Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 163: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 148

May 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystic #59

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Sleep-Walker!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

"Jigsaw" (a: Mort Meskin & George Roussos) ★★

"Something Waits on the Mountain!" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

"What Happened to Hassen?" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★

"The Fatal Words!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★★1/2

"Stormy Night!" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

(r: Beware #7)

Greedy hypnotist Bruno Alban puts Jeffry Hamilton under a trance and learns that, in a previous life, Jeffry was a pirate who stole millions in gold and stashed it away in a safe spot. Leaving his subject under a trance, Albans has the pirate speak and lead him to the treasure. Sure enough, Albans finds the buried chest but isn't paying attention to the pirate's ramblings and misses the part about the booby trap he rigged hundreds of years before. Ka-Boom! Hey, "The Sleep-Walker!" is nothing new, obviously inspired by the Bridey Murphy fad, but it's a lot of fun and I love Doxsee's simple but effective penciling evocative of Reed Crandall. And, hey, someone actually dies in this strip!

The stinkin' Commies send some agents over to steal some of our top-secret materials. In order to break into the base holding said materials, one of the agents uses a gizmo to make him invisible. Thank goodness the Commies are pretty stupid cuz the gizmo doesn't benefit from the cloak of invisibility. In the end, the Good Guys (US) knew what the Reds were up to and laid a booby trap reminiscent of those used by pirates in the first strip this issue. "Jigsaw" would have been a lot more clever without the final three panels of exposition but the Meskin/Roussos art is pretty good.

Somewhere near San Rico lies a deadly patch of air where jets have been slamming into impenetrable barriers and crashing. Also, hey, what about the cattle that seem to be disappearing? The Air Force sends two of its crack pilots, Captains Luro and Bozza, to investigate. As they fly their jets near the danger zone, they are startled and amazed by the sight of two huge vultures flying right at them! The pilots follow the birds back to their aerie, where their master, Dr. Carlos Vega, awaits.

Once Luro and Bazzo set their jets down and approach, Vega explains that he's raised the giant birds, known as "Awks," from eggs and plans to use them to become dictator of San Rico. The boys hoof it to their planes, fire them up, and return to blast the buzzards (and their master) from the sky. The world lets out a collective sigh. How can you not love a dopey strip such as "Something Waits on the Mountain!" which, for goodness sakes, was released a couple months before the premiere of The Giant Claw? Both projects have a serious tone to them that belies the fact that neither should be taken seriously. The Krigstein art is icing on the cake; I'll bet Bernie was laughing the entire time he was at his drawing board.

Abdullah Hassen rules over Khana with an iron fist, having taken control and forced out the previous rulers, the Mafas. Hassen's chief hobby is arresting and imprisoning anyone he doesn't like. One night, a stranger breaks into the palace wine cellar and is seized by the guards. When the intruder is brought before Hassen, the dictator realizes the man is one of the Mafas; Ras Mafa begs the evil lord to allow him to take just the one bottle of wine. Hassen refuses and opens the bottle to taste the vintage wine. Big mistake. "What Happened to Hassen?" has a decent twist but its cartoony graphics are off-putting at times.

"The Fatal Words!" is a humorous three-pager about an old miser who discovers his dog can talk and attempts to make millions exploiting Rover. The dog, not happy with the proceedings, clams up. It's only three pages but it got a few chuckles out of me and the final panel is a keeper. On a "Stormy Night!," the SS Belle Lune is heading right into the biggest hurricane of all time when, suddenly, the engines stop. The men in the engine room have been turned to stone. What the heck happened? Well, the Captain soon discovers his ship has been boarded by the "Conquerors," aliens from a distant planet who are here to scout for an impending invasion. Long story short, Earth is saved by the hurricane, which the little space buggers never counted on. The art and story are both microwaved. Let's pretend this better-than-average issue went out on the high note of "The Fatal Words!," shall we?-Peter

Strange Tales #58

Cover by Bill Everett

"He Floats Through the Air" 

(a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★

"Menace from the Nether World!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★

"The Night of October Third!" (a: Dave Berg) ★

"Man Lost" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"No Place on Earth!" (a: John Giunta) ★★

"The Secret of the Black Tube" (a: Matt Baker) ★★

Brilliant, a genius, and really smart to boot, Earl Ferrol has invented a way for man to fly without the restraint of a jet. He simply jumps out a window and glides. For one nanosecond, Earl gives pause and considers what this breakthrough could mean for modern man... then he steals the jewels from a nearby apartment. Struck by money-lust, Earl goes on a whirlwind theft flight before the cops finally nab him in an ironic twist of fate. Believe me, the Williamson/ Mayo art is the only spark to this groaner. Just once I'd like to see a criminal mastermind scratch his chin and decide he'll use his new invention for something other than personal gain. There are honest geniuses out there in the Atlas Universe, aren't there?

While at an office costume party (dressed as a sorcerer), Bill Farrin is given the unpleasant news by his boss that he's been fired for not being glib enough. Before Bill can successfully argue his future with the company, the two men are approached by a strange elfish creature who mistakes Bill for his "master." The men are led down a stairway into a dungeon where wait a handful of robed men. Before long, Bill and his boss are told that this band of magicians are about to take control of the world and were just waiting for the Big Poobah (whom they mistake for Bill, obviously) to lead the way. Using his noodle, Bill talks the magicians into putting off the attack for another thousand years when the time will be right. Back at the party, Bill's boss is impressed and gives the man a promotion. Immensely silly stuff this "Menace from the Nether World!" but, as with the previous story, the art keeps you along for the full ride. 

