The Warren Report Issue 16: February-July 1968 (The Dark Ages I)

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Vic Prezio

Eerie #13 (February 1968)

"Wentworth's Day"★★★
Story by H. P. Lovecraft & August Dereleth
Adaptation by Russ Jones
Art by Russ Jones & Frank Bolle
(Reprinted from Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror, Pyramid, 1966)

"Ogre's Castle"
(Reprinted from Creepy #2)

"Tell-Tale Heart!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #3)

"Voodoo!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #1)

"Spawn of the Cat People"
(Reprinted from Creepy #2)

"The Success Story"
(Reprinted from Creepy #1)

Turning off the highway in a storm, a traveling salesman in the rugged New England country north of Dunwich takes shelter at the home of Amos Stark, an old recluse who announces that today is "Wentworth's Day," the day he is due to pay back a loan made to him years before. The man who loaned him the money, Wentworth, died in a hunting accident awhile back and Stark was suspected of being behind the tragedy, so he's nervous as midnight approaches. And well he should be, for the shambling corpse of Wentworth arrives to collect, leaving Stark dead from strangulation.

"Wentworth's Day"

The first real post-Goodwin issue of Creepy is not off to a bad start with this reprint from the Christopher Lee paperback. I've never been a fan of Lovecraft or Dereleth but the story is entertaining enough to hold reader interest for nine pages, and the art is above-average without being remarkable.

The rest of the issue is filled with reprints from the first three issues of Creepy, which came out in late 1964 and early 1965. In comic book time, three to four years is not that long to wait to reprint something, and I expect some readers may have missed these the first time around. The Orlando story is not worth a second look, but the rest of the stories feature nice art by Torres, Williamson, and Crandall (twice). The writing is nothing special.-Jack

Peter-Archie Goodwin's departure from the editor's seat in late 1967 left a cavernous hole at the Warren Publishing office. Though it could be argued that Archie's scripts had become stale, it was obvious that Goodwin was the glue holding the empire together and his exit forced publisher Jim Warren to wear two caps for a time. It did not go well. Suddenly, the contents of Creepy and Eerie became stuffed with reprints and material licensed from Pyramid Books and the page count was cut.

Russ Jones, who had been the first editor of Creepy, was introducing a new concept in illustrated horror: original material for publication in paperbacks. Jones's most popular title in this new field was Ballantine's Dracula, adapted by Craig Tennis and Warren hack Otto Binder, with illos by Jones himself. Jones then headed over to Pyramid to release Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror, an anthology of five "classic" horror stories done the illustrated way. Since Warren was hurting for original work (it might not have been a coincidence that Archie's exit occurred just as Warren the company was skidding on a long patch of black ice), it must have seemed a good idea at the time. Sales had leveled off and Warren had initiated a move from Philly to the Big Apple, a trek that proved almost deadly. Evidently, Warren must have struck a deal with Jones/Pyramid to reprint the stories within the Lee tome as all five tales would pop up in both titles in the next several months. The "Dark Days" as Jon Cooke labeled them in The Warren Companion (I'd look to author Guy N. Smith for a better sub-title for Warren 1968-1971--"The Sucking Pit!") is not an easy era to grade; reprints seem to be pulled at random and what little new material offered looked exactly like what it was: cheap crap, bought by Jim to fill pages.

The only "new" story here is the tame and lackadaisical "Wentworth's Day," with ho-hum graphics by Jones and Bolle (nothing more than dozens of panels of a character looking pensive), based on one of H.P.'s more average tales. The denouement, of the walking corpse strangling old Amos, was moldy by its original publication date (in The Survivor and Others) in 1957, thanks to the plethora of like climaxes found in Tales from the Crypt, etc., never mind its lack of anything chilling a decade later.

Prezio

Creepy #19 (March 1968)

"The Mark of the Beast" ★
Story by Craig Tennis
Art by Johnny Craig
(Reprinted from Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror. Pyramid, 1966)

"Carmilla" ★
Story by J. Sheridan LeFanu
Adaptation John Benson
Art by Bob Jenney

"Monsterwork"
(Reprinted from Eerie #3)

"Eye of the Beholder"
(Reprinted from Eerie #2)

In India, a hell-raiser named Fleete gets his just desserts when he insults the gods and is cursed by a leper. Luckily, his friends are able to reverse the curse and Fleete lives happily ever after. The second story ripped from the pages of Treasury of Terror is a limp noodle, boring and absent anything resembling thrills or chills. I haven't read Kipling's original story, so I can't comment on whether this was a faithful adaptation but, if so, I'll avoid tracking it down. Johnny Craig's art has never looked so rushed and lifeless.

The atrociously illustrated end of "Carmilla"

Now we're talkin'!

Vampiress "Carmilla" sets her sights on gorgeous young Laura, spinning a web of seduction and terror, until finally the monster is cornered, staked, and beheaded by vampire hunter, General Spielsdorf. Laura lives happily ever after. David Horne, in his mammoth (and essential) Gathering Horror, notes that "Carmilla" was probably crafted for a follow-up volume to Treasury of Terror that never appeared. The art, by Bob Jenney, is as stiff and uninvolving as the story itself and, for some inexplicable reason, the strip is bisected by the two Eerie reprints. A disaster. Much better is the Hammer version, The Vampire Lovers, starring the always-pleasant Ingrid Pitt.
-Peter

Jack-Sadly, I agree with you on all counts, Peter. From the cheesy cover to the dull Craig reprint to the plodding version of "Carmilla," this issue is a chore to read. Rudyard Kipling's stories have not aged well and, read today, are somewhat embarrassing. Craig's heart just wasn't in this one. As for "Carmilla," a vampire story with lesbian overtones ought to be more fun than this endless (20 page!) retelling. The art is dull, too. One thing that has always bothered me about "Carmilla"--how dumb are these people not to see right away that "Carmilla," "Mircalla," and "Millarca" are all anagrams? One other observation: Eerie #13 reprints stories from Creepy, while Creepy #19 reprints stories from Eerie. Did Warren think people were not reading both mags and wouldn't notice? Unfortunately, the reprints this time out are at most two years old, from Eerie #2 and #3, and they are not very good stories.

