Star Spangled DC War Stories Issue 153: October 1974

The DC War Comics
1959-1976
by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook

Dominguez

Weird War Tales 30

"The Elements of Death!"
Story by David Michelinie
Art by Gerry Talaoc

"The Day After Doomsday!"
Story by Len Wein
Art by Bill Draut

"Dream of Death"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Ernie Chan

"Homecoming"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Frank Redondo

"The Elements of Death!"

Peter: Nazi commandant Helmut Oberling is one sadistic SOB, sending scores of prisoners to an agonizing death and lording over it with guffaws. An American prisoner proves a tough nut to crack but, eventually, Oberling always gets the information he desires and, after hours of torture, the American gives up the address of the resistance headquarters. Oberling rewards the GI with death by gas and then heads off to round up a group of resistance fighters and earn more acclaim from Der Führer. Unfortunately for Oberling, the American has supplied faulty intel and he skulks away, madder than hell. On the way back to his concentration camp, the vehicle he's riding in crashes and he's left in a forest to fend for himself. The spirit of his American victim appears before him and he rushes it, only to discover he's fallen into a deep pit and broken his leg. He calls out for help until his voice is gone and, hours later, his own men wander into the area but Oberling can only listen as the men carry on their conversation. Seems they'd been given orders (in a weirdly American accent) to dump the remainder of the deadly gas into the pit in the forest. "The Elements of Death" is not a bad little story at all, with some creepy Talaoc art. I'm not sure why the Nazis soldiers would note that the voice on the phone "had a strange... accent!" and "sounded almost... almost like that American!" and then follow the orders without double-checking.

"Homecoming"

"The Day After Doomsday" is yet another silly chapter in the ongoing series of vignettes by Len Wein, this one done as a rhyme. The first two sentences are taken verbatim from a Fredric Brown short story ("Knock"). The last man on Earth is sitting in his living room and there's a knock on the door. There's a letter on his doorstep. He opens it and finds his draft notice. That's it.

The Red Baron is plagued by nightmares of a skeleton dressed in a bishop's clothing in "Dream of Death." Why the religious dreams? Von Richthofen has no idea until a few weeks later, when he's shot down by a Canadian pilot named... Bishop!

In the fourth and final short, G.I. Saunders is a coward and, very soon, a murderer in the jungles of Vietnam. After he kills Pierce, one of his comrades, for rations, Saunders is captured by the enemy and tortured for information but finally released once the war ends. When he makes it home, he discovers everything has changed and he attempts suicide. The spirit of Pierce arrives when the gun clicks on an empty chamber and informs Saunders he was actually killed in action and he's gone... to Hell! Wow! What a surprise. All three of the short-shorts this issue were a waste of paper but the final story, "Homecoming," is embarrassingly bad and deteriorates into incomprehensible gobbledygook.

Jack: "The Elements of Death!" is a decent revenge tale, well-drawn, with a chilling panel on the first page of the Nazi laughing while prisoners are gassed. The two shorts that follow are weak and the last story, "Homecoming," is a real dud, with sub-par art by Frank Redondo.

Kubert

Star Spangled War Stories 182

"A Thirst for Death!"
Story by Frank Robbins
Art by Jack Sparling

"Hell's Angels! Part II-The Maverick Ace!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Frank Thorne

Peter: The Unknown Soldier's latest mission is to head into the North African desert and search for Rommel's hidden cache of fuel. US and his men ride into a small village once held by the Italians. Luckily for the Soldier, two of his men are drunks and they can smell wine a mile away. That comes in handy when they discover that Rommel's fuel is being hidden inside huge wine barrels. A successful mission? Well, only after US and his men blast the Nazis who are attempting to ambush them. One of the better Robbins/Sparling duets so far, "A Thirst for Death!" is exciting, well-plotted, and contains some crisp dialogue. We don't really know who the Unknown Soldier is posing as until the sixth page, which also creates some nice tension. Of course, this is also the Robbins/Sparling swan song; their shoes will be filled by David Michelinie and Gerry Talaoc. It's also, unfortunately, Archie's final issue as editor. Our loss here will be our gain in the future though when we get to his 1974-75 stint as editor of the Warren comics line.

"A Thirst for Death!"

"The Maverick Ace!"

After Steve Savage, Balloon Boy, is captured by the Hammer of Hell himself, he's hauled off to the Enemy Ace's dinner hall and given a nice meal and toast before he's to be taken to a prison camp. Von Hammer raises his glass and Savage sees his opening, grabbing the Ace's gun and shooting his way out to the base's air field. He commandeers a Fokker and heads for the clouds, where he happily runs across a sky full of German balloons. Suddenly remembering he's the Balloon Buster, Savage makes quick work of the helium sitting ducks and then flies off to Northern France. Steve's Fokker runs out of fuel short of the the field but luckily right at the doorstep of the sweet Madame Celeste. Meanwhile, von Hammer and his squadron have decimated Savage's air field and left a challenge: the Enemy Ace invites the Balloon Boy to a duel in the sky at dawn!

Though the story is a fun one, you can't help but feel "Hell's Angels" is bargain basement Enemy Ace compared to the stories of old. There's not much to the plot and Kanigher makes von Hammer into a buffoon (unless it was von Hammer's aim to take Savage out in the air?... more on that in the conclusion next issue) who can be easily outfoxed. Frank Thorne continues his chores as poor-man's Kubert... but I'm not being critical; a poor-man's Kubert is still nicer to look at than most of the other work being tossed off at the DC War bullpen easels at the time. I suspect that, even though there's no credit, Joe must have given a helping hand to Thorne's penciling. It's just too close.

Thorne or Kubert? ("The Maverick Ace!")

Jack: Page two, panel two (above) of the Enemy Ace story really looks like Kubert redrew the closeup of Steve Savage. I did not like Kanigher's portrayal of Savage in this story; he seemed like a jerk in comparison to the decent von Hammer, yet I felt like I was supposed to be rooting for Savage. Perhaps it was my mood or the noise in the room, but I couldn't make heads or tails of much of the Unknown Soldier story, which seemed more like a Haunted Tank story for much of its length. I'm thrilled that we'll see the end of the Robbins/Sparling run on this series, since I have not been impressed with either's work.

Kubert

Our Army at War 273

"The Arena!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Russ Heath

"Once a Hero..."
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Jack: Nineteen centuries ago, gladiators fought to the death in the Roman Colosseum. In WWII, Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. encounter Nazis dressed as Italian partisans on the road to Rome. A gun battle erupts and Rock is taken prisoner. In a jeep with four Nazi guards, Rock manages to escape and run into the Colosseum. Like the gladiator of old who was forced to fight an octopus in a flooded arena, Rock is doused with water from a high-pressure hose and then made to engage in hand to hand combat with Bruno, a huge, bald, muscled representative of the Third Reich. After the rotten Colosseum floor gives way and both men fall below, Rock emerges unscathed while Bruno lies unconscious. Whereas the ancient gladiator was crucified, Rock makes his way through the passageways underneath "The Arena!" and avoids being killed by gunfire from above. Suddenly, the Nazis are defeated by Rock's comrades in Easy Co.

"The Arena!"

While it's great to have Russ Heath back drawing a Sergeant Rock story, this one suffers a bit from Bob Kanigher's recent tendency toward heavy-handed religious allegory. The comparison between Rock and the ancient gladiator is forced, and the final panel, in which numerous ancient men are seen crucified on flaming crosses, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Rock and his men are fighting a war and are on even footing with their enemies, while the men who were crucified during the Roman Empire were not evenly matched with their foes. Rock survives but they did not, yet the last caption reads: "Does anything ever change ... between yesterday and today?" I would submit that the events of this story show that it does!

"Once a Hero..."

Five minutes after being awarded a Silver Star, Davy lies dead. In a flashback, we see that he landed on a beach in the Far East as a WWII Marine and got into battle right away. He was saved from a sniper in a tree and from an enemy soldier's bayonet. He climbed a cliff and threw the grenade that blew up a cave of Japanese fighters. As his medal was being pinned on, a Japanese plane attacked, and Davy shot it down just before he died. "Once a Hero ..." always a hero, it seems, though his death will keep anyone from knowing what he thought of all that happened to him.

A pretty good entry in the Gallery of War series, marred only by Estrada's simplistic art, which I don't find pleasant to look at.