On "The Night of October Third!" salesman Cal Nevin breaks down in a remote part of the country and hoofs it to a lone little house. Inside, the man of the house, a brilliant and really smart Atlas scientist, has been toiling away on a "matter duplicator," a gizmo that can replicate anything (well, anything small enough to fit into its teensy drawer). Dollar signs (literally) flashing before his eyes, Cal waits until the scientist hits the sheets and then starts cloning a ten-dollar bill. Unfortunately, the greedy man is interrupted by the scientist who is shocked at Cal's avarice and demands he stop. In the ensuing melee, a fire breaks out and the scientist's lab is destroyed. The old man ponders a lifetime of work up in smoke while Cal regrets that he didn't have a Ben Franklin on him. 

In the three-page "Man Lost," an explorer spends months traipsing through the African jungles, searching for a scientist who had gone missing years before. He stumbles upon the brilliant Dr. Hansel in a small village, only to discover the egghead has relinquished his throne as "Most Brilliantest Professor in the Atlas Universe" to devote his life to building doll houses! Disgusted, the explorer turns and heads back to the States before Hansel can explain that he's discovered a race of little people! 

Rod Phillips kisses his wife and kids goodbye then heads to the office, where he holds down a 9-to-5 at the Brilliant Atlas Scientist Company. Just another day. But then tragedy strikes when Rod enters the building and no one knows who he is. Like so many protagonists before him in virtually the same situation, Rod is perplexed. He heads back home where his wife tells him she doesn't recognize him and she's waiting for her husband to come home... after he's been gone for a year! What the Dickens? Rod realizes he's disappeared from human consciousness just like his old partner, Harry, and several other brilliant scientists who were working on a "time formula theory."

Suddenly, Harry himself approaches Rod on the street and begs him to follow him to a secret location. There, Rod meets up with all the members of the Disappeared Brilliant Atlas Scientist Club. Putting all their massive thinking caps together, the men of science deduce that something just isn't right, that some unknown force from outer space or another dimension is attempting to thwart their plans for a "time formula theory!" In the end, the unknown powers decide to allow the men to go back to their ordinary lives sans any memory of the theory. You think my half-assed synopsis is complicated, just try reading the word balloons on the final page of "No Place on Earth!" Still, for that thrill alone (certainly not for the cookie-cutter Giant art), I'd semi-sorta recommend this as a decent way to waste a couple minutes.

In the "Stinkin' Commie" Department this issue, we have "The Secret of the Black Tube," wherein said stereotypical Wessler Commies kidnap an American scientist, hoping to discover the secret of his new invention, a black tube that the enemy believes promotes mind reading. It's the typical "the other side is as stupid as we are smart" hogwash that permeated the Atlas titles in the 1950s (and before you jump on me, I'm not saying the "other side" was right; I'm just wondering if we were ever wrong) but I do have to admit the final reveal (the real secret of the tube) is pretty funny.-Peter

World of Fantasy #7

Cover by Bill Everett

"Wheels of Doom!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★

"Someone in the Flames" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"The Girl Who Didn't Exist!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★1/2

"Run for Your Life" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Hidden Hex!" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★★

"The Man in Grey!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★★

Rodney Ames and his brother Edwin are getting up in years and their business is in dire need of cash. Edwin complains about the young guys on motorcycles who make the streets a menace but Rodney thinks it looks like fun and buys one on time. When he zooms off, he looks 40 years younger! Rodney enters a race to win a $5000 prize while Edwin stays home and worries. During the race, Rodney runs another rider off the track to help a third rider win the prize. When he gets home, Rodney discovers that the winner was Edwin, who had also bought a bike and transformed into his younger self!

Manny Stallman's art again reminds me of Jack Kirby's work in spots. The plot in "Wheels of Doom!" is silly and I wish there were more of a focus on the bad young men zooming their cycles through town. 

On the run from the cops, Crane sees Ancient Mayans worshipping at a temple. He faints and, on waking, sees an Indian whom he thinks must be a figment of his imagination. He is taken to the plantation of Juan Lopez, who explains that the local Indians still worship Quetzalcoatl, believing that the god appears in the fires on the pyramid, robed in feathers. Crane cooks up a scheme and dresses like the god, planning to control the natives but surprised to see "Someone in the Flames." The Indians catch him and throw him in a cell, where he is visited by Quetzalcoatl himself! The Big Q turns out to be none other than Lopez, who reveals that he dresses as the god to control the Indians.

The first two stories in this issue are credited to Carl Wessler and Jack Oleck in the GCD and, sadly, Oleck's tale is even worse than Wessler's. So much for my faint hope that new blood might improve the writing at Atlas.

Nathan Finch buys a big seaside house on the New England coast for a low price and is unconcerned that it's said to be haunted by "The Girl Who Didn't Exist!" She's a pretty gal named Johanna and her ghost appears on the widow's walk one night when Nathan gets dressed up to resemble the whaler she'd loved. Romance blossoms and Nathan goes to the wharf one night to leave with her on a whaling ship. She reveals that she knew who he was all along and they agree to keep their torrid affair going at the house.