Prezio

Eerie #14 (April 1968)

"The Stalkers"
(Reprinted from Creepy #6)

"Pursuit of the Vampire!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #1)

"Howling Success!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #3)

"Untimely Tomb!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #5)

"Curse of the Full Moon!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #4)

"Blood and Orchids!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #4)

Jack-The first issue with nothing but reprints, Eerie #14 may have looked good to someone who was late to the party, but it was surely frustrating for those who did not want to have a hole in their collection. Six stories pulled from Creepy #1-6 and, while the art is uniformly good, the writing is weak for the most part. Three by Torres and one each by Toth, Crandall, and McWilliams certainly gives good value in the art department, if not in the originality department. Another uninspired cover by Prezio doesn't help matters.

Albert Nuetzell

Creepy #20 (May 1968)

"Thumbs Down!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #6)

"Inheritors of Earth" ★
Story and Art by Hector Castellon

"Beauty or the Beast!" ★1/2
Story by Len Brown
Art by Sal Trapani and Dick Giordano (?)

"The Cask of Amontillado!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #6)

"The Damned Thing!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #4)

"A Vested Interest"
(Reprinted from Creepy #8)

Amateur night at the Warren Bijou

Chemist Mark Ansen works for the Hart Chemical Company, perfecting a spray that will wipe out the strongest strain of cockroach, when he's transported into a nightmare world where insects are huge and territorial. Now the bug people want Mark's spray to wipe out their enemies. Mark manages to make it back to our world in one piece, only to discover that his boss is a giant bug-man as well. "Inheritors of the Earth" is so badly written and illustrated that you'd be excused for thinking you picked up a Skywald rather than a Warren. The plot pinballs from one incomprehensible situation to  another, without involving the reader one iota. Castellon's art look rushed and unfinished, as if Jim Warren were calling down the empty bullpen hall that "the deadline is now, whether it's done or not!"

A space exploration crew lands on an alien planet and the men are picked off, one by one, by a vicious, unseen beast that may or may not be the gorgeous local girl the commander has fallen in love with. Spoiler alert: it's not the girl; it's her jealous octopoid husband! "Beauty or the Beast!" is not as awful as "Inheritors of Earth" in either department but it's not very good just the same. It's your average dopey space-horror-opera, combining elements from various other dopey space-horror-operas. Sal Trapani's art is serviceable and gets across what few points are included in Len Brown's script. This was Brown's sole contribution to the Warren empire, but the writer is chiefly known for co-creating (with Wally Wood) T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents for Tower. Note that the Fan Page and Letters Page has disappeared from Creepy, ostensibly because Jim Warren got tired of reading all the complaints from fans who were plunking down their four dimes for reprints and swill. -Peter

"Beauty or the Beast!"

Jack-"Inheritor's of Earth" is so bad in both story and art that it has me rethinking my career. I wrote and drew stories this good in junior high school. Perhaps I have a future in comics? If this can be published, maybe so! Slightly better is "Beauty or the Beast!," which the GCD suggests is inked by Dick Giordano. The art has a real DC Comics feel to it, which doesn't fit at Warren, and the story is tired. Both of these new stories seem much longer than the eight pages they run. As for the four reprints, the art by Williamson, Crandall, and Morrow is great, and the Poe adaptation is a winner, but why reprint a story by Tuska and Heck only two years after it was first published? There was much better stuff to mine from the early Warren mags than this. By the way, this is the first time Creepy is reprinting stories only from Creepy. The cover? Yecch. Bring back Frank Frazetta!

Peter: That cover, by the way, is a reprint as well (from Famous Monsters #4)!!

Prezio

Eerie #15 (June 1968)

"The Graves of Oconoco!"★★
Story by John Benson
Art by Pat Boyette & Rocco Mastroserio

"Wardrobe of Monsters!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #2)

"The Demon Wakes"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico

"Under the Skin!"
(Reprinted from Eerie #3)

"The Doll Collector!"★★
Story by Dave Kahler
Art by Gutemberg Monteiro

"A Change in the Moon!"★★1/2
Story by Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson
Art by Jeff Jones

Archaeologist Frank Leeds arrives in Brazil, excited to explore "The Caves of Oronoco," which appear to be very old and man-made. Frank's friend Mitchell is a scientist whose lab is near the caves. Mitchell is working on figuring out how to extract nutritious food from dirt. Frank explores the caves and discovers skeletons dressed in warrior garb. Mitchell has no interest in the past and is focused on the future. Soon, his experiment is a success and he makes food from soil. Suddenly, the skeleton of an ancient wolf-dog from the caves comes to life and Mitchell strikes and kills it. He thinks the past is dead, but Frank points out that it is very much alive, as both men see the skeletal warriors from the caves approaching them by moonlight.

"The Caves of Oronoco"

Well, at least it's not a reprint! After the last couple of issues, I'm happy for something new, even if it is this muddled tale. The story doesn't make a lot of sense (and was not easy to summarize) and the art is passable, if nothing special.

It's followed by a reprint of a fun story from Creepy #2. By the way, this issue's letters column features readers complaining about the reprints in Eerie #13. The editor promises that things will get better soon.

Harry Willet seems down, but what's the matter? Even he doesn't know, as the other denizens of his favorite bar query him without success. Deep in a pit, "The Demon Wakes" as Moloch awakens and ascends to the surface, where he kills his guards and is finally free. Back at the bar, Harry Willet suddenly snaps, grabs the bartender's gun, and goes on a shooting rampage before the cop on the beat shoots and kills him. What got into Harry? Moloch!

"The Demon Wakes"

This leftover story by Archie Goodwin is much too wordy and the art is too busy. The whole thing is rather obvious and it's little wonder that it was not published till now. As I read it, I was reminded of the Police song, "Synchronicity II." Trust me, the song is better than the story.

A second reprint follows, this time another pretty good piece from Eerie #3.

Miriam Hollis is "The Doll Collector," and she's a pretty sweet dish herself, even if she treats men as disposable items whose only purpose is to give her presents. When she travels to the Italian Riviera, she is entranced by the Theater of Living Dolls and wants to buy one for her personal collection. Fantocci, the owner, refuses to sell, so she waits till everyone is gone and tries to steal a doll. To her surprise, they are alive and, though she stabs one, she is overcome and added to the collection herself!

