Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 146: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction and Horror Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 131

December 1956 Part IV

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Uncanny Tales #50

Cover by Bill Everett

"Look Behind You!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★1/2

"Inside the Room of Shadows" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"A Man Destroyed!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★★

"The Escape of Johnny York" (a: Herb Familton) ★

"Valley of No Return!" (a: Bob Powell) ★

"It Happened to Henry" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

Brilliant scientist Louis Stark has invented a television screen that allows him to drop in on important events and people of the past. Unlike the usual brilliant scientist, Louis doesn't use his new toy as a tool to rob banks or rule third world countries; Louis just wants to make the world a more peaceful place to live.

To that end, the egghead drops in on well-known 18th-Century dictator, Vincent di Varni, just before he reaches power. With the aid of his gizmo, Louis is able to sway di Varni from making the decisions he made that set him down a wrong path in life. Unfortunately, Louis discovers that di Varni is his ancestor and slowly, but surely, the changes he's made affect the man's lineage. In a panic, the professor attempts to manipulate the machine in order to erase his changes but fate intervenes. "Look Behind You!" is not a bad little science fiction tale; sure, it's very predictable, but it's a nice change of pace to see someone with a big brain who doesn't want to use his assets to rule mankind.

Penny-pinching miser Mr. Bascombe just can't seem to get happy; he's miserable about everything, convinced the world is out to cheat him. The maid spends too much money on butter; the butler stole his cigars; Dish Network raised their rates 35.6%. The list goes on and on. Then one day, while on a walk, Bascombe is compelled to enter a dark doorway. "Inside the Room of Shadows," he is greeted by an old, bearded man who claims that Bascombe's true happiness is attainable if he simply enters a doorway within the house. The old codger quickly talks himself out of it, for fear the stranger is trying to take advantage of him. Convinced he has been hypnotized by his thieving butler (!), Bascombe races home to fire the man, only to learn he gave the dedicated servant the axe the night before. Atlas strips where cold-hearted bastards have a complete 180-degree turn within two panels never cease to cause eye-rolling in this funny book veteran.

In the year 2056, crime has essentially been eliminated, thanks to the "Criminal Selector" machine, which predicts a crime is about to be committed and gives law enforcement the right to arrest the guilty parties before the act takes place. But mob boss Victor Sharkey discovers a way to manipulate the gizmo to his advantage. In the end, we discover that the entire drama is a television show being telecast in 1956. A worried housewife asks her husband if he thinks such a "mechanization age" will come to be and her husband laughs and assures her machines will never become that widespread, all while the couple are surrounded by a plethora of modern electric kitchen devices. 

Yep, the concept of a government-supported initiative to arrest criminals before they break the law sounds verrrrry familiar. PK Dick's "Minority Report" had popped up in Fantastic Universe at the beginning of 1956, which certainly gave Carl Wessler more than enough time to "borrow" some elements from the SF short story. But thievery aside, "A Man Destroyed!" is a decent read with some great Torres work. I swear at times I would not be able to tell Angelo's pencils from those of Al Williamson.

Carl Wessler returns with his script for the nonsensical "The Escape of Johnny York," in which the titular POW drinks some herbal tea provided by a cellmate and escapes prison to visit his dying wife. Predictably, the tea not only transports Johnny to his wife's bedside, but also magically cures her ills. Maudlin hogwash. In the three-page "Valley of No Return!," Burt almost shoots a white eagle but is convinced to leave the bird alone by fellow hunter, Greg. Later, when they become lost, the eagle leads them out of the lost valley safe and sound. The last-panel reveal is immensely predictable.

Perhaps the worst was saved for last. Henry is a bully and his latest target is fellow accountant, Porter. After a particularly vicious prank, Porter tells Henry the world would be better off without him. Sure enough, from then on no one sees or hears Henry. What's going on? Who knows? The last panel of "It Happened to Henry" literally reveals that the writer had no idea either. So let's just ignore this one.-Peter

World of Mystery #4

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Things in the Window" (a: Werner Roth) ★★

"The Forbidden Land" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2

"Let the Creature Beware!" (a" Bob Powell) ★★

"The Dreadful Dream" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"The Man with Yellow Eyes" (a: Dick Ayers) ★★

"What Happened in the Basement?" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★1/2

Cal buys a deserted house on the edge of town, a well-tended home that has a bad reputation and a hint of... evil! This would normally send Cal running the other way because everyone in the Atlas Universe knows... Cal is a coward! He knows it, has become used to the sensation, almost revels in it. When the real estate salesman lets Cal know that a woman who lived in the house vanished off the face of the earth, the knees of our timid hero shake a bit because, you know... Cal is a coward!

Seeing the new residence as something of a challenge, Cal moves in and, in a cowardly fashion, continuously looks out the front window to make sure no one will bother him. Then, later that night, Cal notices that one of the windows has been blacked out. Cal shivers! Cal quakes! But soon he feels he can't take the mystery anymore and climbs through the darkened sill to find himself in another dimension. There, in the distance, is a beautiful woman held captive by weird shapes. Can Cal dispose of his cowardice and save the woman from a fate worse than death? This being the 1956 Atlas Universe, you can bet on it. About as harmless as a Saturday morning cartoon, "The Things in the Window" just shambles and stumbles to its inevitable, happy ending, saved only by some tasty art by Werner Roth. The other-dimensional voyage is very Ditko-esque and a few panels of cowardly Cal look like Roth was assisted by Johnny Craig. The speed bump is the reminder, in every other panel, that Cal has a problem being brave.