For once, the ghost is really a ghost and not a Martian or a projection or a trick by the cops! That has to be worth something, right? The art by Tony DiPreta isn't very impressive.

Ignoring his father Ivan's advice to "Run for Your Life," Jan Hublo is captured at an anti-Communist revolt in his Eastern European country. Ivan finds a book on sorcery and, the next morning, conjures a cloud that enters the prison where Jan is held but fails to set him free. Attempts with fire and invisibility the next day also fail, and the day after that, evil Col. Rokell orders Jan to be shot at dawn, only to find that the young man has vanished! When the colonel rushes out to find Jan he is mistaken for the prisoner, arrested, and executed by firing squad.

Reading an anti-Communist story by Carl Wessler that is illustrated by Robert Sale makes death by firing squad look good in comparison. There is really nothing positive to say about this one.

Wealthy Richard Knox buys a farm in Pennsylvania Dutch country and orders his workman to paint over all the hex signs because he thinks they're silly superstitions. Right away, the community is shaken by a big storm, a fire, and a tornado. The neighbors aren't happy but Knox won't back down. Eventually, everyone and everything calms down. Knox does not realize that his farm contains "The Hidden Hex!" that grew up in the middle of his crops when his workman planted them just so.

Sam Kweskin's art is not bad and I gave this one an extra half star for the early appearance of a crop circle in a comic book. Did Carl Wessler know that they would be a big thing in a few decades?

In the year 6956, a Troubleshooter escapes from the locked closet where he was held, bound and gagged. He reports to his superior officer that he was slugged by a Destroyer, who took his orders and time-travel clearance. The troubleshooters travel to the past to prevent dangerous discoveries from being made, while the Destroyers do the opposite. The troubleshooter rushes back to the 20th century but is too late to prevent the Destroyer from whispering in the ear of a man in a lab and telling him the final element that will lead to creation of an explosive that will destroy the world. Fortunately, the man in whose ear the secret was whispered is only a janitor, who has no idea what the Destroyer was talking about!

Grey Morrow's solid artwork elevates this story, which benefits from an intriguing concept and a conclusion that I did not see coming. Easily the best story this issue, "The Man in Gray!" saves World of Fantasy #7 from being consigned to the recycling bin.-Jack

Next Week...
Hey, At Least We've
Got the Art, Right?

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 162: Atlas/Marvel Post-Code Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 147

May 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #57

Cover by Bill Everett and Carl Burgos (?)

"The Man in Black!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"Smash-Up!" (a: Syd Shores) ★1/2

"The Man Who Stole the Sun!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"When Vernon Vanished" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"It Happens at Night!" (a: Fred Kida) ★

"Someone is Following" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

In an attempt to further his control over his people, Buloff the dictator declares a national holiday in his own name and proclaims that all his subjects must smile on this day of celebration. Though his flunkies warn him this might actually cause more consternation than celebration, Buloff stands firm.

While the festival is going on, "The Man in Black!" suddenly appears on the street, sporting one of the most frowniest frowns ever to grace a human face. When he learns of this act of disobedience, Buloff orders his guards to arrest the man but when they attempt a capture, the protestor disappears. We discover that the stranger was actually from another dimension where everything is the counterpart to Earth (his frown is a smile, etc.). The man in black is gone but the seeds of rebellion have been planted.

Yeah, that climax is pretty silly and a whole lot of preach but I gotta say this tale sure sounds familiar, as if ripped from the pages of today's headlines. We thought Atlas might score a bullseye on space flight and time travel someday but it turns out the prediction of a dangerous, egotistical dictator who loves to slap his name on everything he comes in contact with and sends secret police out to do his dirty work was the most on-the-money prophecy ever.

Two men crash their small plane in an uncharted territory of the Yucatan jungle and discover an ancient race of men who drink from a fountain of youth and really hate outsiders. After being captured, the two explorers escape and briefly debate heading back for some of that fabulous water but decide that it's a beverage no normal man should drink. "Smash-Up!" begins with an exciting adventure into the jungle and sorta sputters out right in the middle of a debate about ancient races and eternal youth. The Syd Shores art is so-so, with some panels showing a certain style and flair while others look like poor Syd fell asleep on his pencil and just sorta made lines on the paper.

Joe Hill is jackhammerin' a city street when he suddenly falls through the asphalt and discovers a hidden world underneath. Joe meets the people of the underground city and learns that they derive their heat from a giant diamond that sits in the middle of town square. In the great tradition of Atlas explorers before him, Joe decides that the gem can make him a rich man above ground so he makes plans to steal it. Like those pioneering thieves before him, it does not go well for our protagonist. I can see our (uncredited) writer sitting in the Atlas breakroom, spinning the "The Man Who..." wheel and landing on "...Stole the Sun" and then coming up empty for an original plot. I did laugh out loud when Joe broke through to this fabulous Verne-ian city after barely cracking the surface of the road. How did no one ever run across this paradise before?