Peter: We've seen that split-screen "gladiators from another time" stuff so many times, I'm not sure a new spin could be found, but Bob's finale is a little too preachy for my tastes. The Heath art, though, is fantastic, so just avoid the annoying word captions and you'll be okay. Neither the script nor the art for "Once a Hero..." floated my boat. After starting out like a house on fire, Big Bob's Gallery of Irony and Angst has been hit and miss lately. Mostly miss.

Kubert

G.I. Combat 173

"The Final Clash"
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Sam Glanzman

"Special Attack!"
Story and Art by Sid Check

Peter: In the snow-covered mountains of Italy, the men of the Haunted Tank are coming across the last vestiges of Hitler's once-mighty tank armada. Unbeknownst to our heroes, in a nearby castle, plans are being made for a "death stand," wherein the Nazis will sacrifice their youngest soldiers while the rest of them pull back in an effort to regroup. Of the commanders gathered at the meeting, only General Preiss speaks out against the wholesale slaughter of his troops, many of them mere teenagers. But in the end, Preiss agrees to lead the suicide squad against the allies. Their first order of business is to blow up the castle and block the pass they mean to retreat on.

"The Final Clash"

The Haunted Tank rolls up just in time to see the Germans laying explosives and Commander Jeb Stuart knows right away what the play is. When the Jeb's cannons destroy the explosive, General Preiss waves a white flag and suggests an odd form of "cease fire": his tank and the Jeb will square off in a one-on-one battle and if the General dies, his men will peacefully surrender. Preiss's tank is destroyed and, when he fires on Jeb, the General is mortally wounded. As he lays dying, it becomes apparent to Jeb that Preiss sacrificed his life so that his men might survive. "The Final Clash," Archie Goodwin's final Haunted Tank story, is nothing special but still manages to entertain. This plot is pretty well worn down (but then so are the other three or four that keep getting recycled), but Archie's portrayal of Preiss as a stern, but kind, soldier rather than a baby-eating monster is refreshing. As with the Rock stories, I get the feeling the Tank saga is jumping from era to era, with this one clearly nearing the end of the war.

"Special Attack!"

In October 1944, a "Special Attack!" is launched on three aircraft carriers by a squadron of Japanese pilots, all willing to commit suicide for their country. The attack takes the carriers by surprise and only three jets can be launched. The numbers outweigh the American fighter pilots but they manage to make a dent in the Zero population. When the fight is left to one Japanese and one American, both badly wounded, our man takes a page from the book of the Banzai and sacrifices himself for the good of the ships below. I was really impressed with "Special Attack!" It's got a decent script, lots of action, and some dynamite graphics from old-timer Sid Check. I'd have never identified this art as that of a Golden Age vet. It's got a very contemporary look to it, as if Toth and Niño lent helping hands.

Jack: I agree that "Special Attack!" was better than "The Final Clash," but I thought the art (and the plot, for that matter) were a bit muddled. As I read the second story and tried to keep up with what was going on, I realized why George Evans was so accomplished with stories involving airplanes--his panels are crisp and clear and it's easy to follow the events. The Haunted Tank story seems to be Archie Goodwin's swan song, and it's about as good as much of the rest of his work for the DC War comics: pretty good but not great. I think that, if Goodwin had not excelled elsewhere, we wouldn't have paid much attention to his DC War stories.

Next Week...
So what did Steve Ditko get up to
after leaving Spider-Man?

The Hitchcock Project-James P. Cavanagh Part Seven: Sylvia [3.16]

by Jack Seabrook

After "Father and Son," the next episode scripted by James P. Cavanagh was "Heart of Gold," the first adaptation of a Henry Slesar story to be broadcast on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Next came "Sylvia," Cavanagh's version of a short story by Ira Levin. Published in the April 1955 issue of Manhunt, "Sylvia" opens as Lewis Melton searches the room of his thirty-three-year-old daughter Sylvia for a letter. She recently divorced fortune-hunter Lyle Waterman, a man she had married the year before while her father vacationed on the Riviera. Now, as Melton is about to leave on his annual holiday, he has learned that she received a letter from her ex-husband. Melton finds the letter, in which Waterman writes that he plans to arrive soon after Melton leaves. With the letter, Melton discovers a gun.

From Manhunt

After replacing the gun and the letter, Melton telephones Waterman to warn him, but the former son-in-law hangs up before Melton can give him the news. Melton drives from his home in the Connecticut suburbs into New York City, where he visits the shabby hotel on West 53rd Street where Waterman resides. Both men go up to Waterman's room and Melton warns his former son-in-law of his suspicion that his daughter intends to kill her ex-husband when he arrives. Waterman does not want to believe it but, after Melton offers to cancel his vacation and talk to Sylvia, Waterman agrees to leave town and go to Texas for a price. Melton pays him off and drives home, seeing the servants off on a break of their own.

He finds his daughter in the garden, tells her he has canceled his trip, and counsels her that Waterman is not worth brooding over. In the garden, she shows him a large hole that she has dug, in which she has thrown his suitcases. Sylvia accuses her father of ruining her life, insists that Waterman still loves her and plans to come back, and finally shoots Melton in the chest, killing him.

"Sylvia" is one of only two short stories that I have been able to find by Ira Levin (1929-2007), who was born in New York City and who began writing for TV, radio, and the stage around 1950. A Kiss Before Dying (1953) won the Edgar for Best First Novel in 1954, but Levin is perhaps best remembered for Rosemary's Baby (1967), which was memorably filmed and released the following year. Levin also wrote The Stepford Wives (1972), The Boys from Brazil (1976), and the hit Broadway play, Deathtrap (1978), for which he won a second Edgar Award. "Sylvia" was his only story to be adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

"Sylvia" is almost Cheeveresque in its portrayal of wealthy people leading unhappy lives in the Connecticut suburbs of New York City. Lewis Melton has protected his daughter, Sylvia, all her life, and she, at age 33, has had but one lover, a man after her money. After the divorce, her ex-husband is easily convinced of Sylvia's ill intent and remains true to form, asking for money from her father and agreeing to make himself scarce. Lewis never suspects that his daughter might bear him any ill will and, after he is shot, "for the first time in his life he saw that her eyes, which had always seemed a dull and empty blue, could burst on occasion to a vivid, gemlike intensity."

John McIntire as John Leeds

The end of the story is a bit confusing. Melton arrives home and sees his suitcases lined up in the hallway, presumably left there for him by the servants in anticipation of his leaving on vacation. Sylvia is playing the piano. He goes upstairs to wash up and comes down to find that Sylvia has gone to her garden. He goes outside and she comes out of the garden to speak to him. He tells her he is not going on vacation and she leads him into the garden, where she has already dug a large, grave-sized hole and thrown his suitcases into it. She shoots him and the story ends. The only conclusion to be drawn from these events is that Sylvia was planning to murder her father and had no idea that he had gone to New York City to pay her ex-husband to go away. She accuses him of ruining her life and refers to thirty-three years of "'snooping, spying, arranging things behind my back.'" Though the reader might initially suspect, as did Lewis Melton, that she had planned to kill her ex-husband, the truth seems to be that she was planning to kill her father. It is ironic that she carries out this plan, thinking that her ex-husband is on his way to visit her that evening, when her father has already seen to it that her desire will once again be thwarted. Perhaps Sylvia is correct to be resentful, but her rash act of murder ensures that the rest of her days will not be any happier than those that preceded them.

James P. Cavanagh adapted Levin's short story for television and "Sylvia" was broadcast on CBS on Sunday, January 19, 1958. The televised version follows the general outline of the short story but is much different in the details. It opens with Sylvia sitting at her dressing table, inspecting her revolver, when her father walks in. (Cavanagh follows the Chekovian dictum that, if one shows a gun in the first act, it must go off in the second.) The father, renamed John Leeds, looks concerned, but Sylvia tells him that she is fine and has no plans to shoot herself. Sylvia has returned from Reno, where she got a divorce, and we learn that her father and mother are also divorced and that Sylvia's mother had sent her to live with her father.

Ann Todd as Sylvia

As Leeds is heading out the front door, the maid tells him that Sylvia gave her three weeks off, so she will not be there while he is away on vacation. Leeds then visits Dr. Jason, Sylvia's psychiatrist, and tells the doctor that he is worried that Sylvia may be suicidal. A flashback shows how Sylvia met her husband while on an ocean liner returning from a European vacation with her father. Leeds tells Dr. Jason that Sylvia married Peter Kent two months after meeting him. A second flashback shows Leeds and Kent in Leeds's office, where Leeds confronts his son-in-law with a check the younger man forged and, in exchange for Leeds not calling the authorities, Kent agrees to go away and not contest a divorce.

