Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 166: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 151

July 1957

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Adventure into Mystery #8

Cover by John Severin

"The Man Who Couldn't Be Killed!" (a: Jim Infantino) ★★

(r: Strange Tales #176) 

"The Voice from Nowhere" (a: George Woodbridge) ★★

"Effigy!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★★

(r: Vault of Evil #16)

"We the Jury" (a: Ruben Moreira) ★1/2

"The Night of March 5th" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Mister Mason's Strange Problem" (a: Dick Giordano) ★

Convicted murderer Henri Berney is sentenced to hang on Monday on Devil's Island but he has a card up his sleeve. Using a tunnel he's dug over a long period of time, Henri escapes into the jungle and forces a medicine man to hand over a potion that automatically erases all Mondays from Henri's life. In his mind, he's become "The Man Who Couldn't Be Killed!" Bad mistake, that, as the warden points out in the final panel, since Henri was born on a Monday. Amusing fluff with some spare and gritty work by Jim Infantino (Carmine's little brother). 

David Warner, a retiring entertainer, loses his will to live when he inadvertently switches suitcases with another passenger, and gone are all his show-biz mementos. Meanwhile, aboard another plane, the man who has become the benefactor of Warner's souvenirs experiences some deadly weather in the skies. Luckily, "The Voice from Nowhere" guides the plane to a safe landing. Later, when the man returns the luggage to Warner, we learn the suitcase contained Warner's ventriloquist dummy. Most of the story is sappy but that twist is clever and the Woodbridge art is easy on the eye.

Painter Guy Mason has been obsessed with his "arch-nemesis," Fred Waters for decades. Fred always had to beat Guy to the punch on everything, including the girl. Yep, that's right, Waters stole Mason's girl right from under him. So a high-falutin' psychiatrist tells Guy he should paint a portrait of Fred Waters and then destroy it, thus ending any rivalry between the two. 

Guy's buddy thinks he's a nut but encourages him anyway so, once the painting is done (complete with Fred holding a gun, since Guy wants their last meeting to be on an even keel), the buddy steps out of the studio while the artist gets ready to riddle the canvas with bullets. But Guy has a big surprise waiting for him. "Effigy!" ranks as the best story of the month because it's a witty little tale with a couple of very effective twists and the Torres art is gorgeous. Look sideways at a few of the panels and you'd swear it was mid-'60s Ditko.

The bland, three-page "We the Jury" (about a man on trial for murder who wishes he could see into the jury room and then gets his wish) marks the debut of Ruben Moreira, an artist who will only hang around in the Atlas SF/H Universe for just under a year, contributing six times before heading off to the then-greener pastures at DC. "The Night of March 5th" thoughtfully combines two of the three most overused plot devices in 1957 Atlas titles: stinkin' Commies and time travel. A foreign agent is tasked with stealing a top-secret mystery-box from the gizmo's inventor and becomes curious about its capabilities. He pushes a button and it teleports him one year into the future. There he sees a newspaper headline touting his handler's arrest for murder. I think we all know where this one is going.

Last up, "Mister Mason's Strange Problem" takes care of the third most microwaved plot device of 1957, the guy who is suddenly unknown to all around him. Mister Mason assaults a fakir in India and incurs his wrath. This was the second of only four contributions Dick Giordano made to the Atlas books. His work is solid if unspectacular. That word could be applied to the short life of Adventure Into Mystery, which was canned with this issue. Of the 48 stories contained within its 8 issues, only four were awarded three stars.-Peter

Strange Tales #59

Cover by Fred Kida

"Help! Help!" (a: Gene Colan) ★

"When the World Went Mad!" (a: Bernie Krigstein)  ★

"What Waits in the Dungeon?" (a: George Woodridge)  ★★

"Trapped in the Burning Sands" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★1/2

"The Fearful Fate of Mr. Foster" (a: Dan Loprino) ★★

"The Death Mask!" (a: Jim Mooney) ★1/2

A man sits in a movie theater, starving and paralyzed because, years before, in the war, he was hit with shrapnel and now that hunk of steel sits in his back, waiting to kill him. Luckily, a painting team moves in and notices the man sitting in his seat, long after the movie ends, and they call the medics. The end. There's absolutely nothing strange about "Help! Help!" other than the fact that Stan decided to place it in Strange Tales rather than Mainstream Ho-Hum Tales. The moral, I guess, that we learn from this guy's ordeal is that you should let your wife know when you're going to the flicks.

The FBI is investigating a strange series of disappearances--up, up, up in a puff of smoke go a two-story home, a lighthouse, and even a bridge. What the heck is going on? The clues lead to the lab of Professor Haughton, a crazed Atlas genius who has created a "solvent" that can make big stuff vanish. As the nutty Haughton explains to his captive Federal pursuer, he could use this formula for the betterment of mankind but, nope, he's going to rule the world. Thank goodness for that lab assistant with a conscience! "When the World Went Mad!" is a grind, a total waste of time, and not even Bernie could work up enough enthusiasm to help us through.

Skilled thief Fillipo gets word that a vast fortune awaits he who is brave enough to break into the Villa Cenedella and make his way downstairs. But "What Waits in the Dungeon?" It's a little hazy as to how our protagonist meets his horrific end (it all happens off-panel) but the whole affair is more interesting than the first two entries this issue and the atmospheric Woodridge art is nifty.

At the end of World War II, Hans Loring buries the booty he stole while on his march across Africa, unaware his buddy Luther is watching. Luther shoots the man and leaves him for dead, noting where the treasure has been buried and planning to revisit this part of the desert when the dust settles. But Luther must be a lousy shot because Hans survives the ambush (not knowing who shot him) and the men are shipped home.

Fifteen years later, the two are reunited in an African village and Hans suggests they share the fortune since they were always such good mates. Luther happily agrees and the men set out across the desert, with Luther planning his friend's murder every chance he gets. Once they reach their destination, they discover they've run out of food and water. Hans opts to look at the bright side; he's been dead all these years and only wanted to lure his murderer out into the desert for his revenge. Yes, it's predictable but done the correct way (as pulpmeister Wessler does here) and adorned with sharp Wildey graphics. "Trapped in the Burning Sands" doesn't get bogged down in details (why does Luther wait fifteen long years to go back for the treasure and, if he needs that treasure map Hans drew years ago, how was he going to find the spot on his own?) and that's a good thing.

Billionaire Amon Foster is tired of being old and ugly; he wants to be strong and vibrant again. So he pays a shady character to get what he wants and, soon after, Foster is flying to a remote cabin and discussing his future with a bearded character who warns him that if he drinks this potion, he'll receive exactly what he wants, but there is a catch. Amon poo-poos any side effects and drinks the beverage down. And he gets just what he wanted. The plot device of the three-page "The Fearful Fate of Mr. Foster" has been done literally to death but this variant comes with a genuinely clever twist.