Rod Mitchell is assigned to investigate the strange disappearance of Lloyd Vernon so he heads to Vernon's hometown to sniff out some clues. While he's there, he falls in love with Vernon's daughter and, alas, discovers the "vanish without a trace" gene is hereditary. "When Vernon Vanished" is one of Carl Wessler's worst scripts ever (and that's saying something); a silly romance tale without one iota of energy or wit. The Winiarski art matches the script's mediocrity to a T. Equally dreadful is the three-page "It Happens At Night," where a down-on-his-luck investor (down to his "last ten thousand!") receives what he perceives to be messages from the neon lights in a building across town. His wealth becomes massive but, in the inevitable downer of a climax, a patrolman informs the once again destitute former millionaire that the building in question was shut down years before. 

The graphic style of Richard Doxsee (reminiscent of George Evans) elevates the finale, "Someone is Following," from the usual Atlas Stinkin' Commie pap into a striking visual journey. "Red Scourge" Ah Ling comes to Hanchu to crack down on resistors to the Commie way. He orders his thugs to burn down a temple to show who's boss but then must deal with a superhuman shadow man who thwarts the evil military presence and restores peace to Hanchu. The twist is both expected and clever. Doxsee has come right out of left field and, in the three months since he made his debut with "Inside the Pharaoh's Tomb" in Journey Into Unknown Worlds #54, he has become one of my favorite Atlas artists.-Peter

Marvel Tales #158

Cover by Carl Burgos and Sol Brodsky (?)

"I Saw the Hidden People" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Secret of the Black Stone" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Man Who Moved!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"Nightmare's End!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Lost... One World!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

"They Think I'm Dead!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

The penultimate issue of the first incarnation of Marvel Tales begins with "I Saw the Hidden People." Evan Ralston moves to the country to get away from it all and start a farm but discovers his crops aren't growing as fast as he'd like. So Evan goes out and buys a crop-dusting plane and gets to work with the fungicide; usually chemicals can produce a few nasty side effects but Evan gets a whale of a result. When he finishes dusting, a town materializes where his motley crops stood.

He meets a few people on the town's main street and one, a gorgeous babe named Dolores, explains that the town is called Oronaldo and that it disappeared one hundred years ago during the gold rush. Yep, this here town is awash with gold! As Evan explains, you can't keep a town that suddenly appears out of nothing a secret for long. Especially if that town is carved in gold. "I Saw the Hidden People" is not that bad of a tale (penned by Our Man Wessler) but the art is a seesaw of decent and awful. Forte can pencil a really nice dame but some of his characters suffer from odd anatomy (see that splash for proof--both men look as though they've become victims of a head shrinker).

In "Secret of the Black Stone," a sculptor discovers a strange black rock that he takes home to make statues out of. He accidentally discovers that the rock can give him power to make other men do his bidding. His grand vision of robbing candy stores is dashed by a really smart cop who immediately figures out what's going on and shuts down the mad sculptor. The script is just as bad as most of the drivel pumped out by Carl Wessler but we should be able to count on a decent bit of work by Paul Reinman. Not here, where the artist seems rushed and uninterested. But then I was uninterested, too, so I don't blame the guy.

Spin that wheel!!! "The Man Who..." lands on "Moved!" this time. If you think that's anti-climactic, read on. Winston J. Cobb is an entrepreneur, a man who's mastered the business of transporting people, and the man in front of him is wasting his time. Mr. Groves is trying to sell Winston J. on a new form of transportation: teleportation. Cobb asks for a demonstration but when Groves waves his hands and says "Voila!," the big man is still in his office. He tells Groves to leave and the man promptly does, in thin air as a matter of fact. Then Winston walks out his office door and realizes he's on a deserted Pacific island. At least this one is only three pages long.

Joe Lester's been having a really bad dream every night. He's the passenger in a car driving through the city when a figure darts out in front of the car and, just before the driver runs the shadow down, Joe whips out his medal he received for placing 13th in a first grade geography test. Danged if that medal doesn't stop the driver from killing that pedestrian every time. But the nightmares are taking their toll on Joe's health and his girl, Fran, is worried sick about her guy. Thank goodness they've both got a swell friend in Harry, who comes over to make sure the couple are coping. If only Joe and Fran could see into Harry's dark heart. He's got his eyes set on making Fran his squeeze and no bedridden pansy will get in his way. 

Harry steals Joe's medal to further erode his friend's mental state, but the joke's on Harry. He's the guy in the dream and without that special medal to stop the car's driver from pulling a hit-and-run, Harry becomes roadkill! By this time, effective twists were long gone and "Nightmare's End!" doesn't stray from the formula one iota. 

Floyd Nolan is just as stupid as every other Atlas thief; he steals thirty grand and tries to hide it in the basement of the boarding house where he lives and accidentally receives a whopper of an electric shock. He awakens to discover one month has gone by and he quickly devises a way to hide the moolah and escape police suspicion at the same time: shock himself 150 years into the future. I could have told this nitwit that something would go wrong. "Lost... One World!" (obviously "The Man Who Could Use Electricity to Transport Into the Future!" was already being used) makes little to no sense (how does Floyd know the shock won't kill him this time, let alone propel him farther into the future?) and is adorned by what look like grade school doodlings.

