Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 123: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 108

June 1956 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystery Tales #42

Cover by Sol Brodsky

"The Darkroom" (a: John Forte) ★

"The Captive" (a: Jerry Robinson) ★1/2

"The Man who Was Nowhere!" (a: Jack Abel) ★

"The Trap!" (a: Bob Bean) ★1/2

"We Claim This Planet!" 

(a: Lou Morales & Christopher Rule) ★

"The Hidden One!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★★1/2

Donald Short is an amateur photographer and, as we zoom into his darkroom one evening, we overhear him whining out loud about his wife. If only she would be like other wives and adopt an interest in his hobby. "Oh well," moans the big baby, "might as well get these photos developed." Just then, an Atlas lightning bolt zigzags its way in through the window of Donny's darkroom and zaps the tray of developing liquid. The shot Don had taken, of soldiers marching in a parade, comes to life!

Experimenting, Don discovers that he can blow up the photos and enlarge the uniformed men. As a bonus, the soldiers seem to ignore the fact that Don is a big sissy who mewls about girls who won't play in his sandbox and follow his orders. Like any accidental Atlas genius, Don decides world domination is in the cards. But first, he's sleepy, so he grabs some warm milk and goes to bed. The next morning, the new emperor of the universe awakens and heads to his darkroom, only to discover it's been tidied up. His wife enters and explains that, for Don's birthday, she took the plunge and became an amateur photographer. Her first duty was to clean up "The Darkroom." Well, he wanted a photo pal, he got one. Poor Don wishes it was still 1954 so he could bury the hatchet in his wife's head. It certainly would have given this strip a much-needed kick in the ass.

Screenwriter Brad French has his panties in a bunch when an exploitation director wants to turn his script about a screwed-up Richard the Lion-Hearted into a noble epic. Brad harrumphs off set only to find himself in some sort of 14th-Century time warp. What gives? Well, actually, Brad discovers he's "The Captive" of some aliens dressed as knights, ready to conquer Earth. When Brad tells them they're not dressed for the day, they jump in their spaceship and fly away, vowing to return when they get it right. Nothing about "The Captive"  makes sense except the striking Jerry Robinson art.

Don's the test pilot for an incredibly fast jet (how about 100,000 feet altitude in five seconds flat?) but, as so many Atlas test pilots before him can testify, going really fast can be detrimental to your time/space continuum. Before he knows it, Don has gone back in time and landed in some 15th-Century kingdom populated by unfriendly villagers. They chase the pilot around the town a few times but he manages to get back to his jet and fly off back to our time. If he'd only stuck around a couple more panels, Don would have found out that it wasn't the past he was visiting!

These accidental time warp travel stories are beginning to stack up on top of each other and the writers (in this case, pulp hack Carl Wessler) aren't finding original ways to get their characters into these situations. It doesn't even seem like Wessler did any research for "The Man Who Was Nowhere!" (yeah, I know, they were only getting a buck a page or some ungodly wage, so research was definitely not in the cards) on jet planes. No jet has ever hit 100,000 feet (never mind in five seconds) and then at 100,000 feet, he's got Don "leveling off at five miles," which is roughly 26,000 feet. That's quite a leveling off. Never mind all my muttering, this story is nowhere.

Mind reader Julius Keaton is in the middle of his show when the thoughts from a foreign agent spill into his brain. He announces to the crowd that there are three men in the audience who will be selling government secrets to the scumbag commies and, sure enough, three guys get up and run for the exit. Afraid the mind reader will spill the beans to the cops, the trio attempt to hunt him down, but to no avail. The only solution is to hire another mind reader to find the Great Keaton! "The Trap!" is so dumb it's almost enjoyable. The three stooges, after being fingered at the auditorium, forgo hiding out somewhere and, instead, wait at the back exit for Keaton to leave, but the illusionist is two steps ahead of the dolts and heads out the front with the crowd! I said almost enjoyable.

In "We Claim This Planet," Mars and Venus happen to send advance scout teams at the same time in anticipation of a full-scale invasion of Earth. A huge blast sends them running for their ships. Yep, both parties landed in White Sands during A-Bomb testing. Not one to be left out, it turns out that the planet Mercury has been visiting Earth as well. One alien child has been entrusted to a foster family in Mayville to grow up as an Earthling (Mercury is "no place to bring up a boy these days!"). The only way to distinguish Mercurian kids from our own is that the aliens have a green-toned band of skin around their chests. 

Town bigot Bull Morgan does not like it one bit; in fact, he's staging rallies to incite his neighbors to toss this alien out (in this case, a wall will do no good, I suppose) and, once his anger has caught fire with the other ding-dongs of Mayville, he demands that every male child in town be brought to the square and forced to take their shirts off to display their chests. That way, the alien will be outed. But the joke's on Bull since the Mercurian lad has a lot of friends in Mayville and every child who disrobes has a green band.

"The Hidden One!" is an effective but subtle anti-racism tale that doesn't outstay its welcome with a lot of preachiness. I'd call it an equally powerful anti-Blacklist commentary, but we all know Stan was about as anti-Commie as anyone in the 1950s. If you squint just right and picture Bull with orange hair, you could also make the claim that this Atlas cautionary tale is timely. The story arrives just in time to save Mystery Tales #42 (and the Atlas output of 1956, frankly) from being totally awful.-Peter

Mystic #48

Cover by Carl Burgos

"He Changed at Midnight" (a: Hy Fleishman) ★

"Across the Threshold" (a: Bill Benulis) ★★★

"The Strange Switch!" (a: Lou Morales) ★

"Out of the Storm" (a: Tony Mortellaro) ★1/2

"The Matter with Harry!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★★

"The World That Vanished!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★★1/2

Another of those pesky Mercurians has landed on Earth, this time in the small town of Thornton, and is witnessed by Denny Robbins, the local couch potato. Once the creature exits its ship it morphs into human form, but Denny can ID the thing. He just won't until a large enough reward is posted. The alien gets the last laugh in "He Changed at Midnight." The art is just barely at average level and the script is lazy. The Mercurians were busy cats in the 1950s and, oddly, none of them seemed to be made of fire.

Fred buys an old estate cheap at auction but his buddy, Milt, claims the house has an "air of the unknown" about it and Fred should take care not to piss off any supernatural beings. Fred scoffs and gets to work cleaning up. That night, after Fred hits the sheets, a group of alien thingies from another dimension pop up out of the well in the basement and have a look around. Observing Fred in bed, sawing logs, the creatures determine this would be a great world to invade.

They head back down the well, vowing to venture back "Across the Threshold" soon, but that ain't happenin' since, the next day, Fred unknowingly staves off the end of mankind by capping the well. It's hard for me not to like any story that Bill Benulis illustrates. So much care and style go into each panel, as if Benulis had months to work on each page instead of hours. It's high time for a book-length study on the artist. Can you hear me, Fantagraphics?

In the forgettable "The Strange Switch," it turns out the new kid helping the scientists at the observatory is from Pluto. He just wanted some good shots of his home planet and then hoofed it, without even mopping the floor! Bob has (literally) reached a crossroads in his life, the doctors saying he has something in his brain that's too small to diagnose. Bob falls into a pit of self-pity and depression until he comes to that literal fork in the road while out walking one night. A scream forces him to investigate a house by the side of the road. A man with a gun is threatening a group of party-goers until Bob gives the thug a firm right cross. The crowd react as if they know Bob, one woman identifying herself as his wife. The vision disappears and Bob realizes he's seen into the future. There's a lot of haziness in "Out of the Storm" and it's not all because of the rough Mortellaro art. The maudlin finish, where Bob ponders the frailty of mankind and the whims of the universe, made me want to guffaw rather than contemplate.

