Journey Into Strange Tales! Atlas/ Marvel Horror! Issue 28

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 13 

January 1952

Maneely

Suspense #13

"The Strange Man!"  (a: Joe Maneely) ★★
"When Willie Woke Up!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★
"Speak to Me" ★ 
"The Serpent" (a: Mike Sekowsky) ★★
"The Man Who Built the Ark" (a: Bill Walton) ★★1/2

The Farrel Brothers freak show in Atlantic City has hit hard times. Seems no-one wants to see fat ladies and pincushion boys anymore; the Brothers need a new hook. So, brother Johnny grabs what's left of the cash and heads out on the road to find that next big... thing. He finds it in New Mexico and excitedly writes brother Ken a note to let him know the new attraction is on its way. As Ken is reading the note, the new attraction, the Man from Mars, enters his doorway and introduces himself. Just days later, the freak show is overflowing with paid customers, folk who are just dying to get a look at "The Strange Man!"

Soon after, the freak show muscleman is found dead, his blood drained, and Ken wonders what ever happened to his brother; the cards and letters abruptly ended. The speculation ends when a cop shows up at the tent to let Ken know Johnny's body has been found in New Mexico, and in the same condition as the recently departed muscleman. Ken confronts the Man from Mars, who confesses to the murders, a certain fondness for blood, aand the ability to morph into any person he desires (the only aspect of a Martian that can't change is the six fingers on each hand). Ken heads to the cops, and as the Martian warned, they think he's a loon and have him committed. No one will believe his story except his asylum doctor who, curiously, has six fingers on each hand. Another in the seemingly unending supply of carnival/circus/freak show tales, "The Strange Man" falls comfortably right in the middle in terms of quality. There's nothing terribly original here but at least we get to eye Joe Maneely's graphics while we wait for the totally predictable outcome.

In "When Willie Woke Up!," Willie can only escape his tormenting wife when he snoozes and magically brings forward a gorgeous gal who treats him like a million bucks. Willie's shrewish ball-and-chain catches on and wakes him every few minutes to end his little paradise, but the poor little man summons a gorilla who strangles Willie's wife and makes living a whole lot easier for Willie. In the equally disposable "Speak to Me," George Moreland wakes up one morning and notices his maid has packed his things and his wife is holding hands and talking about marriage with a man in the kitchen. If that's not enough to raise a man's ire, George can't get anyone to talk to him on the street or at the office. You'd think he was a ghost or something. Oh, well, that's because he is as George stares the utterly predictable proof right in the face in the final panel.

At the Connors Carnival (located just west of the Farrel Brothers Freak Show), strongman Bruno just can't understand why he can't get trapeze artist Simone to fall in love with him, but the girl spurns his every advance. Losing her patience and more than a little nervous that the situation could escalate, Simone sees serpent tamer, Lois, for her advice. Lois visits Bruno and tells him that if he doesn't stop the stalking, she'll feed him to Bobo, her pet boa. Deathly afraid of snakes, Bruno quickly agrees but the carnival magician has a better idea: he'll sell the muscleman a love potion for a hundred clams. Bruno spikes Simone's milk in her trailer and then heads for his own quarters to wait for the girl but he gets the surprise of his (short) life: turns out Bobo escaped his cage, visited Simone's trailer and downed all the milk on the table! "The Serpent"is like a good, quick joke with a funny punchline; who would name their boa Bobo? Since it's only four pages, I didn't mind Mike Sekowsky's crude doodles that much but I sure wouldn't want to take a second look.

The planet Arcturus is heading for a collision with Earth and only one man has the wealth and knowledge to provide an answer. Unfortunately, that man is Professor Mark, who also holds the Gold Cup for Most Selfish Man on Earth as he throws aside down his assistant's advice to aid his fellow scientists ("What? You know they expelled me from  their group because I refused to stop working on my zombie experiments!") and begins work on an ark that will carry him and a select few to another world. The ship is built and blasts off but experiences a hiccup (to put it mildly) at mid-journey when the controls freeze and the craft is thrown off course. Only Mark and his comrades are surprised when they make a landing on a gorgeously vegetated planet and claim it as their own. Only one problem: they've landed on Arcturus! It's safe to say that "The Man Who Built the Ark" is the only successful attempt at mixing the sub-genres of "Colliding Worlds" and "Scientist barred for immoral zombie experiments." The wild thing is that the zombie angle is brought up and then completely discarded; I thought for sure the Ark would have landed on a world full of the critters but, no, there's just the derision of his former colleagues. A bit of a stretch that the pilot (hand-picked as the best in the business) wouldn't recognize Arcturus, especially since it's supposed to be hurling towards Earth! But, whatever... excuse or revel in the inanities; "The Man Who Built the Ark" is goofy fun and Bill Walton contributes some nifty visuals.

 Mystic #6

"The Eye of Doom" (a: Basil Wolverton) ★★★
(r: Weird Wonder Tales #1)
"Nothing" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★1/2 
(r: Vault of Evil #21)
"The Old Lady's Son" (a: Vernon Henkel) ★★
(r: Beware #5)
"She Wouldn't Stay Dead!" (a: Bill LaCava) ★★1/2 
(r: Chamber of Chills #8)

Spaceman Hoyt Gilpin returns from Venus with a strange tale for the scientist who greets him: his partner, Lon Ullrich, had been attacked and absorbed by giant eyeballs. Naturally, his tale is met with doubt, until he opens his knapsack and reveals the giant orb within. The thing absorbs Ullrich and then the scientist. As with most of Wolverton’s comic book stories, the script is secondary to the fabulously eccentric art. An argument could be made (and I’m sure I’m not the first to make it) that the underground comix “style” was created by Wolverton. One glance at "The Eye of Doom," or any of his pre-code work, could convince even the most staunchest naysayers. Wolverton may be one of the most aped horror/science fiction artists of the 1950s (the other being, of course, Graham Ingels). The absurdity of floating eyeballs that suck humans into their innards is pushed aside by how cool these absurdities look when rendered by Basil. Imagine Don Heck or even Jack Kirby attempting this stunt. Wouldn’t work.

No one knows why brilliant scientist Richard Phillips has stepped out onto his ledge and threatened to jump until he tells his sad, but fantastic, tale: Dick has created a time machine and, on his first trip, he sets the dials on his wayback machine to ten years in the past. Of course, he’s a bit confused when he gets to 1941 and he finds… nothing. Literally nothing. No wildlife, no flora, no civilization. Thinking he’s set the dial way too far back and arrived at the dawn of time, Dick guides his gizmo back to his present-day laboratory, only to discover the error he made was to set the dial to ten years in the future! Knowing there’s nothing to look forward to, Richard Phillips steps off the ledge. Though it’s a bit predictable, “Nothing” is still an enjoyable little bit of fluff with nice art from Golden Age regular, Manny Stallman.

