The Marvel/Atlas
Horror Comics
Horror Comics
Part 182
June 1961
by Peter Enfantino
and Jack Seabrook
Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
"Torr" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2
(r: Strange Tales #175)
"Midnight in the Wax Museum" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2
(r: Strange Tales #175)
"I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!" (a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★1/2
(r: Weird Wonder Tales #19)
Paul Ramsay stands trial for the murder of his best friend, John Carter (not of Mars), but what would push a man to commit a cold-blooded killing such as this? I'm glad you asked... Some months before, Paul and John were two crazy astronomers, making jokes about Orion's Belt (just how tight does that belt have to be?!) and calling up grocers to ask if they had "Prince Albert in a can" when fate steered them down a different country road.
Of course, this is how Paul ends up on trial. Just as the jury is about to bring back a (surely Guilty!) verdict, John bursts through the doors, much to the surprise of everyone in attendance, and blurts out the climax: Paul's deadly bullet actually killed Torr's "personality" rather than John himself (good trick, that) and the moment Torr died, John was returned to his bullet-riddled body. Paul is free to go and he and John (still leaking blood from the bullet hole) head back to the observatory to see what trouble they can get into next.
Dangerous criminal Pierre La Roc picks a wax museum in which to hide out from the law but discovers the wax figures are alive! Brief but effective, thanks mostly to Ditko's choreography, "Midnight in the Wax Museum" makes good use of an old cliche.
"I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!" is a landmark story in several ways. It heralds the coming of Marvel's super-hero resurgence (Fantastic Four #1 arrives just five months later) and lays the groundwork for Ditko's Dr. Strange two years later. It's also the first continuing feature in an Atlas sf/fantasy title, appearing five times in Amazing Adventures and then rebooted (as Dr. Druid in order to avoid confusion with that guy from Latveria) by writer Roger Stern for Weird Wonder Tales in 1976. The character also made guest appearances in The Incredible Hulk and Ghost Rider.-Peter
Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
"I Was Captured by... Korilla!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★
(r: Creatures on the Loose #12)
"The Iron Giant!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★
(r: Kid Colt Outlaw #164)
"When Darkness Falls!!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★
(r: Where Monsters Dwell #13)
A cabbie picks up a late night fare who demands to be taken to 1446 Elm Street. The driver doesn't like the strangely garbed man's attitude but desperately needs the money, so it's 1446 or bust. Once they get there, the passenger pays his driver and exits the vehicle, but his cape gets stuck in the door and his true identity is revealed: he's a big furry monster!
The thing threatens to kill the cabbie but our hero manages to make his getaway and heads right for the nearest precinct. The Sarge there naturally scoffs at the description of "a big furry monster" but dispatches a couple of his best beat cops to investigate. They return shortly to inform their CO that a masquerade is in process at 1446 Elm Street and the owner of said establishment told the cops that the whole incident was a misunderstanding. The cops tell the cabbie to blow but our protagonist is determined to get to the bottom of the freakish incident.
Soon a deadly gas will be released into Earth's atmosphere and all living humans will no longer be... living. The cabbie sees an open back door and escapes, but first he turns the tables on his captors. He manages to beam a message to Korilla's world, informing the Great Poohbah that the invasion has been a failure. Korilla's commander is so mad that he sends a gas to Earth that is deadly only to Korilla and his crew. The cabbie saves mankind!
Terrible giant monster tale in both planning and execution. The creature designs are lame (Korilla's arm is bigger than the rest of his body!) and Korilla and the boys waste a lot of valuable time telling our hero all about their origin instead of just straight up killing the pesky human. Three hairy stooges. Oddly enough, there's no panel of Earth with word balloons this time out. I kinda missed it.
Last up in this truly abysmal issue is "When Darkness Falls!," wherein a man swears he sees the mannikins in a department store moving around. The "twist" is that our protagonist is also a dummy. Slap this issue in mylar and never look back.-Peter
Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
"The Return of Gargantus!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2
"The Man Who Fell!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★
(r: Where Monsters Dwell #25)
"The Ape Man" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★
(r: Where Monsters Dwell #24)
Because the readers of Journey Into Strange Tales demanded it! "The Return of Gargantus!" Years after Gargantus was seemingly defeated by the thin air found on the surface world, little Billy (the co-star of "What? What? What the Hell is Gigantus/Gargantus?" has grown up, his pop has died and he's refused to turn the famed bathysphere over to science for study. Billy knows that if men of science get hold of Dad's startling creation, they'll want to explore the nether regions of the sea.
When Bill gets to the harbor, the trio of stud scientists scoff at his protests. "Go back home and drop a line in your goldfish bowl, ya wimp!" cries Professor Frank, with a Marlboro hanging from his mustached lips, and the vehicle enters the water. Sure enough, less than five minutes later, the trio are whining about the giant monster on their tail and Bill is sprinting home to wipe the dust off his dad's pride and joy. Bill drops down and sees a horrifying sight: Gargantus has the sub in his giant paws and is about to crush it like a soda can.
Just as it looks like it's curtains for the taunting trio, Gargantus recognizes Bill's diving bell and gives chase. Bill barely makes it out of the sea ball before his old nemesis breaks water and towers above the frightened man, telling him that since Bill's dad has shuffled off this mortal coil, it's up to Bill to tell mankind they are doomed. Bill refuses and heads for cover; the monster, unable to find his prey, heads into the city to make some noise (no humans are harmed, I assure you). While the city is being torn to shreds, Bill gets to work on modifying his pop's bathysphere.
It's tough to come up with reasons to read these things since just about every story is the same but, for me, the highlight has to be Anne coming home from the store to tell Bill he's a coward (you thought I made that part up, didn't you?) and then completely disappearing from the story. You'd like to think that after she dressed him down, she filed for divorce and took up with Robert Oppenheimer.