Back at home and in the present again, Sylvia lounges on her bed, talking by telephone to Kent and begging him to visit her that night after her father leaves on vacation. After she hangs up the phone, she opens her dresser drawer and looks at the gun. Leeds cancels his trip and Kent arrives at his office, where Leeds gives him $25,000 to go away for good. Leeds returns home and Sylvia brings in cut flowers from the garden, seeming very happy. Later, they are both dressed in formal attire and sit in the living room, sharing after-dinner drinks. Leeds tells his daughter that Kent is not coming and she admits that she considered killing Kent if he refused to come back to her. Leeds admits having paid Kent to go away and he tells Sylvia that she must return to her psychiatrist. She goes upstairs to bed.

Philip Reed as Peter Kent

Leeds telephones Dr. Jason to tell him the news and, in the middle of the phone call, suddenly remembers the gun in his daughter's room. He rushes upstairs and bursts into Sylvia's bedroom, only to find her calmly brushing her hair before the mirror. She recalls how he would sit and talk to her before she went to bed when she was a little girl. He asks her to give him the gun, and she takes it out of the dresser drawer and begins to complain that her father would never let her have anything of her own, not even a husband. She shoots him and then collapses in tears.

Cavanagh's script for "Sylvia" is strong and makes good use of storytelling techniques such as flashbacks and foreshadowing to create suspense and throw the viewer off the trail of what is really going on. Like Sylvia's father, we at first suspect that she may be suicidal and later think that she intends to kill her ex-husband. Only in the final scene does it become clear that she resents her father's smothering love, when she confronts and kills him. The biggest problem with the TV show is the casting. John McIntire is very good as John Leeds; McIntire is American and makeup is used to age the actor, who was 50 years old at the time of filming. Unfortunately, his daughter Sylvia is played by the English actress, Ann Todd, who was 48 years old, only two years younger than the actor playing her father! Todd tries to turn her English accent into a sort of Grace Kelly-like private school, American accent, but she is unable to hide her British speech patterns. In the scene where she lies back on her bed, talking on the telephone, she tries to pass herself off as girlish, but it just doesn't work. Even stranger is the casting of Philip Reed as her ex-husband; Reed was a year older than Todd and a year younger than McIntire, making him too old for the man's son-in-law but oddly age-appropriate for the too-old daughter.

Raymond Bailey as Dr. Jason

Despite the miscasting, the show is well-acted, though Todd is too pretty and refined to make it credible that she could not find a husband. She is also not convincing as a young woman who is so mentally unbalanced that suitors would be dissuaded from her money, poise, and beauty. The episode is competently directed by Herschel Daugherty, who does not use any memorable camera setups but who does tell the story from start to finish without creating confusion.

Hitchcock's closing remarks refer to the father as "Mr. Melton," the name he had in the short story, rather than as "Mr. Leeds," the name he has in the TV show. This suggests that James Allardyce, who wrote the opening and closing segments for each show, was given a copy of the short story, rather than the script, and that the segments were filmed before the teleplay was completed.

Ann Todd (1909-1993) was born Dorothy Anne Todd in England and was on screen from 1931 to 1992. Featured in the early science fiction film Things to Come (1936) and in Hitchcock's flop, The Paradine Case (1947), she was also seen on Thriller but appeared in no other episodes of the Hitchcock series. She wrote an autobiography called The Eighth Veil (1980).

Edit Angold as Bertha

John McIntire (1907-1991) was busy on stage and on the radio in the 1930s before beginning his film career in 1940. He had a role in Psycho (1960) and was a regular on three TV series: Naked City (1958-1959), Wagon Train (1960-1965), and The Virginian (1967-1970). He appeared on The Twilight Zone and on one other episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Hitch Hike." He continued to appear on TV and film until 1989.

Philip Reed (1908-1996) was born Milton LeRoy and, like John McIntire, he was on stage and radio in addition to having a long career on screen from 1933 to 1965. He appeared as Steve Wilson in a series of "Big Town" films in the late 1940s and he was seen in five episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Derelicts."

In smaller roles:

• Raymond Bailey (1904-1980) makes one of his eleven appearances on the Hitchcock series here as Dr. Jason. He was also in Vertigo (1958) and three episodes of The Twilight Zone, but his career-defining role was as Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71).
• Edit Angold (1895-1971) plays Bertha, the maid. She was born Edit Goldstandt in Berlin and had a career on the German stage and on film in Germany before coming to the US, where she was on screen from 1940-1967. This was one of four appearances on the Hitchcock series.

Herschel Daugherty (1910-1993) directed "Sylvia"; he directed numerous TV shows from 1952 to 1975, including 27 episodes of the Hitchcock show. He also directed 16 episodes of Thriller.

Ira Levin's short story, "Sylvia," has been reprinted in collections such as Deadly Doings (1989) and Angels of Darkness (1995). Watch the TV show here or buy the DVD here. Read the GenreSnaps review of this episode here.

Sources:

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/.

Levin, Ira. “Sylvia.” Manhunt, Apr. 1955, pp. 144–153.

“Sylvia.” Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 3, episode 16, CBS, 19 Jan. 1958.

The FictionMags Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Mar. 2019, www.wikipedia.org/.

In two weeks: "Arthur," starring Laurence Harvey and Hazel Court!

The Warren Report Issue 5: March/April 1966

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Frazetta

Eerie #2 (March 1966)

"Footsteps of Frankenstein!"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"One for De-Money"★★1/2
Story by E. Nelson Bridwell
Art by Angelo Torres

"Eye of the Beholder!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Johnny Craig (as Jay Taycee)

"Flame Fiend!"★★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Gray Morrow

"To Pay the Piper!"★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by Gene Colan

"Vision of Evil"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"Ahead of the Game!"★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Jerry Grandenetti and Bill Draut

"Footsteps of Frankenstein!"

Dr. Byron King has second thoughts about his trip to the town of Low Kilburn in the north of England after the locals react poorly to his questions about where to find Dr. Amos Sebastian. After he is beaten unconscious in the street, he awakens in the doctor's lab and finds that Sebastian has created a huge, lumbering monster that lacks a high quality brain. Amos begs Byron to transplant Amos's brain from his aging body into that of his creation and, after some studying, Byron succeeds in doing just that. Nosy villagers see lights at the doctor's castle and head up there, with intent to destroy the new creation, but Dr. Sebastian, now in a large and powerful body, pushes Dr. King and the angry villagers aside and strides out into a thunderstorm, where a lighting bolt finds his electrodes and vaporizes him.

I have to admit I enjoyed this story right up to the disappointing ending, mainly because of Reed Crandall's art, which illustrates the parade of cliches perfectly. The creature (don't call it a monster!) looks just like Karloff in Frankenstein, but the idea of transplanting the doctor's brain into the creature's head made me think more of Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein. It may not be a classic story, but it's fun!

"One for De-Money"

Vernon is a young dandy who never has any dough. When he visits his Uncle Cornelius and asks for a handout, the old man tells him he can stay for free but he's not getting one red cent. Vernon witnesses his uncle summon a demon in the basement; the demon must give Cornelius money and can't step outside the pentagram where he stands. Vernon murders his uncle and summons up the demon but neglects to notice that he accidentally rubbed off some of the pentagram's chalk outline, allowing the demon to step outside it and kill the greedy young man.

"One for De-Money" has (here we go again) gorgeous art by Angelo Torres and a weak, poorly-executed script by DC stalwart E. Nelson Bridwell. Speaking of DC, the demon looks like one of the Demons Three trio drawn by Mike Sekowsky for early Justice League of America stories.

The horror of dark socks, dark shorts, and dark shoes
is revealed in "Eye of the Beholder!"

Gerald's beautiful wife is dead, and he can't stand it! Seeking magical help, he finds an old man and gives him a lot of money to bring Eve back, "beautiful and alive as I remember her." Gerald goes home and finds Eve there, but soon bad things start to happen: the family dog dies of fright and the flower delivery man runs screaming out the door. Only when Gerald embraces Eve before a mirror does he discover the horrible truth: everyone but he can see that she is a rotting corpse!

I was so excited for the return of Johnny Craig to our reading list, and "Eye of the Beholder!" certainly looks like his work, both as we recall it from the EC Comics and as we saw it change in the EC Picto-Fiction series. There are some weak sections, sure, but overall it's good to have the old boy back. The end prefigures the horrific scene in The Shining where the beautiful woman in the bathtub turns out to be a rotting old hag. Not a great story, but good to see Craig back at the drawing board.

"Flame Fiend!"