Gorgeous “entrepreneur” Lily Wells answers an interesting want ad from an old woman looking for a companion. Hoping to latch onto a rich old spinster she can get rid of in the near future, Lily interviews with the kindly old woman, Mrs. Mason, and quickly receives the job. Once she gets out to the creepy estate, Lily begins to endear herself to Mrs. Mason, who tells the girl that she’ll really like her son when he comes home. Now the dollar signs are flashing and Lily does everything she can to earn the old woman’s trust. Things begin to get spooky though when one of the villagers stops by and warns Lily she’s the fourth girl to answer Mrs. Mason’s ad and the first three vanished into thin air! And, Holy Hannah, how about those mysterious exsanguinated animals found on the moors? The poor, conniving con artist finds out what’s going on when "The Old Lady’s Son" finally comes home. There’s no mystery to speak of and the climax is anything but a surprise but it’s a nice touch that we never actually see the son (only his shadow); we only hear the carnage.

Walter can’t stand his nagging wife, Amanda, so when she has a massive heart attack and dies, he’s relieved rather than somber. The twist, though, is that Amanda is “reincarnated” into Walter’s favorite statuette, the beautiful Jolie. Lacking Amanda’s awful singing voice and constant nagging, Jolie quickly becomes a wonderful companion to Walter, despite the obvious height difference, but Walter soon feels the need for more than just companionship and falls in love with the gorgeous Elaine. Too late, Walter discovers his landlord accidentally broke Jolie into a million pieces at the exact time Walter met Elaine! It’s crystal clear, once they’re married and Elaine gains that singing voice, that Amanda’s soul is on a multi-body tour. Goofy and all over the map, “She Wouldn’t Stay Dead” is a delightful little romp highlighted by the final panel wherein the frustrated Walter sits, face in hands, thinking, “The rest of my life with this! I’ll go nuts!”

Heath

 Astonishing #8

"The Hanging Terror" (a: Russ Heath) ★★1/2 
"The Man Eater!" (a: Norman Steinberg) ★★
"Behind the Wall" ★1/2 
"The Finger" (a: Fred Kida) ★

Behind one of the coolest and most graphic covers this side of EC (not only is this guy being drowned... not only is there a group of ghouls as witnesses... but there are lobsters heading for his soft parts!) lie four tales of varying quality. Shall we?

It's 1942. An odd phenomenon has been spotted by noted astronomer Dr. Albert Bell: a square satellite hovering between the Earth and the moon. Even more ominous is the fact that "The Hanging Terror" is man-made! Is it an invasion from space or, as the military believes, the Russians setting themselves up to become rulers of the world by launching the first space battleship? The army convinces Bell and a group of elite specialists to build a canon that can blow the warship from space. It takes "all the atomic power in our reserve stock" plus all of England's supply of U-235 to build a seventy-ton cannon shell but the job is finished and a huge cannon is crafted to propel the bomb into space.

But, as usual, loose lips sink ships and the Russkies get wind of our super-bullet and send their agents to steal the weapon and transport it to (the military was right!) their huge pillbox. They turn the cannon on Earth, with America firmly in their sights, and pull the trigger. Ka-blooey! The space station is destroyed since the Americans knew the dirty Commies would steal the cannon and turn it on us. The world is safe once again! So, there's an odd one for ya. Not that Atlas wasn't in the "We hate Commies!" game that most comic book publishers used to boost sales but this is a story set in 1942, years before the Russians became our arch-enemies. Dr. Bell certainly gives in quickly to the military's idea that the satellite is of Russian construction; none of the usual "mankind has not reached these levels of science yet!" protestations.Still, the yarn is a good one, far-fetched as it is (my favorite bit is the final panel, which explains that the story was "fully explained in the little fire-scorched book" found, ostensibly floating in space!), and provides a lot of smiles and giggles.

A farmer and his wife are the first victims of "The Man-Eater," (actually it should be Man-Eaters, since there are two of the galoots) a menace from space that kills and then devours every one of its victims. It's not long before thousands of people nationwide have been picked to the bone and the public is not being patient with law enforcement. Why can't these things be tracked and killed? Well, very soon we discover why; the monsters can also shape-shift into any human they desire. They could be your next-door neighbor, your school teacher, your butcher, or even your ex-wife (especially your ex-wife)... there's no telling what disguise they'll take next. On a Florida-bound bus, a gorgeous woman is seated and , all around her, the other passengers question her identity. Could a woman as beautiful as this even exist? Luckily, Phil, the "company cop" boards the bus and promises the passengers their safety. But, when the lights go out, the monster's true identity is learned!

The puzzling final sequence of
"The Man-Eater"

"The Man-Eater" starts out promisingly but finishes on a somewhat anti-climactic note, as if the writer was cruising along with some fabulous epic and then realized he had four panels to wrap this thing up. Trouble is, it's not wrapped up. The narrative goes from nation-wide plague to the silly bus twist (and we all know who the monster really is the second Company Phil steps on board) and leaves us without closure. And whatever happened to Man-Eater #2? I have to say though, I really dig Norman Steinberg's art; there's some very graphic stuff here and his drooling creatures are definitely an E-ticket

Sam has had to live in misery for years with his wife and her brother, constantly nagging him and never lifting a finger to help. Then, Sam gets a bright idea on how to get rid of at least half the problem. He decides to brick up the septic tank in his basement and his brother-in-law will never be missed if he should become part of the construction. Sam gives the big dope a fatal clop on the head and dumps him in the drink but then fate plays a trick on Sam; his usually shrewish wife has decided to come home early and brought some workers with her. She's going to surprise Sam for his birthday!  Sam has no other choice than to join the corpse in the muck and keep quiet as the brick is laid over his head.

"Behind the Wall"

"Behind the Wall" is the typical "shrewish wife-mousey husband" nonsense but it does actually wrap up with a stellar climax. Alas, if you take a gander at the (uncredited) artist's work, you'll know that the basement isn't the only thing that smells bad. Last, but certainly least, this issue is "The Finger," a SF tale about a creature from another dimension that gets its finger stuck in a trap. Other than a decent, very Ditko-esque, showing by Fred Kida, this one is a six-page slog barely worth the effort.