Last up is Steve Ditko's "The Ape Man!" Salty Gruner is convicted of being a commie (the only way you get tossed in the clink in the Atlas Universe) and sentenced to spend the rest of his days in a prison on Lost Island. The guards warn Salty and his comrades that the island is surrounded by a shark-filled sea and the jungle contains the legendary Ape Man. Not one to believe in old wives' tales, Salty escapes into the jungle with an eye to building a raft and sailing to New Jersey but quickly comes face to hairy mug with the titular beast. The gorilla politely informs Salty that he was once a human being and ran afoul of a native witch doctor who cursed him to prowl the jungle until another poor soul could take his place. Before he knows it, Salty has lost his prison uni and grown quite a bit of hair, cursed to wander the foul jungles of Lost Island forever. The last time we saw this "twist," I think it was attached to a genie. Still, Steve ignores the idiocy of the script and gives his all and we are the better for it.-Peter
Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
"Kraa the Unhuman!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★
(r: Where Monsters Dwell #15)
"The Mysterious Mr. P!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2
"Enter.... the Robot!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2
(r: Monsters on the Prowl #20)
A geography teacher decides to liven up his dull existence by spending his summer break on a trip to Africa, where he will investigate the Wabuzi tribe and the strange statues they've started making. He manages to hire a guide to take him into the jungle, but after the guide robs him and abandons him, the teacher goes on alone, determined to find the Wabuzi. As he gets closer, he sees larger and larger statues of a grotesque figure until he finally reaches the village.
The natives worship "Kraa the Unhuman!" and, though the teacher at first thinks it's a giant statue, the creature is alive and captures him without much effort. "Kraa!" tells the teacher he'll grant one last request before slaying him, so the teacher asks Kraa to tell his origin story. The giant explains that, months ago, stinkin commies parachuted into the jungle, planning to use it for illegal nuclear testing. At that time, Kraa was a regular Wabuzi tribesman. He fell into a hunter's trap and was exposed to radiation from the nuclear testing!
Kraa grew into a big, orange monster and soon found himself the object of worship of the other members of the tribe, who did not recognize him as one of their own. He didn't mind being worshipped and liked when they made statues of him. Kraa decided that, when he stopped growing, he'd attack the civilized world to punish it for what it had done to him. The teacher feels sorry for Kraa and rubs ointment on his back to help soothe the pain from radiation burns. Kraa is surprised by the man's kindness and saves him from being crushed by a giant python, falling off a cliff during the struggle. The teacher returns home, where his students are amazed to see a newspaper report showing that the Wabuzi have carved a new idol in the teacher's image!
Who is "The Mysterious Mr. P!"? Teenaged girls hang around the stage doors at theaters where he plays his clarinet, hoping for his autograph. He came out of nowhere one day and quickly rose to the top of the charts. One day, some stinkin' commies show up and offer big bucks if Mr. P will give a tour in their country. He goes along and they lock him in a dungeon, where they insist that he tell the world that he just loves dictatorships. Instead, he starts playing his clarinet and all the commies can't help but follow him out the window and into the clouds, because he's the Pied Piper!
Max Garr is an obnoxious foreman in a coal mine who is not happy when the boss tells him, "Enter.... the Robot!" The mechanical man will work in the mines but Max doesn't want to lose his job, so he leads the machine down into a shaft and fiddles around with its wiring so it stops working. When Max is trapped in a cave-in with the robot, he's dismayed to learn its purpose is to tunnel for safety--but because Max wrecked its wiring, now it won't work!
Ditko does a nice job with the shadowy world of the mine, but that's about it in this story where nothing that happens is a surprise.-Jack
Cover by Jack Kirby
"What Was 'X' the Thing That Lived!"
(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2
(r: Fear #2)
"One-Way Journey!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★
(r: Fear #2)
We've seen these self-reflexive stories before and they're always the same. In "What Was 'X" the Thing That Lived," Kirby gets to draw a few monsters rather than being stuck with just one, but there's never any real sense of danger. The story isn't funny, so we're just left with a bloated, 18-page mess that is a chore to read.
Comic book writer Charles Bentley pens a story about a giant sea serpent attacking a ship and being destroyed by an atomic warhead. After the story is published (in Tales to Astonish), representatives from Naval Intelligence demand to know how Bentley learned of the true incident! He convinces them that he made it up and they leave.
His next story concerns a radioactive, two-headed demon from outer space. The same thing happens again after publication, when the Air Force informs Bentley that his story depicted true events. Once again, it's chalked up to coincidence.
Bentley wracks his brain for another story and ends up writing about an alien called X who can transform itself into any shape and can't be destroyed. The editor is so happy that he gives the writer a week off and Charles heads for the mountains to go fishing. He gets to the resort and sees on TV that X is on the rampage! It's back to the typewriter to change the ending to one where the creature is defeated. It's published but X keeps on going! Bentley suspects that his typewriter at home is the key, recalling that he bought it at an old antique shop in Europe.
But it's not so easy to get rid of X! The creature confronts the writer, fully aware of his plan, and chases him into the sewers beneath the city. Bentley manages to escape and return to his typewriter, but X follows him to his apartment and prevents him from writing a new ending! Only when Charles throws the typewriter out the window and it smashes on the pavement does X finally disappear.
A rich industrialist named Adam Gree wants to live forty years in the future, certain that it will be a Golden Age without war or disease, so he fires all his employees, sells all his businesses, and uses the cash he raises to pay scientists to build him a time machine. He travels to 2001 and finds it just as he predicted, but there's a catch--he's now 90 years old and will die soon!
Ditko's art is the best thing about "One-Way Journey!," yet another time travel story with a twist that falls flat. At least the splash page looks cool.-Jack
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