In "The Death Mask!," ex-actor Orrie Lait has mastered his new job, the big heist. Lait has used his expertise as a makeup man to disguise himself as other master criminals in the city, thereby throwing the cops off his scent. But, as happens with these genius ex-actor/criminals, Lait does one job too many and is undone by... a ghost! The Mooney art is not bad and the script is good for a few laughs but the ending reveal (Lait can't remove his latest makeup job when the cops come calling) makes little sense.-Peter

Uncanny Tales #55

Cover by Bill Everett 

"A Suit of Clothes!" (a: George Roussos) ★

"Trapped in the Room of Mystery!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

"Which One is Real?" (a: Syd Shores) ★

"The Nick of Time" (a: John Giunta(?) & Sid Greene(?)) ★

"Impossible?" (a: Bob Bean) ★1/2

"Lost in the Mad Maze!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★1/2

Con man Ed Tallis never paid a penny for something he could steal. So, in the Bahamas and needing a new suit, he visits a tailor who promises that he can make Ed "A Suit of Clothes!," one suit that can change into anything Ed desires. The crook thinks the tailor is a loon but goes along with the joke since he'll be paying the guy with a rubber check, anyway.

The suit is complete and Ed stands before a mirror, admiring the lean cut, when the tailor tells the suit to change to a tuxedo. Wham-O, it's a tuxedo. Several more tests ensue but Ed is convinced and writes his tailor a check. But deceit runs both ways in the Atlas Universe and Ed will soon regret having cheated the brilliant suit-maker. The penultimate issue of Uncanny Tales does not get off to a memorable start; the twist is a variant on a plot device we just read in "The Death Mask!"

While out hunting, Albert Cotter becomes caught in a blizzard and takes refuge in a well-furnished shack. Convinced that the sanctuary has been placed there by the forest service to aid such wayward hunters, Albert helps himself to the comfortable bed and, after waking from his nap, eats the food in the fridge. But, oddly and suddenly, everything seems to float in the shack, and Albert panics. Opening the door, he sees the storm has subsided and makes his way home. Hours later, two scientists enter the shack (which is actually some kind of test module) to find its contents disheveled and theorize that aliens from another world must have visited. That final panel declaration in "Trapped in the Room of Mystery!" makes no sense to me. Why would the nattily-dressed eggheads jump to such a conclusion? Still, Angelo Torres seems to shrug off the sub-par script and lets it rip with yet another fine graphic display.

In the abysmal "Which One is Real?," two crooks evade the police with a device one of them made that can project ultra-realistic images. So what we get is four pages of cops shouting "Holy cow, a mountain just appeared in the middle of the road!" and not much else. I love how even the degenerate criminals in the Atlas Universe are geniuses! Equally lame is "The Nick of Time," wherein Cornelius Jones, late for a date with the gorgeous Ada, hits upon the perfect excuse: he'll adjust the arms of the town's clock back one hour and blame his tardiness on the mechanical malfunction. Alas, the dope didn't realize he was setting the clock (and therefore the entire town) back a whole year! Ada slaps his face when he lays one on her full, sensuous lips, cuz he's only known her six months! Two co-workers stop him in the town square to tell him all about a new promotion that Corny witnessed months before! This craziness has to stop! And after four pages it does.

Our stinkin' Commie story for the issue is "Impossible?," about a top secret meeting of the good guys that is interrupted by an invasion of the bad guys. The day is saved when the toys on a war diorama defend the free world from Communism and kill the Reds dead. In the finale, "Lost in the Mad Maze!," George and Eddie have heard tell of a secret pharaoh's chamber, a room filled with priceless gems and gold goblets fit for a king. Eddie is the brains and he's been given the directions to get halfway into the chamber. George is the brawn and all he wants is wealth. When the boys break into the pyramid, they discover a room full of diamonds and George wants to grab as much as possible and hit the highway; Eddie argues that the real treasure awaits within the secret chamber and they should go on. 

George gives in and they push on into uncharted territory, but Eddie does not trust his partner, so he drops diamonds on the ground to mark the way back with an eye to killing George later on and keeping the treasure to himself. They arrive at the secret chamber and it's as advertised, with both men planning their futures in a matter of seconds. Eddie pulls a gun and explains he doesn't trust George, so he's going to put a bullet in him and then follow the trail of diamonds back to civilization. That's when George confesses he thought Eddie was accidentally dropping diamonds and so he would pick them up, not wanting to waste a single one! That final panel, one that elicited an out-loud guffaw from this here half-asleep comic reader, was worth all the eye ache I endured from Frank Bolle's mediocre doodlings.-Peter

World of Mystery #7

Cover by Fred Kida (?) and Carl Burgos (?)

"Pick a Door...!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Night I Lost My Body!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★1/2

"Obey... Or Die!" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

"Last Seen Entering the Fog!" (a: Al Eadah) ★

"The Raving Beauty!" (a: Christopher Rule) ★ 1/2

"The Man Who Wasn't Afraid!" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

A 75-year-old man named Lon Fremont finds himself in a cave where a hooded figure tells him to "Pick a Door...!" The doors are labeled Guilt, Conscience, Remorse, and Punishment. One by one, Lon goes through the doors, until he emerges a young man on a street corner. Lon was about to help rob a jewelry store but his journey has convinced him to give up his life of crime. Paul Reinman's art has deteriorated to the point where it is painful to look at, especially in light of what he was capable of only a few years before. The story is one we've seen before, where a person at a crossroads experiences a mysterious event that makes him go straight.

Sims is hiding from the police and avoiding a life sentence, so he answers a scientist's advertisement looking for a volunteer who is willing to let his brain be transferred into another body. The experiment is a success and, when Sims awakens in his new body, he attempts to smash the machine so that he'll never go back. The scientist stops Sims and it's a good thing, too, because Sims looks in a mirror and sees that his brain now inhabits the body of an ape! Marvin Stein's art on "The Night I Lost My Body!" is marginally better than that of Paul Reinman on this issue's first story but, again, the narrative is trite.

Luke Dawson discovers that he accidentally invented a transmitter that makes people comply with his orders when he gives them. He tells people to put themselves in harm's way, then "Obey...Or Die!" The way to avoid death is to pay Luke large sums of cash. When the police start to chase Luke he takes a taxi out of town and climbs the side of a mountain, unaware that his voice will echo back at him across a ravine and compel him to leap to his death. A few more of these poorly written, poorly drawn comic stories may have me considering leaping off the edge of a cliff!

A small-time London crook named Bertie Hodgkins runs from the police and ends up on a lonely heath, where he sees a man press a knob on a box that emits fog. When the fog is gone, the man has vanished! Bertie sees another man with a similar box, tackles him, grabs the box, and turns the knob. The crook was "Last Seen Entering the Fog!" When it dissipates, Bertie finds himself at what he thinks is the men's hideout. He offers to share his skills but they reveal that they are from another dimension. They use the fog to travel between worlds and decide to turn Bertie over to the London authorities as a show of good faith. I don't recall seeing the name Al Eedah before in these comics, but if this story is any indication of his work, I hope we don't see him again.