Maneely

Adventures Into Weird Worlds #1

"The Walking Death" (a: Russ Heath)
"The Mad Man" (a: Sol Brodsky)
"The Terrible Tree" (a: John Tartaglione)
"The World That Vanished" (a: George Tuska)

Unfortunately, this is one of the few Atlas comic books I have no access to. If and when that oversight is rectified, AIWW #1 will be covered in a future post and this disclaimer will be replaced by some pithy comments.

In Two Weeks...
the first four-star classic of 1952!

Journey Into Strange Tales/ Atlas/ Marvel Horror! Issue 26

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 11 

November/December 1951

Mystic #5 (November 1951)

"The City That Vanished"(a: Jerry Robinson) ★1/2 
"It Creeps By Night!" (a: Hy Rosen) ★
"The Face in the Picture" (a: Al Hartley) ★★
"Trapped!" (a: Mike Sekowsky) ★

Entire cities are vanishing in thin air and Colonel Blake thinks he has the answer: an alien race, somewhere in the galaxy, is pulling our cities to their own world in order to conquer Earth one piece at a time. "The City That Vanished" is a totally loony yarn spiced with totally loony dialogue (when the Colonel’s girlfriend is confronted with a crater where her home town used to lie, she exclaims, “Oh, Ted, something awful has happened… I can feel it!”).

In "It Creeps By Night!," John is deadly afraid of cats but girlfriend Ellen comforts him with the fact that when he dies, he’ll be reincarnated as someone who isn’t afraid of cats! Now, John knows just what to do. He goes home, blows his own brains out, and is reincarnated… as a mouse (an adult one, at that). Who writes these things?

The pulse-pounding finale of "The Face on the Picture"

"Trapped!"

Paul’s a photographer but his wife, Clara, hates having her picture taken. Now Paul has fallen in love with gorgeous neighbor, Maila, who convinces Paul that Carla should be committed for her photographic phobia. Paul goes to his psychiatrist friend to get a writ of Habeus Loonyus but finds his buddy has been attacked by “creatures from the slime of creation” who have “found a way to enter our source orbit, disguised as humans!” The doc dies and Paul heads home, convinced his old lady is one of these creatures. When he explains the situation to Maila, the curiously-convinced babe tells Paul they should kill Clara before she kills them. The gullible sap beats his wife to death with a fireplace poker, only to discover that it’s actually Maila who’s the monster! "The Face in the Picture" is one fun bit of dopiness, with red herrings and major coincidences galore.

When Henry is offered a job at his girlfriend’s office, he has to see the company psychologist first to run through a set of mental tests. The doc shows Henry a cube and asks the man what he sees within. An astonished Henry sees a tiny man "Trapped!," who begs him to release him from his prison, and suddenly the whole world believes Henry to be batty. Deadly dull SF tale with bland art and half-witted scientific dialogue.

Suspense #11 (November 1951)

"In the Dead of Night" (a: Pete Tumlinson) ★★★
"Haunted!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★1/2
"The Suitcase!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★1/2
"Harry's Hate" (a: Mike Sekowsky) ★
"Behind the Door!" (a: Norman Steinberg) ★

Walter meets a mysterious and exotically beautiful woman one night at the cemetery and strikes up a conversation with her about the dead. Katie says she believes the dead rise and co-exist with the living and Walter, smitten, does his best not to scoff. Later, when Walter meets Katie's father, the graveyard groundskeeper, he learns of a double-slaying near the cemetery and listens with interest as Katie's pop tells him that he's convinced the killings are the work of a vampire. Katie scolds her father and tells Walter not to pay attention but, a couple nights later, the old man is found dead in his cottage. The devastated  girl meets her new Beau at her father's graveside and embraces him, then falls to the ground as Walter goes back to his grave.

The unique finale of "In the Dead of Night"

Now and then, Hank Chapman can confound me with an interesting story amidst all the junk he pumped out and "In the Dead of Night" is one of those examples. Pete Tumlinson's art can be fabulous or by-the-numbers; his Katie is a tall, gorgeous brunette, who clearly looks like a vampiress. Obviously a red herring to throw us off the scent of Hank's twist finale, which is handled oddly. We never see Walter sink his fangs but we are to assume he's a vampire and he's killed Katie in the end. I like the ambiguity and I really like the atmosphere created by writer and artist.

"Haunted!" is a three-pager about a man who buys a haunted house but we discover, in the finale, that he's actually the one haunting the house. How he went about buying the place isn't discussed but we only have three pages after all. Nice splash by Maneely.  After a bank robbery goes awry and his co-horts are arrested, Maury Ryan has to get his tough babe wife out of town pronto so they head into the hills to stay at a cheap hotel. There, they hear from the locals that there's a hermit living in a mansion atop a hill who keeps all his money stashed in his house (and swears he'll blow any interlopers to kingdom come).

Come home, Don Heck.
All is forgiven.

Needing a cash fix quick, the couple head to the creepy old house and break in, confronting old man Flemming. No way will this old coot part with "The Suitcase" crammed full of greenbacks so bury ventilates him and grabs the trunk. Miles away they stop at a cabin and open the suitcase to find a time bomb. Blooooey! The art is the chief downfall of "The Suitcase" (Stallman's work begs the question, "Were there art standards for 1950s funny books?") but its story is none too fresh either. Writer Carl Wessler (who would become a .500 hitter during his stint on the EC All-Stars a few years later) peppers his dialogue with noir-inspired lines like "Once Billy and Joe start spilling, the law will start hunting..." but they come off as cornball and fake rather than realistic.

Every man's nightmare

Harry hates Lois but he loves her money and Lois can't stand the oily jerk, so the con-man/chemist whips up a batch of love potion and drugs the girl one day, assuring he'll be swimming in money in no time. Problem is, the drug works for only two weeks before the subject needs another dose (How Harry finds this out is anyone's guess; he just seems to know despite the fact that the drug is brand new!), so Harry has to keep Lois drinking to keep her fawning even after they're married. On the verge of getting Lois to sign over her billions to him, Harry perfects a formula that will ensure love forever (again, how he knows this is never explained) but the damn poodle knocks the vial to the floor and the spell on Lois wears out. She reveals to Harry that an hour before Mitzi broke the bottle of love potion, she poured a swig into harry's iced tea. Now the sap is head over heels with Lois and she's got him doing the dishes and vacuuming. Well, if nothing else, "Harry's Hate" provides us with our first peek at a lothario who happens to be a crack chemist as well. Why does the guy need Lois' fortune when he could make ten times that on his strange brew. And how is it that the elixir knows who its intended target is? Why doesn't Lois fall in love with the waiter at the restaurant or her garbage man?