A trio of reporters from World View Magazine arrive in Peru to sniff out the legend of "The Forbidden Land." The three men push their way through, ignoring Incan pleas, and find themselves inside the ancient temple, ready to witness rites never seen by white men. Unfortunately for the three stooges, they soon find out that they are to be the human sacrifices at the ritual. They manage to escape and return to New York but, once their pictures are developed, they discover the secret Incan ritual will remain secret. Back in the early 1950s, at least one of the men would have gunned down a score of Incans and the trio would have been skinned alive.

In the heavy-handed preachy, "Let the Creature Beware!," Judd Kerr stirs up hate in small towns, pointing out residents who may be a bit "different" than their neighbors and dropping hints these "creatures" might be from another world. Once the town is in a stir, Kerr asks for donations so that he can pursue the situation in a "legal" way by hiring a lawyer. Cash in hand, Kerr races out of town. Then he gets to Abbyville and turns the town's attention to an odd old man who lives on the edge of town. Too late, Judd discovers this is the last stop on his hate tour. Some good Bob Powell work can't transform "Creature" into anything other than a mild distraction with a very unsubtle message. Powell seems to hint in his last panel that Kerr might be Hitler.

Frank Beech is involved in a terrible, serious, life-threatening, and really scary train wreck. He dies but then wakes up and relives everything he'd seen in his dream--the damn toys left on the staircase by his rotten little brat, his wife's attempts to make him breakfast despite the fact that she has no cooking skills to speak of, and the innocuous dialogue he engages in with people at the train station. Sure enough, his train crashes and he awakens to the same thing over again. When his wife hands him his mushy pancakes and tells him to hurry up, he'll be late for work, he informs her he's taking the day off. No, I mean it, that's really the end of "The Dreadful Dream"! I had roughly the same feeling as Frank since this plot has been on a loop since 1948.

"The Man with Yellow Eyes" is G.I. Lee Forrest, who fights with the American Tank Corps in Africa. "Yellow Eyes," as he's affectionately known to his comrades, fights with a bestiality akin to a jungle cat. A fellow G.I. saves the life of "Yellow Eyes" and the two men become friends, with the giant brute claiming that no matter how, no matter where, he'll return the favor. "Yellow Eyes" confides in his new friend that he was an orphan, found in a zoo near the wild cat cages, and Africa seems like home to him. A few months later, Forrest is given a discharge, but he stays in Africa and his savior loses track. 

Once the war ends, our narrator also decides to stay in Africa and attempt a search for "Yellow Eyes." One day, while out in the jungle, a lion leaps but is stopped (mid-air!) from chowing down on our hero by a mysterious whistle. The lion runs off with a man and we come to learn exactly where "Yellow Eyes" has made his home. Right off the bat, I gotta admit that a Tarzan rip-off with Dick Ayers art would usually get a one-star rating from me sight unseen, but "Yellow Eyes" has a real kooky atmosphere that must be experienced to be believed. A couple chuckles translate to a couple stars any day!

John Winters is a would-be inventor who actually doesn't work on anything in his basement. He simply goes down there to see if his family cares enough about him to head down the stairs now and then to check up on him despite his warnings to never ever ever bother him. Confused yet? Keep up. John gets zapped by lightning in his basement and is transported into the future, where he's tried and convicted as a spy. The judge listens to John's fantastic story and then tells the convicted man that his only hope is that his family will come to his rescue. Magically, John is zapped back into the present, where wife Ethel and forty-something, useless, sycophantic son, Melvin, grill him as to where he went. After he tells his utterly ludicrous tale, his wife reminds him that she couldn't check up on him because she was making him his birthday cake like any loving wife would. Holy crap, what connived rubbish this be! So, the answer to the question, "What Happened in the Basement?" is a very resounding, "Nothing!"-Peter

World of Suspense #5

Cover by Carl Burgos

"While Simon Slept...!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★1/2

"By the Dark of the Moon" (a: John Giunta) ★1/2

"Menace Below!" (a: John Romita) ★★

"The Men in Glass!" (a: Don Heck) ★★1/2

"The Lead-Lined Box!" (a: Chuck Miller) ★★

"The Brain Trap!" (a: George Roussos) ★

Simon Miller is an inventor who shows up at the police station with a wild story. He claims to have invented a matter duplicator in his basement. He mistakenly left the machine on and dozed off on the floor under its ray. "While Simon Slept...!" an exact duplicate of him was created, and he met his mirror image upstairs! Simon brings a policeman home to show him the man, but the duplicate claims to be Simon's twin brother. The cop chases the duplicate into the cellar and, when the machine is switched on, a duplicate policeman is created. Now the cop believes Simon's story!

It's not often that I wish an Atlas story were longer, but this one, nicely drawn by Bill Everett, would have benefited from more pages. The story is interesting but ends abruptly. Is there a way to get rid of the duplicates, or would that be murder? Are they good or evil? More pages drawn by Everett would be welcome.

A strange creature haunts the outskirts of Grenhorst! Local farmers believe that it's one of the town's residents who doesn't realize that "By the Dark of the Moon," he changes into the green-skinned descendant of space creatures who landed nearby 200 years ago. Over time, they took on human characteristics that only disappeared under the full moon. One of the townsfolk, Luther Krohler, decides to take revenge on Charles Reuse, a town father, for marrying the woman Luther loved. Luther creates fake movies that show the green-skinned creatures landing and eventually demonstrates that Freda Reuse was one of them. But just as the townspeople are about to grab Charles, the full moon rises, and it's revealed that the real descendent of the creatures is Luther. The next day, he apologizes to everyone for his behavior.

I do not want to read more pages of this story! It's too complicated and not worth the effort it takes to unravel. The art, by John Giunta, reminds me of the type of art I used to see in children's books or issues of Classics Illustrated.