I was impressed by the Good Girl Art of Gutemberg Monteiro in the opening pages of this story but, as it went on, it became clear that an intriguing premise was going to lead nowhere. The conclusion is predictable and has been done many times before, and Monteiro's skill at drawing a pretty girl does not extend to the rest of the population.

Eerie gets Kinky!

Tony and Diane Hartford are returning by ship in 1874 from a trip to Europe when Diane falls into the ocean; she does not know that Tony cut the rope against which she was leaning. A bald man rescues her and, when she and Tony get home, she tells her friend Sissy about having seen a wolf in the Carpathian Mountains. Tony visits Madam Zuchar, an occultist, and learns that the only way to kill a werewolf is with silver bullets. Soon, while waiting for a train, Tony pushes Diane onto the tracks and she is again saved by the same bald man who was on the ship.

The bald man explains to Diane that she was attacked by a werewolf in Europe and she assumes Tony is affected by "A Change in the Moon!" It turns out that Diane is the werewolf, not Tony, and the bald man wants her to join him in "the dark feast." Baldy and Diane turns into werewolves; Tony shoots Baldy Wolf but can't bring himself to shoot furry Diane, so he lets her scratch him and looks forward to hunting with her at the next full moon.

In a classic issue of Eerie, this would be a pretty good story, but in the new era the art by Jeff Jones marks it as the issue's highlight. I found the story a bit hard to follow and think it demonstrates that Jones, early in his career, was still learning how to tell a story in a sequence of pictures. The plot is fairly inventive and the ending unexpected, so we're left with some art that looks nice and a package that works well enough to give me hope that Warren will right the ship soon.-Jack

From the Department of Unforgettable Sound Effects;
a cousin of ELO's "Brooooooce!?"

Peter: "The Graves of Oconoco" isn't all that bad but it's confusing and it's all setup for a very rushed climax. But it's quite a bit better than most of what we've been reading lately and the Boyette/Mastroserio team continues to be dynamite. Sadly, this will be the last we see of Rocco's work, since he died of a heart attack in March of '68. "The Demon Wakes" is obviously a shelved Archie story and it's equally obvious that this should have stayed shelved, especially if Jim Warren was going to hand over art chores to Tony Tallarico, whose goofy, cartoony style I hated even when I was too young to know better. Boy, that cover really gets you ready for "The Doll Collector!," doesn't it? Forget it. What you get is a microwaved gimmick, really bad art (seriously, this looks like a bad romance strip), and a so-what twist at the climax. "A Change in the Moon!" is another story so confusing that, but for duty, I'd have given up halfway through. I'm still not sold on early Jeff Jones; way too much white space.

Gutemberg Monteiro

Creepy #21 (July 1968)

"The Rats in the Walls" ★
Story by H. P. Lovecraft
Adaptation Uncredited
Art by Bob Jenney

"Room with a View"
(Reprinted from Eerie #3)

"The Immortals!" ★1/2
Story by Ron Parker
Art by Sal Trapani

"A Reasonable Doubt"★
Story by Ron Parker
Art by Tony Tallarico

"Swamped"
(Reprinted from Creepy #3)

"Timepiece to Terror!" ★1/2
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Gutemberg Monteiro

"The Rats in the Walls"

Edmund Delapore decides to travel to England to investigate his ancestral property of Exham Priory but discovers that the place is teeming with giant rats and a seedy history. H.P. Lovecraft spent most of 1968 rolling in his grave after reading the adaptations of "Wentworth's Day" and "The Rats in the Walls" perpetrated by Russ Jones and the folks at Pyramid (Warren deserves some blame as well for polluting his titles with these odious page-fillers). The story is disjointed and confusing, as if it's missing several chapters (as well as a satisfying climax) and it's hard on the eyes. I've harped on Bob Jenney's lack of talent before but this is a new low for the artist; Jenney's style is barely distinguishable from that of Joe Orlando.

In a future dystopian world, machines rule and man exists only to service "The Immortals!" and their mysterious "arrangement." One such servant, Oren 12-3429, dreams of breaking out of his chains and becoming an Immortal. When a group of servants attempt to enlist him in a rebellion, he reports them to management and his reward is to become an Immortal. His brain is removed and replaced with a machine. Comic books were awash with radical SF fiction in the 1960s--some ground-breaking, some coattail-riding, all written by writers who felt the urge to right all of society's wrongs. This badly-illustrated potboiler falls firmly in the coattail-riding camp and its eight-page length seems more like eighty. The only thing we learn from Ron Parker's "cautionary tale" is that folks would dress the same in the future as they did in the '60s. Well, except for the Immortals, who certainly look patterned after the forgotten 1960s' Archie Comics superhero, the Fly.

"A Reasonable Doubt"

Donald Landon comes across a shocking scene while riding his buggy through 19th-century Massachusetts when he spies a mob tossing rocks at a gorgeous young woman named Elizabeth (hmmm...). Landon quickly comes to the girl's aid and hustles her into his buggy, riding off to safety. On the way to his house, he listens to the girl tell her story: Elizabeth's mother's death had taken a terrible toll on the young girl but when her father quickly re-married and her stepmother treated her with disdain and a backhand, Elizabeth had to leave home. While away, her father and stepmother are murdered with an axe (hmmm...) and Elizabeth is put on trial, with the townsfolk crying, "witch!" as she takes the stand. Acquitted, the girl returns to the house that she has inherited, but the villagers won't leave her be. The couple arrive at Landon's house and he invites his new friend to stay but regrets it when he reads the daily paper and discovers that Elizabeth is... Lizzy Borden! What a shock! Well, it's supposed to be a shock to the reader but I would like any of you out there who didn't see the climax of "A Reasonable Doubt" coming from the get-go to raise your hand and then sit in the back of the treehouse for the remainder of the post. Landon, at least, has an excuse, since it's mentioned that he's been out of the country on business for several months, but the rest of you... uh uh. Tallarico is another artist whose work is what helped gain this era its nickname of "the dark ages." The penciling looks like an unholy union of Jerry Grandenetti and Ross Andru.

"Timepiece to Terror!"