Gordon Brent has a problem: his wife has always thought of herself as "The Raving Beauty!" but doesn't like seeing signs of age in the mirror, so she's told George he must find her a perfect glass that only shows her as she wants to see herself. The proprietor of an old curio shop sells George just the thing and, before you know it, Marsha is trapped in the mirror forever, always beautiful and less able to nag her hubby. I gave this one an extra half star because Christopher Rule draws a pretty Marsha and because I only had to suffer through three pages of it.

A group of explorers in the African jungle find an abandoned city guarded by natives who have a limited vocabulary. They tell of a treasure but warn that it is guarded by a monkey god. Kessler, "The Man Who Wasn't Afraid!," goes it alone after his colleagues depart; he shoots his way into the cave where the treasure is hidden, removes giant rubies from the eyes of an idol, and is shocked to discover that the monkey god is really a giant ape! So ends a dreadful issue of World of Mystery. I guess we should assume that Kessler will be torn to shreds by the ape. If only the same fate had befallen this issue!-Jack

World of Suspense #8

Cover by Richard Doxsee

"Prisoner of the Ghost Ship" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★1/2

"Dead End" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★1/2

"The Amazing Bardini!" (a: Emil Gershwin) ★1/2

"Forbidden!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Very Old Man" (a: Sol Brodsky (?)) 

"The Secret Room" (a: John Forte) ★★

Martin has boarded a ship called the Fortune, looking for a legendary spot in the Pacific Ocean where the past meets the future. The captain and crew decide to get rid of Martin and take the fortune in cash he has sitting in his cabin, so the captain abandons Martin on a derelict ship, whose crew's bodies are below decks, having died of hunger or thirst. After a few days Martin is rescued and tells his rescuers that he found the legendary spot: the derelict ship was the Fortune in the future and its dead crew were the ones who left him to die. It's not a good sign when they can't even come up with an original cover, is it? This issue's cover is a partially-recolored page three of this story. "Prisoner of the Ghost Ship" makes little sense and Doxsee was uninspired.

What's so special about the new sports car stolen by Jed Havel and Arnie Farrel? It runs great and looks cool, but when they run out of gas in Death Valley and their extra tanks of fuel don't help, they discover it's the first vehicle to run on water, something in very short supply! "Dead End" is poorly drawn but the ending surprised me, so I added a half star to what's essentially a one-star story.

Mike Gregg is a criminal mastermind who reads about a hypnotist named the Great Bardini in the paper and comes up with a new angle to cash in. He talks Bardini into becoming a prize fighter and the hypnotist wins every bout by entrancing his opponents. Eventually, he's set up to fight the champ, and Gregg tells him to throw the bout so Mike can win big. Mike watches the fight on TV and is thrilled when Bardini appears to lose, but when the crook goes to collect his winnings, he learns to his dismay that Bardini actually won. The real hypnotist was his wife, who hypnotized Gregg into thinking her hubby lost!

I'm not sure why the story is titled "The Amazing Bardini" when every reference to the hypnotist calls him (or her) "The Great Bardini," but never mind--this is the umpteenth Atlas tale where Carl Wessler comes up with a convoluted plot that leads to a disappointing payoff. Have we seen Emil Gershwin in an Atlas comic before? He did some good Golden Age work and was George Gershwin's cousin.

After climbing a mountain trail all day, Matt Taylor sees a sign on a house that reads, "Forbidden!" He ventures on to a town below the trail, where the residents express no knowledge of or interest in the sign or the house. Matt is undeterred and enters, where a scientist explains that the townsfolk are all robots. Suddenly, the robots burst in and surge toward Matt, who finds himself back on the trail, where he sees the sign and town all over again. Good lord, not another story that ends with the same events about to take place. Poor Ed Winiarski was stuck with  this dud, and his art reflects his lack of enthusiasm.

"The Very Old Man" is Abner Peters, who is fired one day by J.J. Bascombe, the head of Bascombe Enterprise Inc. J.J. lies and tells Abner that his fondest dream would be to convert the factory into a home for the aged. Abner quickly discovers that he can make wishes come true just by concentrating really hard, and when a cynical Bascombe visits him right before he dies, the scientist makes one more wish come true and the factory is changed into an old folks home. The GCD suggests that this may have been drawn by Sol Brodsky, and it does look like his work in spots, but it also looks like the last gasp of a writer and company that had utterly run out of ideas. Who would want to read about a factory turning into a nursing home? How does this fit in a comic called World of Suspense?

People in the neighborhood begin to notice that things are looking up for unassuming baker Thad Tyrone. A new suit, a new car, stacks of cash to deposit at the bank--what's going on? A hood named Ollie Nash investigates and, in "The Secret Room" at the back of the bakery, he finds a giant mass with tentacles that close around him! In the morning, the cops find a dead Ollie in the middle of a giant lump of Thad's new quick-rising dough. It's telling that this dopey story easily wins best of issue, despite less than stellar work by John Forte. At least the three panels of Ollie being attacked by a tentacled mass in the dark are entertaining.

This is the last issue of World of Mystery, which appeared (almost) bi-monthly from April 1956 to July 1957. Of all the stories, only one earned three stars: "When Walks the Scarecrow" from issue #2. Not a great record.-Jack

Next Week...
Bernie Helps Usher Out the
Long-Running Marvel Tales!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 165: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 150

June 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystical Tales #7

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Secret of the Haunted Picture" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

(r: Beware 7)

"Hide and Shriek" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

(r: Journey Into Mystery #12)

"The Living  Shadows!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

"It Happened in the Attic!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

(r: Marvel Chillers #1)

"Too Smart to Live!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"The Man Who Can't Be Stopped" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

Artist Nelson Arne is in a bit of a slump... well, maybe the word "slump" doesn't apply. Nelson doesn't have a career at all, thanks to his unimaginative doodles and some prickly critics. Then one night, while feeling sorry for himself, Nelson meets a man in the park who promises he can grant the artist fame and fortune for one year if he then hands over his soul.

Nelson scoffs and tells the man to go away (important detail that). The next day, two delivery men arrive at Arne's door and drop off a pane of glass meant to replace one that had broken in his apartment. Nelson looks long into the glass and a nightmarish scene appears. Overtaken by the horrid image, he begins to copy it on his canvas. The result is a masterpiece that immediately sells for a really big price. Sure enough, Nelson Arne the artist has arrived. After one year of success, the bill comes due. There's a twist in the climax of "The Secret of the Haunted Picture" that is simultaneously effective and ridiculous. This could be the first "bargain with the devil" story since the code came along (even though Satan is never named); odd too since Arne never agrees to the pact. 

In "Hide and Shriek," George Karus loves a good practical joke, as long as it's being played on someone else. At one of his ritzy parties, the wealthy Karus stages a couple of particularly annoying acts of "humor" on his guests, leaving them fuming. To make amends, he announces there will be a treasure hunt and the winner will take home fifty grand. But, while the hunt is on, his guests all disappear and in their place stands Khala, Voodoo Headman of the African Veldt! Years before, George had played what he considered to be one of his best jokes on Khala, but the native found it somewhat less funny. Now, Khala tells George he must play this new kind of game, find the guests by the stroke of midnight, or face the consequences. Poor George has never been on the receiving end of these games and he's not finding this very funny.