After John Murdock kills his business partner, Henry Todd, by planting an explosive device in his car, Henry's image appears as a "Flame Fiend!" rising out of John's fireplace and warning John that he will die in flames. Murdock vows to avoid fire of any type, and this leads to one awkward moment after another, as he keeps away from cigars, birthday cakes, and the like. Out hunting on a cold winter's day, Murdock encounters an out of control campfire and jumps in a freezing brook to avoid the flames. He comes down with pneumonia and thinks he's beaten the curse, until Henry's flaming, spectral image tells John that he's "burning up" with fever!

Otto Binder runs a bad idea into the ground with this story, and it gets laughable as John freaks out every time he sees a little flame. Gray Morrow's art, as always, is impressive, especially in his use of blacks and shadows, but he deserves better material.

"To Pay the Piper!"

In 17th-century Germany, the village of Meingott has a vampire problem. A stranger named Sandor offers to get rid of the foul fiends for 1000 gold marks and does so by playing his flute that night, luring the vampires out into the open where they all (I think) die when the sun comes up. The town burgermeister stiffs the piper of the 1000 marks, so the piper, like his namesake in Hamelin, pipes another tune and all the town's children follow him outside the village. The burgermeister set a trap and the piper is killed by three arrows to the chest. The children return, but that night they all turn into werewolves, since the field outside of town was full of wolfbane and they got scratched by it and ... you get the picture.

Our first exposure to the great Gene (or Eugene, as the credit reads) Colan at Warren is, sadly, on a rather idiotic story called "To Pay the Piper!" by Larry Ivie. Acknowledging that you're copying the classic tale of the Pied Piper in your story doesn't excuse it, and how many times in the few issues of Warren horror comics we've read so far have we seen the old switcheroo of one monster menace to another? Too many for my liking. At this point, Colan was also drawing romance comics for DC and superhero comics for Marvel--a true pro.

"Vision of Evil"

Art collector Simon Norton is so entranced by a ghoulish painting by obscure artist Conrad Archer that he tracks the painter down at his residence, which happens to be the Kingsford Asylum for the Insane! Norton finds Archer sitting in a trance in front of his latest painting, which depicts the artist in the clutches of a demon. Dr. Young then shows Norton Archer's other painting, a mural on the rec room wall depicting a "Vision of Evil" in which ghouls and ghosts attack poor souls. They hear Archer scream and rush to his cellar studio, only to find Archer gone, a burning smell, a finished painting, and red "paint" dripping on the floor. Norton goes back to the rec room to study the mural, but now he notices figures of himself and Dr. Young painted in the claws of a demon! There is a loud booming on the door ...

Okay, I'll admit it doesn't make a lot of sense, and we've seen similar stories before, but I am in such an Alex Toth phase that just about anything he does appeals to me. It's funny how one can get hooked on an artist, especially one with such an individual style. I used to think his work was juvenile but now I really like it.

Big game hunter Harry Black kills an albino gorilla and cuts off its head as a trophy, ignoring warnings from a native about the animal's sacred status. On the ship heading back to the states, mayhem ensures in the luggage room where Harry's trophy is kept, and his wife insists on flying home. Harry gets home and displays the gorilla's head on his trophy wall, but soon trouble follows as the groundskeeper is killed. Harry's wife flees the scene and Harry sits alone, rifle on lap, until he sees the gorilla's headless corpse coming toward him. His wife returns with the cops; they hear shots from inside and enter to find Harry decapitated and his head now in place of the gorilla's on the trophy wall.

The guy in the middle is pure Grandenetti
("Ahead of the Game!")

"Ahead of the Game!" is the pits! I won't bother commenting on the terrible, incomprehensible story. Rather, I have to ask why Jerry Grandenetti and Bill Draut are ghosting for Joe Orlando. Does this mean some of the bad Orlando art we've been complaining about was not his work at all? And how about the good Orlando art in the late '60s (Cain, I'm looking at you!)--was it not Orlando's work either? My world is rocked! Grandenetti's worst instincts are tamped down by Draut's inks, but I can still see signs of the artist we loved to make fun of on our DC War Comics blog shining through here and there.-Jack

Peter- The first official issue of Eerie is jam-packed with mediocre material. From the big-game hunter who ends up with his head mounted on a wall to the village that gets rid of its vampire plague only to be infested with werewolves (notice how the two monsters seem to mingle in stories so frequently?) to the Universal Monsters reboot with little or no feeling. On and on and on. Again, the major asset to the Warren books, so far, is the insanely good artwork. Well, yes, I know we also get Grandenetti and Draut but I'm trying to be a bit positive. I love Craig's shift from one medium to another halfway through "Eye of the Beholder!" (a rare non-Johnny written story) and Crandall's detailed penciling elevates "Footsteps of Frankenstein!" to at least "readable" status.

Frazetta

Blazing Combat #3 (April 1966)

"Special Forces!" ★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Jerry Grandenetti and Joe Orlando

"Foragers" ★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"U-Boat" ★★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gene Colan

"Survival!" ★★1/2
Story by Alex Toth and Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"The Battle of Britain!" ★★
Story by Wally Wood
Art by Dan Adkins and Wally Wood

"Water Hole!" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow

"Souvenirs!" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by John Severin

"Foragers"

Captain Curtis Bradford leads his "Special Forces!" team through the jungles of Viet Nam on a suicide mission. Their job is to provide themselves as bait for ambush, pulling the Viet Cong out of hiding. Bradford does his job well and the men plow through a multitude of enemy soldiers, "all in a day's work." "Special Forces!" is another disappointing Blazing Combat story; I almost feel guilty saying that, given this title's place upon a mantle of greatness. But there it is, just another story about grunts doing grunt work, sacrificing themselves and their bodies for the men who sit in offices a world away.  War s Hell. I get it. Joe Orlando continues to be the weakest link in the Warren bullpen, laying down sub-par doodles and panels almost too muddy to wade through. But Joe will be around for a while so I better get used to him.

"U-Boat"

During the Civil War, one of General Sherman's tactics was to send out "Foragers" to harass civilians, burn their homes, and loot their belongings. This would, he believed, lead to disenchantment and, eventually, utter surrender. Our protagonists, a band of "Foragers," are picking Georgian households clean of food and then leaving the families homeless and having a real good time doing it. When the soldiers come across an old man who won't give up his shack, they fire on him and the gunfire is returned, killing all but two of the Union soldiers. When the old man runs out of ammo, a corporal is about to execute him when he's shot by one of his own soldiers. "Foragers" has a powerful climax and some gorgeous Reed Crandall work. Jack often says the best stories send him off to do more research and that's exactly what this one did for me. In fact, you can read a very good summary of role the foragers (or "bummers") played in the Civil War here.

A transport ship is torpedoed and sunk with only two sailors, Dawes and Ramsey, left alive. The "U-Boat" that sunk her takes the two mariners aboard as POWs and then has to dive quickly as a destroyer looms on the horizon. Dawes becomes enamored of the efficiency the German captain displays, but Ramsey's only thought is that he must warn the destroyer above them before the U-Boat has a chance to add another notch to its periscope. When Ramsey explains his plan to make noise, Dawes warns the U-Boat commander and a struggle ensues. The racket warns the destroyer above, which launches its depth charges and destroys the German killer. Thought its plot twist owes quite a debt to The Bridge Over the River Kwai, "U-Boat" is masterful in both script and art departments. Colan is at the top of his game here (and about a half year away from his classic stint on Marvel's Daredevil), and the black and white only enhances his talents. Archie's script reads like a one-hour noir film that happens to be set aboard a submarine.

"Survival!"

"Survival!" is a change of pace for this title, a post-apocalyptic tale about a scavenger who fights off mad packs of dogs and hunts for tinned food in the wastelands of a burned-out city. As far as he's concerned, he's the last man on Earth, until he comes across a raft on the beach and several sets of footprints. His excitement turns to rage when he comes across one of the new immigrants digging up one of his caches of food and he beats the man's skull in. Now driven to find the rest of the newbies and kill them before they can steal more of his hard-earned grub, the man inherits an assault weapon from his victim and heads out into the night. It's not long before he finds them and, yep, they're eating his vittles, so he mows them down. A single survivor crawls from the wreckage and the scavenger strangles him to death. Only upon inspection does he discover his latest victim was a woman. He screams in the night. That final panel is a bit of a head-scratcher. Is our violent lead character upset because he just saw a more exciting Friday night go down the tubes or was he thinking "there goes repopulating the Earth?" Like Colan, Alex Toth's work is much more powerful when delivered sans color, possibly because so many of Toth's scenes are built around the blackness. Archie stretches the parameters of blazing combat, but that's okay as long as he can pump out strong stories such as this. Life after the apocalypse will be a favorite subject of future Warren writers (DC and Marvel will try their hands as well and, for the most part, fail miserably).