Two men from a foreign country (Russia?) are given a tour of a U.S. Naval station, but they are not allowed to inspect the dock. Karlin, one of the foreigners, deduces that there must be some important secret under the water by the dock, so he waits for a dark, calm night, dons scuba gear, and dives down to inspect. He sees a large metal ball that has studs all around it and he swims toward it. Unfortunately for Karlin, he has discovered a new anti-frogman device that will explode at the slightest touch!

I've always liked John Romita's art, and he does a nice job with what are essentially four pages of people talking to each other. Fortunately, there are some underwater panels that allow him to draw some shadowy scenes. The story ends on a note of suspense, with Karlin about to whack the ball with a wrench and a Naval officer explaining what will happen if he connects, unaware that there's about to be a big boom right off the dock.

Joe is a recent immigrant to the U.S. who is working as a waiter at a banquet where the president is going to speak. Suddenly the lights go out! When they come back on, an alien named Zarki and several of his cohorts have appeared in the room. Zarki announces that they have been sent to colonize Earth and resistance is futile! The aliens have glass helmets around their heads and Zarki demands that the people in the room cooperate and give him information. Everyone refuses but Joe, who volunteers to cooperate, drawing jeers from the patriots around him. Joe asks if he can display his skills as an opera singer and, when Zarki agrees, Joe breaks into a loud version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The Americans in the room are horrified until Joe hits a high note that shatters the aliens' glass helmets! Now everyone realizes that the immigrant waiter saved the day.

"The Men in Glass" is corny as heck, but artist Don Heck knocks it out of the park and his dynamic depictions not only make it bearable but also prefigure the work he would do in a few years on The Avengers and other Marvel comics of the '60s.

Professor Hugo Steiner believes that babies are born with the memories of mankind's collective history already implanted on their brains and he plans to prove it with his new Memory Visualizer! His assistant Hans brings him a newborn in "The Lead-Lined Box!" and Hugo zaps the box with a ray from his gizmo, but what he sees as the newborn's memories show that its immediate ancestors were mute slaves, dependent on others and thrown scraps and bones for food. Hugo is so upset by what he sees that he destroys the machine, unaware that his kindly assistant couldn't bear to put a human baby in the box, so he put a puppy dog in there instead!

I like Chuck Miller's art on this three-pager, and I did not see the twist ending coming in advance, so it was worth a read. I had a feeling that there was something going on with the newborn in the box, but the uncredited writer did a decent job of  suggesting that it was a human baby until we were told otherwise.

Harry Hoyt is a chemist who accidentally invents a cure for baldness and decides that he needs a partner to develop his new product into one that he can sell worldwide. His wife warns him that his partner might take advantage of Harry's good nature. Harry puts an ad in the paper and Earle Bolton responds. Earle is impressed by the invention and signs on as partner, but Harry suddenly finds himself able to read Earle's thoughts and discovers that Earle plans to kill him and take all the money for himself. Harry avoids Earle's clumsy attempt to brain him with a wooden stool, calls the police, and burns his formula.

An unexpectedly enjoyable issue of World of Suspense ends with a dud in "The Brain Trap!;" George Roussos's illustrations are as pedestrian as the script. Both Peter and I are working on a time machine to return to 1956 and question Harry about his miracle cure for baldness.-Jack

Next Week...
With-it, Hip, New Writer Mike Friedrich
Decides That What the World Needs Now Is a Hip, With-It
Reboot of the Very First Batman Adventure For the
Dark Knight's 30th Anniversary. Do the Boys Agree?

Batman in the 1960s Issue 56: March/April 1969

  

The Caped Crusader in the 1960s
by Jack Seabrook
& Peter Enfantino

Adams

Detective Comics #385

"Die Small--Die Big!"

Story by Robert Kanigher

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

"Hunt for the Helpless Hostage!"

Story by Mike Friedrich

Art by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson

Batman is the number one idol of mailman Herbert Small. Herbert's pastimes include make-up, making realistic dummies, and keeping track of the Dark Knight's adventures. When seriously bad news is delivered to Herbert from his blasé medic ("Yep, the heightened sounds inside your head signal that you're maybe a month away from dying. Please make sure your account is paid up and don't bother with a hospital!"), Herbert makes it his life work to protect his hero from harm. How will he do that? Well...

One day, while delivering mail, Herbert overhears a group of bad guys plotting the demise of the Caped Crusader and witnesses the men leaving their hideout. Coincidentally, at that moment, Batman tangles with another group of thugs and Herbert watches in amazement while the hero dispatches them in no time flat. But... Herbert theorizes... if the underworld should ever learn the secret identity of Batman, they would kill him just like that. So, rather than working on a way to deliver mail faster and more efficiently, Herbert goes home, whips up a mannikin with his own face, and sends it to Wayne Manor, where he knows there is a big dinner going on. Herbie assumes that if Commissioner Gordon (in a rare appearance outside of the Gotham Golf Club) sees the dummy, he'll alert Batman and the hero will race over to Herbert's apartment and nab the would-be killers.

Forgetting all the flaws in this logic, Herbie runs home and applies make-up to resemble one of the mobsters he saw during the big secret meeting and heads over to their lair, where he informs his "colleagues" that Batman is really... Herbert Small! After writing down his apartment address for his new buddies, Herbert races home to await his fate. Back at Wayne Manor, the dummy has been found at the front door and brought in for examination. After the mannikin  has been unmasked (and Bruce breathes fresh air that it's not carrying the face of a billionaire), the Commish and the rest of the guests leave the party. Bruce searches his computer-like brain and suddenly screams out, "Ah hah, I have it, the face belongs to the nobody who delivers our mail!"