In the finale, "They Think I'm Dead!," a circus midget (hey, it's the uncredited writer's word, not mine, so take it up with him!) named Captain Small (!) stumbles onto a formula that can transform him into a normal-sized man. When he gains those extra feet of tallness, he wants no one to know who he was in his previous incarnation, so he fakes his own death. Ironically, he's arrested for murdering his former mini-self! After serving his time in jail, he's released and finds he can't get a job. Ironically, he wishes he was a midget again (oof, there's that awful un-PC word again, sorry!) and hits the road as a silent hobo. I'm not going to go out on a limb and proclaim that "They Think I'm Dead!" is a great comic book story, but it beats the hell out of its competition this issue and the ironies are effective. Otherwise, you can throw Marvel Tales #158 into the slab without so much as cracking the spine.-Peter

Mystery Tales #53

Cover by Bill Everett & Carl Burgos

"The People Who Couldn't Move" (a: Dick Giordano) ★1/2

"That's What You Think!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

"I Died Too Soon" (a: Marvin Stein) ★1/2

"The Hired Hand" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"He Lived Again" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"What Happened in Room 14?" (a: John Forte) ★★

Jack Tyler may be down to his last dollar, but when he arrives in Wardsburg he promises himself that he'll leave as a rich man. At City Hall, he hits on pretty, blonde secretary Marsha Bentley and quickly secures a job from Mayor Hoskins, who will pay $40/week for Jack to wind the clock in the tower every day at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. That evening, Jack and Marsha admit they're already madly in love with each other before Jack goes to wind the clock.

After his task is done he tells Marsha he plans to rob the local bank and she reluctantly agrees to skip town with him. Days later, Jack notices the townsfolk rushing inside at the first hint of rain. Two nights later, he enters the bank to rob it, only to find local citizens, "The People Who Couldn't Move," standing around and not moving. The mayor yells at Jack for forgetting to wind the clock and, as soon as the winding is done, the townsfolk start moving again, rushing in out of the rain. Hoskins tells Jack that they're all robots he built 30 years before to do all the hard work for mankind. Jack drives off alone, figuring that Marsha is a robot, unaware that she is not and has also left town, assuming for some reason that Jack is a robot.

And so begins another Atlas issue with a lousy, mixed-up story by Carl Wessler that features some of the worst Dick Giordano art I've ever seen. Why isn't Marsha a robot? Don't ask me. She must have been awfully desperate to fall for a jerk like Jack in a matter of hours.

Jessup is disappointed when his rich uncle dies and only leaves him a pair of eyeglasses, but when he puts them on and realizes he can see the immediate future, he does what every other Atlas protagonist does and tries to come up with a way to cash in. Instead of heading for the racetrack or the casino like anyone with sense, Jessup goes to the bank and waits till he sees the guard go on a coffee break. He then forces the bank manager to put all the cash in the bag. Before he can leave, the guard returns and foils his plans, explaining that he noticed how Jessup's eyes looked scared but vicious when he put on the glasses. "Anyone could see he was about to do something bad evil."

Frank Bolle's art on "That's What You Think!" is even worse than Dick Giordano's was in the first story. Jessup is such a dolt that he deserves what he gets. It astounds me how many people in the 1950s thought of little else than how to rob a bank.

Frank Neely escapes from prison before his scheduled execution and heads for town, looking for Sheriff Joe Jessup. On the sidewalk, people walk by as if he's not there, and in Mike's Diner, everyone seems not to see or hear Frank. He hears a radio report that he was executed and exits, passing Sheriff Jessup, who seems not to see him. Frank runs out of town, certain he's dead. Sheriff Jessup and men with guns turn up and arrest him. The sheriff tells Frank that when he heard of the escape, he told everyone in town to put on an act, figuring that it would keep innocent bystanders safe.

"I Died Too Soon" continues this issue's string of losers. It seems like Atlas comics are at their last gasp. The story is poor and the art is nearly as bad.

Suddenly appearing on Earth as a scout for an invasion, an alien disguises himself in a three-piece suit and tie and shows up at a farmhouse, where an elderly couple take him on as "The Hired Hand" to do chores. He says a few magic words and splits wood, but the couple are not surprised. He chants an incantation and plows a field, but he still doesn't get a rise out of the old folks. He teleports instantly back to his home planet and reports, causing the general to abandon the invasion plans because the Earthlings must have secret powers stronger than those of the invaders. Back on Earth, the elderly couple (wait for it) wonder where the hired hand got to, lamenting their poor vision.

If you didn't see that one coming, you must be as blind as these old folks. Hand in your Bad Comic Fan card and go back to Comic School! Marvin Stein's art is on par with everything else in this issue.

Ben Thompson is hiking through the frozen north when a crevice opens up and he falls. He begs for his life, promising to reform, and is saved when a soft ledge breaks his fall. Ben recalls refusing to help an old prospector named Larson two days ago, when Larson offered to cut Ben in on his big uranium discovery for a bit of grub and Ben grabbed his map and sent him away hungry. Ben is saved by some hikers and immediately forgets his promise to reform. On his own again, Ben locates the place to dig for uranium and suddenly hears Larson warning him of another crevice about to open up. Ben thinks Larson is a ghost and runs off, falling off another cliff to his death and leaving Larson, who is perfectly fine and had been rescued by others, to ponder why Ben didn't take advantage of his second chance.