Howard and his friends find an old map to a buried treasure, but the dang thing has no landmarks other than a tree and some rocks. How will they find out where this incredible sum is buried? Well, naturally, they decide to visit a swami and contact the spirit of the dead man who wrote the map! When the mapmaker, Lloyd Barton, materializes, he brings with him his beautiful fiance, Alice, and the two promise to lead the men to the treasure. Are Lloyd and Alice really spirits or con artists running a game? Well, at the climax of "The Living Shadows!," you certainly find out. It's a wordy and dopey tale, one that would have fit more comfortably in the pages of an Atlas romance title, but it's fairly entertaining. The Wildey art, however, is very 1940s and fits well with the story's World War II setting.

Roger has always been a selfish man but when his best friend invents a time machine, Roger does the unforgivable. Believing he can go back one hundred years and talk his great-grandfather into better investments (and thereby establish a larger inheritance for himself!), the scalawag steals the device and heads back in time. These time travel novices never end up better than before their trip and Roger, the lunk-headed protagonist of the three-page "It Happened in the Attic!," is no exception. 

Running from the law, Mike Morse falls off a cliff and finds himself trapped in a steep ravine. Luckily, a hiker comes along and offers to help the wanted man; unluckily, the new guy meets the same fate as Mike and very soon there are two trapped rats. The newcomer seems to have a case of amnesia and, quicker than you can say "I know I'm trapped in an Ed Winiarski strip where all the characters look alike anyway," Mike has convinced his would-be rescuer that he's the fleeing felon. Pretty brilliant scheme until the new guy starts thinking like a criminal. "Too Smart to Live!" has utterly atrocious graphics (Winiarski has a problem with human anatomy here as the arms of our characters seem to change shape and size every other panel) but I was surprised by the clever twist. Could be I'm that guy just searching the penny jar for a dime.

Professor Thornton has invented a gizmo that enables his mind to be a receiver of other thoughts. Yep, he can read minds! So, naturally, the brilliant and really smart genius decides to use his tool to rule mankind. Alas, poor Thornton didn't bank on the fact that the machine allows him to read billions of minds at the same time. The result is brain overload. "The Man Who Can't Be Stopped" is a strange title for a story about a deviant egghead who's stopped in the first couple of pages. The artwork is average; this one won't be found in any Best of Joe Orlando collections.-Peter

Spellbound #34

Cover by Carl Burgos

"In the Room of Darkness" 

(a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★1/2

"The Man Who Was Twice" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

"The Missing Nail!" (a: George Roussos) ★

"The Silent Shriek" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Mysterious Cargo" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

"The Crooks Who Couldn't Be Caught!" (a: John Forte) ★

Swami Ram is helping rich Mrs. Peters contact her dead husband, Walter, through his mystical powers and doing a pretty good job, according to the old woman. That is, until the sage delivers a note supposedly written by the deceased, not knowing Walt couldn't write! The twist for "In the Room of Darkness" is pretty silly stuff (yeah, I know, it's all pretty silly stuff), considering the woman is buying the fact that her dead husband is actually contacting her but not quite buying the fact that St. Peter might have given Walter a lesson or two in penmanship before sending him through Heaven's turnstiles. GCD claims this one is penciled and inked by the great Williamson and Mayo, and those guys are so much more knowledgeable than I, but if it's Al & Ralph it's not their finest hour.

While the other wives boast of their husbands' virility, paychecks, and bravery, Joyce Haywood can only remain mum. Her husband Henry is a timid, sexless, half-man and she's so ashamed of him that she pays brilliant and really smart inventor Bernard Baldwin a small fortune to create a robotic twin of Henry to prove her friends wrong. While the real Henry is off on a business trip, the women invite Joyce and "Henry" along on a boating excursion and a fierce storm hits, tossing the women off the catamaran. Rather than hide under the picnic basket, "Henry" dives overboard and saves the girls from a watery doom, becoming the talk of the town for his bravery. Henry comes home from his trip and professes surprise that the women are bragging about his masculinity just as the doorbell rings. (To no one's) surprise, it's Professor Bernard here to deliver Robo-Henry with apologies for his lateness. You mean... brave Henry was the real Henry? Well, there's one more twist that makes "The Man Who Was Twice" much cleverer than its lame title. And then there's the tame GGA from Doxsee, who makes it worth the look as well.

A brilliant but forgetful chemist takes his horse in to be shod but forgets the incredible serum he created (to send man back to ancient times) on the back seat of the carriage. Not bothering to wonder if the substance is toxic or not, the blacksmith downs the potion and is sent twirling back to the time of King Richard III. King Dick is just as unhappy about his horse throwing a shoe and takes his wrath out on the hapless blacksmith. "The Missing Nail!" has a moronic script that's good for a few laughs but the whole thing seems like a mini-history review, complete with bad textbook illustrations.

When brilliant but meek inventor John Kent brings his new bug-killer gizmo to Mr. Carpenter to manufacture, the businessman is not impressed. That is, not until Kent warns the entrepreneur that if the machine's high frequency is turned way up, it could kill a human. Coincidentally, Carpenter is looking for a way to murder a business associate and get away with it! "The Silent Shriek" is just as mind-numbing as the previous tale and not much better to look at. 

In the three-page "The Mysterious Cargo," the world one hundred years in the future has witnessed severe climate change due to atomic testing and the temperature has increased dramatically. Within a specially refrigerated vehicle, two men race against time to deliver a precious item to a faraway museum. The item in question is a surprise but more surprising is how accurately the (uncredited) scripter predicted our current ecosystem's problems. Last up is "The Crooks Who Couldn't Be Caught!," wherein small-time crook Al Jenkins hits the big time when he starts dating a gorgeous telepath who doesn't seem to catch on when Al keeps asking her to read the minds of jewelry store owners as they're opening their safes. But the joke's on Al: the babe-a-licious blonde is really a stinkin' Commie sent to enlist an oaf to help her steal top secret blueprints from the defense department! 

And so closes the final issue of Spellbound after a long and bumpy run, the first victim of the apocalyptic "Atlas Implosion of 1957" (a good history lesson on the Implosion can be found here). Though there wasn't much to shout about in the eleven post-code issues (with Bill Benulis's "Eye Over the City" back in #24 being the only obvious standout), the pre-code version could be counted on for some solid thrills and chills. Two of the stories featured in those first 23 non-CCA issues made my "50 Best Atlas Stories" list: Bill Everett's "Horror Story" (from #2) and Tony DiPreta's "The City" (#18). -Peter

Strange Stories of Suspense #15

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Doomsday!" (a: George Woodbridge) ★1/2

"The Liquid of Life!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"The Man Who Forgot" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

"The Sinister Suit" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★

"I Went Inside the Hidden World!" (a: William Weltman) ★

"The Terrible Timepiece!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

When Tanya the gypsy looks into her crystal ball and says what she sees, you'd better listen! She announces that a stranger fleeing like a fox will arrive at their camp and, sure enough, a crook on the run named Foxy Bertram turns up. The gypsies take him in and Tanya tells him that a falling, glowing rock will play a great role in his life. He discovers a gold nugget and convinces the gypsies to leave the area by telling them that a meteor is hurtling through space and will soon crash on the campsite. After they leave, Foxy stakes his claim and encounters "Doomsday!" when his prediction comes true and the meteor lands right where he's kneeling.