Racing to Herbert's mangy apartment, Batman arrives just before the hapless letter carrier is about to be ventilated. Crashing through the skylight (what would Gotham be without its plethora of overhead windows?), Bats rescues Herbert only to watch in horror as one of the criminals puts a bullet in the mailman. With the bad guys out of commission, Batman asks if there's anything he can do to make Herbert's last moments tolerable. Though Herbert clearly says "Take me to the hospital, you idiot!," Batman mistakenly interprets the man's final words as "Take your mask off!" and does so. Herbert's parrot begins to sing, the sun rises in Gotham, and Batman sighs.

There's nothing salvageable from the wreck of Big Bob Kanigher's meandering and sappy script nor from the ghastly Brown/Giella graphics found in "Die Small-Die Big!" I know Herbert was dying from some unknown malady (I'd have gotten a second opinion), but why would he think this elaborate scheme (which would net him possibly a half-dozen bad guys) would work and, had he lived, would he do it all over again for the next batch of underworld thugs? It's amazing how many otherwise-normal Gothamites have hidden skills.

In the much-better second installment of the new Batgirl series, our heroine finds the missing Mark Hanner (y'know, the handsome hunk that Babs Gordon has been stalking?) and puts the cuffs on bad guy Web Foote. But, hang on, the best news is that the chick Babs has seen Mark with is actually... his sister (yeah, never mind those too-cosy panels of Mark and his "sister" in an un-sibling-esque clutch!). Babs returns to work the next day and Mark comes in to ask her out on a date. A happy ending! This little eight-pager has so much more life and sensibility than its bigger stepbrother. The plot is disposable (and half the strip seems to be made up of flashbacks to the first chapter) but it's readable and the art is fabulous, detailed, and exciting; give me more!-Peter

Jack-The Batman story is pretty good, but why would Commissioner Gordon think that a replica Batman would have his real, secret face under the mask? The real highlight of the issue is the Batgirl story, which boasts fabulous art by Kane and Anderson. This is even better than last issue's art and it gives the Neal Adams cover a run for its money. The art is so good that it makes the story more enjoyable than it should be.

Adams/Infantino

Batman #210

"The Case of the Purr-loined Pearl!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Irv Novick & Joe Giella

Catwoman is out of prison and instead of starting a crime wave, she opens a Slenderizing Salon! Certain that she's up to something, Batman and Robin think she's behind a robbery where the getaway car is the Kitty-Car, but the crooks admit that they bought the vehicle at a used car lot!

The feline criminal is not going straight, however, and mails letters to eight female prisoners, all of whom are about to be released. When they get out, they are chauffeured to Catwoman's lair in a new and improved Kitty-Car. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne learns that the Nizam of  Nepal is coming to Gotham City for a visit and will display the priceless Potala Pearl in his turban. Bruce calls Commissioner Gordon and offers to let the Nizam stay at Wayne Manor, which is a step up from the Motel 6 that the city had planned.

At the Slenderizing Salon, Catwoman tells the eight former prisoners that she wants to start an all-girl gang to strike back at men, but the ladies aren't taken by the idea and put up a fight. Catwoman easily bests them all and tells them that their training is underway. Nine days later, the gals are slender and all are dressed in identical Catwoman costumes. They pile into the Kitty-Car and head for Wayne Manor, where the Nizam has bedded down for the night.

Batman and Robin are waiting for the attack and, despite taking some good hits, Batman manages to interrupt Catwoman as she attempts to steal the pearl. He tricks her into getting tangled up in a web of sticky yarn and the Nizam and his pearl are safe.

Needless to say, the cover is the highlight of this issue, with Infantino's cool layout and Adams's gorgeous pencils and inks. It's a shame that Novick and Giella's art inside can't compare to the cover--Novick seems incapable of drawing a sexy woman. There are a surfeit of Cat puns, none of which are funny, and the names of the eight female prisoners are just goofy--Florid Flo and Big Barbara are plus-sized, Timid Trixie is reticent, and Sultry Sarah is Novick's attempt at pulchritude. The old and new Kitty-Cars are pretty cool, as is Catwoman's retro-costume, but this story doesn't add up to much in the end.-Jack

Peter- Once again, we are in agreement, Jack. I'm not sure why Catwoman went to the trouble of trying eight cons rather than just heading down to Thug*Mart and renting a batch down there. It's strange that no reasoning is given for Catwoman's costume, which looks nothing like we've seen before. The cover is the highlight here.

Novick

Detective Comics #386

"Stand-In for Murder"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

"The Teen-Age Gap!"

Story by Mike Friedrich

Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito

On a Gotham airstrip, a top-secret Air Force rocket known as the VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) is about to be test-flown by none other than... millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne! After receiving the necessary cautions, the jet takes off and accomplishes an astounding feat above the clouds... the vehicle can land in exactly the same spot it launched from. Wow! But when one of the techs pulls back the cockpit canopy he notices something odd... there's no Bruce Wayne!

The military brass immediately order that Commissioner Gordon be alerted (rather than, I don't know, the Pentagon) and that Batman be called in to investigate. Gordon gets on the Hot-Line to Bats but there's no answer. Is Batman/Bruce Wayne really dead? Well, to get to the bottom of this elaborate farce plot, we have to travel back in time to earlier that morning, where we see an ascot-laden Bruce Wayne preparing to head to the airstrip when he stops to look through the Batman mail he picked up at Gordon's office the night before. After tossing the usual nude photos from adoring fans and requests for autographs, Master Bruce comes upon a strangely written note informing the Caped Crusader that a big heist will be happening at Gotham First National in about half an hour. Bruce Wayne/Batman can't be in two places at once. Or can he?

Telling Alfred that the heist takes precedence over a photo op in a really snazzy plane, Bruce orders the world's most over-worked butler to call "Mr. Morse," Bruce Wayne's stand-in! Morse is given his assignment--to sit in a test jet and risk his life--and he heads for the airstrip while the Batmobile races to Gotham First National. Bats foils the criminal activity but is trapped in an armored car full of tear gas while, miles away, Mr. Morse is run off the road by a cement mixer and kidnapped by its shady, obviously non-union, driver. The man tosses Morse into the truck and drives it off a pier into Gotham Harbor. The driver then exits the truck, revealing a third Bruce Wayne, hops into Morse's convertible, and heads to the airfield.