Timid Harry Townes would do anything to get a date with the boss's daughter, Velma, but she doesn't even know he exists. One day, two events collide at the same time: Velma announces she's going on a cruise and Harry's uncle dies, leaving him the princely sum of three hundred pounds (three hundred pounds of what is never clarified). Harry says "Screw it!" and books passage on Velma's cruise ship. 

While on board, Harry does whatever he can to spend time with Velma, including fetching her drinks and mopping her sweaty brow, but the girl won't budge on a date. While the ship is anchored in an African port, Harry visits a bazaar and buys a striking ring which, the seller claims, empowers the wearer. Suddenly, from out of the blue, a woman screams. Harry swirls and sees a girl being chased by a giant wearing a red suit. As the woman approaches him, Harry pokes the big man with his parasol and watches in amazement as the brute goes down in a heap.

The girl introduces herself to Harry as a Venusian and explains the big lug is a Martian who followed her to Earth. Her ship ready to blast off, the Venusian begs Harry to come back with her to her planet and live as royalty. Harry, remembering he's in love with Velma, politely declines and returns to the boat. There, Velma confesses she saw the entire fight and now finds Harry extremely macho and charismatic. Harry grabs her, lands a big one on her lips and releases her, realizing he never really loved her. He returns to the Venusian he rescued and they blast off into space, together forever. A truly cute and whimsical tale, "The Matter With Harry!" found this grumpy old man actually rooting for the titular pipsqueak. I even liked the primitive Stallman art, which actually fits this tale very well. 

The first successful expedition to Mars discovers that the planet was inhabited at one time and the evidence is a great, abandoned city. When the crew breaks into one of the buildings, they discover a room where a recorded voice details the evacuation of the planet but never confesses which planet the escapees came to rest on. When the crew make it back to Earth, they get their answer. "The World That Vanished!" is a clever little sci-fi yarn that makes good use of black and white in the "documentary" of the death of Mars. Overall, Mystic #47 is one of the best Atlas comics since the advent of the Code.-Peter

Mystical Tales #1

Cover by Bill Everett

"On a Lonely Planet" (a: Bill Everett) ★1/2

"Just Say the Magic Words" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★1/2

"Nomad of Outer Space!" (a: Bob Powell?) ★★1/2

"The Endless Search" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"The Man Who Saw Too Much!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

"Anyone Want a Jinni?" (a: Syd Shores) ★★1/2

Captain Edward Parker is both a baseball fan and an astronaut who lands his rocket ship "On a Lonely Planet," where he encounters purple aliens with big ears who don't seem to respond to his efforts to make friends. After a tense standoff, he catches a ball that comes sailing toward him from a nearby field. He tosses it to an alien and soon discovers that they play baseball and that sports are the common denominator that will link planetary races.

Bill Everett does his best with this story, but the constant positivity about humans meeting aliens is wearing thin.

Hiding out in a cheap room, an escaped convict reads a newspaper ad about a crash course in magic and sends away for it in hopes that he'll learn how to become invisible and avoid the cops. When the book comes, he says the magic words and manages to make fire spring up from a stove. He ventures out to the street and, when the police spot him, he conjures up a herd of large animals to block the fuzz. More cops arrive and he does the rope trick, climbing a rope into the sky. Suddenly, he finds himself back in prison, where his roommate admits that he wrote the magic book and it was a fraud!

"Just Say the Magic Words" is entertaining for a three-pager, but the conclusion makes no sense. If the magic book was fraudulent, why was the convict able to make magical things happen, and why did he end up back in prison? Sol Brodsky's art is barely adequate.

Simon Miller enjoys telling his young son John about his dreams that men will build space ships that will travel between planets someday. Simon's wife tell him to stop, but when John grows older he builds a rocket ship and takes off. Years go by and Simon grows older, sad that his son is gone. One day, while Simon is out walking, a whole fleet of rocket ships land in a field and John emerges, telling his father that he was a "Nomad of Outer Space!" who would not return home until he had built the fleet his father dreamed of. Simon is delighted that his dreams were not in vain.

The GCD puts a question mark next to Bob Powell's name as artist but this is undoubtedly his work, and fine work it is. Powell is one of my favorite artists to appear frequently in Atlas comics. This story is particularly impressive, despite a thin premise.

Cedric Chalmers is a modern artist whose portraits are scorned by their subjects because they have a somewhat cubist appearance. He exhibits the portraits at an art gallery and, to his surprise, receives a check for $50,000 from the royal family, who bought all of the paintings. Cedric conducts "The Endless Search," looking all over the world for the royal family, only to learn in the end that they are on Saturn and look just like the people in his paintings!

Joe Orlando does an adequate job drawing regular people and the cubist figures in the paintings, but the end of this story is telegraphed early on. At least our old pal Carl Wessler concludes with a logical finish and not something out of left field.

When a horn-like object falls from the sky into Carl Avery's back yard, Carl picks it up, thinks it resembles a trumpet, and blows into one end. He is catapulted fifty years into the future, where he is branded a spy and chased by the authorities. He blows into the horn again, hoping to return to his own time, but is tossed further into the future, where he witnesses a terrible war of rocket ships.

Carl tries blowing into the other end and suddenly is back in 1956, where an Army colonel arrives to retrieve the horn, which is really a vital section of a new, experimental rocket. Carl decides to keep his mouth shut about what he saw.

"The Man Who Saw Too Much!" suffers from Winiarski's art, which reminds me of the kind of strips one would see filling the back of comics in the 1940s. The story isn't much of a story at all and exhibits Carl Wessler's usual confusing plotting.

A Jinni wishing for a master finds his lamp rubbed by a succession of people who don't appreciate his gifts. First, a fisherman wishes for a boatload of big fish, but the onslaught sinks his vessel. Next, a peddler wishes for a wagon full of gold, but the heavy cart crashes through a bridge. Third, a young man wishes for a sports car but soon totals it. Still thinking, "Anyone Want a Jinni?" the Jinni is summoned by a poor man who only wishes for a job and food for his children. All goes well and the Jinni settles in, happy to serve someone who thinks of others.

Syd Shores provides art that fits this morality play perfectly. The Jinni is a big, half-naked man wearing a turban, a loincloth, and slippers with toes that curl up to a point. The contrast between the greedy men and the generous man is well told and the four-page length is just right. It's not a great story, but, as Peter always says, the art is what we come for.

This is the first issue of a new title, but it is interchangeable with any of the other Atlas titles.-Jack

Spellbound #28

Cover by Bill Everett

"When Time Stood Still!" (a: John Romita) ★★

"The Forbidden Garden" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"The Strange Guests!" (a: Bill Everett) ★1/2

"The Old Man of the Sea!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★1/2

"Farewell to the Sun!" (a: Werner Roth) ★★

"This is the Forest Primeval" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

Visiting the abandoned fishing village of Bay Harbor, a young man is surprised to find a single resident: an elderly man in a shop filled with clocks who explains that each clock ticks 61 seconds per minute, thus allowing him to have saved up an extra 89 years to live in the town. The young man asks the old man to engrave his initials on his pocket watch and sees that everything the man does is invisible, including eating, driving his horse and carriage, and attending a square dance. Suddenly, a bell rings and the man rushes back to his shop, saying that today is an important day in his life. The young man follows and finds the man gone and the shop in ruins. He assumes he imagined it all, but how did the initials get engraved in his watch?