Empty moralizing, bad plotting, and shabby art are to be found in the pages of "He Lived Again." Is Atlas on fumes and using file stories that weren't worth publishing the first time around?

Columnist Ned Barker writes the Inside Broadway column for the newspaper and relishes in skewering talent and ruining careers. He sees the act of a magician named Presto the Great and the review that follows causes the performer's engagement to be canceled. One day, Ned sees Presto on the street and follows him to a shabby hotel, where he stays in room 14. Ned sneaks in and sees Presto practicing before a mirror and not doing badly at all. Suddenly, Ned is tossed into another dimension where Presto is a great magician staying in a fancy hotel room. Ned wants to promote Presto, but the columnist's appearance makes Presto lose his mojo. He can't send Ned back to his home dimension, so Ned is forced to wander the streets, jobless.

By default, "What Happened in Room 14?" is the best story in this poor issue of Mystery Tales, even though it's not very good. John Forte's people can tend to look wooden, as they do here, and I have to say that Ned Barker reminded me of myself and the way I've criticized this issue. At least I'm still in my home dimension. I think.-Jack

Next Week...
More Williamson/Mayo Magic!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 161: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 146

May 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Adventure into Mystery #7

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Invisible Doom!" (a: Gene Colan) ★1/2

"The Watcher!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★★

"One Hour till Doomsday!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Beware... the Brimm!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★★

"Mission... Murder!" (a: Howard O' Donnell) ★

"Trapped in the Room of Darkness" (a: Syd Shores) ★★1/2

Brilliant scientist Professor Jason has created a formula that will enable its user to become absolutely invisible (except to himself, that is). Jason has had successful attempts on rats and seems assured that humans will follow suit. That's where Jason's grotesque, hunchbacked assistant Phil comes in. Phil sees dollar signs in the act of becoming invisible and forces Jason to give him the juice.

Jason goes out and steals a million dollars from a bank (for some undisclosed reason, everything that Phil touches becomes invisible so he's able to walk out of the bank vault without anyone the wiser) and then comes back to the lab demanding an antidote. Jason is brilliant so he's able to trick the dope into taking a knockout drug. The police arrive shortly thereafter. The Colan work in "The Invisible Doom!" is good but the script is day-old fish. We're never told what it is that this ding-dong Phil does in the lab. Sweep up dead rats? Mix highly-combustible solutions? Run algebraic problems with the boss? 

Andrew Morris, "a rather colorless man," in his own words "a nobody," invents a portal where he can transport part of his body to save his fellow human beings. He scoops passengers out of a crashing auto, grabs a baby who's climbed out on a ledge, and commits various other selfless acts. But suddenly Andrew's portal opens up onto a distant planet and the startled genius realizes that the portal might be two-way and the people on the faraway world are very aggressive. A fun little bit of dopiness starring one of the most unlikely Atlas protagonists: a brilliant genius who uses his invention to save people rather than knock over liquor stores! It's got the cliched climax but otherwise "The Watcher!" is an entertaining distraction.

In the dopey "One Hour till Doomsday!," hardened criminal Biff Malden holds an old couple hostage on their farm until the woman begins cackling about the end of the world and Biff can't take it anymore. He runs out of the house and down the road but suddenly everything turns black! The old woman was right! Well, no, once the cops arrive we discover it's just an eclipse. -Groan-

Australian cowboy Rick Mallory is out searching for lost sheep one day when he comes across a cute little creature hiding in the brush. Not recognizing it from the approximately one million species to be found in the Outback, Rick grabs the thing and heads back to the ranch. There, the natives become restless, claiming the nipper is the fabled Brimm.. an evil being that brings chaos to anyone around it. Rick scoffs but then his bad luck begins. Could this little gremlin really be a miniature demon? "Beware... the Brimm!" is a fabulous little fantasy, so much more entertaining and clever than anything else I tripped over this time out. The Torres art is right on the level (style-wise) of Frazetta and Williamson, and the Brimm has a Wally Wood-ian look to it. 

In the discardable three-page "Mission... Murder!," foreign agents (read that as stinkin' Commies) are sent in to destroy a mechanical brain that the good guys have invented. It doesn't go well. How to make a three-pager seem like thirty. In the finale, hardened criminal Oliver Deane is given a chance at parole if he'll participate in an experiment that will wipe out crime as we know it: the Jordan Chamber!

Deane enters the chamber and does indeed exit a changed man, with not one bad bone in his body. But that's because, unbeknownst to Deane and anyone else involved in the test, his bad side has exited his body and been given form as an exact clone of Oliver! The twin goes on a rampage of violence, including knocking over candy stores and Hobby Lobbies and smashing parking meters. Only the "real" Oliver Deane can clear up this mess and get back to Barbara, his one true love. There's a Hallmark Movie of the Week schmaltziness to the climax of "Trapped in the Room of Darkness," but there's also a bit of imagination used, so I have to give extra credit where it's due, especially when the scripter is our favorite target, pulpmeister Wessler.-Peter

Astonishing #61

Cover by Bill Everett

"Midnight in the Wax Museum!" (a: Richard Doxsee)

(r: Fear #20) ★★

"Mystery in Mid-Air" (a: John Forte) ★★

"The Frightful Film!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★1/2

"The Floating Man" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"The Too Late Show" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"The Creeping Threat!" (a: John Romita) ★★1/2

Tough guy Kenyon accepts a bet to stay the night in the "haunted" wax museum where a criminal named Anders went missing. Everything goes fine until the wax dummy of the bad guy comes to life and threatens bodily harm. As Anders's gun is about to go off, Kenyon awakens to a crowd of cops all laughing at him. Turns out Kenyon had a tussle with nothing but a wax dummy since Anders was arrested the previous night across town. "Midnight in the Wax Museum!" would be completely dismissible were it not for the classy Doxsee art; very Reed Crandall-ish in spots.