"Behind the Door" waits stupidity. Eye surgeon, Dr. Brent, has a problem with the bottle but doesn't let it hamper his full plate. Stinking drunk, Brent operates on a man and leaves him blind but is not held accountable for his actions. Until later, when he's called to an address in the middle of the night on emergency and has his teeth kicked in by two thugs. Brent hightails it to the nearest dentist (who is working very late), busts through the waiting room door, and finds the two thugs who beat him. They'd been hired by the dentist to separate Brent from his teeth; the dentist is the patient who was blinded and now it's his turn to operate! The entire twist of "Behind the Door" relies on coincidences too extreme to be believable but at least it's got one great one-liner -- after Brent is exonerated of wrong-doing, his thought balloon exclaims, "Good! No one realizes I was drunk! This calls for a drink in celebration!" You gotta love dialogue like this!

Russ Heath

 Marvel Tales #104 (December 1951)

"Freddy's Friend!" (a: Russ Heath & Bill Everett) ★★★
"Gateway to Horror"  (a: Basil Wolverton) ★★★
"The Murder Mirror!" (a: Morris Weiss) ★★
(r: Weird Wonder Tales #9)
"I Saw Tomorrow!" (a: Norman Steinberg) ★★

Fred Walker comes home after a long day at work to find his wife, Helen, has invited in a massive robot who happened to knock at their door. But Tabor is no ordinary robot; this one can make every wish come true. Fred tests Tabor's gift-giving skills and finds them exemplary, so he decides to go whole his and order up gems and jewels and gold and the usual stuff greedy Atlas men desire. But there's one thing that nags Walker to the point of distraction: how does "Freddy's Friend" produce impossible products at the drop of a dime? How does he lay the pot of gold (along with the rainbow) at the feet of the Walkers? Tabor confesses that Freddy can learn the secret but he'd have to become a robot for a day, while Tabor would inhabit Freddy's body. Freddy agrees to the identity switch but discovers he's been conned when a trio of robots from another planet arrive to cart him away in his new body. Tabor had been diagnosed with mental disorders on his home planet of Algolia and the boys are here to collect him and take him back to the asylum. They don't even pay attention as Tabor tries to convince them he's really Freddy Walker.

A fun fantasy frolic with lots of delightful segments, guaranteed to raise a smile in between stories of rotting zombies and vampire beauties, with fabulous art by two funny book titans; their styles seamlessly mesh. I love the series of escalating wishes Freddy gives to Tabor, including polka-dotted paint, a pail of steam, a three-footed fish, and "sky hooks" (they allow you to catch hold of clouds!). All the while, Helen seems to have a laissez faire attitude to the goings-on. Except for the dark climax, this is a perfect children's fable.

Sam and Vic are searching for the "famous Benson lode," a vein of silver that's supposed to be worth a fortune, located in the Nevada desert. They hire a small "jeeplane" (yes, a combo jeep/plane) and land near the hill where the silver is rumored to be, but are surprised to see a small shack at the base of the crag. They're invited in by a friendly old prospector for coffee, but it's soon apparent this old-timer is not what he appears to be when Sam's face starts to melt. Vic follows suit and, while his body begins to gain weight, the prospector confesses he's part of an invasion from the underground (again, like so many other classic Atlas SF invasion stories, we're not given a reason why this race wants to leave the comfort of their own domain to take over a world filled with smog and polluted rivers) and Sam and Vic have ingested a potion that increases the weight of flesh. Vic still has some power left so he tackles the old guy and turns tables by dumping the potion down the prospector's gullet. The alien's face melts, revealing a gorilla-like appearance below the synthetic flesh.

Knowing they only have moments before the invasion begins, Vic drags the really heavy Sam out the door, sets a dynamite charge just as the monsters are filing out of the mine shaft, and lets go with some prime "Blorite" explosions! Their lust for silver cured, the boys climb into their jeeplane and head home. Another whacko Wolverton presentation, "Gateway to Horror" is fun stuff, with lots of the standard Basil elements. There's not so much a story but a series of events, seemingly created by a  couple guys (perhaps Stan and Basil) throwing out ideas and then using all of them. Sam's melting face comes from out of nowhere; it's not only jarring but it's exhilarating because you have no idea what could happen next; kids (and their funny book-loving parents) must have eaten this stuff up like candy. No one does melting face like Basil Wolverton

A salty old sea dog enters a bar and Charlie takes an immediate interest in the trunk the old guy's lugging around with him. That night, Charlie steals into the swabbies room, knives him, and takes the chest back to his own room. When the lock is broken, the contents of the trunk are revealed to be: a dirty old mirror! As Charlie is about to incur seven years of bad luck, the mirror speaks to him and promises wealth beyond the man's dreams. And Charlie's wishes are answered; jewels begin to fill the  trunk to overflowing. Charlie's landlord gets wise to the murder and theft and wants a cut, but the creature from the mirror steps out and puts a knife in the man's back. His screams are heard from below and the police arrive quickly; Charlie pleads with "The Murder Mirror!" but to no avail and he's hauled away to prison. A really really really old plot is given a few new interesting twists (once the misshapen creature exits the mirror, it attains Charlie's appearance) but is virtually unreadable due to the rough, ugly art by Morris Weiss. I thought for sure when the old sailor enters the bar with the trunk high upon one shoulder, we were going to get one of those "second head hidden in the basket" tricks but, no, the uncredited writer dipped into another pool.

"I Saw Tomorrow" is a dumb four-pager about Peter Marsden, a scientist who perfects a time machine and then travels five thousand years into the future to discover robots have killed off man and have created their own civilization. Since the robots wander around murmuring "Marsden was the first. He created us!," you'd think a big brain like Marsden would catch on pretty quick but, no, he doesn't't realize that he is the manufacturer of man's downfall until he gets back to the lab in present day and his machine reaches out to throttle him. There are a couple of amusing looney bits here (why is it that, when Marsden is heading for the future, they show him passing Saturn and a comet in outer space?) and Steinberg's art is crude in almost underground fashion but the "twist" is a surprise to no one but Marsden himself.

George Tuska/Joe Maneely

 Adventures Into Terror #7 (December 1951)

"The Thing That Grew!" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★★
(r: Vault of Evil #1)
"Going... Down!"(a: Joe Maneely) ★★
(r: Crypt of Shadows #2)
"The Two Were Alone!" (a: Allen Bellman) ★
"Where Monsters Dwell" (a: Basil Wolverton) ★★1/2
(r: Crypt of Shadows #1; Curse of the Weird #3)
"Joe..." (a: Hy Rosen) ★★
(r: Crypt of Shadows #4)

Noted scientist Joshua Borglum rents a creepy old mansion to work on his experiment, creating a lifeform out of nothing. 