"The Battle of Britain!"

The Jerrys are fast eliminating the R.A.F. It's up to a handful of brave men to stanch the bleeding and save England from the clutches of Der Führer. "The Battle of Britain!" is gorgeously rendered by Wally Wood's ward, Dan Adkins (despite the Wally Wood sole credit on the splash page, Adkins claimed it was 90% his work), who had just as sharp an eye for aerial battles as Wood himself. The script is one part Encyclopedia Britannica and a heaping helping of late night Hollywood reruns (something with Van Johnson or Rod Taylor, I would think), nothing particularly original. "Water Hole!" concerns a cavalry troop attacked by Apaches in the desert. The water hole becomes a last stand for both sides. A clever twist and some decent Morrow art. Finally, in "Souvenirs!," American G.I. Holloway finds a fortune in the mouths of the dead Japanese soldiers lying stacked like cords of wood all around him. His CO orders him to halt his ghoulish practice but Holloway's greed finds him slithering back to the carnage after his comrades have bedded down that night. Bad idea. About as close to EC as BC is gonna get, "Souvenirs" is a bit slow, but Severin's art keeps us interested until we get to the startling reveal. -Peter

"Souvenirs!"

Jack-I know I've said this before, but when you  have such a great lineup of artists, why lead off with a story drawn by Joe Orlando--or in this case, Jerry Grandenetti? I recognized Joe's work right away from the way he draws the shading over soldiers' eyes from the bill of their caps as if they're wearing domino masks. "Special Forces!" is unusually dull for a Vietnam War story. Things perk right up with "Foragers," in which the unexpected ending elevates the whole story and Reed Crandall's work sparkles. Gene Colan conveys a real sense of excitement and danger in "U-Boat" and I love his use of unusual panel shapes and layouts. In contrast to the story before it, empathy with the enemy's professionalism leads to disaster.

"Survival" seems like a sped-up version of A Canticle for Leibowitz, but the end is disappointing. There's too much "I say" and "old chap" in "The Battle of Britain!" and the story ends up being more historically interesting than engaging. "Water Hole!" starts well and features gorgeous art but fizzles at the finale and seems anticlimactic. Finally, in "Souvenirs!," John Severin again shows how he can say so much with just the look on a character's face. I wonder if his scripts were less verbose than others in order to leave room for his silent panels.

Morrow

Creepy #8 (April 1966)

"The Coffin of Dracula!" 
Part I  ★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"Death Plane" ★★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by George Evans
(see Eerie #1 for review)

"The Mountain" ★★1/2
Story and Art by Johnny Craig (as Jay Taycee)

"The Invitation" ★★
Story by Larry Engleheart, Russ Jones, & Maurice Whitman
Art by Manny Stallman
(see Eerie #1 for review)

"Adam Link's Mate!" ★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Joe Orlando

"A Vested Interest" ★
Story by Ron Parker
Art by George Tuska, Don Heck, Frank Giacoia, & Mike Esposito

"Fitting Punishment" ★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gene Colan

"The Coffin of Dracula!"

Lord Adrian Varney has inherited a warehouse full of junk from his recently-deceased uncle, but one piece catches the young Lord's eye: a casket with the Dracula crest. He and one of his workers crack "The Coffin of Dracula!" open and Varney can't help himself as he tries the box on for size. An immediate change comes over Varney, one that proves fatal for his assistant. Meanwhile, across London at Varney's mansion, several guests are partying and awaiting Varney's arrival. These guests include Jonathan Harker and his bride, Mina, recently returned from a vampire-staking exercise in Transylvania. At last, Varney arrives and is immediately taken with Mina's beauty, asking her to dance. She becomes nervous and asks to cut their dance short but the lights go out and the pair disappear from sight. Jonathan catches a glimpse of Varney, carrying Mina, as he escapes down the back steps. Varney assaults Parker and flees in a coach with the unconscious Mina. Knowing he has nowhere else to turn, Harker hoofs it to the asylum where Dr. John Seward works. Not coincidentally, Dr. Van Helsing is also at the asylum and informs Seward and Harker that a vampire has been spotted in "the seacoast village of Whitby" and that the three of them must destroy the bloodsucker if Mina is to live. Van Helsing believes that Dracula's spirit has possessed Lord Varney and is luring him to Whitby for a bite from the vampire.

"The Mountain"

For some strange reason, "The Coffin of Dracula!" was chopped into two pieces (the second part will be unveiled in #9), despite the fact that "a bonus-length chiller" is advertised right on the cover. Even weirder is the fact that the story's length is listed as sixteen pages on the contents page (omitting "Death Plane" in the process), rather than the presented ten. Enough of my trivia, you say, does the story work as a sequel to Stoker's original novel? Yes and no. It's a fast-moving and exciting little vampire story (actually lacking a true vampire until the final page) but it feels way too compressed, as if we're missing out on a few pages (in addition to the six we won't get until next issue) and some necessary expository. We get a flashback of Dracula's demise, a page we probably didn't need, and some annoying head-scratchers (if Varney is not really a vampire until he's bitten, why does he have fangs when he attacks his assistant?) but, overall, "The Coffin of Dracula!" is enjoyable.

"The Mountain"

"Death Plane" and "The Invitation" were reviewed in our last issue as part of the contents of the Eerie #1 ashcan edition. I'll just repeat that the versions printed here are immeasurably cleaner and less murky than those that ran in the ashcan issue. In fact, I've rated "The Invitation" slightly higher here because of the nicer art reproduction). One of our favorite EC writer/artists returns to horror in the same capacity with "The Mountain." A gorgeous woman trudges up a snow-covered mountain, chased by a torch-bearing mob for sins undisclosed to us. She's a "brazen hussy" and they're "narrow-minded" and "sanctimonious," and that's all we know. At the top of the mountain, she collapses on the porch of a secluded cabin and awakens hours later in front of a blazing fire. A man introduces himself to her as Luke (hmmmm ...), and explains that he stays in the desolate cabin to research the black arts. The babe says the dark arts may come in handy against her enemies in the town below; Luke tells her to bring him the mayor and everything will work out exactly as she wants. At gunpoint, the mayor is forced to slog through the snow and enter the cabin, where Luke touches the man's forehead. A blank look comes over the mayor's forehead and our lass, pleased with what she sees, cries out her intention to take over the politician's mansion. A change comes over Luke, telling the woman she's a fool for setting her sights so low. He grows horns and a tail, revealing his true identity, and explains that he needed a body to possess to walk the Earth. Our gal with a 'tude is lifted and hurled into the fireplace, a gateway to ... (surprise, surprise, surprise) Hell!

Well, "The Mountain" certainly began on an intriguing note. Just who is this woman and why are the townspeople intent on killing her? We never find out, but that's not my major complaint with the story. In fact, I think the secrecy adds to the intrigue. No, the fault is in the pat climax, a supreme cop-out. Why is the devil wasting his time with a no-place town and why does he need this woman to draw the mayor up the hill? Did it have to be the mayor? Again, this is Satan, who can open fireplaces and raise Hell. Why such small stakes? Any problems I have with Johnny Craig's writing do not extend to his penciling, which is just as exquisite as it was when we last encountered Craig in the final issues of the EC Illustrated zines. So what was Craig up to between the years of EC's collapse and his startling resurrection at Warren? Craig did a couple of stories for Atlas in the late 1950s (Battle and Wyatt Earp), then hoofed it to an ad agency, before returning to the comics field, working briefly for ACG (Unknown Worlds and Adventures Into the Unknown) before Archie recruited him for Creepy and Eerie. I've seen all six stories he did for Atlas and ACG and none of them come across as stylish or innovative, two adjectives that adhere to Craig's work for EC and Warren. Flotsam like "Treasure of Bad Luck Point" (under Craig's pseudonym of Jay Taycee and found in Unknown Worlds #47) is barely recognizable as Craig's work; rushed and lacking any imagination.

"Adam Link's Mate!"