Who would have thought that would happen? George Woodbridge's art on this one is average and the reader can't say they're surprised by the ending, since Tanya spelled it all out for us.

Ralph Porter puts on his diving suit and descends to the ocean floor to plunder a sunken galleon's gold. While avoiding hungry tiger sharks, he sees people swimming under water with no breathing apparatus and follows them, finding an ancient Spanish civilization that features the Fountain of Youth. Ralph assumes that these folk are the same as those who were on the sunken galleon--they drink "The Liquid of Life!" and never age. The governor is not interested in Ralph's plan to bring machinery down to bottle the stuff and throws him in  jail. That night, Ralph escapes, grabs a sample of the special water, and returns to the surface, where the others on his ship scoff at his claims. Ralph drinks the water and suddenly begins gasping for breath--he now has gills and must be tossed back into the water to survive.

Leave it to Carl Wessler to present us with such a dizzying series of twists and turns that lead to a clunker of a finale. At least we have four pages of Richard Doxsee's artwork to enjoy; he has quickly joined the top tier of Atlas artists in 1957.

The first man to test a new time machine is disappointed to land on a deserted island, not knowing the date or where he is. As time passes and he struggles to survive, he becomes "The Man Who Forgot," unable to recall anything but his own name. He spies a ship and hopes to be rescued. At the same time, the inventor of the time machine realizes that the man will never return and crosses his name off the list of those willing to try it; the name is Robinson Crusoe. Hoo boy, this barely has enough to fill three badly drawn pages! In this month's Spellbound we had an appearance by Richard III and now we get this. The well is running dry.

At the 10th Street Rescue Mission, a bum named Danny puts on a fancy suit that had belonged to John Fletcher, a millionaire who disappeared last week and whom the police are still looking for. Danny takes a nap on a park bench and awakens to find himself in Fletcher's bedroom, where the butler tells him that the car is waiting. The chauffer takes off and Danny finds himself locked inside the car and left to drown when the driver leaps out just before the car sinks in a lake. Danny wakes up, back on the park bench and still clad in "The Sinister Suit"; he leads the cops to the lake, where they find Fletcher dead in his car, clutching a note that implicates the chauffeur.

When I see that Ed Winiarski or Robert Sale has drawn a story in an Atlas comic, my expectations are low and I am rarely disappointed. But when I see that the artist is Bernie Krigstein I expect more than we get in this tepid mystery-fantasy It looks like he, like the rest of the Atlas crew, is playing out the string until the big implosion.

A pair of scientists invent a microscope that shows them a microscopic world and that would allow someone to shrink to tiny size and visit the world for an hour before returning unharmed. The janitor overhears the men talking and, when they're gone, looks through the microscope and sees a giant diamond! He enters the machine, shrinks, visits the tiny world, steals the diamond, and returns to normal size, but when he reaches into his pocket he realizes that the diamond stayed microscopic.

Once again, I saw that one coming a mile away. William Weltman's art reminds me a bit of the work of Steve Ditko in certain panels, but overall it's nothing special.

A petty thief named Konrad Brugy robs an old man and drops his pocket watch as he runs from the police. Returning to look for it, he finds that it was crushed beneath their boots. Konrad visits a pawnbroker and buys a replacement that doubles as a very special stopwatch--when he presses the button, everything around him begins to defy gravity. Like every other Atlas protagonist, Konrad sees this as a way to make money and takes it to a series of important people, demanding ten million dollars for it. He finds a buyer in Colonel Ivan Gorovsky, whose government is about to drop a bomb on Konrad's Soviet-bloc republic. Konrad joins the colonel in a bomber plane, assuring him that the stopwatch will keep the plane in the air if it's hit by enemy fire. Sure enough, this comes to pass, but when the bomb is dropped it floats upward due to the anti-gravity field and blows up the plane.

"The Terrible Timepiece!" is yet another Wessler story with so many twists and turns needed to set up the conclusion that it is a chore to plod through, even at a mere four pages. Poor Paul Reinman wasn't doing his best work by the point in his career. All in all, a poor issue.-Jack

Strange Tales of the Unusual #10

Cover by John Severin

"Menace of the Unseen Man" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★1/2

"The Man Who Said 'No'" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

(r: Journey Into Mystery 16)

"Don't Answer the Phone!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★1/2

(r: Uncanny Tales #9)

"Mass Murder" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★

(r: Vault of Evil #18)

"The Threat!" (a: Paul Reinman (?) & John Tartaglione (?)) ★

"The Nightmare Men" (a: Mac L. Pakula)

(r: Uncanny Tales #9) ★1/2

A hobo named Barney Lowry is given two hours to get out of Haysville, but when he eats some berries from a tree just outside of town and becomes invisible, Barney heads right back into the sleepy borough. His invisibility wears off and he is jailed, but a few more berries allow the "Menace of the Unseen Man" to begin as Barney escapes from his cell, robs a jewelry store, steals a police car, and heads into the countryside. Eventually, Barney gets tired and lies down for a nap in a new building under construction; too bad for him it's the new jail and he wakes up back in a cell and visible!

I know we've seen this ending before. Doxsee's art is passable but the story is so tired that there's not much he can do with it.

Jonathan Bascombe is a cruel, rich man who enjoys watching ants climb up the side of a mound of sand and knocking them back down just before they reach the top. A scientist named Max visits and asks Bascombe for money to finish a cellular project, but the wealthy man enjoys barking "no." The next night, Jonathan drives to Max's house to torture him some more but finds no one home. He reads the scientist's journal and learns that he can't complete his serum without a dynamo. Just then, a handy bolt of lightning comes through the window and hits a beaker of serum.

Bascombe blacks out and awakens to find himself at the bottom of a mound that he starts to climb. Just as he nears the top, a giant finger knocks him off. We see that the finger belongs to a little boy who enjoys torturing ants just as Jonathan does; Max the scientist walks by and thinks of his cellular shrinkage serum that just needed a dynamo to activate it electrically. He blames himself and thinks that Bascombe, "The Man Who Said 'No,'" would never have given up.

Angelo Torres makes this obvious story bearable with some nice graphics, but the events are far-fetched and predictable. It's odd that Max ends up respecting Jonathan for being so strong; it's supposed to be ironic, since Bascombe ends up at the base of the mound, but it doesn't really work.

Hal Terrance is a successful businessman until he begins to be tortured by phone calls from Lydia. At a meeting, on a dinner date, in the middle of the night--she keeps calling and it's driving him crazy. Finally, he goes to the police station and confesses to her murder. The phone rings and the detective tells the caller that Hal has just confessed--Lydia replies that no more calls are needed and hangs up.

"Don't Answer the Phone!" is a moody, spooky mystery that works due to the evocative artwork by Gray Morrow. It gradually becomes apparent that the caller is a dead woman, but until Hal's confession, it's not clear what he did. The conclusion is satisfying.