There we pick up the beginning of the story and find out all the juicy behind-the-scenes details. The latest Wayne clone is actually disgraced businessman Carlyle Crane, who has rigged this impossibly complex ruse in order to kill Bruce Wayne (instead of, you know, putting a bullet in him) for ruining his reputation. Crane has built a complete replica of the top-secret VTOL, flown it up above the clouds, and killed a fake Bruce... or something like that. 

Once Batman gets out of his tear-gas-armored car mess, he answers Gordo's plea for help and heads to the airstrip, where he sorts out the entire mystery thanks to a very evident clue overlooked by Crane (Morse's helmet was left in the back of the convertible). Knowing his unknown adversary will come looking for the helmet, Batman hangs out for a few hours in the nearby bushes and puts the whammy on Crane when he arrives. Later, at the dock, Batman sighs as a perfectly good cement mixer (with Morse's corpse in the front seat) is hauled out of the water. Someone will pay for this destruction of fine equipment!

Despite (or possibly because of) the fact that this may very well be the most confusing, complex, coincidence-laden, confounding Batman adventure we've ever read, I enjoyed the heck out of it. I struggled to put into words what the hell was going on in the climax since there are so many threads being sewn together at one time. Though we've witnessed some pretty big villainous plots in these 1960s funny books, Carlyle Crane's has to take first price. The number of events that had to happen at just the right time for Crane's plate of revenge to be served is mind-boggling. 

I wish we could see the excised panels of Crane sitting at his desk, trying to figure out exactly when he should hire the cement mixer (and how would he know the exact moment Morse would come along?) and begin building his exact replica of VTOL. Not to mention the retractable roof on his mansion that hides the plane! Can someone tell me who this mysterious Mr. Morse is? It's hinted that he's been used before, but I assume he knows nothing of Bruce's alter ego. I couldn't find any reference to the character appearing before or after. The Brown/Giella art is still about as pedestrian as you'll find but, for this installment at least, the words are goofy enough to keep the pages turning.

In the back-up, Robin gets help from a nerdy college kid when he's jumped by a trio of good ol' boys tired of the Boy Wonder stealing their chicks from them. Dick thanks the awkward bookworm for saving his bacon and then ponders all the important friends and characters that come into his life and then never reappear. With "The Teen-Age Gap!," Mike Friedrich adds fuel to the argument that it's Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson who are responsible for making "Batgirl" the best Bat-strip recently. The only smile that crossed my face was when Dick is persuaded to pick up a guitar during a campfire to sing a few tunes, the lyrics of which confirmed my suspicion that Fred Wertham was not paying attention to funny books by 1969: Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine/I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine.-Peter

Jack-I can't recall a Batman story with so little Batman in it as "Stand-In for Murder." Where did poor Morse come from? Bruce Wayne has a double who is available at a moment's notice to take his place--and the guy gets killed? Only in a Frank Robbins script would a crook call Batman "B-Man." And I'm starting to think that my childhood belief in rubber masks that were undetectable came from some of these DC comics!

As for "The Teen-Age Gap!," the less said the better. I'm not surprised that, after two issues with fabulous art by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson on the Batgirl backup stories, we'd have to plummet back to Earth with a Robin story drawn by Andru and Esposito. When I was a kid, their art on Spider-Man didn't bother me, but as a much older man, I really cringe when I see their pages from the late '60s and early '70s. The groovy, hip lingo spouted by the characters is hard to take.

Adams

The Brave and the Bold #82

"The Sleepwalker from the Sea!"

Story by Bob Haney

Art by Neal Adams

Night at the Gotham City waterfront, and the Caped Crusader witnesses a strange series of events: a man stalks a beautiful woman who suddenly jumps into a speeding car. Another man, dressed in a scuba suit, shoots the stalker in the back with a harpoon and kills him. The killer removes an item of jewelry from the dead man and tosses it to the car's driver. Batman leaps onto the car, causing it to crash into a pole, but as he removes the driver he is grabbed from behind by Aquaman! The frogman takes aim and shoots Batman with a harpoon, causing him to fall into the water. Aquaman socks the frogman and dives into the drink, pulling Batman to safety before disappearing.

Later, Batman awakens to find a doctor tending to him and Commissioner Gordon standing nearby. Batman looks at the piece of jewelry that the driver held and observes that it's a talisman of a kraken--a giant squid! Just then, Batman recalls that he has a hot date and races home, where Alfred patches him up. Bruce Wayne is going out with Ailsa Dubois, model of the year, and rudely dismisses Honor, a gorgeous redhead about whom he had forgotten. Soon, Bruce and Ailsa dine on a terrace in the moonlight; he writes a check for $100,000 to invest in New Marine City at her behest but learns that money will not buy her affections. In fact, when he makes a move, she pulls a gun on him and then flips him over the side of the terrace! Bruce hangs onto a ledge and sees Ailsa leave the building; he realizes that she is heading to see Marius, a rich guy who owns a fleet of ships and who is somehow involved in the New Marine City project.

Bruce follows Ailsa to the offices of Marius Enterprises and overhears Marius boast of his plans to loot and then destroy the new project. Ailsa pulls back a curtain to reveal a painting of Maris in his super-villain garb as Ocean Master, Aquaman's half-brother and evil nemesis, and Bruce enters the room, only to be knocked out by Aquaman, who seems to be under some sort of spell. Aquaman carries Bruce to the site of the New Marine City development and admits that he was just pretending to be in a stupor to trick Marius. Suddenly, Marius and Ailsa appear and Marius starts shooting, but Bruce and Aquaman escape.