Fully intent on committing robotic suicide (by letting his battery run down), Adam Link wants nothing to do with mankind after his romance with human Kay Temple went chest plates up. His solace is interrupted by the entrance of Professor Hillory (who happens to own a cabin nearby), a scientist who convinces Adam that all he needs is a companion to fulfill his robotic existence. The two get to work on crafting a female robot and Kay Temple arrives to invest the automaton with female traits (you know, like enjoying flowers, charging clothes on a Macy's card, cleaning the kitchen, etc.). The transformation from a bucket of bolts to gorgeous, gleaming, stainless steel chick is complete, and Adam and his new bride, Eve, enjoy a life of wedded bliss, until Hillory returns and unveils his true motive: he wants to compel Adam and Eve to do his evil bidding by placing mind-controlling skull caps atop their heads, leaving them helpless to defy his orders. Under Hillory's spell, Eve begins a dastardly campaign of evil, robbing the local banks and completely ignoring the household chores. Only a chance visit by Kay Temple can break the spell Hillory has over the metallic pair; Kay knocks the antennaed hat off Hillory's head and Adam can think on his own again. Unfortunately, Hillory regains control over Eve and forces her to shove Adam over a cliff to the rocks below. Is this the end of Adam Link? We can only hope so!

"A Vested Interest"

Alas, being the Monday Morning Quarterback I am, I know this wretched series is far from over. "Adam Link's Mate!" could very well be the dumbest chapter yet, filled with dopey cliches and some really awful art. I love that the first female trait Kay imparts upon Eve is"flowers freshen up a home" (and you thought I was being sarcastic!) and that Professor Hillory might just as well have shown up with a Snidely Whiplash mustache; there's absolutely no doubt that from the first we know this guy will be up to no good. The final page deals with the "exciting" hand-to-hand battle between Eve and Adam and all I could think was "just knock the damn hat off her head, you tin dimwit!" Whenever these big brain deviates get it in their minds to use their smarts to rob banks, I wonder why it is they never set their sights higher. Binder doesn't bother explaining what the nutty professor intends to do with all the wealth. I almost want to say I'm looking forward to reading the next chapter to see if it's even worse.

Huh?
("Fitting Punishment")

A drunk sees a werewolf attacking a man in a dark alley but the cops won't take the word of a booze-hound, but a chance meeting with a stranger convinces the bum to return to the scene of the crime with a camera for proof. This guy's no dummy, so he tricks out his camera with a gun that shoots silver bullets (no, really!) and heads for the alley. Turns out (surprise, surprise, surprise!), once they're alone, his new buddy reveals himself to be the lycanthrope. Our hero shoots the monster, but nothing happens. The werewolf strips down, revealing a bullet-proof vest (no, really!). Oh boy. Marvel mainstay George Tuska (mercifully, his only Warren appearance) contributed some decent work to the Atlas horror titles I'm currently dissecting, but his art here clearly shows he was already past his prime and pumping out the dreary stuff he'd become "famous" for at Marvel in the early 1970s. Ron Parker's debut for Warren is, hopefully, the worst of the seven stories he wrote for the company; it's silly and predictable. We'll see a variation on the werewolf vest twist in a mid-70s issue of Creepy but you'll have to wait a while before we get to it. Just as dumb is the finale, "Fitting Punishment," about Max Troy, a grave robber who gets caught red-handed and, to make his escape, exchanges suits with the corpse he's just robbed. For some reason (don't ask me why and I'm not sure Archie would have been able to tell you), the suit shrinks on Max and cuts him "to ribbons," leaving only a huge bloodstain oozing over the well-cared for cemetery lawn." The WTF? climax really ruins whatever suspense was built up, but at least we have some very nice art from "Gentleman" Gene to waste our time with.

The inaugural "Creepy Fan Club" page offers up a detailed bio of artist Gray Morrow and our first look at fan art. Send that money in, boys and girls, and you too can contribute! -Peter

Jack-Despite a stunning cover by Gray Morrow, this is a poor issue of Creepy. "The Coffin of Dracula!" is oddly dull for a Reed Crandall story about the reincarnation of the vampire; ten pages is too long and there's more to come! The two reprints from Eerie #1 don't improve much in my eyes and the Evans entry seems unfinished. Of course, I'm happy to see a story by Johnny Craig but, as you note, the ending is a stinker. Then we have the last three stories, each of which rated one or one and a half stars in my notebook. Enough of Adam Link already! As if Orlando isn't bad enough, we then get saddled with George Tuska--it seems like the stable of top artists is getting less selective. The Colan story is wonderful to look at but I agree that the last page is incomprehensible.

Next Week...
Big Bob gets deep again,
but does it work?

In Two Weeks...
Oh, yeah, you
remember
this one!

Journey Into Strange Tales! Atlas/ Marvel Horror! Issue 31

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 16

March 1952 Part I

 Amazing Detective #11

"The Black Shadow" (a: Fred Kida) ★★★
"The Weird Woman!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★
"Murder in the Morgue!" (a: George Klein) ★
"A Voice from the Grave" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★
"It's Time to Go, Higgins!" (a: Bill Walton) ★1/2

The 12th title to be added to our discussion, Amazing Detective took its time to get to our station. AD has one of the goofiest origins I've ever heard. See if you can follow this: Atlas published two issues of Suspense and decides to split it into two different titles, one devoted to crime (which was probably the most popular funny book genre at the time) and one concentrating on horror (which was just taking off in early 1950). But Atlas opted to continue the numbering for both titles, which is why there's no such animals as Amazing Detective Cases #1 or #2 and AD began life with #3. The stories in AD from #3 through #10 continued to be pulled from "the files of crime investigators," but perhaps crime wasn't paying for Atlas as the book was switched over to the horror genre with #11. All this change certainly doesn't seem to have been worth the hassle since the title will only last another four issues before shutting its case file in September.

Cemetery worker Mike Murry loves to talk to his shadow and it's made him the laughing stock of the town, especially to that millionaire's brat, Joe Thorn, who tortures Mike and Shadow on a daily basis. So, Mike's talking to his shadow, Willie (yes, Mike has named his shadow) on day, the to Mike's surprise, Willie talks back! Willie explains the rules of being a shadow, one of which is the shadow never talks. Having broken that cardinal rule, Willie hopes that Mike won't separate himself from his shadow. When Mike admits he didn't know you could lose your shadow, Willie explains that all you have to do is sprinkle salt on a shadow and say the word Ka-Ba-Bo! However, once the shadow is separated, the host feels everything his shadow does so Mike should probably be very careful.

"The Weird Woman"

The light bulb goes on over the tortured little man's head; here's how to get back at that Thorn in Mike's side! So Mike steals Joe Thorn's shadow and tortures it until a bed-ridden Thorn agrees to pay a hefty sum to his tormentor. The stunt works so well that Mike steals six more shadows and, very soon, he's rolling in the dough. The displaced shadows, however, take their ire out on Mike's doppelgänger and, the next morning, the police find Mike hanging from the ceiling in an apparent suicide. We've had numerous horror tales centering on shadows already (with umpteen more to follow) but "The Black Shadow" gives the old warhorse an imaginative curve. Mike is a good guy at first but something goes bad in that brain and he suddenly becomes a sadist, even to his buddy, Willie. There's a very effective panel of the loony stabbing a shadow (that's tied up!) with what appears to be an icepick. Truly, we are entering a Golden Age of outre suspense stories.

George Timmins falls in love with the exotic beauty of "The Weird Woman," Gloria, and pressures her to marry him but Gloria decides that George is not the man for her. George knows that Gloria is slightly "off" (she can walk through walls, for one), but he's willing to ignore such small drawbacks if he can possess her heart and soul. When she breaks off their love affair, George goes nuts and attempts to strangle her but the police arrive and haul him off to the pokey. There, a lawyer approaches him about Gloria and after a chat session walks through George's cell wall, thanking our hapless hero for helping him find the right girl. This is one of the strips that entertain just as long as you don't stop the page-turning to think about what you've just read ("Hang on, if Gloria can disappear when she wants, why does she allow George to throttle her?") and Joe Sinnott is the next best thing to Russ Heath, who's sadly missing from this post's titles.

Mobster Ace Hench has murdered rival, Harry Otis; of that, the Sheriff is convinced. He can't get the evidence so he hires hammy actor Jim Clyde to stand in as the dead man's ghost to scare a confession out of Ace. The ghost materializes and Ace spills his guts and is hauled off to jail just as the Sheriff receives a note from Jim Clyde, apologizing for not making it to the crime scene as he'd gotten another gig. Wow, "A Voice from the Grave" ends with a twist used so many times in the 1950s DC "horror" comics that the company should have issued a title called Fake Ghost Stories, but I'm hoping Atlas didn't overuse this reveal as well. I'm also hoping that the type of old-fashioned sketchy, bare-bones art used in "A Voice..." is slowly, but surely, being phased out. Either one of the short-shorts this issue are worth more than a line or two. A crazed night watchman at the local morgue accidentally runs down a man and then sees him rise on the slab in "Murder in the Morgue." And, finally, in "It's Time to Go, Higgins!," a small-time hood guns down a cop and then sees an eerie green face floating in air, following him everywhere, until he confesses to the police and goes to the gallows. There's the green face on the executioner. Artist Bill Walton's style is not my cup of tea (too many bug-eyed characters) but there are almost Colan-esque moments here and there thanks to some nourish "lighting."

