Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 200: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 185

September 1961

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Amazing Adventures #4

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"I Am Robot X" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

"Who or What Was... the Bootblack?" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

"What Lurks Within?" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

Sure, there have been robots built and utilized for man's purposes, but never one like Robot X! The first thinking hunk of metal, created by really smart Atlas genius, Professor Jonathan Wilkes. The old scientist is merely trying to do his part for an easier day for mankind but there always has to be one naysayer in the crowd, right?

The naysayer in "I Am Robot X" is Charles J. Wentworth, publisher of the Daily Clarion, who believes thinking robots will be the downfall of mankind. His readers agree and suddenly Prof. Wilkes finds himself battling a maddened mob at his front door. Knowing he'll be taken apart and used as scrap metal for Edsels, Robot X amscrays out the back door and heads for a nearby junkyard. There, he builds himself a smart, human-like robot to do his bidding. The faux man rents a factory and he and Robot X get to work building an army of thinking androids.

The feds track Robot X to his factory and attempt to shut the place down, but he uses a "force field of impenetrable energy" to push them back. With his army built, X heads into town and faces a kill-crazy militia. As his minions fight off the soldiers, X heads into the Daily Clarion and grabs Wentworth. Both topple from the top of the building but are rescued by a net placed below by firemen. As Wentworth rises from the netting, X pulls the publisher's face off, revealing a Martian head. Yep, the stinkin' Martians were trying to stir up unrest on Earth, buying up media outlets and playing "upon their readers' fears." With the Martian menace defeated, Robot X shuts himself down and wishes the best for Earth.

Though the plot is same-old, same-old, at least the robot design is fairly unique. X has no legs and gets around on a giant "wheel" in lieu of a torso. The innocent nature of X is a cheat since it's built on a foundation of scary behavior and menacing dialogue ("We must create an army! Then nothing can stop us from entering the city!") that ends once the real threat is revealed. As usual, the Martians stand in for the stinkin' Commies, who would also infiltrate America and spread their plague among us if they got the chance.

In the drivel known as "Who or What was... the Bootblack?," heartless, evil, pompous Simon Sledge is on his way to the most important deal in his miserable, heartless, evil life when he stops for a shoeshine. Sledge gives the bootblack guff for being poor and informs him he has only a few minutes to finish or Sledge won't pay him a penny. When the man has completed his task, Sledge heads to the meeting but finds his heartless, evil feet are heading the other way. Sledge misses his appointment and loses out on millions. The only thing missing from this hogwash is the final panel showing Sledge a few months later as a penniless shoe shiner.

With the aid of a wrecking ball and his telepathic communication skills, Dr. Droom convinces the barbaric aliens who have landed that Earth is not to be messed with. "What Lurks Within?" continues the fairly interesting mini adventures of Anthony Droom, a character who might have enjoyed a long life as one of Atlas/Marvel's initial strip heroes but oddly was abandoned after only one more installment. These Droom yarns are a historical artifact in that they give us a peek at what the boys were planning to unleash very soon.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #72

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"The Glob" (a: Jack Kirby & George Klein) ★★1/2

(r: Where Creatures Roam #7)

"The Patient in Room 3D" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #7)

"Will This Be the End of the World?" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #7)

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: When Stan and Jack began titling their fantasy epics "I Lived Through..." and "I Created...", they began the annoying habit of leaving their lead protagonists/narrators nameless. For the sake of clarity (and my sanity), I will begin labeling these characters "Joe" (or the rare "Joan"); don't bother sending me e-mails arguing that "The lead protagonist in 'I Killed Bamboo... Lord of the Amazon!!' is not named Joe" as I will completely ignore you. Thank you for your time.

"Joe" is obviously one of the most well-regarded painters in the world... not of portraits or landscapes or nudes, but of stuff. Joe can paint the hell out of a living room wall, believe you me. So, imagine how excited (and puzzled) Joe is when he is approached by a strange man from Transylvania who tells the painter that he has a job for him back at his castle. The money must be good because, quicker than you can say "Sherwin-Williams," Joe has boarded a transatlantic 747 and arrives in Transylvania!