An hour later, at Police HQ, Aquaman tells Batman and Commissioner Gordon the origin story of Ocean Master, also known as his half-brother, Orm. Aquaman refuses to harm him. Aquaman also explains that his super-hot wife Mera was abducted by humanoids and, while he was searching for her, he accidentally killed a marine biologist when he thought the man was about to kill a narwhal. Ever since killing the man, Aquaman has been concerned that he is as evil as his brother. Gordon suspects there's something fishy going on and he and Batman give Aquaman some sort of drug that clears his mind and makes him feel better about things. They are helped by Honor, the gal  Bruce ditched, who dresses up as Mera.

Gordon pulls a gun and insists that Batman and Aquaman capture Orm, who is boasting to Ailsa that he is about to hijack all of the treasures in New Marine City. Not so fast, say Batman and Aquaman, but a trap door opens and drops the heroes into a giant aquarium, where they confront sharks and a kraken! Aquaman's mental fish-controlling powers fail to work very well, so it's a good thing Gordon shows up with some cops who blast a hole in the side of the massive fish tank. A cop accidentally shoots Ailsa and Orm escapes in a submarine. Aquaman swims off and Ailsa tells Batman that she was in love with Orm and is ready to face the music.

The fact that it took me so long to summarize the story in this issue demonstrates that it's a tad complicated, but this is the best full issue of Neal Adams's art that we've seen to date, in my opinion. Everything he draws is stunning. I always thought that Aquaman was a cool character and I particularly like Ocean Master's outfit. There's some pathos in the character of Honor and Ailsa has more depth than the usual beautiful women we see in the Batman comics. This is one of the best issues we've read in our journey through the '60s.-Jack

Peter-Adams's art, as usual, is fabulous but Bob Haney's dialogue and plot swim with the fishes. I never feel Haney gets the Batman vibe (in his scripts, his Dark Knight spouts dopey one-liners and behaves very un-heroically) nor any of the Gotham mythos, for that matter. Why, when Aquaman pleads with Bats to spare his brother's life, does the Commish draw his gun and act all silly/threatening? My other big problem, one not caused by Bob Haney, is that since I was always a Marvel Zombie I never read any of the second-tier hero funny books and that includes Aquaman. I had no idea if Haney was making up Orm and his nefarious deeds out of whole cloth or there was a history here until I did a Wiki dive and discovered that the character debuted only a few years prior to Brave and the Bold #82. This is still the best of the three titles, but that's due entirely to Neal Adams.

Next Week...
Avert Your Eyes When
Peter Asks Jack to Write Faster!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 145: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 130

December 1956 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Stories of Suspense #12

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Changeling" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"The Secret of the Graveyard!" (a: Herb Familton) ★

"The Blank!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★1/2

"What the Mirror Revealed!" 

(a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★★

"They Can't Resist!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★1/2

"Fear Follows Fenton!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★

Mean ol' Mr. Miles has a vacant lot on his property that's going to waste and the town's brats really want to use it as a playground. Miles doesn't see it going that way and tells the kids if they don't high-tail it back home he'll turn the lot of them into scarecrows. Two of the kids head off to the field to "get their stuff" while Wally runs distraction. Mr. Miles gets royally pissed, says the magic words and, presto!, Wally is turned into a scarecrow. Problem is, Mr. Miles didn't even know he had the power!

It's not long before the town's mayor arrives and tells Mr. Miles he's in deep doo-doo, what with threatening the kids and then transforming Wally into a sack of straw. The mayor advises the old man to promise he'll hand over the vacant field to the city for the kids to play and maybe Wally will change back into an annoying little brat again. Mr. Miles promises and, presto!, Wally is back! As Mr. Miles happily walks away, assured he'll spend no time in the city jail, the mayor congratulates Wally on the success of the con. Just then, the other two rugrats show up with the magic equipment. They were detained and couldn't get back in time to use the visuals. Mr. Miles really changed Wally into a scarecrow! Nice Forte art highlights a dopey plot and twist (one that had been used at least one million times through 1956); Mr. Miles enters a villain but then, in the end, elicits sympathy. At least from this brat-hating old codger. Imagine a politician using sleight of hand to get what he wants!

Ivory poachers Blinky and Lew are searching for the fabled Elephant's Graveyard in a remote jungle of Africa. Through a despicable act of violence (where no one gets hurt), Blinky forces a local chieftain to draw the men a map. They follow the instructions until they come to a cave and enter, only to discover the ground is quicksand! "The Secret of the Graveyard!" does a great job... of making four pages seem like forty.

In "The Blank," Lee is sent back in time to 1956 to stop a well-intentioned old professor from blowing up the world. While doing so, he falls for the scientist's gorgeous niece and, when the shop is done, he loads her in his time machine and brings her back to the future as his wife. Not a bad little fantasy, with some striking art by Torres (including some harmless cheesecake that might have riled up the pre-teens), whose style clearly sets him apart from the rest of the pack. 

Gorgeous Karen sets her eyes on millionaire inventor, Professor Walden, to the dismay of her boyfriend, Glenn. Karen argues that Walden is handsome, rich, and always striving for more while Glenn is a lazy bum who has no motivation. Walden, taking a look at Karen's incredible breasts and milky thighs agrees and challenges his competition to a test. The trio head to the scientist's estate, where he activates his neuro-chromium, high-siliconic electronically controlled mirror, a device which reveals the true past of the person standing before it. Walden goes first and his past, full of back-stabbing and lies, is revealed to Karen and Glenn. Then when the other man steps up, a past filled with battlefront bravery and unselfish business choices is unfurled. 