Early in the story, the young man recalls that the village was thriving 84 years ago until everyone left when the fishing ran out. All I can figure is that, at the sound of the bell, the old man's time ran out, he disappeared, and his shop fell into ruin as if he'd not been there for decades. The uncredited writer of "When Time Stood Still!" doesn't provide any explanation, so the reader is left to puzzle it out. John Romita's art reminds me a little of the work of Jack Davis in spots. As we'll see in his run on Spider-Man in the '60s, he's fond of drawing gents wearing hats and smoking pipes.

When artist Frank Bond visits a large, castle-like house in Paris to see if he wants to rent it as a studio, the agent has yet to arrive, so he explores the interior and comes upon "The Forbidden Garden." He witnesses a meeting between Pierre and Marianne, lovers kept apart by her father, a duke. Three swordsmen appear and Frank leaps into action to help Pierre defeat the swordsmen. The couple make a run for it and, when Frank re-enters the house, he meets the real estate agent, who tells him about a long-ago couple who were aided by a mysterious man.

We've read this story umpteen times in Atlas comics and there's nothing new or fresh in this version. I find John Forte's art to be wooden, so it adds little to a tired narrative.

John and Isabel Gilford meet a couple at the airport who look lost, so they invite them to stay at their home. The couple introduce themselves as Osgood and Nola Whitley and, before you know it, the Gilfords and the Whitleys are fast friends. The only thing unusual about "The Strange Guests!" is that they go to bed very early. For their part, the Whitleys have a secret that they don't want to reveal to the Gilfords. Eight years pass and it's time for the Whitleys to leave. At the airfield, they board a rocket ship bound for Venus! Meanwhile, the Gilfords decide to visit the folks and also rush to the airport, where they, too, board the ship for Venus!

It makes very little sense, I know, especially the final panels where all of the Venusians suddenly have oblong faces once they board the rocket ship. At least we are treated to three decent pages by Bill Everett.

A ship sailing across the Atlantic toward Portsmouth keeps changing course every time the crew spots "The Old Man of the Sea," who is in a small rowboat and who looks like the survivor of a shipwreck. The ship barely misses destruction by an undersea eruption, a pod of whales, dangerous rocks, and a meteor. Upon finally reaching port, they observe that the old man was not a figment of their imagination but rather King Neptune, who boasts that he was happy to cheat Davy Jones out of a victim.

Seeing a new story by Gene Colan reminds me of how little we've seen of his art in recent months at Atlas. It's a shame, because no one's pages look like Colan's. His style is unmistakable and his use of shadows is great. The story is a letdown; we read along, wondering who the old man is, only to have him be revealed as Neptune. I would've preferred a ghost.

Don and Louise Todd can't afford to spend the summer in Europe like their friends, the Hitchcocks. Instead, they visit Moonbeam Amusement Park and take a trip to the sun on a flying saucer. To their surprise, the ship actually heads into space and flies to the sun; it passes through a wall of fire and lands in an idyllic spot, where the Todds are welcomed by the locals, who resemble munchkins. They work one day a week and spend the rest of their time enjoying themselves. The Todds return to their home on Earth after saying "Farewell to the Sun," but when the Hitchcocks visit and tell them all about their trip to Europe, the Todds keep mum, certain they would not be believed.

I associate Werner Roth with mediocre art on The X-Men in the '60s, but his work on this story is actually pretty good. The highlight is the sun people, who look like chubby little folk who smile a lot. I didn't mind the ending, which is not really a twist and probably more satisfying for that reason.

Henry Parker waits to hear if the board will elect him president of the world's most powerful company despite his radical ideas and his thirst for change. Suddenly, while walking to the water cooler, Henry passes through a time warp and realizes that "This is the Forest Primeval." He stomps around, trying to cause change, and returns to the present to find that giant ants have replaced humans as the dominant species! But wait, it was only a dream! Henry awakens, is made president, and vows to make no big changes, having learned his lesson.

If only Peter and I could learn our lesson and realize that Atlas comics in 1956 are not destined to reveal many hidden gems! Yet we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.-Jack

Next Week...
Four More Exciting
Batman and Robin Adventures!

The Hitchcock Project-Crackpot by Martin Berkeley [2.15]

by Jack Seabrook

What seems like a chance encounter turns into a frightening experience in "Crackpot," which aired on CBS on Sunday, January 6, 1957.

Ray and Meg Loomis have just gotten married and are on their honeymoon when they get a flat tire on their way to a hotel in Santa Barbara, California. Ray's Aunt Florence was recently murdered by a burglar whom she surprised robbing her safe and, although the publicity around the crime gave the couple second thoughts, they went ahead with the wedding. Ray finishes putting on the spare tire and his hands are dirty when he notices that it is also flat. Just then, another car drives by on the remote road and Ray flags it down.

The driver of the other car introduces himself as Mr. Moon, a heavyset, genial man in a white suit and hat who uses a handy air hose to equalize the pressure between the spare tire in his trunk and the one on Ray's car. Ray trips while handing the tube back to Moon and his dirty hands land on the front of the man's suit, leaving two large grease stains. Moon's demeanor immediately switches and he flies into a rage, using the air hose as a whip and telling Ray, "'I could kill you for what you did.'" Moon suddenly gets back into his car and drives off, leaving Ray to remark to Meg that the man must be insane.

Biff McGuire as Ray Loomis

When Ray and Meg reach their hotel, the lobby is crowded due to a convention and the suite they had reserved is not available. They are ushered into the manager's office, where a policeman named Sergeant Carpenter says that a man who fits Ray's description of his aunt's murderer was picked up in Ventura the night before. He had a bracelet with him, but Ray examines it and says that it did not belong to his aunt.

Soon the problem with the room is cleared up and Ray and Meg are in their honeymoon suite, where he picks her up and opens the door to carry her over the threshold only to encounter Mr. Moon once again. He is back to being friendly and cordial; a valet cleaned the grease stains off of his white suit and he is staying in the room right next door. Once Moon has left, Ray hears him banging on the wall between the rooms and yells at him to stop, only to have the desk clerk telephone to tell Ray that Moon is complaining about him doing the same thing.

Robert Emhardt as Moon

Ray goes out onto the balcony and walks over to Moon's room, where he looks in and sees Moon creating a large hole in the wall with a hammer and chisel. When Ray bangs on Moon's door from the hallway and Moon opens it, the man denies hammering on the wall and Ray sees that a large mirror is hanging over the spot where he saw the hole. He turns to see Moon pointing a gun at him and the man tells Ray to leave, suggesting that Ray needs a psychiatrist. Moon adds that if there is any more trouble, he will call the police and have Ray put away.

Ray returns to his room, visibly upset, and tells Meg that they need to leave because Moon has a gun and threatened to kill him. Ray says that he recalls seeing Moon on the night his aunt was murdered and concludes that the man wants to kill him because he knows that Ray can identify him. Meg stays positive, suggesting they order champagne and forget their troubles, but Ray begins to hear a ticking sound coming from the wall. On the other side, Moon listens to what is happening in Ray's room and pulls a clock out of the hole whenever Meg leans over to listen, making her think that her husband is hearing things.