By default, the best story this issue is the silly bit of nonsense known as "Timepiece to Terror!," wherein an old miser comes across the titular antique, which can transport him back in time or into the future. The only catch is that he has to be back to the start point, surrounded by a circle of pig's blood, by one a.m. or he'll be taken to Hell by a demon. Everything goes well and the old goat reaps a fortune from the horse races and the stock market until one morning he arrives back at his chair and the devil takes him. Seems he forgot it was time to set the clocks forward! Artist Monteiro, whose entire Warren output is limited to "Timepiece" and "The Doll Collector!," has a cartoony style reminiscent of Will Eisner but lacking style and polish. It's a dopey story but it's entertaining enough.

The Creepy Fan Club page announces Bill Parente as the new editor of Creepy and Eerie and features fan art by future Warren contributor Nick Cuti (who also co-created my partner Jack's favorite comic strip of all time, E-Man, for Charlton).

What's glaring, to me, after reading this big batch of dull, is how tame the Warren content had become. Not much blood or gore; no eye-opening risks. This despite the fact that the company had no worries about the Code and could take chances that Marvel and DC were denied.-Peter

Jack-I wouldn't say E-Man is my favorite comic strip of all time, but it's definitely in my top five. I was happy to see a new editor assigned and happier to note that he wrote the best story in the issue, "Timepiece to Terror!," which I enjoyed right up to the groaner of an ending. The other three stories were all average. My favorite line in "The Rats in the Walls" is the retort to the remark about having a cousin in Jamaica who runs a voodoo cult: "Every family has a few of those"!

"The Immortals!" is okay sci-fi but nothing special; I thought the Immortal looked like J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. I have to admit they got me with the surprise ending of "A Reasonable Doubt," so I will slink to the back of the class. I had assumed that, since this is a Warren story, a gal who was accused of being a witch would turn out to be a witch. The two reprints are also solid stories. This issue, like the last issue of Eerie, gives me a glimmer of hope for the future.

Frazetta

Creepy 1968 Yearbook

"The Duel of the Monsters!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #7)

"Return Trip!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #3)

"Abominable Snowman!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #6)

"Werewolf!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #1)

"The Thing in the Pit"
(Reprinted from Creepy #6)

"Vampires Fly at Dusk!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #1)

"Sand Doom"
(Reprinted from Creepy #5)

"Hot Spell!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #7)

What a perfectly fabulous idea: grab ahold of a batch of your best stories from the first four years and reprint them! Well, it would have been a better idea had it not landed smack dab in the midst of a reprinting frenzy. At least it's got a nice look to it, square-bound and all, and a generous 76 pages. I would argue with the choices but that's just me (no Ditko??!!). -Peter

Jack-I would argue with your characterization of this group as representative of the best stories. "The Duel of the Monsters!" is not good and most of the others are boring but have nice art. Once again, as in its first appearance, "Hot Spell!" is Best in Show but the best is saved for last.

Next Week...
Michael Fleisher arrives to save
Weird War Tales from itself.

Journey Into Strange Tales! Atlas/ Marvel Horror Issue 42

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 27

September 1952 Part I

Everett

 Adventures Into Weird Worlds #10

"The Ghoul!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★
(r: Chamber of Chills #11)
"The Killers!"(a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★
(r: Monsters Unleashed #4)
"Too Old to Live" ★1/2
"Down in the Cellar" (a: Paul Cooper & Matt Fox) ★★
(r: Dead of Night #6)
"The Pit of Horror!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★★
(r: Giant-Size Chillers #2)

Bosco Channey is hiding in a graveyard, trying to evade capture by the cops on a murder rap, when two officers sneak up and lay the cuffs on him. Incredibly, Bosco has been misidentified as "The Ghoul" who has been digging up graves in the cemetery and (presumably) eating corpses. Realizing that, once they get him back to the police station, the jig is up,   Bosco's brain starts working overtime. When the patrol car has a blow out, the killer takes advantage of some sleepy cops and a handy tire iron and makes his escape deep into the woods. Happening upon an old cabin, Bosco breaks in and terrorizes the old man who lives there. But, in the end, tables are turned when the dopey murderer finds out the owner of the cabin is the real ghoul! A juvenile script, predictable climax, and ugly art all combine to transform "The Ghoul" into an utterly disposable five pages. There's a very good interview with Vic Carrabotta in Alter Ego #58 and, judging by the samples reprinted, I'd have to say that Vic's work got much better in later years. He'll be with us on and off throughout the journey.

There's this dumpy science teacher in a "sleepy college" town who has a theory that everything is put on the Earth to be a killer of something else. The mongoose was put on Earth to keep the snake population down; spiders for flies; you get the idea. Said professor is contacted by local authorities when a vicious strain of giant fanged fish pop up in the nearby breeding pond (seems as though some mad scientists had been experimenting with things they didn't really understand!). His solution is to dump tons of poison into the lake and kill off the creatures but the egghead must have forgotten his own theory of nature when the corpses of the monsters are pushed aside by winged beasts that exit the pond and feast on mankind.

I can remember reading "The Killers" way back in the early 70s in Monsters Unleashed (probably my favorite Marvel b&w) and being very taken with that final panel. Now, seeing it in color, I'm even more impressed. Yep, Bernie Krigstein could do the cartoony thing at times but when he wanted to he could churn out some very impressive figures. Of course, the script relies on coincidences (the professor whose theory is proven in the end) and improbabilities (these two species of monsters seem to have been hatched full-grown overnight) but it's a marvelous monster tale and there weren't very many of those in the pages of Atlas titles in 1952.

"Too Old to Live" is an unremarkable tale of an old man in a rest home who envies the older man in the bed next to him (the oldest man in the "home for the aged" gets more attention) and decides to murder him, only to be disappointed when the dead man's twin brother moves in afterwards. "Down in the Cellar" is tedious and predictable (a bird killer who takes his spoils to a meek taxidermist and ends up being stuffed himself by tale's-end) but it gives us our first look at the work of Matt Fox, a remarkable and truly unique talent who came to comic books after working for the Weird Tales pulp in the 1940s. Fox only lends a hand to Paul Cooper's pencils but his style is bleeding all over the panels and makes the five-pager at least tolerable to look at.