He has little success until an accident spills a bit of Borglum's blood on the slide and the organism laps it up and begins to grow. And grow. And grow. To appease its blood lust, the thing slithers out of the lab and begins absorbing unlucky locals. Borglum finally sees the error of his ways and leads the thing to the ocean, where it absorbs its creator and then sinks into the water.

"The Thing That Grew!" features one of those overworked big-brains who know they have to create something but they just don't know what. And, here, we're never told exactly what Borglum is cooking up and why "this discovery can change the course of civilization!" Nor are we shown what the Thing is feasting on during its midnight treks (oddly, the splash features a scene of a man being eaten by the Thing before Borglum's eyes but nothing of the sort happens within the body of the story). The mad scientist's argument with the blob is a gem ("So this is why you leave the house at night!") and Lazarus' visuals are, at least, easy on the eye.

"Going...Down!" and "The Two Were Alone!" are silly short-shorts but both have at least one thing about them worth mentioning. The former, about a would-be robber's ride in a deadly elevator, features art by Joe Maneely (which is always worth turning pages to) and the latter, wherein two people meet on a train platform amidst rumors there's a mad killer loose nearby, is a rare instance of transvestism. Otherwise, both are skippable. The only thing interesting about "Joe..." (which isn't much better than the other two, even at double the length), about a guy who has an invisible follower who grants his every wish, is that no explanation is given for the poltergeist. It's just committing every heinous act Joe blurts out at people who annoy him.

Joe Maneely is "Going... Down!"

As with most Basil Wolverton-illustrated tales, the story becomes an afterthought (if not a nuisance) when compared to the artwork. "Where Monsters Dwell" is no exception. The story of a newspaper editor who interviews the genius scientist, Leon Korber, about a ray the doc has invented that allows us to see into a "hybrid sphere located between the third and fourth dimensions." Before the hack can complete his scoffing, the mad scientist turns the ray on him and he's transported to the "hybrid sphere" where everything is distorted and grotesque. Very soon, that includes our intrepid reporter as his features become malformed and drippy. He encounters other victims of Korea and a slew of monsters before he's able to jump back into the ray and turn the tables on his tormentor. The final panel shows our hero pondering whether he should take a chance, opening the ray and allowing the other victims to return, or if they be better off in their new home.

What indeed?

There's nothing new script-wise (we've seen the base elements several times before) but Wolverton's exaggerated (and yet, not really cartoony, is it?) humans and inconceivable creatures carry the day yet again. Wolverton obviously loved the melty look as he graces both the reporter here and Sam and Vic in "Gateway to Horror" with skin that slides down the bone. It's almost as though Wolverton's characters live in a similar parallel universe where everything is a desert and open Lovecraftian dimensions just happen. Oddly enough, this story was not reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell, Marvel's premier reprint title of the 1970s, but rather in Crypt of Shadows #1 (January 1973).

In Two Weeks...
My picks for the Ten Best Horror/SF
Atlas Tales published in 1949-1951

Journey Into Strange Tales Atlas/ Marvel Horror! Issue 25

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part Ten 

September/October 1951

 Mystic #4 (September 1951)

The Stranger  (a: Mike Sekowsky) ★1/2
The Forest of the Living Dead 
(Manny Stallman & Joe Giunta) ★★
The Devil Birds (a: Basil Wolverton)  ★★★★
The Man Who Cheated Death ★★ 


Ed writes books on the supernatural but that darn girlfriend of his, Laura, keeps interrupting him, wanting him to do girly things with her, like dancing (yeccchh!). Ed accidentally conjures up the Demon of Death, a spirit that takes the form of a loved one, while researching and the monster plays havoc with his love life. "The Stranger" has a good twist ending but it's interminably slow for the first six pages. Sekowsky’s primitive doodlings don’t help.

Ainsley Carson has ruled the “Purple Forest” since he scientifically altered the trees within the forest to kill and maim anyone who wandered into its midst. Now, years after last seeing her father, Druselda Carson, the daughter of the mad forest ranger, sends her fiancé David in to have a talk with her estranged pop. When Carson starts in on the loony “the woods are alive” speech, David does a 180 and heads for home only to find the old man isn’t as crazy as he sounds. The trees wrap their branches around the young man’s throat and begin to squeeze the life out of him. He’s saved only when Druselda wanders into the scene and the trees, thinking the girl to be her long-dead mother, drop David and strangle their master instead. Though the script for "The Forest of the Living Dead" is confusing and downright gibberish at times, the art is rather perky. Manny Stallman pumped out some excellent work for the competition at times and seems to be heading in that direction here. Perhaps the final words of the young couple, while surveying the climactic carnage, sum this one up best:

David: “It’s difficult to understand!”
Druselda: “Let’s not try, darling!”

Even after scores of explorers have disappeared into the Nevada desert where the first H-bomb was tested and, even after the old man had warned them of giant devil birds, scientists Brian Stover and Keith Adams venture into the hot zone, searching for their friend, the lost photographer, Randy Benson. What they find is a landscape from hell, ruled over by vulture-like creatures and a huge chasm in the earth. Brian is nudged into the abyss by one of the giant birds and, as he’s falling into the bottomless hole, a strange metamorphosis takes place and the man become a giant vulture. A peace of mind comes over Brian as he swoops down on Keith, hoping his friend will join him soon. No art in funny books was more stylized and distinguished than that of Basil Wolverton’s and that schizo-vision serves “The Devil Birds” well.

While his ship is sinking, Captain Frost cheats death by stealing another man’s life vest but, days later, he’s visited by death himself, who says Frost will live another fifty years but must live the life of the man he stole the vest from. Frost is ecstatic until he’s trapped in Africa with a flesh-eating disease and realizes he’ll have to live in pain and misery for five decades. "The Man Who Cheated Death" is forgettable, but enjoyable, fluff.