Mary Scott as Meg Loomis

Fearing that Moon has planted a time bomb in the wall, Ray is shocked when Moon appears in the doorway holding a gun and telling Ray that he has three minutes until the bomb goes off. Ray accuses Moon of killing his aunt, claiming that she caught him robbing her safe and he panicked and hit her. Moon seems unstable, alternating between smiling and sudden fits of anger. As he reaches around the door to engage the lock, Ray hits him and seems to knock him out. Ray sends Meg to the lobby and rushes into the bedroom to get her overnight case when suddenly Moon is on his feet and approaching Ray.

Moon takes the case from Ray, his gun pointed at the newlywed; he searches the case and uses his gun butt to smash the mirror in the lid, revealing a cache of hidden jewels. Ray begs Moon to let him go before the bomb goes off and Meg rushes in with Sergeant Carpenter. Moon reveals that he is really a detective with the Pasadena Police; Carpenter explains to Meg that her husband was in debt and that he was the one who robbed his aunt's safe and murdered the woman when she surprised him in the act. The detective says that the charade was the only way he could think of to trap Ray. The alarm goes off on the clock in the wall and Moon chides himself for forgetting to turn it off. Meg tears up as she looks at her husband and realizes that their honeymoon is at an end.

"Crackpot" is an entertaining episode that succeeds due to the performances of the three leads. After watching it, one wonders about the detective's plan. Moon must have been following Ray's car, since Meg remarks that the road they were on was a shortcut suggested by the same gas station attendant who checked their spare tire. Did the attendant purposely engineer the flat tire so Moon could come on the scene and act crazily? Moon must have pretended to be the crackpot of the title in order to set up the later events at the hotel.

The "bomb" in the wall.

The police were waiting for Ray and Meg at the hotel, and perhaps the initial problem with the room reservation was created so that Ray could be brought into the manager's office to examine the necklace and confirm that it was not his aunt's, thus demonstrating that he was familiar with her jewelry. Moon arranged to book the room next to Ray's in order to set his plan in motion; creating the hole in the wall and pretending to plant a ticking time bomb were all part of his elaborate plan to trick Ray into revealing the location of the hidden jewels. Moon's continuing bizarre behavior was all to support the suggestion that he was a dangerous crackpot. When Moon sees Ray with the overnight case, he takes it from him at gunpoint and comments that the police had already searched his luggage; however, on the spur of the moment, Moon smashes the mirror in the bag and finds the jewels in the one place they had not already looked.

The end credits for "Crackpot" say that the teleplay was by Martin Berkeley, based on a story by Harold Gast. The story was not published but rather was the teleplay for an episode of the early, live TV series The Web that was broadcast on September 5, 1954. The synopsis for this episode says that "an ice cream stain on the suit of a stranger develops into a murder threat that disrupts a young couple's honeymoon." Unfortunately, this episode is lost, so it is not possible to see how Ray got an ice cream stain on Moon's suit rather than a grease stain from changing a flat tire.

Harold Gast (1918-2003) started out in the late 1940s writing for radio and then spent the rest of his career writing teleplays, from 1954 to 1994. His script for "Crackpot" on The Web was his first TV credit. He also worked as a TV producer on shows like Judd for the Defense and Cannon.

Michael Fox as
Sergeant Carpenter

Martin Berlekey (1904-1979) was a performer in Broadway shows in the late 1920s and began writing films in 1941. He wrote for TV from 1949 to 1963. Among his screenplays were Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Big Caper (1957), which was directed by Robert Stevens. His script for "Crackpot" was his only work for the Hitchcock TV show. Berkeley cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s and was said to have volunteered more names than any other witness.

"Crackpot" was directed by John Meredyth Lucas (1919-2002), a writer and director who worked mostly in television from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. He directed only three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Jonathan"; he also directed episodes of Star Trek and Night Gallery. He grew up in Hollywood and wrote a memoir called Eighty Years in Hollywood; of interest is the fact that his stepfather was film director Michael Curtiz.

Phil Garris as
the bellhop

Starring as Ray Loomis is Biff McGuire (1926-2021), who was born William McGuire and who started out on Broadway, including a role in the original cast of South Pacific (1949). He acted on screen from 1950 to 2013 and was in the classic 1973 film, Serpico. He appeared in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Gentleman from America."

As Moon, Robert Emhardt (1913-1994) switches with ease between seeming innocent and dangerous. Emhardt was Sydney Greenstreet's understudy on Broadway in the 1930s and a founding member of the Actors Studio; his career on TV and in film stretched from 1949 to 1982. He was seen in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "De Mortuis," one unforgettable episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ("Return of Verge Likens"), and episodes of The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and The Night Stalker.

Meg Loomis is played by Mary Scott (1921-2009). Born in Los Angeles, she appeared in movies beginning in 1942 and on TV beginning in 1951. She is best remembered today for her roles in eight episodes of the Hitchcock TV show, including "The Diplomatic Corpse." In the late 1940s, she was on Broadway in a production of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra when she met the English actor Cedric Hardwicke; she got pregnant and he divorced his wife. Hardwicke and Scott wed in 1950, when he was 57 years old and she was 29. She later wrote an autobiography called Nobody Ever Accused Me of Being a 'Lady,' and there is an interesting obituary here.

In smaller roles:

• Michael Fox (1921-1996) as Sergeant Carpenter; Fox had numerous screen credits from 1952 to 1991 and was also seen on The Twilight Zone, Batman, and The Night Stalker.
• Phil Garris (1919-2004) as the bellhop; he played small parts on screen from 1946 to 1979.
• Raymond Guth (1924-2021) as the hotel desk clerk; he was on screen from 1956 to 2000 and also had a role in "Terror at Northfield."

Raymond Guth as
the desk clerk

Watch "Crackpot" here or order the DVD here.

Sources:

"Crackpot" Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 2, episode 15, CBS, 6 January 1957.

CTVA US Anthology - “The Web” (CBS) Season 4 (1953-54), ctva.biz/US/Anthology/Web_04_(1953-54).htm. 

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

IMDb, www.imdb.com.

Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "Crackpot" here!

In two weeks: "The Indestructible Mr. Weems," starring Robert Middleton!

Batman in the 1960s Issue 33: May/June 1965

 

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

Infantino/Anderson

Batman #171

"Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

E. Nigma, a/k/a the Riddler, is released from the state pen and buys a newspaper, where he reads that Batman has been baffled by the Mole-Hill Mob. Nigma runs into the Dynamic Duo in front of Police HQ and reminds them of his origin and their last encounter. Swearing that he's reformed, Nigma offers to help Batman catch the Mole-Hill Mob, gangsters who emerge from beneath manhole covers to commit crimes before vanishing into the vast network of tunnels beneath Gotham City.

That evening, the Riddler leads Batman and Robin right to the gang's hideout, where the Dynamic Duo avoid rolling manhole covers and mop up the bad guys. Two days later, at a picnic, Batman receives a riddle that leads him and Robin to the city wharf, where they are temporarily incapacitated by puzzles that spring from the Riddler's convertible. Giving chase, they accuse the Riddler of stealing the Black Pearl of the Pacific, but the Riddler proves that he paid $30,000 for the pearl and that the cash came from an inheritance. Now a rich man, the Riddler says he has no more use for crime. The puzzles in his car were just his way of saying hello!

As he drives off, the Riddler tosses Robin a present, which includes another riddle. That night, Batman watches through a widow as a jeweled cross is handed over to the Riddler at gunpoint. Batman chases and tackles the costumed puzzler, only to learn again that the transaction was above board--the gun Batman saw was really a cigarette lighter. The Riddler tells Batman that he has provided another riddle for the Caped Crusader to figure out. That evening, the Riddler holds up the Ox Club, but once again Batman has figured out the clue and arrives just in time. He and Robin fight off the Riddler's gang before turning their attention to the criminal himself.