Satan has had enough of his lazy imps. The little devils have taken to playing cards, reading Adventures Into Weird Worlds, and drinking, instead of giving the new recruits the business end of a trident. To help nip this nonsense in the bud, Beelzebub brings in an "efficiency expert" from Earth and, very soon, the imps are back to doing their boss's dirty work for him. As for Mr. Frost, the efficiency expert, he gets his chest of gold but some bad news from Satan as he's set to leave Hell. Seems Frost is about to die and Satan wants to keep him down in "The Pit of Horror!" for the rest of eternity! A very funny and exquisitely-illustrated change of pace.

Roussos

 Amazing Detective #14

"The Weasel Returns!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★1/2
"Which is Witch?" (a: EJ Smalle) ★1/2
"Hands Off!" (a: Bill Benulis & Jack Abel) ★1/2
"Drop Dead!" ★
"The Mousetrap" (a: Hy Rosen) ★

Aside from the opener, "The Weasel Returns!," the final issue published of Amazing Detective serves up a rancid meal of leftovers and stale scares. "Weasel" Diamond, a third-rate mobster is down to his final two hundred bucks but he tells his nagging wife that he's feeling lucky, so he takes the small bundle of greenbacks down to "Ticker" Slade's joint and lets it roll. After an incredible run of luck, "Weasel" exits "Ticker"'s place with two hundred large but there's no way "Ticker" is going to let that stand so he sends a couple of his goons after "Weasel" and they put a blackjack to his skull and leave him rotting on the pier. Later that evening, "Ticker" gets a visit from the ghost of "Weasel," who offers his murderer a chance to win back his dough legitimately. That's when we find out that he's got a bad "ticker." As with most of the stories Joe Sinnott illustrates, the script is not exactly fresh but, thanks entirely to Joe's fabulous doodling, we really don't care much. "Weasel" is a rarity for an Atlas character, a mobster we grow to like.

"The Weasel Returns"

"Which is Witch?" is the deadly dumb tale of Paul, who must choose between Charmaine or Rita but, thankfully, is helped along by the fact that one of them is a witch. The only positive I take from this one is the almost casual way Paul handles that one of his girls wears a big black coned hat and rides a broom. Just as bad is "Hands Off!," about a manners-free tourist who can't keep his hands off the exhibits at a Pompeii museum. In the end, the exhibits get their revenge on the boor when the volcano erupts and traps him in the museum. The usual Benulis magic is muted by the heavy Jack Abel inks (never a good thing).

The professor of "Drop Dead!," espouses a theory that the mind can change matter and learns that anything he says comes true. Why this practice suddenly comes to fruition for the egghead is anyone's guess but, of course, it comes back to haunt him in the end with a slip of his tongue. Dopiest of all this issue has to be "The Mousetrap," about a poor schmuck whose goal in life is to "build a better mousetrap so that the world will beat a path" to his doorstep. We hear that saying so many times that we know it has to play into the big "shock" at tale's end and, sure enough, it does. No explanation is given as to what exactly the inventor hopes to accomplish with his eight-foot mousetrap.

 Astonishing #17

"The Werewolf of Wilmach!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★
(r: Giant-Size Werewolf #2)
"I Can't Move" (a: George Roussos) ★★
"Tomb With a View" (a: Bill LaCava) ★
(r: Tomb of Darkness #11)
"Drive of Death" ★1/2
(r: Giant-Size Dracula #2)
"The Hiding Place!" (a: Marty Elkin) ★

Rugged sailor Kessel uses the rumor that a werewolf is haunting a small European village in order to rob the town's banker. When the robbery goes bad and the banker is killed, Kessel attempts to pin the werewolf tag on the town idiot but then gets a big surprise when the simpleton is the werewolf! I like the DiPreta work in "The Werewolf of Wilmach!" more than the story but must admit that the script contains a few more interesting turns than the usual werewolf tale in these parts.

"I Can't Move" is basically a three-page build-up to a one-page punchline. Burt Wallace watches as a man is brutally murdered but doesn't lift a finger. When the police arrive and suspect him of the crime, Burt insists he can't move from the spot he's standing in. As they tear him away from the spot, remarking that Burt must be insane thinking he's holding up the building he's standing next to, Burt allows how he's doing just that. And the building collapses on all of them. No real logic to this one but good for a snicker. In "Tomb with a View," a grave-robber finds competition to be stiff so he takes a freighter to India where, he's heard, the dead are left to root in the open with their valuables. Too late, he discovers the real secret: the "burial grounds" are infested with vultures. Awful script, awful art.

Rod Wilson is putting pedal to the metal, opening his new car up on the road, when he accidentally runs a man down. Knowing he'll be locked away for life, Rod dumps the corpse and his car in a lake and thumbs a ride into town. But the car that stops to pick him up looks remarkably like the one he just dumped. And, too late, he realizes, the guy at the wheel looks more than a little dead. "Drive of Death" is predictable right from the first panel but the final panel is nicely ambiguous. Did Rod escape the car when he initially dumped it in the lake or did he sink to the bottom as well?

In our last tale this issue, "The Hiding Place!," professor Neil Ward has perfected the shrinking potion he's been working on for decades, and now only an antidote stands between him and fame and fortune. Unfortunately, Neil is saddled with a shrewish (but rich) wife, Verna, who suspects something's going on between her husband and his "slip" of a lab aide, Arlene. Verna's right, of course, and so it's really not a surprise when she comes banging on the lab door while Neil and his aide are "experimenting." Neil talks his lover into taking some of the shrinking potion (you know, the one that hasn't got an antidote?) and pops her into a glass on his lab table. Verna enters, sees there's no one but Neil about and apologizes, asking her hubby to drive her home. Crisis averted, Verna medicated in bed at home, Neil rushes back to the lab to find a note from his "fraternity pal," informing him he borrowed the glass on the lab table to take to a beer party.