 Mystery Tales #1

"The Dark Tunnel" (a: Gene Colan) ★★
"The Little Black Box!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★1/2
"The End of the World" (a: Paul Reinman) ★
"Horror on Channel 15" (a: Pete Tumlinson) ★★1/2
"The Stroke of 12" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

Yet another 1952 addition to the horror/SF line, Mystery Tales will see a healthy 54 issue run until the giant axe fell (as it would on most of the line) in Summer 1957.

Billy takes over the exterminator business when his father disappears but there's a big problem: Billy hates to kill insects. He feels sorry for the little buggers. Then one day he's called out to the old Kirby place and Mrs. Kirby directs him to the basement, where she says the cockroaches are coming from. Billy finds tons of roaches and sprays them with his specially prepared mixture (that annoys the critters rather than kills them) when he stumbles upon a huge opening in Mrs. Kirby's basement wall. Exploring "The Dark Tunnel," Billy comes across human bones, including those of his father, and then the full horror is unleashed when a giant cockroach flits out of the hole, grabs Billy in its mandibles, and drags him back into the hole. There, Billy discovers a race of giant, mind-reading roaches who debate between each other what to do with this human. Finally, they decide that since Billy was kind to their race, he can live but he must remain with them forever. After a year, poor Billy starts transforming into a giant cockroach! Gene Colan does his best to get us through the silliness but there are way to many unanswered questions (yes, even in a story about giant cockroaches, I demand lucidity); ferinstance, how is it that old Mrs. Kirby doesn't notice the exterminators never exit her cellar?

"The Dark Tunnel"

The Seven Sisters of Evil have bequeathed "The Little Black Box" to Luke Bramby for his excellent work in the field of deception, lying, and cheating. Thereafter, every time Luke lies, that lie come true so, naturally, he lies about money, a big house, killing his boss, etc. But al the goodies are still not enough for this loser, as he decides he really must discover what makes this little box tick. Bad decision. Classic Maneely horror illos and a really nasty end for Luke Bramby push this just above the "average" line. Why is it when these Bozos get their money, they dress in smoking jackets like Hefner?

Maneely's "Little Black Box!"

Larkin becomes the first small town in America to get its own television station and the boys behind Channel 15 aim to keep the ratings through the roof by putting on the scariest show on TV.  Program manager/producer/writer Bruce Baxter scours the country for ideas for his brainchild but not even haunted houses or graveyards produce results. Bruce decides he must use his imagination and sketches a monster so horrible that... well. let's just say this thing would give the Real Housewives of New Jersey a run for their money. A creature is constructed from Bruce's sketches but a catastrophe almost pulls the plug on the program when the monstrous prop falls across electrical wiring and soaks up enough juice to light up a small bowling alley.

The big show finally airs but the raves and huge audience numbers are pushed aside by the news that the two stars of the program have died from heart attacks on screen! Bruce smells a really big hairy rat and goes to the cops with the goofy theory that the monster was to blame. The police send him out onto the street with a kick in the pants but, shortly after, Bruce gets the news that the monster has escaped and murdered dozens in his path. In fact, as the giant behemoth wends his way through town, mauling and behaving, poor Bruce is found as dead as his hit show.

Starring Steven Tyler!

"Horror on Channel 15" is another of those Atlas stories where nothing really seems connected from Point A to B, as if Stan were throwing darts at a board. No explanation is made for where the monster is between the time he kills his two co-stars and when he goes on his rampage. Cafeteria maybe? "Horror on Channel 15" is almost spot-on with its prediction that local horror shows would rule the airwaves; a few years later, with Vampira and Zacherley leading the pack, no station was without its own horror host. Tumlinson's art, which could be viewed as a bit amateurish and cartoony attached to a more serious script, is perfect for the tone of this semi-humorous romp.

Like most of the three-and four-pagers, "The End of the World" and "The Stroke of 12" have little in the way of story to tell (the former is about a proclamation of doom from a fortune teller, the latter concerns a murderer who hides his loot at the cemetery and is then pulled into a grave by a pair of dead hands) but at least "The Stroke of 12" features some very nice, atmospheric work from Paul Reinman, who has become a bit of a revelation to me. I knew (through my tenure at Marvel University) that Reinman was an occasional inker with Marvel until his retirement form the field in the mid-70s, but I had no idea how powerful his visuals were in the pre-code era.

Maneely

 Adventures Into Weird Worlds #3

"A Shriek in the Night!" (a: Werner Roth) ★★
"The Thing That Waited!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★
"Nothing Can Stop Me" (a: Bill Walton) ★
"The Quiet Men" ★★
"The Empty City" (a: Bob Fujitani) ★

Whitey Kozak's good night's sleep at the Three-Fingers Flop House is disturbed by a cadaverous face and a hand that beckons him to riches beyond his wildest dreams. All he has to do is climb down into a man-hole and retrieve a small package for the ghostly figure. Turns out the come-on is a scam and Whitey falls down the hole into an underground city populated by giant creatures hell-bent on dissecting humans and finding what makes them tick, all so they can attack and conquer the surface world. Just before Whitey goes under the knife, the creatures give him the choice of death or becoming a zombie who will travel back to the upper crust and recruit more fresh bodies. Our final panel shows a zombie-fied Whitey reaching out for another skid-row bum. Much like my newly-acquired fondness for Paul Reinman, I have to admit to being a newcomer before the altar of artist Werner Roth. I'd probably seen his work in the pages of Crypt of Shadows or another of the Marvel reprint titles, but I hadn't really made a mental note of the name. Now, I smile whenever I see Roth's name attached to a terror tale.

A Korean War pilot has the wing of his plane burned off by a strange beam of light reaching out of the clouds. The ensuing crash kills the pilot but his soul rises and he is confronted by a tentacled terror that explains his situation in full. The pilot is dead and soon his inner being will be reduced to cosmic particles but, before that happens, the creature gloats about the upcoming Conquest of Earth by his home planet, Trisis. Years before, the aliens had infiltrated our society and masked themselves as humans. As our hero begins to fade away, the monster lifts the curtain and shows him a screen of marching aliens that slowly transform into stinkin' Commies in Russia! Oh, these 1950s Red-baiting funny book stories just do not hold up very well sixty-seven years on. "The Thing That Waited!" (I can't help but hold out hope for the ultimate Atlas title someday: "The Thing That Was the Man Who Couldn't Live in the House of Horrors!") is full of long, repetitive speeches made by the Lovecraftian tentacled monster and exasperated replies from the doomed pilot. Just get on with it, already! I still have yet to read in one of these "alien invasion" stories a valid reason for wanting Earth (let's say, maybe for its golf courses or fast food at least); they just want it!

The dope who claims "Nothing Can Stop Me" grows tired of coming out on the losing end of the love stick and downs an experimental strength drug that turns him into an ape. Neither script nor art (Walton can't seem to figure out exactly how big the main protagonist's head should be) inspire anything approaching thrills or chills. "The Quiet Men" (a really dumb title) has an intriguing premise (the crew of the bomber that drop the "cosmic bomb" that begins the destruction of the Earth are cursed to fly through  space forever) that isn't given the proper breathing room to bloom into anything other than an intriguing premise, though the visuals garner a big thumbs-up.

Reporter Johnny Hart stumbles across the story of the Century: an entire town's population has disappeared! Heading back to New York, a bolt of lightning fells a tree and blocks his car, uncovering a deep tunnel under the tree's roots. Johnny follows the tunnel down into an underground city where he witnesses ape-like creatures rounding up the people from the empty city and turning them to dust. As each human disappears, another of the monkey-men transforms into a human being and heads up to the surface. Johnny runs to the nearest station, hops a train, and spills the scoop to his editor. The boss-man tells Johnny well done and urges him to get to sleep, and then places a call to the ape-man leader telling him Johnny's address. Three old, tired, worn-out cliches are regurgitated once again and form the barely readable "The Empty City": the newspaper reporter (Atlas' favorite profession), the underground city (always looking for a way to conquer those insufferable surface people), the friend who is revealed to be the alien (the city editor who has an ape-like shadow!), and the manuscript found in the empty room that tells all (this time out we're told that boarding house landlady, Mrs. Markham, brought the manuscript to "Weird Worlds Publishing Company" when Johnny disappeared, rather than to the police!). Throw in hyperbolic sentences ("I felt a strange, unnatural, weird sensation standing there in the storm...") and the oddest coincidences (the tree that covers the tunnel to the city at the center of the Earth just happens to be struck by lightning just as Johnny is driving by), and you've got one silly and dull read.