In the castle, Joe is shown to a dark, dank, gloomy room and shown what he must paint: a sinister statue of a hulking beast. Joe is given strict instructions that he must combine three buckets of paint, cover the statue with the formula, and get the hell out of Dodge by midnight. Smelling easy money, Joe gets to work as the stranger bids him sweet adieu. Our hero does indeed finish his work well before midnight, noticing the coat of paint has rendered his work a gloopy, gloppy mess, but disaster strikes in the form of a freak earthquake; Joe is pinned beneath a falling beam and forced to remain in the castle after midnight. Poor Joe!

At the stroke of midnight (there are big clocks inside the castle), Joe is horrified to see the statue come to life. "I Created... The Menace I Will Name... The Glob!!," screams Joe. Fortuitously, the creature lifts the beam from Joe's (fortunately unharmed) leg before he announces he will kill the human. Joe hoofs it and the two spend quite a few panels playing Hide and Seek before the thing proclaims, "I'm hungry! I'm going down to the village to get 'something to eat!'" In the old days of Atlas, that would mean dining on a Frau or two, but in the safer days of 1961 we find the Glob grabbing a couple of trays of beer and schnitzel before heading back to the castle with intent to kill (or at least seriously harm) Joe.

But salvation arrives in the form of Joe's employer, who has come back to see what's what. Rather than get the hell out of the deathtrap, Joe demands an explanation for the Glob he's created. Seems the foreigner stumbled upon a statue, three cans of paint, and a scroll that instructed its benefactor to paint the big guy when "the statue's comrades return to Earth." Aha, so the Glob is another outer space alien here to set in motion an invasion!

The Glob returns and begins anew a grand chase through the castle until Joe finally remembers the dreaded foe of any paint: turpentine. He grabs a huge bucket of turpentine that just happens to be lying around and tosses it at the beast. "I'm melting... I'm melting!," cries the alien as he returns to being a lifeless statue. The villagers arrive to burn the castle down and Joe and the stranger barely make it out alive. The next day, Joe sits on a plane and hopes that mankind will remain vigilant in case the Glob's "comrades" do indeed arrive on Earth.

So, is Joe going to visit the UN to warn the nations of the coming invasion? How will the world stay vigilant if Joe doesn't risk humiliation and ridicule by telling his story of a giant, gloopy Glob from outer space? No one will believe him (would you?) so Earth, I'm sorry to say, is doomed, my friends. "The Glob" is mindless comic strip fun, as are most of these Stan/Jack/Mighty Monster yarns but, unlike so many of the others, this one did not try my patience or force me to keep looking at the page numbers. 

I love all its inanities. We suspect the foreigner has a hidden agenda when he flies all the way to America in search of Joe; he does in fact tell the painter he's heard that he's a master of his craft. The guy paints houses and furniture; where is the mastery? Anyone who can handle a brush and read instructions could have done the job. Since the Glob has no super powers to speak of, what was the plan for world domination? One deli at a time? How many comrades would show up? And would they be statues or fully formed Globs? And then, most of all, there's the mystery of the bucket of paint thinner. When Joe arrives in Transylvania, he's without any baggage. Where did he get the giant vat of turpentine? You think the "comrades" left it in the corner just in case? Not likely. Give me more Glob!

"The Patient in Room 3D" awakens after an operation to increase his brain power ten times, but when questioned can give the scientists no satisfactory answers. Alas, the professors sigh, if only we could experiment on humans instead of monkeys. Finally, in "Will This Be the End of the World?," Stan/Larry dust off yet another moldy Atlas staple. When a giant white orb in the sky hurtles towards us, scientists build a huge space ark and abandon Earth. In the end, it's just a baseball heading toward a catcher's mitt. I tried to make sense of how mini-Earth could build spaceships in the time it would take a baseball to hit a mitt, but why am I bothering? You're laughing at me right now, I know.-Peter

Strange Tales #88

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"Zzutak the Thing That Shouldn't Exist!!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Fear #3)

"The Lifeless Man!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Fear #3)

"Punishment!" (a: Don Heck) ★

Famed comic book artist Frank Johnson has thrilled millions with his monster creations for such million-selling titles as Strange Tales, Journey Into Mystery, and Amazing Adventures, but his editor wants him to come up with the ultimate creature feature, one that will have the readers screaming "More...more!"

While sitting at his easel pondering the situation, a stranger enters Frank's studio and hands the artist a tube of paint, explaining that this is a "new kind of paint, a three-dimensional paint!" Frank dabs a bit onto his canvas, quickly paints a rose, and watches in awe as the flower comes to life. He reaches out and pulls the rose from his easel! He tells the stranger he'll pay anything for the tube, but the man refuses payment and tells Frank to get to work painting his masterpiece. But once the man is gone and Frank dabs the paint onto his board, the tube "tells" him to fly to Mexico, where he can continue his artistry. 