With perhaps the stupidest (or, depending on how many beers you've been drinking, hilarious) "shock" ending in Atlas history, "The Hiding Place!" is an exercise in "Even I could write a comic book script!" Professor Ward's motives for his shrinking potion are not even discussed (making things big in the funny books usually meant "more food" or "bigger soldiers" but smaller?) and Arlene has to be the most dim-witted girlfriend in the world to readily agree to be reduced to the size of an atom without even a "Hang on, Neil, how are you going to unshrink me?" But the best moment of all is the note informing the dopey Prof that his buddy couldn't find a glass in the whole university so he came to the lab to borrow a glass that might have had some kind of toxin in it. If this wasn't "decorated" by Marty Elkin, "The Hiding Place!" might even have fit into that "So bad it's good" class but, as it is, it's just bad.

Mystery Tales #4

"The Drink of Death!" (a: George Roussos) ★★
"Come to My Funeral!" (a: George Roussos) ★
"The Black Book" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★★1/2
"Two New Eyes" (a: Allen Bellman) ★1/2
"The Hot Seat" (a: Bob Fujitani) ★★

Anthony Garboldi was once the most revered wine expert in all of Monte Sant Angelo but, unbeknownst to his fans, Anthony has lost his taste buds with old age. When the scurrilous (and very wealthy) Benito Fagioli moves to the little Italian village, he takes an immediate shine to Garboldi's beautiful daughter, Maria, and asks for her hand in marriage. Anthony refuses but, when Fagioli discovers the truth about Garboldi's dead taste buds, the evil millionaire uses blackmail in an attempt to win the favors of lovely Maria. Threats don't work so Fagioli invites the entire town to the ceremony of "The Drink of Death" to prove Garboldi can't tell wine from water; seven glasses are set before our beleaguered hero and only one contains wine, with the remaining six holding a deadly poison. Choose the wrong glass and Anthony will lose more than just his patrons. Luckily, Garboldi had worked up a friendship with the cockroaches, rats, and spiders that lived in the corners of his house and, with his help, he dashes the plans of Benito Fagioli.

Say this for Hank Chapman... he could sure write a nutty tale when he wanted. "The Drink of Death" contains two sub-plots, but the one that will catch and hold the Atlas reader's interest is definitely not the one about a pro man protecting his lovely little Maria. The weird thing is that Hank doesn't dwell much on Garboldi's strange powers, with just a few remarks from Maria about her "disturbed" pop and his love for all wildlife, but delivers a hilarious final panel wherein the sacrificed roaches and spiders circle the tainted goblets. Roussos isn't given much heavy lifting but his scratchy style befits the atmosphere. Roussos also delivers the graphics for the inane follow-up, "Come to My Funeral!," about a hardened criminal on the run from the cops who hides out in a casket in a funeral parlor. The final panel where the dope is being cremated has been done to death. Hilariously, the thug shoots the funeral director but the ceremony goes on as scheduled the next day with nary a word about the murder!

Book binder Jacques Garde is sick and tired of that sleazy leather salesman, Burt, sniffing around Jacques' gorgeous wife, Ilsa. Sure, Jacques is a tad on the homely side (actually, he's a sharp-toothed hunchback!) but Ilsa is his woman and he'll kill anyone who tries to take her away from him. Burt comes 'round and drops off his latest sample books and then parades the new snake tattoo he's had etched into his own chest, goading Jacques and enticing Ilsa. The whole affair escalates when Garde catches the Mrs. in the arms of Burt and exacts a fitting punishment: he decorates Burt's sample book with... Burt's new tattoo! "The Black Book" (surely one of the most over-used titles in the Atlas catalog) is deliciously sleazy and mean-spirited, with a finale worthy of EC (point of fact, it's very reminiscent of the finale of the justifiably-infamous "Poetic Justice") and Vic Carrabotta design swimming in sweat and bad manners. Oddly enough, Ilsa is hardly a "catch"; she's a bit on the portly side and, depending on which panel you gaze at, possibly a decade or two older than her macho beau.

Blind since birth, Paul Marlow participates in a new experiment and receives "Two New Eyes!" Unfortunately, he receives the organs from a dead insane zookeeper (never a good combination) and wakes up to discover everyone around him (including his wife) has the head of an animal. Not really sure what the (uncredited) writer is getting at here since it's left up in the air -- does Marlow live in a world where everyone has a beastly noggin or is it the result of the loan from the dead nut? If nothing else, Allen Bellman has a steady pencil and (unlike Mssrs. Roussos and Carrabotta) doesn't overdo the inks.

The final tale, "The Hot Seat," stars Bill White as a greedy husband who wants to kill his crippled wife, Elaine, so he rigs her electric wheelchair to give her a fatal zap while he's on a business trip. When Bill's best friend, Hal, sends the telegram he was hoping for, he races home but is run over by a truck while crossing the street. In the final panels, we learn that Bill is paralyzed from the knockdown but the bright side is that Hal saved Elaine's wheelchair and now Bill can use it. Does Bill sit in "The Hot Seat" or does he own up and fry in an altogether different type of hot seat?

Next Issue!
The Editors Guarantee This Is One Of The
Strangest Tales You've Ever Read!

Star Spangled DC War Stories Issue 163: August 1975

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

Chan

Weird War Tales 40

"Back From the Dead"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Fred Carrillo

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

"The Warrior Breed"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Buddy Gernale

"The Soldier From Space"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Ric Estrada

Peter: Pete Akers and Joe Crane have had enough of fighting, so they desert when Germans attack their camp. Taking refuge in a burnt-out villa, Joe keeps going on about ghosts, convinced the place is haunted. Pete tells him to shut his trap and keep on the lookout for Nazis, but when there's a gun battle between the two G.I.s and a troop of Germans we discover that Joe was right and the villa is haunted by ghosts, "Back From the Dead"... of Pete and Joe! Holy cow, did you think Jack Oleck would have the onions to spring this old warhorse on us yet again? It was obvious from the get-go, but I assumed Oleck might spring some other twist on us. Nope.

Wait, hang on... Pete and Joe were dead?

The latest installment of "The Day After Doomsday!" is as disposable as its previous "chapters." The last man on Earth comes across the only pane of glass still in one piece and decides it contains too many memories, so he sends a brick through it. I'm too lazy to go back and see if this character is the same as that in the last installment. A young Howie Chaykin is muted by Bill Draut's heavy inking.

