a disguise. The scientist, John, puts up a fight and turns out to be stronger than Ogor. John drags Ogor onto the Martian's spaceship and takes off, revealing--to no reader's surprise--that he's really a master spy from Jupiter! The Jupiterians had wanted to capture a live Martian warrior for years and concocted an elaborate ruse that worked.

As I've said before, Don Heck's strength as an artist did not lie in drawing aliens or monsters, but I enjoyed the surprise ending of this story, which was a tad more complex than the usual revelation that one character is really an alien. Zeno, the master spy from Jupiter, is "The Thing in Human Form!"-Jack

On Thursday...
"Are You Watching Closely?"

And Next Week...
Nope, He's Not
The Same Guy!