Forgetting just how materialistic she was a mere hour before, Karen tells Walden she could never be with such an SOB and she and Glenn exit the building and enter a new life filled with love but no money. Walden's wife emerges from the shadows and kisses her husband, amazed he could come up with so many nasty lies about himself on such short notice. The twist for "What the Mirror Revealed!" is a good one but Karen's 180-degree switch in personality is hilarious.

Invaders from Ganymede bank on the curiosity of earthlings in order to spread a vile disease but these visitors aren't the brightest bulbs in the pack. You can resist "They Can't Resist!" In the dismal finale, "Fear Follows Fenton!," Detective Phil Ryan is tasked with the capture of dangerous escaped criminal, Bob Fenton, and collapses from the pressure. However, the bedridden cop receives help via divine intervention in one of the schmaltziest climaxes afforded an Atlas fantasy. If there's anything positive to be said, it's that while Mac Pakula was never a higher tier artist, here he contributes decent graphics.-Peter

Strange Tales #53

Cover by Bill Everett

"I Died Tomorrow!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★★★

"The Brute!" (a: John Forte) ★

"They Crawl By Night!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★1/2

"What Stanley Saw!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★1/2

"The Gray Thing!" (a: Gene Colan) ★1/2

"The Man Who Crushed Rocks!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★1/2

Brilliant young scientist Earl Burton has created a time machine but his wife, Kay, doesn't want anything to do with it. Earl presses on and calls a secret meeting of his fellow scientists to demonstrate his new toy. He takes questions from the scientists and then pops into the future to find the answers. When he returns and, sure enough, he's seen what lies ahead for mankind, the eggheads are impressed!

But hidden away inside a closet is a roving reporter who hears everything and then writes up a story on the fantastic new invention. After that, Earl has no peace and quiet and, in the end, the machine may just spell his doom. "I Died Tomorrow!" is a better-than-usual cautionary tale about time travel (can you have a cautionary tale about something that doesn't exist?) that explores the pitfalls of such a feat. Earl crows about how all his future facts come true but wife Kay insists that the fact that the public knows about the predictions sways the events (Earl states a company will go bankrupt and all its stockholders withdraw their support). The climax is also interesting in that it's (deliberately?) vague about the fate of our intrepid young scientist and his wife. An enjoyable read.

Racketeer Julie King can't find his main muscle, "The Brute!" That's because the Brute is actually Brutus and he's gone back to his home in ancient Rome. And that's when Julie wakes up and discovers he's actually Julius Caesar and it's the 15th of March and I'm not spending one more second wast... Next up... "no good shiftless unemployed bum" Ed Pauley travels from town to town just looking for a place to settle down but there's always John Law to run him out of town. No vagrants! Walking across a field in the moonlight, Ed falls into a very deep hole and runs across a group of shapeless blobs who introduce themselves as a race of people from the earth's core. They've been slowly but surely climbing up through the layers in order to reach the surface world. "They Crawl By Night!" (even if there is no light underground!). The goal of the blobmen is to take over the earth and enjoy the sunlight. They need Ed to make his hole a little bit bigger so's they can get through. At first Ed is willing but, in the end, he changes his mind. So he's not such a loser after all.

During a flight, pilot Stanley Gray watches in wonder as a flying saucer lands in a small valley. His boss considers Stanley's story a hoax designed to gain attention and he advises his employee to change the narrative or take a walk. Stanley can't lie so he's booted out of Friendly Airlines. Next up... how to tell his fiance she'll have to do without that new mink stole? Our poor hero finds out that beautiful Martha has more in common with his boss than with Stanley himself and, very soon after he confesses, Stanley's a free man.

Determined to kick sand back in the faces of those who mock him, Stanley heads to Blue River Valley to find the UFO and regain a modicum of manhood. Upon arriving, he's set upon by a group of aliens who relate their tale of woe: they come from Pluto, which has become overpopulated, and they're searching for a new home. They're friendly and they ask Stanley not to tell his fellow humans about them. Meanwhile, back at Friendly Airlines, Martha has become worried about her ex and enlists Stan's boss to accompany her to the Valley, where she's sure Stan's talking to himself. He's a sick man, y'know.

Marsha and Mr. Friendly land and are amazed at the sight: lots of little Plutonians running hither and yon. Stan explains the situation and the trio promise the aliens they won't tell anyone they're living in the valley. Marsha asks Stan for her ring back, Mr. Friendly promotes his pilot, and the Plutonians snicker and gather for their full-blown invasion. Well, no, not really; "What Stanley Saw!" climaxes with the typical 1956 Atlas sappy ending, but the yarn is fun enough and it's graced with some gorgeous graphics compliments of Mr. Torres. I'm beginning to think that Angelo was the go-to guy when Al Williamson said "no."

In the three-pager, "The Gray Thing!," an antique dealer tries to sell the titular object to a man who's become fascinated by the relic. Long story short, it's a robot and the time is 2856, but the story makes no sense whatsoever, since the flashbacks show men in Victorian garb. I hate cheats. Kenyon is a very bad guy and the town runs him out very unceremoniously one day so he has to take shelter in the swamp. Growing thirsty, he takes a drink from a spring and discovers he's become very strong, in fact he's "The Man Who Crushed Rocks!" It takes him only a few minutes to head back to town to get his revenge on Sheriff Taylor, the man who ran him out. Kenyon robs a bank and makes sure everyone sees him so they'll send Taylor after. Sure enough, Taylor arrives and informs Kenyon he already knew about the powers of the spring but the magic only lasts two days. Time's up! If you're looking for quality Crandall, look elsewhere. This is not Reed's finest hour, but then he was probably handed a rush job and paid $10 for his troubles. The only thing noteworthy about this dud is that it's perhaps the most unique in the seemingly unending series of "The Man Who..." titles. Hey, I'm a glass-half-full type of guy.-Peter