The Great Alfredo is in love with two objects: his lovely wife and his marvelous trapeze. One day, while high above the circus floor, waiting for an available swing and wondering why his wife has never said anything about her past in all their years of marriage, Alfredo swears he will put on the show of a lifetime. He shall swing faster than any other trapeze-ster. And that he does! In fact, Alfredo swings so fast he lands in another dimension! Luckily, rather than become Alfredo Sauce, our hero lands safely and is escorted out of the tent by some rather strangely-garbed gentlemen. He's taken to the leader of Trapeze-World and promised that his daughter will make a good wife.

"My wife! She's still waiting for me to land!," exclaims the befuddled performer. With that, he turns tail, runs back into the tent, and climbs to the highest swing. His engine at Mach-10, Alfredo swings right back into our world and into the arms of his mysterious wife, who admits she's that gorgeous chick back in Trapeze-World! No wonder she's never come clean about her early days. She was a swinger. (drum beat) I gotta say that "Mystery in Mid-Air" made me laugh almost as hard as that time Jack swore Bill Shatner was a great actor. None of this four-page delight makes sense, but who cares? Just savor it.

Photographer Eli Payne runs out of plates for his camera box so he digs out some old stock created by his father, also a photographer. Turns out these plates can change a person's face with just a little monkey business on the photo. The proof is when Eli makes himself twenty years younger with some retouching. Eli suddenly realizes he can become the richest man in America if he uses the new process to blackmail vain millionaires. But, as we've seen with so many of these Atlas mad-genius-get-rich-quick schemes, Eli is in for a rude awakening. "The Frightful Film!" is Wessler back to doing what he does best... pumping out sub-par microwaved scripts low on ingenuity and high on groans. Normally, I'd give anything sporting a Gray Morrow art job two stars, but even Morrow looks tired here.

In a stinkin' Commie compound, U.N. prisoners are given little to eat and made to slave for backbreaking hours on end. Danny wants to get home to see his newborn son and the only way out he can see is Rupa Sidi, an Indian prisoner who has perfected the "rope trick." Danny is convinced that Rupa can elevate Danny over the barbed wire and from there he can make his way home to his family. I'm not spoiling anything when I tell you that, by the climax of "The Floating Man," Danny will be changing diapers and his wife will be bitching about the broken air conditioning. I'll say this though (for the 100th time), that Orlando guy sure knew his way around a pencil. 

Old penny-pincher Jason Bond buys a cheap television set at a rummage sale and sits in wonder at channels that aren't listed in the TV Guide. You're not going to believe this but everything he watches on the set comes true the next day. Apartment fires. Train crashes. The mini-skirt. So Jason decides he's going to get even richer on this wonderful miracle. He bets on the stock market and makes enough to buy the Empire State Building. That night, he watches in horror on his TV set as he's killed by a falling brick from the building. Jason Bond swears he'll now turn this miracle into a good tool for mankind if given the chance. In heaven, the angels who rigged Bond's TV have a laugh and head for the next penny-pincher on their list. For a three-pager, "The Too Late Show" is not all that bad. It's got a hilarious final shot and some scratchy Winiarski art perfect for the subject. I don't see Win doing cheesecake art.

Leading professor in ant science Dr. Paul Marsden believes he can communicate with the little bugs and that they are even more intelligent than man. So he does what any other brilliant mind would do: he sets up a communicator between himself and a trio of ants he's weeded out of dozens of test subjects. These three are all strictly A (for Ant) students. Soon the ants are requesting human history lectures and studies in science. Marsden spends the better part of a decade reading the little critters every book on science he can find and then the exhausted egghead takes a nap. That's when the ants make their move.

There's nothing particularly original to "The Creeping Threat!" but, like "Mystery in Mid-Air," it generated several out-loud laughs from this jaded comics consumer. Marsden supplies the little buggers with materials they request and darned if the trio doesn't build a mini-laboratory and make plans of world conquest. The climactic panels, where Marsden takes his insect friends out to lunch at a nearby cafe and a well-meaning waitress squishes the bugs is comic book gold. The devastated scientist, unaware how close he came to destroying the world, can only sob and make "dumb waitress" jokes. These are the moments I live for when cracking open Atlas funny books. This was John Romita's 33rd and final appearance in the Atlas SF/Horror titles, but Spider-Man fans know he'll be back in a big way.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #46

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Middle of the Night!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Voodoo!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"The Red Doom!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★1/2

"The Desert Rat!" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

"The Betrayer!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"Nightmare!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

A mysterious stranger visits Alfred Mott in "The Middle of the Night!" He asks Mott to repair a pocket watch before midnight the next evening and offers to pay twice the going rate. Mott greedily accepts and stays up late working on the watch. Testing it to see if it's fixed, he pushes the hour hand backwards and realizes that he's traveled to the day before! He turns the hands back a week and travels back in time seven days.