When he gets to Mexico, he seems to know exactly where he's going and that route leads to an ancient Aztec temple. There, a huge canvas awaits him. The paint tells him exactly what to create: "Zzutak the Thing That Shouldn't Exist!!" All done, the monster hops off the canvas alive and threatens its creator. From the shadows emerges an Aztec elder... the stranger who hired Frank in the first place! The exotically garbed gentleman explains to the bewildered strip artist that he has painted an ancient creature called Zzutak (the second "z" is silent), a monster that will help the elder rule the world. 

The Aztec commands Frank to paint yet another monster with an eye to building an army of super-powered slaves. Frank uses the old noggin, though, and imposes his will on the new sketch, ordering Zzutak2 to obey Frank's every command. When Zzutak2 emerges from the easel, it attacks its brother and the two monsters battle to the death, bringing the temple down with them. Frank and the elder survive, with the Mexican holy man newly amnesiac and ready to re-enter society as a good guy. Frank takes a sketch to his editor and announces "Zzutak" will be the cover of Strange Tales #88; Stan tells him to go back to the drawing board.

The plot of "Zzutak, The Thing That Exists Only to Fill Pages!" is pretty much identical to that of "The Glob": painter hired by strange foreign guy to unknowingly create a monster to rule the world and, like "Glob," I found myself enjoying the heck out of "Zzutak." But why not add to the fun and name Frank "Jack Kirby" as a wink to the fans? My enjoyment of this one is obviously enhanced by my memories of reading it when it was reprinted as the cover feature of Fear #3. Those twenty-five cent extra-large funny books were the comic equivalent of a bag of Laura Scudder's Mini Tacos. Once you start devouring, you can't stop.

I'll give "The Lifeless Man!" two stars only for Ditko's charming artwork but the plot, the old standby about a kid who buys a toy soldier that later comes to life and saves him, is "Lifeless." Meanwhile, in "Punishment!," Urru of planet Phato III commits a crime, something not seen on this peaceful world in centuries, and he is sentenced to spend six months on the "Prison Planet." Of course, we all know what the "Prison Planet" is long before the truth is revealed. Double Groan!-Peter

Tales of Suspense #21

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Klagg! His Mission: Destroy Mankind!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #20)

"Whose Face is in the Mirror?" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

"The Man from... Tomorrow!" 

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

A rocket ship from outer space lands near Center City, a peaceful, American community, after generating a huge gust of wind. The ship's door opens and from inside emerges Klagg, an orange-skinned alien with an elongated, dome-like cranium. Carefree playboy Philip hears a radio news report about the landing, as do members of the Russian military. Klagg explains that his ship is propelled by wind and, when he realizes that the people of Earth still engage in war, he states that he will be forced to take drastic action to protect the rest of the galaxy from such barbarians.

Klagg returns to his ship and takes off! Immediately, the ship begins to emit a huge wind that wreaks havoc on Center City. Russian agents watch with interest, hoping to discover the secret of Klagg's technology so they can use it to attack the West. Philip and his girlfriend, Clair, arrive in town just as the wind is blowing. The Army tries to blast Klagg's ship, but to no avail.

The next morning, Phil tricks the Russian agents into thinking he has stolen the diagram of the wind generator from Klagg's ship. When they confront him, he explains that he pretended to have the plans so that they could all work together. A week later, the nations of Earth band together and challenge Klagg to a battle on the open seas. When the alien observes that the nations of Earth have the capacity to work together, he decides that there is hope for us after all. He promises to keep an eye on our planet and zips off into outer space. Clair tells Philip that he's like a new man!

"Klagg! His Mission: Destroy Mankind!" has many of the Lee and Kirby tropes we've grown used to. There are the usual panels with people looking at the reader and pointing at something. There is the immature man who grows up when confronted with a challenge. On pages four and twelve, there are the obligatory panels in outer space with dialogue balloons. There is the alien who is unpleasantly surprised at the backward nature of Earthlings. What the story lacks is an interesting monster or a panel with floating heads. Klagg's head shape reminds me of Hulk's adversary, the Leader; this head shape had been used before in Superman comics, so it was not new.