Joe Maneely

 Suspense #10 (September 1951)

"Dance of Death"  (a: Russ Heath) ★★1/2
(r: Uncanny Tales #7)
"Trapped in Time"(a: Rudy Palais) ★1/2 
"The Shadow" (a: Al Hartley) ★ 
(r: Frankenstein #15)
"Too Many Murders" (a: Rocco Mastroserio) ★1/2
"Tiger Man!" (a: Norman Steinberg) ★

Dancer Eddie Baxter is a perfectionist but he's also an unknown and he's hoping the big dance contest will change all that. But there's a problem... he has no partner. He auditions several dames but all of them have two left feet. Luckily, Eddie runs across an ad in the paper from a woman seeking a male dance parter; in no time he's meeting the gorgeous Marla and discovering she's just the ticket. Eddie fans hard for the babe but she remains at arm's length, insisting they should be no more than partners and, anyway, she's involved at night and can't see Eddie outside the practicing. Even a day at the beach doesn't defrost the icy Marla but it does reveal to Eddie that the girl sure can take the sun without burning (hmmmm)! The night of the dance arrives and the couple win easily, but Marla can't seem to stop dancing, whirling Eddie right out into the park where she finally reveals her secret. She's a vampire looking for the perfect dancing partner and she's found him. Fabulous Heath art (Marla really is gorgeous!) divert attention away from the weak script. Too many unanswered questions (if Marla's a vampire, why can she go to the beach during the day but she's not available at night?) at the climax, which is too bad since the build-up is lively and suspenseful. Still, this is a better-than-average Suspense tale.

Heath!

"Too Many Murders." Not enough good art.

Murderer Joie Castello signs up for a suspended animation project to avoid getting caught by the cops but, in the end, he finds out the whole experiment was cooked up by the cops in order to get Joie to confess. Here's one that defies logic; all the coincidences and lucky breaks (and expensive lab equipment!) that lead to this dope's arrest would never occur in the real world. A pity that artist Rudy Palais has no room under all the bulky word balloons to work his horror magic. Palais is probably best known for his stellar work for the Harvey horror titles, including dozens of their drippy, gooey covers. Here, in "Trapped in Time," that talent is wasted. At least only three pages are wasted on "The Shadow," a groaner about a magician (The Great Shodini!) whose shadow can murder. "Tiger Man" is no better; its tale of a sadistic big-game hunter contains nothing interesting or original.

"Tiger Man"

Ken is an amazingly ambitious man. He knows where a legendary treasure is buried on Mount Cragmore and, to find it, he's invented a machine that allows him to eavesdrop on the past. Conjuring up images of the Jonas Blake expedition, the previous treasure-hunting team, allows Ken and his two investor-friends to follow the trail right to the gold and, hopefully, avoid the tragedy that befell the Blake party. On the way up, Ken discovers that Jonas got greedy and murdered his two partners; not a bad idea, thinks Ken and, when he gets to the top of Cragmore he's on his own. Unfortunately for the bright but-not-too-bright fortune hunter, the cliff the gold is buried on is built on less-than-solid ground and Ken tumbles down the side of the mountain, buried in an avalanche just like his predecessor. "Too Many Murders" starts out intriguingly enough but quickly degenerates into inane nonsense, capped off by a laugh-out-loud final panel (reproduced here) where Ken warns the reader not to kill anyone to claim the treasure, all while he's buried under tons of rubble. Rocco Mastroserio's art is very crude and sketchy, certainly not horrible, but nowhere near as effective as some of his work for Warren a decade later ("The Rescue of the Morning Maid," with art by Rocco,was one of the greatest horror stories Warren published in the 1960s).

 Astonishing #6 (October 1951)
"The Coffin" (a: Bill LaCava) ★

As is our custom with Astonishing, we'll flip right past those beautifully-illustrated Marvel Boy adventures by Bill Everett (the first one this issue has MBoy running afoul of a magician who bears an uncanny resemblance to Namor) and dwell on the sole fantastic tale, "The Coffin," yet another weak variation on Poe's "The Premature Burial." This time out, millionaire Milton Whitestone, afflicted with catalepsy, equips the family vault with a telephone and instructs his wife, should he die, to answer any calls from the grave. Being a 1950s wife, Sylvia wants the dough and no strings attached so, after her husband's obligatory funeral and "rise from the dead," the woman ignores the incessant ringing. Luckily, Milton expected such behavior from his spouse and had a second line installed, this one a hotline to his lawyer, who arrives in the nick of time to dig out his client. Mitlon, justifiably upset, exacts ironic revenge on his greedy wife. If you're paranoid about being buried alive, why would you consent to a below-ground burial in the first place? Milton's a dope and he deserves what he gets. The final panel throws in an out-of-the-blue supernatural angle as well. Bill LaCava's art is rushed and crude, among this a tale to avoid.

This issue closes out Marvel Boy's run in Astonishing and, next issue, the title will feature only short horror yarns. MB's next appearance will be as the Roy Thomas-rebooted Crusader in Fantastic Four #164, but that's a story for the Marvel University boys.

Yes, this is really bad!

 Strange Tales #3

"The Shadow!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★ 
"The Man Who Never Was" 
(a: John Romita & Les Zakarin) ★★1/2 
"Invisible Death" (a: Mike Sekowsky) ★
"The Madman!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★
"Voodoo" (a: Bill LaCava) ★

George and Dick are always fighting over gorgeous Iris and their rivalry reaches a zenith when George pops Dick a good right and warns him to stay away from his girl. Not one to accept defeat, Dick heads to Iris' house for their date but is crestfallen when the girl refuses to answer his knock. On his way back home, Dick notices his shadow is acting strange, darting to and fro, before it leaves him for good. After Dick tries Iris on the phone without success, he requires the trail of his shadow, following it down into the cemetery, where a service is underway. The bewildered young man recognizes Iris at graveside and quickly realizes the funeral is his; George killed him with that right hook and then was executed for his crime. "The Shadow" proves you can have two below-par stories with the same title in one month -- not a goal one strives to achieve but one interesting enough to mention. If nothing else, these 1950s horror stories shows us that justice was delivered much quicker then -- located right next to Dick's freshly-dug grave is that of George, who had already been given a trial, convicted, and buried before Dick could be laid to rest. That has to be a record. Joe Maneely's art looks nothing like his incredibly detailed work a couple years later; in fact, if it wasn't signed by Joe, I'd scoff at the credit.

Joe Maneely, please come home!

Roger Hunt is asked by his old friend, reporter Jerry Bramley, to meet him at a local diner and, when Roger arrives, he finds Jerry in a flustered state, spouting nonsense about a friend they knew in school named Paul. Seems Paul was a scientist, working on a theory that Death actually "exists in a tangible form" and got too close to the Reaper. Now, Death is wiping out all traces of Paul, including the memories of all who knew him. Only Jerry seems to be able to remember his missing buddy and, soon, Jerry vanishes off the face of the Earth. Is Roger next? "The Man Who Wasn't There" is a solid suspenser that only has a few lapses in logic (having all traces of Paul disappear reaches a ridiculous level when the building he lives in vanishes!) and a pretty grim climax. Sadly, John Romita, Sr.'s talent is buried under Les Zakarin's inks and yet another case of overburdened word balloons.