Punches from the Caped Crusader and the Teenage Thunderbolt have no effect as the Riddler either spins in place or sways back and forth. Robin rushes off, saying he's figured it out and will be right back. Batman presses a dot on the Riddler's chest and switches off an electrical connection, allowing the villain to be captured. E. Nigma returns to the state pen, where he reluctantly gives the answer to a riddle that he had posed to the warden as he was leaving.

I very much enjoyed the "Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler!" From the notes in the story and some quick online research, it looks like this is the Riddler's first appearance since 1948, which means that one of my favorite Bat-villains disappeared for seventeen years! At this point, we're only a year away from the premiere episode of the TV show, which featured the Riddler. The story is entertaining and the riddles are good. Infantino's cover is really sharp, which is not a surprise, but the interior art, by Moldoff and Giella, is above-average, especially for them. We all know from page one that the Riddler will return to a life of crime before the end of the story and it's fun following along to see the way he manipulates Batman into thinking he's gone straight. I hope this is just the first of more returns by costumed villains!-Jack

Peter- How could one of Batman's most famous Rogues have been in jail 17 years? Penguin and Joker are paroled after three months! It's clear that this story was a huge influence on the TV Riddler. The gun lighter and Batman's assuming E. Nigma was pulling a heist are both memorable aspects of the premiere two-parter, "Hi Diddle Riddle/Smack in the Middle" (far and away the best episode of that show). The Riddler is a welcome face; I just wish that face were drawn by a different artist.

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #339

"Batman Battles the Living Beast-Bomb!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella

After being dismissed his whole life by everyone around him, "Worthless" Walter Hewitt focuses his brilliant scientific brain on perfecting a machine that will absorb the powers of certain animals and change the loser into a bruiser. The eyesight of an eagle, the hearing of a dog, the singing voice of Yoko Ono and, finally, the strength of a gorilla. Ah, but it's that last component that leads Wally to a Gotham City police precinct, begging the cops to lock him up and call Batman.

He explains to the cops that something happened with his "Bioniformer" and the gorilla he used became super-intelligent. Now, that ape, who's evidently named himself Karmac, is doing what any smart ape would do: pulling bank heists. Can't anyone help Wally? The cops are naturally skeptical until Wally receives a psychic call from Karmac to bust out and get back to the lab, pronto. As the weakling tears the cell door off and uses it as a battering ram to bust out of the building, the cops grab their donuts and head for safer climes.

Luckily, Batman and Robin have just pulled up as Hewitt escapes the building. Astonished by the man's super-strength, Batman is left with no other option than to use his patented whirly-bird trick and smash Wally into a nearby brick wall. Somehow immediately grasping what's going on without a debriefing, Batman has Hewitt put under heavy anesthetic for some reason. Meanwhile, across town, Karmac has been monitoring the situation and decides Batman is the most agile fighting machine on Earth. How cool would it be to have that power in his own hairy body?

Karmac lures Batman (on a solo flight since Robin is at an all-important sixth-grade pep rally) to his lab and zaps him with the Bioniformer, thereby soaking up some of the Dark Knight's prowess. Batman passes out and the big lug escapes. Back at the Gotham Jail, Hewitt awakens and tells Batman everything we already know about his simian foe. The Dynamic Duo suit up (with Bats soaking his gloves in a special anesthetic) and follow a lead into Gotham Park, where Karmac awaits. The gorilla informs his enemies that he's strapped on a bomb that will "destroy everyone--and everything--in Gotham City--except me!"

But sometimes being the World's Greatest Detective brings advantages other than small talk with good-looking chicks in seedy bars; Bats works out that all he has to do to deactivate the device is to lift Karmac off the ground and hold him for approximately five minutes. He uses the anesthetic gloves to knock the gorilla out and lifts him high over his head in an obvious nod to Waldemar Baszanowski (go ahead and Google him). 700 pounds over your head for a lengthy period of time? No problem. And, just like that, bomb dismantled and threat fizzled. Karmac returns to his "normal monkey" status and is shipped back to the jungle and Wally Hewitt is given a job on the ballooning staff of the Alfred Foundation.

The script leaves a lot to be desired but hey, if Jack is happy (and Jack is always happy when there's a DC super-ape around), I'm happy. The art is good but I see a definite trend in some of Carmine's characters to have sky-high foreheads. What animal do you suppose Wally used to get that effect?

In my day, if you'd have done the whirly-bird with your friends and released them near a brick wall, you'd be facing manslaughter charges. Luckily, Wally must have absorbed the strong bone structure of a rhino because he's knocked out but seems to exhibit no signs of a massive concussion. An interesting bomb that Karmac whips up, one that will obliterate every living soul and every gag shop in Gotham but won't harm a single simian cell in his body. How does that work? And an explosive device that has one fatal flaw: if you get picked up, the bomb will deactivate. Again, how does that work?-Peter

Jack-Another eye-catching cover and impressive interior art by Infantino and Giella can't hide the fact that this is yet another DC gorilla story! Why couldn't Hewitt's machine malfunction when he was acquiring the skills of a hippo, for example? A hippo battling Batman might have been interesting. Or a cockroach? Holy insecticide! One thing I love about Infantino's pages is his use of panels and captions. He can make a dull caption more interesting by wrapping a character's arms around it or by stretching it out, and sometimes he puts panels in interesting arrangements on a white background. He was quite inventive.

Infantino/Giella

Batman #172

"Attack of the Invisible Knights!"

Story by John Broome

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

"Robin's Unassisted Triple Play!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Sid Greene

At the Gotham City Museum, a guard/guide named Jenkins tells visitors the story of the Black Opals of Ealing, jewels that the first Duke of Durnham sent a trio of knights to destroy centuries ago to prevent his family from being cursed. The knights were crushed when a castle collapsed and, 800 years later, an archaeologist named Harris uncovered the jewels and the armor of the dead knights. His discoveries are now in the museum.

The guard reports that the suits of armor seem to be changing position at night! The next morning, Jenkins is found unconscious and reports that he was knocked out by one of the suits of armor. This looks like a job for Batman! The Dynamic Duo meander to the museum, where Batman goes to have a look around while Robin stays by the suits of armor. Suddenly, Robin cries out and Batman rushes back to find the Boy Wonder on the floor and one of the suits of armor coming toward them! The "Attack of the Invisible Knights!" has begun!

Batman and Robin manage to get knocked out cold. When they awake, the suits of armor are back in place as if nothing happened, but the Black Opals have been smashed to bits. Batman and Robin notice that their watches have stopped and Batman deduces that magnetism must be at work. They use a magnetometer to lead them to the home of the guard, Jenkins, where they discover that he and his brother used magnetism to activate the suits of armor and steal the jewels. It doesn't take much for the Dynamic Duo to knock out the Jenkins brothers, saving the jewels and solving the case.

John Broome's scripts use more science than those of Bill Finger and Joe Giella's inks are better than better than those of Charles Paris at shining up Moldoff's pencils. Still, this story isn't a big change from the sort of tale we were used to reading before the New Look started.

In the Batcave, Batman tests a new gizmo that involves six TV screens receiving pictures from six TV cameras flying over Gotham City watching out for crime. One camera picks up a robbery in progress at the Morrow Art Gallery being carried out by the Flower Gang, who use trick plants and flowers! Just as the Dynamic Duo are about to head to the scene, Batman gets an emergency call from the Justice League, so "Robin's Unassisted Triple Play! begins. The Boy Wonder hops behind the wheel of the Batmobile and is soon at the art gallery, where he engages in fisticuffs with three members of the gang until he realizes that they are all illusions brought on by whiffs of a special plant they left at the scene.