Strange Tales of the Unusual #7

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Man Who Feared Mirrors" (a: Dick Ayers) ★1/2

"Screams in the Night!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

"No Place on Earth!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★

"The Man Who Never Returned!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"The Story Nobody Knows!" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel (?)) ★1/2

"Poker Face!" (a: Jack Kirby) ★★

Joe Lanier turns up at a circus sideshow, begging for a job. What made Joe into "The Man Who Feared Mirrors"? It all started when pretty Marie Sloan turned down his marriage proposal. Certain that she'd treat him differently if he were rich, Joe headed for a mine in California where he thought there was plenty of valuable uranium. Deep down in the mine, he met a lot of funny-looking folks and put them to work, promising to build them a city if they dug the uranium for him. Once all of the uranium was above the surface, Joe betrayed the creatures and buried them, but one yelled up to Joe that being down there so long would make him look like them. Back at his hotel, a look in the mirror showed Joe his face had grown deformed! The circus manager sends Joe packing, realizing that he looks normal but his conscience makes him see a distorted self-portrait in the mirror.

Dick Ayers draws some decent panels here and the story has promise, but the surprise ending is a letdown. Joe's face is shown in shadow in the panels set in the present day so we expect something shocking, only to be told that Joe is normal.

A radio sound effects man is sitting at home playing a tape recording of a woman's "Screams in the Night!" when he hears the real thing coming from outside! He rushes out and sees three men in shadows menacing a beautiful blonde who has blue skin! Our hero is hit from behind and knocked out. He wakes up on a spaceship heading for the planet Viburnum; the blonde is Spirea, a dissident leader who fled and was tracked down by a patrol ship. The trio who came after her are upset because they haven't seen their wives in a long time. They assure our hero that he and Spirea will be put in chains when they reach Viburnum. After landing, the trio hear women screaming outside the ship and rush to help, thinking the shrieks come from their waiting wives. But no! They were on the tape recording the man had at the start of the story. He and Spirea return to Earth and she becomes his blue-skinned happy homemaker.

I guess it's like Chekhov's tape recorder--an out of place object on page one had better play a role in the denouement on page four. The inhabitants of Viburnum look just like Earthlings, except with blue skin. One slight problem: in the last panel, where the narrator reveals Spirea to a reporter who is interviewing him, the colorist neglected to color her skin blue, which kind of misses the whole point.

In 1984, the world is divided into East, West, and Central. In the West, a scientist named Don Adams gets smart and invents a teletransport that will whisk people across long distances in the blink of an eye. Rumors of an upcoming attack from the East cause Don to flee to the Central, where he marries the pretty daughter of the man who helped him escape. But he doesn't love her and is unhappy. When the East attacks the Central instead of the West, Don quickly builds a new teletransport that can send troops to the East swiftly. He considers fleeing to the West but realizes that he loves his wife and wants to enlist as a soldier to fight the East.

There is "No Place on Earth!" where this mess of a story would be welcomed by readers. The East/Central/West nonsense is heavy-handed, Don's actions make little sense, and the conclusion is as sappy as it gets in an Atlas comic--and that's pretty sappy.

Eddie Peakes is a 42-year-old cabin boy on the Sarah Sue, a sailing ship in times of yore. He's tired of doing menial jobs! He's swept overboard in a storm and washes up on an island where he becomes a hero to a civilization of tiny people. When the Sarah Sue comes back looking for him, Eddie hides, preferring to stay with the wee folk, where he is a beloved giant. A portrait of the crew on board the vessel shows that Eddie was well below average in height.

I'm familiar with Sol Brodsky from his credits as an inker or a production manager. Judging from his artwork on "The Man Who Never Returned," we're fortunate his career took another path. This story is awful.

Why are the cops at Burt Clarke's place to arrest a bald man who wears a yellow and red outfit and a yellow cape? It all started yesterday, when Burt heard knocking coming from inside a closet and opened the door to find a man who said he came from 5000 years in the future and held a disc that transposed matter through space. The man tells Burt that he will become the greatest man on Earth! While the man sleeps, Burt travels 5000 years into the future and sees that his corporation has grown huge and powerful and there is even a statute of himself! Unfortunately, the corporation enslaves the people and they curse Burt's name. He zips back to the present, where the man from the future holds him at gunpoint and tells him that he has to go through with his plan or else be killed. Burt socks the man in the jaw and the cops take him away. Not wanting the future to turn out the way he saw it, Burt burns everything the man from the future brought with him and is satisfied to be a nobody, since it's better than being a pariah.

Yeesh. Again! Didn't we just see this same plot in another story? If any of them were memorable I could perhaps recall which one, but they are ephemeral and leave my head as soon as I read them. The art by Forgione and (probably) Abel is competent but it's in service of "The Story Nobody Knows!"

A great flying cylinder circles the Earth before landing in Russia. A strange creature emerges and the Russians attack it, but nothing fazes it. The creature inspects the terrain and takes off again in the cylinder. This sequence of events is repeated in various countries around the world and no one knows why. Finally, the creature lands in the desert, where an old prospector tells it to get off his land--it can't steal his gold! Breaking its silence, the creature speaks, telling the old man that it doesn't want gold. It wants Atrion and there's none on Earth, which it claims it owns after having won the planet in a game of Zanda, the equivalent of poker.

"Poker Face!" is a dreadful, pointless story that ends a terrible issue of Strange Tales of the Unusual. The only good thing about this concluding tale is Jack Kirby's art, especially the way he draws the alien. It kind of resembles a tall, skinny carrot with a round head and streamers for hair. Leave it to Kirby to bring a smidge of creativity to an Atlas comic!-Jack

Next Week...
Attacked by the 
Squad of CatWomen!