Planet Mondu sends an invasion fleet (cloaked in invisibility) to bomb both the US and USSR, sparking a war between the unwitting nations. Only "the blind science wizard," Kevin Scott and his equally blind (but gorgeous) assistant/soon-to-be-wife Moira can stop the "Invisible Death!" 6 pages of sheer lunacy, cornball dialogue, and awful art don't always make a great read. This one feels like the "pilot" for a really bad Challengers of the Unknown spin-off, with its superhero scientist and porky alien assassins. Blind wiz Scott somehow manages to fly a spaceship and destroy an entire alien militia with nothing but his smarts and white cane. "Voodoo" is a limp noodle about a man who sees a witch doctor about offing his wife and "The Madman!" is a cute two-pager about a crafty poltergeist in a boarding house.

Bill Everett

 Venus #16

"Thru the Lens" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★★
(r: The X-Men #88)

Raf, an astronomer on a planet a thousand light years from Earth gets a little overtime at work when his boss insists he stay late and witness an occurrence on a star a thousand light years away. Meanwhile, on Earth, Professor Marston shows off his new invention, an engine that runs on water. Unfortunately for the professor, his former aide (extremely angry for being axed) breaks into the lab and destroys the engine. The destruction sets off a chain reaction in our atmosphere which leads to the entire destruction of Earth. As the distant star explodes and goes out, Raf tells his impatient girlfriend they can finally go out for a night on the town. This one’s a little tough to follow (it took me a couple of reads to figure out the whole “water = armageddon” thing and then decided I really didn’t need bother, not when you’ve got art by the great Joe Maneely to gawp at. But this one really could have used a couple more pages.

 Journey Into Unknown Worlds #7

"The Men Who Conquered the Earth" 
(a: Russ Heath)  ★★1/2
"Escape from Death!"  (a: Joe Maneely) ★★
"Planet of Terror!"  (a: Basil Wolverton) ★★1/2
"The House That Wasn't There" (a: Paul Cooper) ★1/2 

A well-meaning but bone-headed brilliant scientist tries to bring together the nations of the world by creating a catastrophe that only brotherhood could overcome. The egghead shoots an "atomic spear" at the planet Mars and pulls it closer to Earth, thus making it easier for the war-like citizens of that planet to gas up their low-range spaceships and conquer our world. Unfortunately, the big brain didn't count on the warriors of Mars to bring all their big guns with them and, very soon after the invasion, it's apparent that no amount of Earthling hand-holding will repel the slaughtering aliens. After he's captured, our hero/dunderhead tricks one of the Martians into taking him back to his lab where he reverses the "atomic spear" and lets Mars return to its proper place in the galaxy, stranding the not-too-bright Martians on a planet where they have no food and the air is too polluted for them to breathe.

The next day, as the professor sighs and shrugs his shoulders, the world gets back to dividing race and borders. I had to Marvel at all the silly science going on in "The Men Who Conquered the Earth," and I'm not even good at science. No one else in the scientific community noticed the large beam of energy flowing through outer space nor the fact that Mars somehow dislodged from its orbit? How the heck did this guy harness enough energy to magnetically pull an entire planet out of its neighborhood? If you're a Martian getting ready to conquer a planet, do you wait until you arrive to realize you haven't brought any snacks with you? Oh, and why would a race of BEMs want to overthrow a planet they can't live on? "By the beard of Oog," as one of the head Martians exclaims, it makes no sense. That doesn't mean it's not a heck of a lot of fun, as most of the Russ Heath-illustrated Atlas tales have proven to be. There's a dynamic sense of exhilaration to Heath's work that's unequalled in the field, whether he's working in horror, SF, or war comics.

"Escape from Death"

At only three pages, "Escape From Death!," doesn't have the room to blossom into any more than a quick showcase for the talents of the legendary Joe Maneely (now, this looks like the Maneely I fell in love with as a kid reading the "Black Knight" reprints in Fantasy Masterpieces). It's about a death row tough who's convinced his gang will save him, but it's Satan who comes to collect him after the switch is thrown. The final story in the issue, "The House That Wasn't There" is a lifeless and overly long fantasy tale about Ed Miles, an ambitious mailman who will stop at nothing to become postmaster. Unfortunately, for the carrier, a goofy couple who can jump in and out of time and space, have decided that Ed is the only man for the job on their street. There's some loopy twists here (as though Grace Slick, high on whatever she used to pump out "White Rabbit," stumbled into the Atlas offices one lunchtime and got hold of a typewriter) but the narrative is sooooo slow and boring that you won't care if there's a bit of imagination in every 20th panel.

A pair of space explorers land on Saturn, searching for a previous, lost expedition. What they find is a "Planet of Terror!," ruled over by a god named Mokog. When the men are brought before the mighty Mokog by savage Saturnians, they discover the fierce, large-headed creature is actually Leo Gorman, leader of the doomed expedition the men are searching for, who took advantage of some low-IQ aliens to become master of the world. Mokog is shot and killed and the spacemen are allowed to leave Saturn in peace. An obvious "homage" to Wizard of Oz, "Planet of Terror" has the oddities and unique touches found only in the work of Basil Wolverton, but the story lacks excitement and adventure. When it comes to guessing storyteller or artist credits, I'm useless, but the very style of Wolverton's art and nature of the grotesqueries that populate his panels leads me to believe that he wrote his own stories. Prove me wrong.

"The House That Wasn't There"

 Adventures Into Terror #6

"The Return of the Brain" (a: Russ Heath) ★★★
(r: Giant-Size Weewolf #4; Curse of the Weird #3)
"You Can't Escape" ★★
(r: Giant-Size Dracula #4)
"The Dark Room!" ★1/2
(r: Vault of Evil #17)
"The Girl Who Couldn't Die!" (a: Paul Reinman)  ★★★ 
(r: Giant-Size Chillers #1)

In the sequel to the mind-melting saga known as "The Brain," we discover that the disembodied head of evil Nazi genius, Otto von Schmittsder has used its amazing pogo-sticklike ability to hop aboard plane and, later a moving van bound, coincidentally, for Otto's destination: the lab of US government secret genius/ scientist/ inventor/ babe Gilda Spears, whose use of valuable chemicals badly needed for our country is particularly interesting to our favorite noggin. Otto worms his way into Gilda's brain, enslaving her to do his bidding, which includes framing one of her colleagues. Luckily, Gilda has a handsome boyfriend, Steve Manners, who also happens to be an ace FBI agent. Steve intercepts letters Gilda has written to the USSR (under Otto's command), giving away some behind-the-scenes secrets, and confronts her. The Brain does some quick thinking and orders Gilda to murder Steve but her love is too powerful and, after an unfortunate benson burner accident, the lab goes up in flames. Steve and Gilda embrace, knowing that tomorrow is a new day, unaware that the Brain has hopped out a back window and is planning his next adventure.