Maneely

 Suspense #15

"The Machine!" ★★
"The Strange Shoes!" (a: Norman Steinberg) ★
"The String of Pearls" (a: Ogden Whitney) ★
"The Wrong World" ★★1/2
"Death Comes Calling" ★1/2

Five rather weak fables this issue, starting off with "The Machine," yet another crook-steals-a-time-machine yarn. Karl Gogan is on the lam and needs to get out of the present really bad when he hears about a nutty professor who's built a time machine and is about to test it. Throwing caution (and common sense) out the window, Grogan forces the scientist to show him how to use the machine. The egghead explains that the machine's bugs still haven't been ironed out but Grogan hops aboard anyways and makes the trip. Well, his skeleton does anyway, as we learn the hiccup with the machine is that anyone riding in the machine ages as well. Some nice art, and a legitimate "twist" in the tail, but the script is pretty silly (for some reason, this hardened hood has no problem believing in a time machine) and it drags on too long.

"The Machine"

In "The Strange Shoes," a derelict finds a pair of beat-up shoes and, when he pops them on, they give him anything he wishes for. Only catch is that he must wear them at all times. We don't see the shower scene so I imagine our hobo gets pretty odiferous after a couple pages. So does the story. Margaret has always coveted her husband's prize "String of Pearls," but Gerald insists the jewelry is cursed. And he would know, since he forced several natives to dive into the grotto of the Devil-Fish to acquire the pearls, and they suffered the fate of the damned. Later, one of Gerald's salesladies tries the beautiful bauble on and is choked to death  (the coroner remarks, "Death due to strangulation! I know that what I'm about to say will sound goofy... but by the marks on her throat, I'd say that she was choked to death... by an octopus!"). But what Margaret wants, Margaret gets, so she murders Gerald, opens the safe, and dons the necklace. And then the Devil-Fish enters the room and kills her. Nice Ogden Whitney artwork, very stark and animated, but the script falls back on cliches and doesn't make much sense (in the first murder, the octopus doesn't have to make an appearance, so why does the fella chance dry land to throttle Margaret?).

"String of Pearls"

A scientist, testing his rocket ship (again, we discover that in the 1950s you didn't even need a permit to test a space ship!), stumbles onto the greatest discovery in the history of mankind: on the other side of the sun is a twin world of Earth where everything happens exactly the same at the same time. He happens on this revelation when he is hit by a meteor and thrown off course, crashing back on Earth a few days later, just intimate to attend his own funeral. Yep, he crashed on Earth-II. So, our hero relaunches his ship and travels back to the other world but his dilemma is:which Earth is the "real one?" Wildly goofy and highly imaginative, "The Wrong World" is also very confusing at times but its sense of adventure and nice visuals more than make up for it. A rare case of a happy ending in the Atlas Universe. In our final story this time out, "Death Comes Calling," Dr. Cavari has decided his time is too precious to him and thus only the rich can afford his services. No more charity cases. Unfortunately, this new outlook on the medical field occurs just as a plague hits Cavari's little town. The people are falling all around him but Cavari's attitude remains unchanged. Then, one day, the good Doc gets a visit from someone who appreciates Cavari's stand; it's Death, of course, and after a long, rambling, boring speech, he cures the town and gifts the selfish doctor with the only fatal dose of plague. Nothing new here but I liked the stylish art; the artist is uncredited but several panels look like Everett (but Everett usually signed his work so probably not).

Astonishing #10

"The Man Who Owned a Ghost!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★★
(r: Weird Wonder Tales #6)
"I Solved the Problem" (a: Mac Pakula) ★★1/2
"The Walking Dead!" (a: Al Eadeh) ★1/2
(r: Creatures on the Loose #31)
"Melvin and the Martian" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★
"Only an Insect!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★
(r: Vault of Evil #14)

Alan Kent uses black magic to summon forth a ghost to kill his wife, Helen, who's planning to kill Alan very soon. The ghost explains to Alan that he can't kill humans but he can scare away all of Helen's guests and then Alan will have the peace and quiet in which to kill his wife himself. The haunting goes swell and the cliff house empties, leaving only Helen, who refuses to be frightened by the ghost. Alan sneaks up on the gorgeous dame while she's looking out the window to the rocks below and lunges at her, with an eye to knocking her off the balcony. But the dopey sorcerer takes a header right over the rail and down to the water below. As Ala is wondering how his wife could be a ghost, she explains to him that it's he who is the ghost. She killed him in his sleep a few nights before and has been wracked with guilt ever since. She plunges a dagger into her own heart and falls into the sea as the revelation comes to Alan that he summoned his own ghost.

Though it's monumentally silly and the climax is quite a few too many finales, Bill Everett makes "The Man Who Owned a Ghost!" a spooky riot, a la Beetlejuice or Ghostbusters. The last reveal, that the summoned ghost belongs to Alan himself, is a head-scratching hoot (if Alan is dead, how could he summon his spirit if he is the spirit?), as is the final panel where the two of them look at each other and scream in terror. Lots of great stuff here: Helen is a classic Everett beauty; Alan stands above what we come to find out is his own grave -- on the beach!; the ghost is a creepy/kooky concoction, part Scooby-Doo villain, part Poltergeist; and the layouts are pure Everett, with tons going on in each frame.

In the far future, war no longer exists and that creates the problem of overpopulation. Every square foot of land the world over has been given over to housing; no more space for harvesting or livestock. How to feed this mass of hungry people when the food supply will run dry within a year? I'm glad you asked. Luckily, the world's smartest man, Dr. Fell, has anticipated just such a nuisance and has applied his grey matter to solving the problem thus: he has created a plant that will bear fruit and grow on concrete walls, making it very easy for the populace to harvest their own food. But there's always a drawback isn't there? Dr. Fell doesn't anticipate the side effects to a plant that can grow anywhere and the foliage goes out of control, strangling its owners until the world is barren but for Dr. Fell, who lives in a very tall skyscraper. As the mad (but well-meaning) scientist contemplates what he's done, the ivy reaches out for him. "

I Solved the Problem" is a well-done ecological nightmare that predicts the similar wave of science fiction films of the early 1970s (Silent Running, Soylent Green, etc.). It almost seems as though this catastrophe has snuck up on the scientists, who should have known that when you pave paradise and put up a parking lot, Mother Nature will rebel.  Mac Pakula illustrated a boatload of war strips for Atlas at the same time "I Solved the Problem" appeared, but I have to say I don't care for his bland layouts and sketchy pencils.

Dr. Drago has been obsessed with bringing the dead to life for quite a while and, finally, all the proper ingredients are mixed (vibrating table to stimulate the heart, heat lamps to relax the reflexes, etc. etc.) and...voila!... a living breathing zombie. Drago is so excited he invites all his colleagues over for cognac and caviar, springing his zombie-man on them as a dessert. Isn't it like the science community to bring down a man's dream? One of the other professors commends Drago for the ability to raise an inanimate object from the dead but to what purpose when the thing cannot talk, reason, or think for itself. "You are right," sighs Drago, "I had created a mindless horror... the first of a race of living-dead idiots!" (oh, if only Drago had lived to see the teenagers of the 21st-Century!) The dejected doctor blows up his laboratory, killing both himself and his creation. Three pages does not allow for much character development (but then, neither does seven, does it?) so the primary appeal here would be for the art, which isn't bad, outside of that awful forced-perspective splash (is the zombie's arm really that big?).

"The Really Big Arm of the Walking Dead!"

"Melvin and the Martian" is a mildly funny short about a simple-minded man put in charge of guarding a Martian prisoner, and the mind games the alien uses to get information from Melvin about Earth's battle capabilities. After the Martian is told about a super-secret rocket that will be used against Mars, the alien steals the ship and heads home, only to detonate an H-bomb once he lands (a punchline we've seen before). "Only an Insect" is a really dumb yarn about a slow lab assistant who tortures insects and then has the tables turned when he's splashed with his boss' experimental shrinking formula.

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