Robin follows the gang to a wharf, where he overcomes one member and follows the others by boat to a secluded seaside house. Tricking them into thinking Batman is with him, the Teenage Thunderbolt overcomes two of the gang members, but a third gets away. Robin trails him to a greenhouse and is able to hold his breath and avoid inhaling deadly flower gas long enough to knock out the ruffian. Back at Wayne Manor, Dick brags about his success to Bruce.

While it's interesting to see a rare solo adventure for the Boy Wonder at this stage in the development of the Batman comics, this one is decidedly ordinary, though Greene is an excellent inker and probably makes Moldoff look his best.-Jack

Peter-I was hoping that the Invisible Knights would turn out to be ghosts or something supernatural but, unfortunately, John Broome went for the old pulp standby, the perfectly logical solution. Seems like an awful lot of trouble for an evil genius to go to. If he's so smart, just invent a Radiozappitator that transports the jewels from within the case to the palm of your hand. No need for all the theatrics. Thank goodness Bruce just happened to be flying his little UFO cameras around the gallery at just the moment it was about to be heisted in "Robin's Unassisted Triple Play." If I were Bats, I wouldn't have bothered with the Justice League excuse. Robin has been missing so much patrol time lately thanks to Junior Proms and dates with Nancy that Batman could be excused for just wanting to hang out around the mansion, drink some wine, and enjoy some Brahms on the Hi-Fi. Call me crazy but of the six Bat-tales I read this time out, the Robin story was the only one I enjoyed.

Infantino/Giella

Detective Comics #340

"The Outsider Strikes Again!"

Story by Gardner Fox

Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella

Why is Batman and Robin's equipment turning against them? The Batarang becomes almost fluid and envelops Robin, forcing him over a cliff. Only lightning fast skills can save him. Ditto Batman, whose Bat-rope becomes a boa constrictor, squeezing the very life out of the World's Greatest Detective! Only the Dark Knight's super-inflatable chest and a handy branch save him from being crushed. 

Back in the Batmobile, they receive a call from the mysterious Outsider, who claims responsibility for the equipment malfunctions. He intends to smash the Dynamic Duo if it's the last thing he does. As his speech ends, the Batmobile turns against its masters, chasing the Caped Crusader up a building's wall (!). When it doesn't catch its prey, the vehicle explodes in flames as if displaying a fit of temper.

Dick has a date with Nancy at the prom so, after reminding his young ward what happens when a teenager has too much booze and a babe on his arm, Bruce works on a special chemical drawn from the dust of the Batmobile wreckage. He's convinced the stuff will counteract the properties used by the Outsider to take control of the boys' gear. 

Gordon calls to inform him that there's a ruckus at the Athletic Hall of Fame; someone has burned into the entranceway an invitation to Batman to enter. Since Bats has never been one to ignore a challenge, he shows up at the Hall and is immediately set upon by three nattily dressed thugs who throw bullets at him, explaining they've been told by the Outsider they don't need a gun. But Batman's new dust bomb, tossed at the bullets, renders them harmless. The thugs are rounded up and taken away. Later that night, the boys agree they haven't seen the last of the Outsider, even though (ironically) they've never seen him!

Months ago, I thought this Outsider continuing storyline might be fun, but it's going absolutely nowhere. Fox leaves us no clues as to the identity or why this force is out to get Bats and Robin rather than Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, or the Flash. To add insult to injury, the art is the pits; stiff and generic, with no style or originality. Without the credits, I couldn't tell you who drew this crap.-Peter

Jack-The Batmobile on that great cover looks purple to me! Inside it's the usual color. I'm to the point where I'm disappointed to see Moldoff rather than Infantino drawing the Batman story in Detective. Fox and Broome's stories are more science-based than what we'd been reading before the New Look and I don't miss the space aliens.

I like that the Outsider stories are linked but I think the effect is lessened because we still haven't seen the villain. There's also a reference here to a recent Joker story. Is Marvel's success with continuing stories influencing the editors at DC? At least one thing never changes--Moldoff's fondness for drawing giant objects. I laughed when Dick got home from the prom and Bruce offered him a piece of cake and a glass of milk.

Next Week...
What indeed?

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 122: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 107

June 1956 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #50

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Buried Forever" (a: Don Heck) ★★

"The Fantastic City!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"Waldo's Wonderland!" (a: Bob McCarthy) ★1/2

"The Missing Man" (a: John Tartaglione) ★★1/2

"Decision!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★1/2

"The Conquest of Saturn!" (a: Lou Cameron) ★1/2

Greedy old Ellery Kidd has been searching for the lost family treasure all his life, shirking the love of his relatives and spending every last dollar on... you guessed it!... a time machine! With the gizmo, Ellery hopes to travel back to when and where the treasure done got lost and, sure enough, he finds success.

Turns out Ellery's ancestor was Captain Kidd and Ellery witnesses the pirate's acquisition of the chest of gold doubloons. The elder Kidd buries his booty on a deserted island and Ellery makes a copy of the map. Back in the present day, our protagonist spends his last dime buying a boat big enough to haul the treasure and heads out to the little piece of land. Unfortunately for our soulless miser, the little island is marked for A-bomb testing and Ellery Kidd watches as all his dreams go up in a mushroom cloud.

I can imagine all the Atlas writers and artists sitting in the bullpen/breakroom with a giant chalkboard in front of them, Stan's words in big bold font: "Work in a time machine or a time warp!" What I did get from "Buried Forever" is that Don Heck could come up with interesting, evocative artwork when he applied himself. I'm not a fan of Heck's Iron Man work in the mid-60s but here his stuff is just fine.

Not so fine is "The Fantastic City," about an arrogant tiger hunter who happens upon a hidden city made of gold and diamonds. He begins constructing his fortune in his mind until he encounters the rulers of the city, who have no time for greedy white men. The Stallman art here looks rushed, lacking the usual pizzazz Manny can bring to a funny book strip. At least Bob McCarthy's work is easy on the eyes in "Waldo's Wonderland," an otherwise inane affair about a toymaker who invents a set of glasses that make everything more colorful (think one of those wonderful Christmas color wheels from the 1960s that used to catch the tree on fire). He inadvertently puts them on in the middle of an alien invasion. The final panel, where the aliens are frightened by Waldo and hightail it back to outer space, shows how far the quality has slipped on these scripts.

Elmer hasn't had a day off in ten years so he hires young buck Andy Miller to run things for a day while he blows off some steam. The bewildered Elmer looks in awe at the skyscrapers that have popped up in the last decade and runs right into a gorgeous gal named Lucy. They end up on a sort of date at a carnival and the day is going swell for Elmer until, while the couple are riding a roller coaster, they begin to float. 

Elmer says his goodbyes and floats back to work where he fires Andy (who's fallen asleep on the job) and starts the gravity machine back up. Yes, Elmer keeps the world a' spinnin'. "The Missing Man" is a cute little strip that reminded me of the 1930s screwball comedies, with a clever finish and some really nice Tartaglione art. The final two stories, both achingly insipid, involve the planet Saturn. In "Decision," Grjg's spaceship crash-lands in the Ozarks. The only survivor, he's adopted by a hillbilly family and falls in love with beautiful Esme. After making Earth his home and settlin' down with Esme, the newly-christened George is dismayed to see a rescue ship arrive from his home planet. After a quick word, he convinces the crew that he'd rather stay and raise rugrats with Esme. 