Just as much brainless fun as its predecessor, "The Return of the Brain" is almost critic-proof thanks to its sheer dopiness. Otto's limberness, despite not having limbs, is astonishing; we witness leaps into moving trucks, atop high shelves, even into a woman's hat box aboard a plane, with agility an Olympic pole-vaulter would envy. As with the first installment, Russ Heath's art here has a whole lot to do with our enjoyment. Otto's noggin isn't simply a menacing head; it's evil, scary, and hilarious all at the same time, often highlighted by a pink or yellow glow depending on von Schmittsder's mood, I suppose. Sadly, this was the last of the "Brain" series but, with a little imagination, you can almost see him bouncing from alleyway to alleyway and making it, finally, to the White House in November of '16.

In "You Can't Escape," a crazy fella breaks the fourth wall by letting me know he's going to get to me through the funny book I'm reading. No, seriously! This guy writes a script, pays an artist to draw it (hopefully someone with a little more pizazz than the uncredited hack who pumped this out), then pays a printer a bundle to print one copy so that he can sneak the story into the latest issue of Adventures Into Terror for me to pick up on the newsstand. And it works! A cute idea that smacks of deadline doom. A small boy comes to stay with his mysterious Uncle Helas, who lives in a castle high atop the cliffs of Zornhiem, unaware that the man is a practitioner of the dark arts and conjures up giant snakes from "The Dark Room!" Amateurish art and cliched script doom this one.

"The Dark Room"

Fake swami Larry Benson has been bilking lots of dough from poor old Mrs. Evans, who only wants to see her dear departed niece, Louise, a few more times. For that luxury, she contributes heavily to the charity of Larry and his sweetheart, the lovely Sandra. The charity, of course, is the lining of their pockets. Larry handles the front end of the ruse and Sandra handles the visual and vocals of Louise, completely fooling the poor old woman, and everything goes smoothly until the real Louise appears from the spirit world and throws a monkey wrench into the couple's plans to build their "temple of spiritualism." Sandra believes Larry's been working too hard but has a chance of heart when she discovers that Louise was actually an axe murderer. Unfortunately, she receives this news after Louise has lured Larry to a dark mansion and shows him her weapon of choice. "The Girl Who Wouldn't Die" contains another of the Horror Comics Top 20 Cliches (the fake oracle), but then manages to whip up a couple of sly surprises to keep the interest. Paul Reinman's distinctive style helps enormously, with the final panel, of Louise delivering the killing blow, a standout.

Marvel Tales #103

"Touch of Death" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2
"When Time Stood Still" (a: Ross Andru)  ★1/2
"Behind the Mask" (a: Jerry Robinson)  ★★★
"The Ink Blots!"(a: Manny Stallman)  ★★

Gravedigger Walter loves money, lots of money, and he'll do anything to gain more of it. So, when a strange voice offers Walter as much cash as he can imagine if he'll only dig up a casket, the greedy dope starts digging. He comes to discover that he's unearthed the "Black Magician of the Dark World," and the grateful spook makes good on his promise, giving his savior the gift of King Midas. Only, with Walter, everything he touches turns to dollar bills. Eventually, Walter learns what Midas learned: greed is not good. A particularly rough Reinman job here to go with a ho-hum script, "Touch of Death" is really not very memorable and, since it sticks right with the Midas myth, not very surprising.

Speaking of weak art, our old DC war buddy, Ross Andru, puts his... unique... stamp on the SF tale, "When Time Stood Still," wherein brilliant professor Gene Handley accidentally concocts a formula that halts time for 24 hours (the elixir works so well it freezes a cat in mid-leap!) and then, naturally, uses his discovery to rob lots of banks. The poor sap is undone by an even smarter professor who deducts that the guilty party would be the only man to have eaten in the last 24 hours and a handy-indy PH paper proves to be Handley's downfall. The final story in the issue, "The Ink Blots!" continues the trend of weak art this issue, spotlighting the "talents" of Manny Stallman, an artist I never could get into while reading the Avon and Harvey horror books. Stallman falls into that "wiggly" category where characters almost resemble spineless jellyfish rather than humans (yes, a lot like Rocco Mastroserio and Jerry Grandenetti). The story, about a magician who takes a mute boy under his wing and then pays dearly for it, is not all that bad, and it's got a smart twist in its tale but it's hard to get past those squiggles.

Morose at the Mardi Gras, Charles Roll perks up a bit when a vendor convinces him to buy one of his life-like masks. Roll opts for one resembling vanished billionaire, J.P. DuPont, and agrees to have the mask back by the end of the night. Roll has a blast disguised as the money-man and then neglects to return the mask, heading for homestead. His landlady awakens him the next morning and is astonished to see DuPont in Rob's bed. Once the news gets out, Roll decides he may be able to pull off the con of the century "Behind the Mask," and slides into DuPont's life. After a bit of a honeymoon learning all there is to learn about being a corporate giant, Roll/DuPont grabs the reins and never looks back, becoming more and more of a heartless SOB every day. Then one day, the old vendor arrives at Charles' door, demanding his mask back. Roll ties the man up and decides he's going to kill him but, by the time he returns the man has escaped. Too late, Charles learns the old man had used his marvelous mask-sculpting skills to impersonate DuPont's butler and his "day of reckoning" is delivered. very imaginative and nicely illustrated by Batman vet Jerry Robinson,

"Behind the Mask" is one of those rare Atlas tales that convinces you that you're heading down Street A when you're actually swerving toward Street B. Yep, it's somewhat reminiscent of "The Masks" from Twilight Zone, but I doubt writer Rod Serling had time to peruse Marvel Tales for ideas. You do have to check your brain at the door a bit (but then, have we had many stories during this journey where we didn't) when the idea is trotted out that a mask is so well constructed it could fool every person who knew DuPont prior to his disappearance. I'd think authorities would at least want to take fingerprints.

In Two Weeks!