Determined to cash in on the handheld time machine, Alfred winds the watch back to the year 1575, where he plans to steal jewels from the King of  France! He scales the castle wall and surprises the king in his bedroom, only to be arrested. To his dismay, Alfred can't find his watch to return to the present because watches haven't been invented yet!

John Forte's art is competent but don't think too much about this story. How in the world does Alfred wind the watch back a week, not to mention almost 400 years? That's a lot of times around the dial! The last panel is funny--Alfred is in his cell yelling about his missing watch and a guard is outside making the "he's crazy" sign with his finger by the side of his head.

Sergeant Lane doesn't believe that Mario really can practice "Voodoo!" and Mario threatens to make a doll of Lane. Mario is using his dolls to blackmail superstitious locals, so Lane gives Mario a few of his own hairs and challenges him to make a doll of the sergeant. Lane's partner, Sergeant Brice, isn't sure what to believe. Lane canvasses the neighborhood and finally finds someone who will testify that Mario has been blackmailing him. Lane and Brice visit Mario to confront him, but Mario shows Lane a new voodoo doll that he's made in Lane's image. Mario drops it out the window, threatening Lane that he'll die, but instead Mario falls out the window to his death. Brice reveals that he switched the hairs on the doll so they were Mario's rather than Lane's.

Stories involving voodoo are always welcome, but Robert Sales's art continues to disappoint me. His characters are just plain ugly and his panel designs are flat.

Jean Lacoste collects the largest jewels in the world. When he's told that he doesn't possess the biggest ruby, known as "The Red Doom!," he vows that he'll have it under glass within a month. Jean flies to India and goes into the jungle, where the locals fear the ruby's evil power. Jean enters a shrine and takes the huge jewel, but when he tries to leave the jungle he finds himself trapped in a large glass cube. His vow came true--he has the ruby under glass!

Cue the "wah-wah" horns for the dopey, cornball ending to this story. Where did the big glass cube come from? What's its purpose? Who knows? Certainly not the writer. Baily's art makes it clear that he didn't think much of this tale.

Why does an old hermit whom the newspapers call "The Desert Rat!" refuse to move out of his condemned shack in the desert to let a road project pass through the property? A reporter named Phil is determined to get the answer. Pretending to be a sick, lost, bewildered traveler, Phil is taken in by Josef Kruge, the hermit, who confesses that he hates the shack in which he lives. Kruge explains that he was once known as Josef the Great, a strongman who performed before crowds. When he began to get weak with age, he sought a way to regain his strength and found Abu Shah, a strongman who traveled with a sheik's caravan.

Kruge discovered that Shah's strength came from a liquid he drank every night, so Kruge grabbed the bag and took a drink. Shah told him that he'd be doomed to live in the desert from then on. Kruge's strength returned and he again performed before adoring crowds, but he was forced to flee to Death Valley and remain there. One night he had reached his hand out of his dressing room tent to see if it was raining and it was, but his hand rusted because he had become a man of iron!

Bernie Krigstein turns in another superb performance on this tale, which creates a mystery and carries the reader along until the final panel, where the secret is revealed. He's able to tell so much more story with his technique of multiple, skinny panels, and at this point his work is the closest thing in Atlas comics to something from the days of EC Comics, even if he was not one of their original stable of great artists.

Igor is a Communist in New York City who can't seem to convince red-blooded Americans of the validity of his cause. "The Betrayer!" keeps being told that the patriots will listen to him when the torch on the Statue of Liberty stops burning. Igor gets the bright idea to blow up the torch, but when he climbs all the way up one night with a satchel of dynamite he suddenly falls over the side to his death. A doctor examines him and concludes that he wasn't killed by the fall but rather from third degree burns, "as if he were burned by a big flame."

It's comforting to see that Atlas Comics were still keeping up their anti-Communist fervor in terrible stories like this one as late as 1957. The rest of the country was emerging from the national nightmare brought on by HUAC, but Stan Lee and co. were determined to show their pre-teen readers that the Red Menace was still alive and well in the U.S. Three pages are wasted here and Manny Stallman's art shows how little he cared about the story.

Just after midnight, an entire town disgorges itself from the Earth and floats off into space! It must be a "Nightmare!" Only three men are awake and aware of what's happening. One is Mayor George Bascombe, who just withdrew the town's welfare fund from the bank and plans to clear out in the morning. Another is Frank Lefferts, the banker, who plans to foreclose on the farm of a sweet young couple tomorrow. The third man is an old farmer, Joseph Brooks, who plans to kill his wife's fiance the next day due to an old family feud. As the city floats off into space, the trio reconsider their cruel plans and suddenly the town reverses courses and settles back down on Earth.

The story is an old one and the conceit of the town flying off into space is bizarre, but Angelo Torres ignored the trite theme and drew some very nice pages, making this a comfortable way to end the issue.-Jack

Next Week...
A Rare Stop in the
Atlas Post-Code Universe
for Dick Giordano!