Robert Shurtleff is a bit on the diminutive side, but he can damn well fight, so he talks his way into the Continental Army and goes on to serve valiantly, being wounded in battle twice. The second one proves to be his undoing and he's given a ticket home, a fact his lieutenant is not happy about. When the looie demands of the doctor a reason for Shurtleff's discharge, the doctor sighs and explains that Robert is actually Deborah! An interesting little vignette but one that perhaps might be more comfortable in one of the other titles. While cross-dressing is a bit on the outre side, it certainly doesn't fit my definition of "weird." Add Buddy Gernale (in his WWT debut) to the expanding list of able-bodied Filipino artists recruited by the powers-that-be at DC.

Far out!

The Nazis come across the crash site of an alien spaceship and when its occupant comes to, they attempt to take advantage of the spaceman's amnesia. Luckily, the alien regains his memory just before blasting American troops to atoms and returns to his home planet, bearing plenty of food. So "The Soldier From Space" was sent out into space to scout for food and, luckily, our planet is full of the nourishment they crave... human blood. As opposed to Martian or Venusian or Neptunian blood. How could a race have survived for so long on a diet of human blood? I am so confused. Ric Estrada's style is perfect for this loopy cartoon. Another simply awful issue of WWT.

Jack: Agreed. The best thing about it was the two pages of Howard Chaykin art, though I suspect this was a file story, judging by the early '70s garb worn by the characters. The end of "Back from the Dead" is telegraphed early but the execution is inept. "The Warrior Breed" certainly gives new meaning to the term "weird," and it's hard to get up a head of steam when a four-page story is interrupted by four pages of ads between pages two and three. "The Soldier from Space" reminds me of Peter Fonda and is the grooviest vampire we've yet seen. I do like Chan's cover, though.

Kubert

G.I. Combat 181

"The Kidnapped Tank"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Sam Glanzman

"A Canteen Full of Hate"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Peter: The boys of the Jeb Stuart enjoy a well-deserved dip in a cool river, but a radio plea from Easy Company has them heading for shore pronto. As the crew makes their way to their unis, they are machine-gunned by a Panzer and must duck for cover. By the time they surface, their clothes and, perhaps more importantly, their tank, have made tracks. The boys set out au naturale, following the Jeb's hoof prints, and stumble on more Nazis. A vicious battle ensues and, when the dust settles, the crew are dressed in Nazi gear and heading back on the road. Coincidences abound as our heroes come across and commandeer another Panzer. Rolling along, they finally find their own tin can parked at a burning village. After killing all the Ratzis in the small town, Jeb and his men finally make it to the side of Sgt. Rock, who's not very happy that his back-up arrived so late.

"The Kidnapped Tank"

Thank goodness the guy in the last panel is identified verbally as Sgt. Rock, since we wouldn't know him from any other Sam Glanzman grunt. Looks nothing like the Heath/Kubert Rock we're accustomed to and his whining doesn't sound like the grizzled vet either. As for the plot hidden somewhere in "The Kidnapped Tank"... meh. It's nothing more than what we've gotten from Big Bob for several issues now; there's no sense of chronology or peril. The event happens and is wound up nicely (with a bow) in 12 pages' time, to be forgotten by the following month's adventure. These guys are superheroes; they don't bleed. I'm almost as bored as Kanigher was by this point in the title's history but then a new spin for a Haunted Tank after nearly 90 episodes might have been a task out of Big Bob's reach. Hey, David Michelinie, what are you up to?

Yep, that's Sgt. Rock!

A corporal urges his men to take only sips from their canteens during desert battle but the boys just can't seem to keep their thirst slaked. When their supply runs dry, they turn their weapons on the corporal but the soldier has a surprise for them. "A Canteen Full of Hate" has a nice (if predictable) twist in its tail and would have made for a perfect "Gallery of War" (a department which seems to have dried up by this time). It's still got the problematic Ric Estrada art but at least it seems as if Ric is adding a few darks to his (often too) bright palette. An off-beat letters column lacks any praise for previous work, with all of the missives dealing with technical jargon and personal war stories. Perhaps readers of G.I. Combat weren't really enamored with what they were buying?

"A Canteen Full of Hate"

Jack: I think they weren't getting enough letters to fill a column, so they resorted to the tried and true method of making them up. I was surprised by the naked soldiers in the first story and smiled at the creative ways Glanzman found to avoid showing us their naughty bits. Don't you just know that the Nazis would show up when the four guys finally shed their inhibitions and frolic naked together? It gets awfully boring being cooped up in that hot tank all day. I was most concerned about poison ivy causing a rash as they marched through the jungle without a stitch of clothing on. The second story was slightly better, if only because Estrada is a better artist than Glanzman. The depiction of desert thirst was not bad.

Kubert

 Our Army at War 283

"Dropouts!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Doug Wildey

"Bushido"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Jack: Rock is ordered to march Easy Co. to the town of San Gullio to help a small Allied force hold the town against enemy attack. On the way, Easy Co. helps a convoy of trucks fight off some attacking planes, and Rock has to loan some of his men to assist the convoy. Easy Co. next comes to a bridge, where U.S. engineers are under attack. Rock and his men help beat the Nazis again, and a few more of the Combat-Happy Joes are loaned out to guard the bridge until reinforcements arrive.

What's left of Easy Co. engages in another battle to aid some tanks that are trapped in a gully; for the third time, Rock has to loan some men to help guard the tanks on a temporary basis. Easy Co. is now down to Rock and three soldiers, all of whom are killed in a fight with a tank once they reach San Gullio. All alone now, Rock discovers that the Allied force left to hold the town is made up of nothing but Italian children. To be continued!

This panel from "Dropouts!" could be a swipe from Mort Drucker.

"Dropouts!" follows a familiar Kanigher formula of a series of sketches, where the only members of Easy Co. to die are the ones with no names. We haven't seen Doug Wildey in a few years, and his art veers back and forth between what look like swipes to some fairly rough portraits of Rock and his men. I'm in favor of a continued story for a change, though, and look forward to seeing what happens next.

"Bushido"

"Bushido," the warrior's code, guides both American and Japanese soldiers during WWII as the Americans make a suicidal attack on a Japanese bunker perched on a hill. One by one, the U.S. soldiers are picked off until the Japanese think they have won, but the last effort of a dying American soldier delivers some TNT through the viewhole of the bunker, and everyone is finished.