In the even dopier "The Conquest of Saturn," movie producer Sam Mosby discovers his latest epic is bringing in millions but he can't figure out from where. Turns out his biggest draw is on Saturn! I really wanted to see the extra panels where the details are spilled about the FedEx bill from shipping prints to another planet and how Saturnian bucks are traded in at the border for greenbacks. Grooooooan.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #35

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Fallon's Folly!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2

"The Unexpected Voyagers!" (a: Lou Cameron) ★★

"Missing Persons" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★1/2

"Turn Back the Clock!" (a: Jay Scott Pike) ★

"The Mysterious Mr. Peebles" (a: Bob McCarthy) ★★

"The Green Fires of Mars" (a: John Forte) ★★1/2

Professor Fallon works hard on his "Man-Made Solar Energy Machine"™ but he's become the butt of jokes around the university. His snot-nosed colleagues refer to the professor's life's work as "Fallon's Folly!" The money man at the uni is cutting off all funding to the prof, explaining that dough is hard to come by and must be allocated to "practical" research. "Bushwah!" exclaims our hero and heads out into the afternoon sun, only to find himself transported through some kind of rare time warp to a future that has no sun. Talk about coincidence!

Fallon helps his future pals with their research into man-made solar energy and saves the world. He then heads back to the present where he's looked on as a quack. "Oh well," he sighs, "let them think." Yet another "time warp" fantasy where the main protagonist's vocation just happens to come in handy to the Earth of the future. More intriguing would have been if Fallon were working on a refrigerator that made ice cubes.

When they are denied funding for their rocket ship to Pluto, two scientists will do anything they can to see their dream come true. So, when a skid row bum approaches them, asks to see their ship's blueprints, and then claims he'll be back the next day with a million bucks to get the project going, they shrug and go with the flow.

Sure enough, the money comes through and the strange man insists that he and a few of his friends be on board for the historic flight. Once they land, the source of instant income becomes apparent: the men are from Pluto and crash landed years before. They've been selling their hair, which is made of pure gold, to pay for their trip home. A cute and harmless fantasy with some sharp Lou Cameron art. A few years after this issue appeared, Cameron would leave comics and begin a successful career as a crime novelist.

Detective Sam Kirby is tasked with solving the case of "Missing Persons" on the East Side. All the "victims" were seen talking to a fat man before they disappeared. Turns out the obese gentleman is from another dimension and is transporting our population through a "time flaw" over to a parallel world. Kirby is sent to the world himself but figures out how to get everyone back and the world is saved. I was hoping this might be a satiric send-up of the hard boiled genre (Kirby is dressed in a gaudy yellow trench coat) but my interest quickly dissipated thanks to the insipid script.

Worse is the half-baked "Turn Back the Clock," wherein star athlete and all-around nice college kid, Ambrose McAllister, is late for his date with Helen, so he does what every male caught in a similar situation would do: he climbs to the top of the town's steeple and sets the giant clock back two hours. Suddenly, he's caught in a time vortex and sent back to ancient Greece. where he must participate in several (non-violent) sporting activities. 

Ambrose manages to escape and get back to present day Parker University but he's still late for his date. Helen won't believe his cockamamie story about ancient games until she sees the olive wreath on her beau's head. Time warp stories are really starting to bring me down and this one doesn't even have a decent climax. Helen must be one of Parker Uni's poorest students since she never once thought Ambrose could easily have made an olive wreath to fend off her female rage. 1950s women! 

The world's rudest neighbors pull hurtful pranks on "The Mysterious Mr. Peebles." When the mousy Peebles doesn't get angry, the band of losers hire a magician to up the ante but their playtime is ruined when the climax reveals that Mr. Peebles is the greatest magician on Mercury. You would think it odd that Mercury is selected as planet of origin until you discover the writer responsible is Carl Wessler, the king of random. At least the art by Bob McCarthy is fetching. 

The gorgeous art of John Forte is the main ingredient of "The Green Fires of Mars" but there's also a melancholy tone to the script concerning the occupants of an outpost on Mars. The men are warned to stay away from the deadly green flames but Jan is visited in his dreams by a gorgeous Martian redhead, a babe who tells him to go to the green flames. His C.O. watches helplessly as Jan walks into the fire, unaware that on the other side awaits sexual gratification. I can't help imagining a 1953 script for this story where the babalicious redhead has three rows of sharp teeth when she goes to kiss her new conquest.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #46

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Specimen!" (a: Jim Mooney) ★1/2

"Three Were Lost!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★1/2

"If Worlds Collide" (a: John Forte) ★★1/2

"Rain from Nowhere!" (a: Bob Bean) ★★

"Falling Star!" (a: Kurt Schaffenberger) ★1/2

"The Giants" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★★

Scientists just can't figure out how to build a spaceship! Meanwhile, Norman wastes his education as an engineer by taking a job looking after animals at the zoo. One of the creatures is the first of its kind ever found and resembles a gorilla with big eyes that stare straight ahead. Norman becomes tortured by the eyes, even when he sleeps. He picks up a stray newspaper and reads about the problem with building a spaceship. When he gets home, the gorilla creature enters his house by passing through the wall, stares into his brain, and departs. Norman wakes up, quickly solves the spaceship problem, and vows to tell the scientists. The creature hops in its spaceship and takes off, sending a message that he has shown mankind the key to space travel and they will now "reach the stars and join hands across the universe."

Good Lord. The best thing about "The Specimen!" is the gorilla with the eyes that look like the ping pong ball eyes on Muppets. How many Atlas stories have suddenly ended with the brotherhood of planets agreeing that it's time for Earth to join? What the heck happened? I'd like to head to Saturn for a burger.

Bart is the last of a family of test pilots and his two brothers disappeared without a trace when they took a new plane model up for a spin. Instead of finding a new career, Bart heads up in the same model and poof! his plane disappears. "Three Were Lost!" He lands and meets his brothers; they've all passed through the time barrier into the future, where everything is peachy. A wise man asks them not to say anything when they return to 1956, since mankind needs more time to bake before folks can handle such a wonderful world. The trio return to the '50s and mum's the word.

Boy, the future sure looked rosy in 1956, didn't it? Imagine being so optimistic in the wake of the Red Scare, the Korean War, Ed Wood films, etc. Kind of makes me think we need to cheer up in 2024. It's not so bad.

When Prof. Drummond returns from a rush trip to outer space in his rocket ship, he tells the waiting world the bad news: the Earth is being pulled away from the sun and is heading toward Mars! That's why it's getting progressively colder. Nothing good will happen "If Worlds Collide"! The Prof has a brilliant idea that involves building a "great Magneto" to draw the Earth back toward the sun. Will it work? Who knows! But since no one has a better idea, the nations of the world unite and spend ten months building the thing. Drummond explains the theory of gravitational pull by using a rubber band and a ball. One of the reporters asks if he's saying that a rubber band holding the Earth and the sun together really broke. The Prof insults the "slow-thinking" newsman and leaves.

A flip of the switch and ta da! The Earth starts moving closer to the sun. Months later, a grateful world gives Drummond a check for $2,000,000. The reporter who asked the dumb question never hears the end of it. And, on Mars, we see that the planet has attached a giant rubber band to a satellite that keeps it from being pulled closer to Earth by the magnetic force.