Harrison from the Defense Department lands secretly by parachute on a remote atoll, where he is met by Dr. Peter Farnum, who announces that Operation Nullify is an unqualified success. Farnum and his team have created an atmospheric dust that will protect the nation from atomic bombs. Six months ago, after realizing that there were two methods that needed to be tested and only enough geniuses to work on one, an inventor named Barnaby used a machine to create duplicates of the scientists. The images, or duplicate scientists, went to the Pacific to work, while the real ones worked in the Arctic. Now that the problem has been solved, Farnum uses a ray to dissolve them. Harrison is shocked and accuses Farnum of "Mass Murder"; the scientist is tried in a courtroom, where the prosecutor argues that the images had the power to save mankind and thus the right to live.

For a change, an Atlas story is thought-provoking! In today's world, with A.I. on the rise and 3-D printing creating lifelike duplicates, the question posed by this story could soon be a timely one--how close do the duplicates have to come to having human characteristics before they deserve human rights? The story is so intriguing that even Robert Sale's art is bearable. The only slight glitch is that the images would have dissolved on their own anyway had Harrison not sped up the process. I like that the end is left ambiguous--the story ends before the jury returns a verdict.

Disappointed by his inheritance from his father, Lester Harlow reads his grandfather's diary and comes up with a moneymaking scheme. It seems that the old man had built a machine that brought people over from another dimension and they still live in town. The machine is still running in the attic, so Lester invites the inter-dimensional visitors to his house and issues "The Threat!" Pay him $25K each or he'll shut off the machine and they'll return to their old dimension! The three couples think Lester is nuts, so he turns a dial on the machine and vanishes! Poor Lester did not read far enough into the diary to learn that his father married one of the people from the other dimension, making Lester himself a visitor subject to return.

The GCD suggests that Paul Reinman penciled this three-pager and that John Tartaglione inked it. The pencils definitely look like Reinman's chicken-scratch, circa 1957, while some of the characters' faces do have that Tartaglione look and seem more finished, especially in the last couple of panels. Whatever the case, Wessler's script is terrible! Only he would have a character discover a machine that brings people over from another dimension and immediately have that character's thoughts turn to blackmail.

A tyrant is feared, but every night he is visited in his dreams by "The Nightmare Men," whom he fears are coming to take him away. The only man who can help him is Dr. Peter Rostov, whose brother the tyrant sent to a concentration camp. Rostov agrees to help and that night the tyrant sleeps soundly. The next morning, he is gone! Did the nightmare men finally take him away? Unaware of what has happened, Rostov laments his cowardice in aiding the tyrant.

The lack of an ending doesn't make a weak story worth reading. Mac Pakula draws a few decent panels but that's about it.-Jack

Next Week...
The Implosion Continues to Scorch Earth.
Help Us Bid Fond Farewell to Three More Titles!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 164: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 149

June 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #62

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Secret of the Pet Shop!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★

"No Way Out!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

"Something is Outside the Door!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★★

"Thru the Dark Tunnel!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Secret!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"It Comes Out at Night" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★★

How does Mr. Allen make a profit from his pet shop when he practically gives away his merchandise to all the neighborhood brats? When pressed, Mr. Allen will confide in folks that he lives for the joy in a child's eyes and that he has a "private means" of his own to make ends meet. Four local hoods begin noticing Mr. Allen's way of doing things and force the old man to hand over his private stash. Bad idea.

"The Secret of the Pet Shop!" is one of those Atlas tales that probably would have had more teeth had it been written during the pre-code era. You've got menacing youths and the big reveal (SPOILER ALERT: Mr. Allen's pets can transform into giant beasts when provoked) would have led to bloodshed had not the CCA been looking over the writer's shoulder at all times. As it is, it's a nicely illustrated JD tale with a safe, happy ending.

In the jungles of South America, Joe Foss is working on a railroad when he accidentally breaks through a rock wall and discovers a city of gold behind it. Thinking nothing of his co-workers, Foss sets off an explosion to make the hole larger, chops chunks off the gold buildings and then sets to work getting his haul out of the city. That's when the ancient Incan tribe shows up. "No Way Out!" has some spectacular Torres art (again, think Williamson, Krenkel, and even Frazetta, style-wise) but the script goes nowhere... literally. The final panels are of the tribe marching Joe back to their city for some undisclosed fate, as if there should be a fifth page of content

With his incredible new telescopic lens, Horace Peyton is able to take photos of objects millions of miles away, including the farthest planet in the galaxy, Desida! Horace takes his picture but, as the hours pass and the photo develops, Horace notices strange, shadowy shapes forming on the picture. Soon, the figures become clearer; they are monsters from outer space coming closer to Earth! What in the world can Horace do to keep these creatures from reaching the observatory? The goofy script and sharp Bob Powell art are a winning combination that make "Something Is Outside the Door!" a fun little distraction. When the things arrive at Horace's door and begin pounding, there's legitimate suspense, an element not found in too many Atlas strips of 1957.

Harry Hilton gives his buddies down at Pop's General Store hell for being so henpecked and refusing to accompany Harry on his quail hunting expedition. Then Harry gets home and the ol' ball-and-chain puts Harry in his place. If Harry doesn't get to painting the kitchen immediately (it does look like crap), he can expect bread and water for supper. The Mrs. ain't up for arguing. Well, Harry ain't one to take crap from the pals around Pop's kettle stove, so he shows the old lady and gets up really early to head out for hunting.

He and pal Fred Selby (the only bachelor in town) get separated in the forest when it starts raining and Harry finds himself in a strange cave. Exiting the rear, our he-man discovers a sunshiny day. Figuring Fred headed on home, Harry plans on minimizing the damage by painting the kitchen for the rest of the day but, once entering the house, he meets up with the Mrs., who walks right by him without a word. More ominous is the exact duplicate of Harry painting the kitchen. What gives? Who knows? "Thru the Dark Tunnel!" is another of Carl Wessler's magical scripts that gives no explanation for events and then gives no apology. There's a Harry-twin, a dark cave, a happy ending (Harry journeys back through the cave, heads back home, and everything is normal again), a cautionary lesson for rebellious hubbies, and come up with your own reasoning, ya dumb eight-year-old kid.

Combining two of the favorite pastimes in the Atlas Universe of 1957, "The Secret!" sees a quartet of stinkin' Commies drilling through a stone wall to find out what the big new American military weapon could be. The men are astonished when two American agents/scientists (?) materialize before their eyes and admit the big secret is invisibility! 

Young Billy Grayson can levitate, lifting himself into the skies and flying, but his ma and pa (think, oh, I don't know, the Kents, back in Smallville?) discourage him from doing so. Ever since Ma and Pa found him wandering the countryside and took him in as their own, they knew he was special and should keep his gifts undercover, lest he be taken away by the government and studied. So Billy promises he'll keep it on the downlow.