Bob Kanigher's Gallery of War stories often outshine the lead story in the issue in which they appear, and this one is no exception. The tale is gritty, dark, and satisfying, and Estrada's art is as good as I've seen.

Peter: Newcomer Doug Wildey's penciling isn't as smooth as that of Kubert or Heath but at least he's no Glanzman or Estrada. We're settling into a schedule of barely-tolerable Rock adventures interrupted, it seems, every six months or so with a winner. "Dropouts!" is no winner; it's predictable and suffers from Big Bob's mantra that if a hook works one time, pound the readers with that hook over and over. It's a coincidence that Rock's "dropouts" are the supporting crew we've come to know and love and the three grunts who bite the bullet in the climax are, obviously, the guys we never got to know.

Just as I'm complaining about the lack of a "Gallery of War" entry for some time, Big Bob drops "Bushido" in my lap. It's a quickie but it's also easily the best story I read this month. The most successful Gallery stories are those that leave an impact and the image of the dying G.I. crawling up towards the bunker carries just such an impact.

Kirby & Royer

Our Fighting Forces 158

"Bombing Out on the Panama Canal"
Story by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby & Mike Royer

Jack: As Japanese soldiers prepare a suicide mission to destroy the Panama Canal by dropping bombs from an airplane, the Losers are about to be executed by goons taking orders from Panama Fattie! Despite being bound hand and foot, our heroes manage to overpower the men with guns and avoid being ventilated; Panama Fattie cannot bring herself to shoot Captain Storm because she is kind of sweet on him.

Fattie makes her way to the Japanese camp and tries to shoot her way in but is mortally wounded. The Losers follow and, after a tender moment between Captain Storm and a dying Panama Fattie, the Losers destroy the camp and shoot down the plane before it can really get airborne and head off to bomb the canal.

"Bombing Out on the Panama Canal" is as bad as anything I've ever read by Jack Kirby. Below, Peter notes some of the awful dialogue but omits my favorite--"'This Roscoe says you've had it!'" The use of the term "Roscoe" to refer to a gun goes way back and has been the subject of ridicule in regard to some of the less talented pulp fiction crime writers. The fact that Jack Kirby would use it with a straight face in a 1975 comic, even when putting it in the mouth of a character in WWII, is incredible. The aborted "romance" between Captain Storm and Panama Fattie is also hard to believe.

Peter: It's not just Kirby's frenetic pace and (ofttimes confusing) wall-to-wall action that gives me a headache, but his acid rain of cliched and silly dialogue as well. "'That's for you, meathead!,'" "'Stop--or I'll shoot!,'" and my personal favorite this issue: "'She's off again--goin' like a runaway blimp!'" That last bit is just one of the nuggets sprinkled here and there pertaining to Panama Fattie's girth. Even more surprising than the fat jokes is, even as late as 1975, comic book colorists really thought the Japanese had bright yellow skin!

Kubert

Star Spangled War Stories 190

"Project: Omega"
Story by David Michelinie
Art by Gerry Talaoc

"Who Will Mourn for Corporal Kruger"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Ruben Yandoc

Peter: Only the arrival of top Nazi brass saves the Unknown Soldier from catching one in the back from Dr. Schopfer, the slightly-crazed but patriotic German scientist behind the top secret "Project: Omega" who believes US to be sadistic Lt. Rolf When the top officers arrive, it coincides with an underground insurgence outside the castle and the brass demand an exhibition of power from Schopfer's technological terror. With a gun held to his hand, Schopfer throws the lever and his army of intelligent (but zombified) gorillas heads outside to kick some rebel butt.

Seeing his chance to destroy the secret weapon while the Nazis are busy, US sneaks back into the castle but Schopfer follows him and attempts to make good his vow to kill Rolf. US unmasks and wins the nutty professor's trust, activating a switch on his gizmo to turn the gorillas against the Nazis. One of the Germans enters the lab and a firefight ensues, with Schopfer catching a fatal hunk of lead. Just before he heads off to the great science lectern in the sky, he makes US vow to rescue his daughter Gudren and, once he's sure the Soldier is clear of the castle, Schopfer blows the building to hell. Later, sifting through the rubble, a noticeably perturbed one-armed Nazi holds the mask of the Unknown Soldier high and swears as his name is Lt. Rico Strada, the Amerikan schweinhund will die! Yet another unsatisfied customer come to call.

A slightly off-kilter, but action-filled, chapter of the Unknown Soldier serial, "Project: Omega" feels like a 'tweener to me, one of those rushed scripts that fall between super-duper installments. Not a lot happens and what does is pretty predictable. The only surprise is the arrival of Lt. Strada, who I immediately figured was a support character from a previous issue that I'd forgotten about but turns out to be a sinister enemy we've never seen before. More on that next issue.

Corporal Kruger still believes there's love in the world even as his Nazi comrades have turned their backs on him and forage for food in the freezing fields outside Stalingrad. As the Russian army moves in on Kruger and his fellow soldiers, the Corporal finds a friend in a starving dog. But when the dog abandons him, Kruger gives up hope and accepts death when it arrives. As his corpse lies in the field, the dog returns to grieve. "Who Will Mourn for Corporal Kruger" is a bit on the maudlin side but still a decent read (certainly better than most of the recent contributions from writer Oleck), as Oleck does a good job evoking the sheer futility of the situation. The art by Yandoc is nicely done and has a very macabre atmosphere (although I will say that either the dog keeps getting smaller or Kruger is a giant by tale's-end); it's easy to see why "Rubeny" was often utilized for the DC horror line.

Jack: What a disappointing issue! We had grown used to such good work from Michelinie that a run of the mill script like this is a real letdown, especially since most of the other DC war comics by August 1975 were not much good. I knew we were in trouble when two pages of a 13-page story were used for recap, but when the zombie gorillas appeared, I thought, "Oh no! DC's gorilla obsession again!" The backup story is weak, though the art in both stories is decent, as usual. Here's hoping part three of the Unknown Soldier saga is better.

Next Week...
No, actually it's
the sound of an
empire crumbling!