This story is truly bonkers. They must have decided to heck with it, the kids don't pay attention either way and we're probably selling ten copies of this issue, so we may as well throw everything in the pot. It starts out with the professor returning from space in his rocket ship. Never mind that in the first story in this issue, Earth scientists couldn't figure out space travel. Then Drummond comes up with his bright idea and a caption tells us that "Nobody had a better idea," so everyone pitches in the build a magnet. Or a Magneto. After a panel with Japanese stereotypes we move on to the reporter's dumb question and the Prof's snotty response. The plan works and Drummond is handed $2M! But nuttiest of all is the last panel, where we see Mars tethered to a satellite that looks like a miniature Saturn. I think it's allowing it to avoid being pulled closer to the Earth because of the magnet. Easily one of the most bizarre stories I've read.

Ted and Larry fly a cargo jet back and forth from New York to London twice a week and are getting bored when suddenly they encounter "Rain From Nowhere!" The rain is so heavy that they can't see where they're going. An hour later they land and are jailed for causing it to rain. It seems the pumps have stopped working. Larry is handy and repairs them, so he and Ted are hailed as heroes and allowed to fly home. On the way back, their plane emerges from the ocean and on its side is a banner reading "Good luck to the heroes who saved the undersea continent of Atlantis."

I admit I didn't see that one coming. But then I didn't expect to see a rubber band around Mars, either. Bob Bean's art is not bad--the first panel sure looks like a swipe from a newspaper cartoon by someone much better at drawing faces, since the rest of the panels don't measure up.

A green-skinned, pointy-eared fellow named Jklywr Ngm is dropped off by spaceship after a planetoid conference, only to realize that nothing looks familiar. He breaks down the door of a farmhouse and runs in confusion when he sees the frightened human family inside. He runs up a hill and his ride returns to take him back to space. His companions confess that they dropped him off on the wrong planet and he tells them of the weird sights he saw.

"Falling Star!" is another example of Kurt Shaffenberger's skill at cartooning. His characters all look cute and I can't see his art without thinking of Captain Marvel or the Superman Family.

Captain John scoffs at a radio broadcast from the Society for the Moderation of Space Exploration, which argues that the cherished family unit will disappear if man continues his relentless probes into the cosmos. His ship happens upon an uncharted planet and lands, only to discover that the planet is really a massive spaceship transporting "The Giants." An enormous alien picks up John and his crew in the palm of his hand and thinks that they will make a good museum exhibit.

Fortunately, John can hear their thoughts with the help of a machine, so he and his fellow crewmen blast the aliens with tiny ray guns. Thinking he's been stung, the alien drops John and his crew and the humans blast off into space as quickly as they can. Back on the giant spaceship, the aliens commend themselves for arranging the chance meeting with the humans, certain that the visitors will have a better understanding of what their space exploration will yield. On the ship, Captain John applies for membership to the Society, having had enough with discovering the wonders of space.

The story's not much, but the art by Forgione and Abel reminded me of one of Wally Wood's strips, and Wood was the master of this kind of thing, was he not?-Jack

Marvel Tales #147

Cover by Bill Everett

"Frozen Alive!" (a: Bob Brown) ★1/2

"The Trouble with Marcus" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

"It Happened to the Captain" (a: Jim Infantino) ★

"The Vanishing Martians" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

"The Perilous Prize" (a: Sid Check) ★★1/2

"Voices in the Night!" (a: Bernard Bailey) ★1/2

A trio of scientists find a T-Rex "Frozen Alive!" in ice, so they start to chip away in order to release it. Once it's free and rampaging, the dimwits worry that it would destroy large cities, so they blast it with their rifles and it sinks in the Arctic waters.

What behavior did these dingbats expect from a dinosaur that somehow managed to remain alive while frozen for millennia? And how exactly would it get to the cities, anyway? The stupid scientist award goes to these three.

Not unlike behind the scenes at
bare bones ezine, where Peter
tells Jack not to slack off.

After three years of exploring outer space, Marcus Blake tells his co-pilot Otto that he can't wait to be back on Earth and will resign from the space service. "'Once a spaceman, always a spaceman,'" says Otto. Things don't go so well on Earth for Blake, however, and "The Trouble with Marcus" is that he can't get used to the gravity, the need to wear a mask, or the way everyone stares at him. Finally, he asks to resume his career as a spaceman. Happily, Otto sent a message that he's found the perfect planet!

Another yawn-inducing Atlas story where next to nothing happens and, after four pages of humdrum art, there's an unexpectedly happy ending that doesn't make a lot of sense. This reads like page filler to me.

An old man summons his wife to the basement to witness a strange sight on his hobby bench. Sometime before, an obnoxious sea captain kept taking credit for his crew's hard work every time the ship survived a bad storm. Eventually, the crew slipped off in a rowboat, leaving the captain alone to see how well his willpower would protect him without all hands on deck. A storm comes up, the captain tells the waves to be calm and, before you know it, his ship is miniaturized and sitting in a bottle on the old man's hobby bench!

"It Happened to the Captain" is the worst story yet in a terrible issue of Marvel Tales. Jim Infantino was Carmine's kid brother and this story looks like he dashed it off without much care. I read a good blog post about Carmine's surprise at learning his brother briefly worked for Stan Lee.

While out looking for uranium with his Geiger counter one day, Matt Lawson witnesses a rocket ship landing and overhears the thoughts of the green-skinned creatures from Jupiter who emerge from the vessel. He steals the ship and flies to Mars, which he heard had recently been beaten in battle by Jupiter and which he assumes must be loaded with gold and diamonds taken as spoils of war. On Mars, Matt sees lots of round rocks and his Geiger counter tells him that they're loaded with uranium.

Matt brings some of the rocks back to Earth but they quickly disappear. He assumes they're stolen but, on his way to the police station to report the theft, he sees that numerous bridges and buildings have suddenly disappeared. Matt flies back to Mars, where he sees all of the missing Earth structures. It turns out that the round rocks are Martians and they inform Matt that they rebuilt their planet with the Earth buildings.

Even Steve Ditko can't save this muddled mess of a story. It's not credited to Carl Wessler in the GCD, but who else could make such hash of a plot in only four pages? Matt is your typical Ditko creep, hairy and sweaty.

Tod Templeton is a meek young man who enters every contest but never wins. One evening while he's out fishing, a shooting star passes overhead and he finds a lottery ticket on the ground. That night, a man from Venus arrives and spirits Tod off to the second planet from the sun, where he is told that he's the lucky winner of a Ruler-for-a-Day contest. He enjoys a rocket car and a nice home before being sent back to Earth, where he is satisfied that he no longer needs to enter contests.

Sid Check provides smooth art in this simple yet effective tale.

In a San Francisco office building, Henderson whispers something to the boss, Amos Frobisher, who races for the elevator and demands to be taken at once to the fifteenth floor. Meanwhile, around the world, "Voices in the Night!" are heard coming from nowhere that prevent one close call after another. Frobisher reaches the fifteenth floor and yells at his sound engineer, who has been broadcasting the soundtrack for a TV show on the wrong frequency. You see, the lines of dialogue happen to have been heard on a ship, a plane, a truck, and a submarine and they were interpreted as orders to be followed; coincidentally, they resulted in avoiding disasters.

And so ends a terrible issue of Marvel Tales. It's not that odd that the stories are bad, but usually there is at least some half-decent art to get us through. This time, even Ditko and Baily are off their game.-Jack

Next Week...
Has the Riddler Gone Legit?