Years pass and Grayson grows up to be a respected astronomer, blazing new trails for science. As an elderly man, now retired, he looks up to the stars and remembers his gift for flight. Up, up, and away he goes right to another planet, where he is welcomed home by the officials who placed him on Earth to study our culture. Billy Grayson is finally home! I have to say that "It Comes Out at Night" (a really dumb title, but I guess better than the obvious alternative, "The Man Who Could Fly to the Stars With No Problem Breathing!") is a whole lot better than my cynical synopsis. Sure, there's more than a hint of Superman mythos, but our uncredited scripter does a good job of keeping sappiness at arm's length and the climactic reveal comes off as heartwarming rather than maudlin. The Doxsee work adds an exclamation point.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #47

Cover by Bill Everett

"Bring Back My Body!" (a: George Woodbridge) ★★

"It Hides Under the Ground!" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

"They Can't Find Me!" (a: Manny Stallman & Bob Fujitani[?]) ★1/2

"The Blinding Flash!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Face in the Darkness!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

"He Sits in the Fog!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★★

Craine has a special power; his spirit can leave his body and he can drift anywhere he wants while his body remains in a yoga-trance. Rather than do something good for mankind, Craine decides he's going to kill Burton. Why? Because Burton gets all the attention down at the clubhouse and that really irritates Craine.

So, one afternoon, he lets his butler know he'll be meditating and sends his spirit over to Burton's flat. There he attempts to murder the man but quickly discovers that Burton might have an equally effective countermeasure Craine had not planned for. Realizing he'll have to replan the deed, he heads back to his body, only to discover he had a heart attack while his spirit was elsewhere. "Bring Back My Body!" will probably elicit more chuckles than chills but it does have a decently grim finale. Craine is just as dumb as your average Atlas scientist, possessing a power he could use for good but opting for evil just out of jealousy and spite. Some decent work by newcomer George Woodbridge, who'll only hang around for a few months and contribute five stories to the Atlas post-code H/SF library before settling in for a long run over at Mad.

Looking to get out of the country in order to avoid the service, 25-year-old Otto Krantz uses his make-up genius to apply prosthetics that help him look like a man in his 60s! Then, while researching how old men talk and behave at a nearby museum, he overhears two elderly gentleman discussing Odin's Chariot, a mythological vehicle used to transport dead men to Valhalla. One of the old guys remarks how he'd give most of his fortune to own the chariot.

Ding! Ding! Ding! goes the bell in Otto's head and before you can say "Ragnarok" he's signed a contract with the men to find the chariot (believed to be buried in the hills of Norway) and receive a fortune in dough for his troubles. When he gets to Norway, Otto assembles  lumber and paint and creates a chariot, believing the old men foolish enough to pay for anything. To authenticate his "find," he hires men from the local village to dig the thing up and sign affidavits to that effect. When the chariot has been unearthed, Otto heads into the hills only to discover the workers have unwittingly stumbled upon the actual chariot! "It Hides Under the Ground!" is another amusing, semi-entertaining strip, with most of the giggles going to opening panels, where Otto lays out his grand plan to avoid the draft!

"They Can't Find Me!" details a disenchanted military scientist who's working on an invisibility formula but can't get anyone to pay attention to his theories. Then the stinkin' Commies arrive at his door and promise him the moon if he'll only steal the American government's top secret Process X-9 and bring it to their headquarters. Now he's pissed at both sides so he gives the men a little demonstration of what he believes will be the most revolutionary weapon in the history of mankind. He takes his serum and stands back, daring the men to see him. They all laugh because he's clear as day. Too late, this nitwit egghead discovers his formula makes him invisible only to himself! 

"The Blinding Flash!" is a total groaner about an egghead who invents an "Atom Power Machine" that can project one's image into the past. There, ostensibly, the image can change the future. The scientist can't get anyone interested in his gizmo (everyone is "too afraid of the consequences") until a two-bit hood needs to go back in time and find the lighter he dropped near a safe he cracked. Hilarity and huge coincidences ensue. 

In "The Face in the Darkness!," wealthy businessman and part-time mystic arts enthusiast J. Alfred Torgan searches high and low for a swami who can actually connect him to the dead. When he reveals a seer to be a fake, he runs them out of town. But when he stumbles upon Swami Leon, he gets a strange feeling that this guy is for real. Truly awful writing (slowly... piece by gauze-like piece, like a cloud buffeted into a strange configuration by high winds in a storm-blackened sky...) and amateurish art make this one to skip at all costs. 

Last up is "He Sits in the Fog!," wherein Carter tries to convince his business partner, Prentice, to float him a loan against the company's assets. Prentice refuses, citing several recent similar loans and a high probability that Carter's gambling debts might bankrupt the company. That's when Carter turns to murder. He fixes Prentice's breaks and, just like that, Carter is sole owner of their business. As he boasts of getting away with murder, a fog surrounds him and gets thicker; we learn eventually that Carter has died in the gas chamber. That final panel is quite effective but the build-up is odd; the protagonist brags about getting away with the crime but we're never even let in on the investigation of the case. We simply move from the act to the punishment. Still, that grim climax beats anything else in this mediocre issue of Journey Into Mystery.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #58

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Graveyard" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"Who Waits in the Fog!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

"Age of the Iron Men!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★1/2

"The Thought Stealer!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★1/2

"He Hides By Night!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"I Dare You to Move!" (a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito[?]) ★★

The captain of a ship called the North Star has a plan: he'll steer his ship into a "Graveyard" of weeds in the Atlantic and collect the insurance money, certain that he and his first mate will be rescued by the Rose Wilson. As the ship is drawn into the weeds, the crew abandons it, but the captain and first mate stay aboard to make sure it's hopelessly stuck. They finally exit in a small rowboat and are dismayed to see that the Rose Wilson is also among the ships in the graveyard.

Richard Doxsee could have done more to illustrate this story, perhaps showing more of the abandoned ships in a moody way, but instead he chose to depict numerous panels of the captain and the first mate talking to each other. At least the story has a beginning, middle, and end, sans Martians or Commies.

Abner Gough runs from his miserly uncle's house, clutching a valise of stolen cash and worried that he will be discovered to have killed the old man. In the fog, he encounters a mysterious man who says that the police are on his trail and hands him tickets to a ship headed for Paris! Abner is unable to enjoy Paris, certain that everyone is watching him and that they know what he's done. The shadowy figure gives him tickets to Rome, where the same thing happens, then to Athens, Cairo, and Johannesburg. Finally, the figure reveals himself to be a dead ringer for Abner, who realizes he can't run from himself and turns himself into the police. They don't know what he's talking about, since the coroner said that his uncle died of a heart attack!

"Who Waits in the Fog!" suffers from the Atlas curse of having too many twists, none of which are particularly interesting, and from the mediocre stylings of Frank Bolle, which don't make any of the fog-enshrouded mystery evocative.

In the year 2026 (!) engineer Marc Braydon creates humanoid robots that begin to take over the jobs of mankind. As the decades pass, the "Age of the Iron Men!" takes hold and robots gradually enslave humans until people revolt and turn on their machine overlords in 2056. But wait! It's only a movie! The robots in the audience are anxious that humans might really revolt, unaware that underground meetings are already underway.