Joe Kane wakes up, looks in the bathroom mirror, and sees a fat man with glasses looking back at him! The mirror shatters, so Joe goes to another mirror, where the same thing happens! "Whose Face Is in the Mirror?" wonders Joe. Is he going mad? The same thing happens a third time. Joe rushes to work, avoiding mirrors on the way. As the elevator door opens, Joe sees the man in the mirror! Joe runs off and the elevator that he would have boarded crashes to the ground when its cable snaps!

Yet another variation on the classic ghost tale, "The Bus-Conductor," this short story features art by Ditko that fits the narrative perfectly. The most famous version of this story is "Twenty-Two," which aired on The Twilight Zone on February 10, 1961, possibly around the time this story was devised.

Walter Phelps invents a time machine in 1965 and uses it to travel back to Rome in A.D. 25, certain that when he demonstrates the wonders of his age, the Romans will crown him king. The moron destroys the time machine on arrival so none of his contemporaries can follow him, then tries and fails to demonstrate the wonders of TV, radio, a camera, and a cigarette lighter. Now he's stuck in the past, hoping someone else will invent a time machine and rescue him.

The GCD helpfully reminds us that we read a version of this story in Tales of Suspense #2, where it was called "Trapped in Yesterday!" That version was drawn by Carl Burgos, whose drawings are worse than Kirby's.-Jack

Tales to Astonish #23

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"The Unbelievable Menace of Moomba"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Creatures on the Loose #11)(r: Chamber of Chills #25)

"Less Than Human" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #22)

"The Voice from Nowhere!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #14)

Frank likes to tell tales of his big game hunting in Africa. Now that everyone wants authentic wooden sculptures from the native tribes, Frank uses his good relations with tribal leaders to trade for the newly popular figures. In one village, a witch doctor named Katu claims that the wooden statues are evil creatures bent on mankind's destruction. Frank laughs at the idea but, weeks later, he encounters "The Unbelievable Menace of Moomba" in the jungle!

Moomba is a big, wooden statue that moves and talks; it informs Frank that the wooden carvings that people have been collecting are really his warriors, just waiting for his signal to attack mankind. Moombah climbs to the top of a mountain and sends out his signal, at which point wooden statues around the world spring to life and turn on their human owners. The military is unable to stop Moomba, but Katu, the witch doctor, freezes the big guy by mixing together some powders and letting a strange vapor waft over him. To save himself, Moomba agrees to take all of his warriors and leave the Earth, never to return. They fly off into outer space and the people of Earth are left with no memory of the menace. The only one who recalls it is Frank, who wrote the story down in his diary and vows never to make fun of witch doctors again.

In the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Bang! You're Dead," which aired on October 17, 1961, a white character returns from Africa with a souvenir tribal mask and refers to it in jest as "what the well-dressed witch doctor is wearing." This month's story in Tales to Astonish confirms that African tribal items had worked their way into popular culture, though the events depicted here are particularly silly. Kirby seems to be running out of ideas for new monsters. This story features two panels showing the Earth from outer space as people converse--on page three and page twelve. I wonder if these panels were intended to give the stories more of a science fiction feeling by depicting the planet as seen from afar?

In the twenty-first century, robots are everywhere and Mr. Harris can't stand them. When he arrives home to find that his wife has purchased a robot as a plaything for their son Billy, Harris is incensed, but when Billy chases a ball into the street and Roby sacrifices itself to save the lad, Harris changes his tune.

Don Heck's art is solid but the story has been told many times before and nothing new is added here.

A man traveling through space in a rocket ship lands on an asteroid to make emergency repairs. He fixes the ship quickly and suddenly hears "The Voice from Nowhere!" begging him for help. The man looks everywhere on the small rock but can find no source for the voice. Is he going mad? The voice says it's lost and that it comes from the Fourth Galaxy. The man replies that the Fourth Galaxy is about twelve years away, pointing past Vegas. The voice thanks the man for saving it and says it can return home. The man boards his ship, takes off, and realizes that the voice was that of the asteroid,. which heads toward home!

For once, they got me! I did not guess the ending in advance and got a chuckle out of it. That must be worth something! The Ditko art is excellent, as usual.-Jack

On Thursday...
Nuff Said!

And Next Week...
Atlas/Marvel's Most Famous
Dragon Makes His Debut!