I'm not well-versed enough in the history of science fiction to say where this idea originated, but I have to hand it to Carl Wessler and Joe Maneely for telling a captivating story in a mere three pages. It's fun to read it 70 years later and compare what happens in the comic to what has happened in real life.

An amateur chemist named Amos Kirk accidentally invents a gas that allows him to become "The Thought Stealer!" He can see what other people are thinking and, like every other Atlas character, decides to use this newfound ability to get rich quick. After trying to blackmail three strangers, it turns out that they were all innocent and Amos misread what he saw in their heads. Unfortunately, one of them turns out to be a detective, and he sees to it that Amos's blackmailing days are over.

We can always count on Mort Drucker to turn in solid work and this story is no exception. The plot is one we've seen before.

After a robbery, Freddy Galt kills his partner, Joe, and goes on the run with a satchel of stolen loot. Thinking the police are on his trail, "He Hides By Night!" and follows a shadowy figure into a cave, squeezing his thin frame through a crevice. Night after night, the figure's arm reaches through the crevice to pass Freddy food until Freddy is too fat to exit and the figure reveals itself to be Joe's vengeful ghost.

Bottom of the barrel stuff, this story features some of the worst art we've seen from "Solly" (as he signs his name on page one) Brodsky in an Atlas comic. 

Mason makes it to Tibet, in search of the cave of light, where anyone who enters will live forever. The High Lama says the cave is not for ordinary men, but when Mason holds him at gunpoint, the Lama leads Mason to the cave, where he meets the wise old Li Orn. Feeling rays of light passing through him, Mason feels immortal but is shocked when Li Orn explains that his life will end the moment he leaves the cave. Uncertain as to the truth, Mason is stuck inside, as if Li Orn had said: "I Dare You to Move!"

The GCD questions whether Mike Esposito inked Ross Andru's pencils this time out, and I don't think so, since the panels don't have the usual cartoony look that we see from that duo. Instead, it has the feel of a page by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, oddly enough--see the panel reproduced here.-Jack

Mystic #60

Cover by John Severin

"The Children's Hour!" (a: Gene Colan) ★ 1/2

"The Mystery of the Tattooed Man!" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★ 1/2

"You Only Live Twice!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"What Happened to Doctor Dorrm" (a: Sid Check) ★★1/2

"The Changing Man!" (a: John Forte[?] & George Klein) ★★

"Nothing Can Save Us!" (a: Jay Scott Pike) ★1/2

Hiding from the law, Duncan Larkin and two partners in crime hide out at the home of his Aunt Alice and Uncle Jim, chasing away the children who play outside. The first time the kids return, Duncan chases them away again, but the second time, when he hears their voices by the nearby swimming hole, Duncan finds not children but gremlins, who drag him into a hole in the ground. The cops soon arrive to take away his colleagues.

Once again, an Atlas twist comes not out of left field, but out of a far stranger place. "The Children's Hour!" features fair to middling art by Colan, which means it's better than what we get from most of the Atlas regulars. Why do gremlins play outside the home of Aunt Alice and Uncle Jim? Your guess is as good as mine.

Curtin and his gang have to get away fast, even if it means forfeiting half a million bucks. They charter a plane and head for Haiti, but engine trouble means a crash landing in the water, where they are rescued by an old sailor who has a treasure map tattooed on his chest. Curtin and his gang force the man to take them to a nearby island, where they dig down fifty feet before finding millions of dollars in gold and jewels. The tattooed man fades away and reveals himself to be the ghost of Captain Kidd; too bad Curtin and his gang are so far down that there's no way to climb out!

Al Williamson and Ralph Mayo do stellar work on "The Mystery of the Tattooed Man!," which makes up for the plot. I'm not sure four men could dig down fifty feet in the course of a day, especially after surviving a plane crash and time in the water, but I'll stop quibbling and enjoy the visuals.

The cops interrogate a man with amnesia who was found with a silver cigarette case in his possession. Accused of killing Paul Winslow, the man runs for it, climbs a bridge, falls into the water, and vanishes! Suddenly, he's observing the events of a week before and understands that his cousin caused amnesia by tripping him and is now trying to frame him for murder. The man turns out to be Paul Winslow himself, and when his memory returns he clears everything up for the police.

Far from a classic Bond novel or film, "You Only Live Twice!" in this instance is yet another piece of birdcage liner created by the dynamic duo of Carl Wessler and Robert Q. Sale. Sale's characters are just plain ugly and their poses sometimes defy human anatomy. It's so bad it's almost proto-Underground Comix.

Beneath the waters of a hidden lake, somewhere in Africa, live a race of fish people who have long had to limit their population growth due to lack of space. Brilliant Dr. Dorrm leads them to the surface in airtight tanks; they ride to the nearby sea and enter it, certain that it will provide all the room they need to expand and prepare for world domination. If only they'd realized that they can't survive in salt water!

It had to either be air or salt water! The highlight of this three-pager is the terrific artwork by Sid Check, whose fish people look back to (or forward to) the denizens of Atlantis in Sub-Mariner comics. The panels underwater are colored blue and black, which makes the panels above the lake seem even more bright and colorful.

Burt Carter returns to his wife Lil after disappearing for three days and explains how a bolt of lightning made him "The Changing Man!" Burt was riding home one night on a bus as a thunderstorm roared outside. He was looking at the other passengers and imagining that their day jobs were easier than his. A bolt of lightning hit the bus and suddenly Burt found himself in the body of a man he thought was a clerk--he's really a steeplejack, washing windows on a skyscraper! Burt falls and finds himself in the body of the next man, who digs tunnels through rock way below a river! Burt is trapped in a cave-in and finds himself in a third body; this guy is a test pilot! A fire erupts in  his plane and he's back home in his own body, explaining what happened. But wait! There was another man on the bus! Burt suddenly finds himself transformed into the tubby driver, promising his wife he'll be back to normal tomorrow.

I got a chuckle out of the surprise ending, which makes no sense in light of what happened before (Burt did not change back to himself or return home any of the other times) but is fun, nonetheless. The GCS notes that George Klein did the inks and either Klein or John Forte did the pencils--I agree, since some of the panels definitely look like Forte's work but the strip as a whole does not.

Frank Emmons invents a TV that can tune in someone anywhere in the world, but he's annoyed that his teenaged brother, Barry, keeps tinkering with his inventions. When Frank gives a demonstration to bigwigs from the TV biz, he's shocked to tune in a man who appears to be in the polar region but is really in New York City in 1967! A young inventor's machine to provide cheap refrigeration to every home went haywire and now the ice is moving south from the North Pole, covering everything in its wake. When the man from the future tells Frank the name of the inventor of the ice machine, Frank runs into his lab and smashes Barry's new invention, disproving the claim that "Nothing Can Save Us!"

Jay Scott Pike turns in decent work on the last story in a pretty good issue of Mystic. No reader has any doubt as to the inventor of the icemaker, but the story moves satisfyingly from beginning to end and the art has a '60s DC feel to it.-Jack

Next Week...
The First Casualty of the Atlas Implosion.
RIP Spellbound!