Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 97 Atlas/ Marvel Horror

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 82

May 1955 

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery 24

Cover by Sol Brodsky

"The Locked Drawer" (a: Bill Benulis) ★★★

"High-Pressure Man!" (a: John Tartaglione) ★

"The Stone Bird" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★★

"The Long Night" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2

"The Eager Beaver!" (a: Mort Lawrence) ★★

The Bordens buy a mysterious chest of drawers that was once the property of a woman burned at the stake for witchcraft. Legend has it that, just before the woman was lit up, she hid all her magical secrets in the bottom drawer and sealed it forever. Mr. Borden tries everything but can't get the darn thing open, so he calls in an expert, a carpenter who carries it off to his shop and pulls out all the stops. The man is just able to wedge a crowbar between the bottom drawer and its frame for a peek in. Whatever he sees, he tells no one and returns the chest to its owners, begging them to just let it be.

I've always loved a good horror story that leaves you guessing at what's going on, and "The Locked Drawer" does just that. When he looked into that drawer, could the carpenter have seen into another dimension? Did he look into the face of the long-dead witch? Or was there just a pair of dusty bloomers? Bill Benulis is one of the unsung heroes of the Atlas horror/sf era, an artist who perfectly blends the ludicrous with an almost photo-realistic style; no false notes nor obvious shortcuts taken.

In the idiotic "High-Pressure Man," a publicity man can't work up a good enough stunt to land him new clients until a stooge (think Jerry Lewis) walks through his door looking for a publicity man. Several stunts go awry for our two hapless heroes until our main protagonist decides they have to jump out of an airplane. The PR guy survives but the stooge doesn't because... he's a robot! A shock ending simply because it makes no sense whatsoever!

Someone (or something) has been stealing the chickens from Ezra Brown's farm and the rancher has had just about enough. After the local sheriff visits and can offer no solution, Ezra decides that only he can solve his problem. He sits outside the chicken coop one night and, after being alerted by panicked chickens, watches as a huge bird of prey flies away from the building. Ezra gets off both barrels but the thing continues its escape. Bizarrely, the farmer finds chunks of stone on the ground where the bird had been shot. Meanwhile, the gargoyle atop the building on Main Street smiles, despite the partial loss of a wing.

Another tale to file under "What the Hell was Really Happening?" Why does a stone gargoyle need sustenance? Wouldn't alley cats do? Why pick on poor Ezra Brown? I suspect that the uncredited writer had a great concept but couldn't figure out a way to explain it. That's fine, though, because, as with "The Locked Drawer," any elucidation would no doubt ruin the effective outcome. Angelo Torres is a major addition to the Atlas bullpen, immediately lending a darker edge to this softer material.

A dying millionaire longs to get on the boat to Heaven but he's stopped at the gate and told he can't board until he can prove that someone loves him. Fighting back to life, he discovers a roomful of friends and family watching over him at his bedside and decides that he doesn't want the afterlife just yet. Metaphysical poppycock but, worse, boring and long even at five pages. Not Paul Reinman's best work, either. In the closer, "The Eager Beaver," Murray Murdock makes a living being first in line for everything, but when he volunteers for a trip to Mars, he wishes he'd stayed home. The Mort Lawrence art is nice to look at but the climactic twist is an obvious one.

Marvel Tales 134

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Lonely House" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"And a Little Child…" (a: Harry Anderson) ★

"No Time Like the Future" (a: Dick Ayers & Ernie Bache) ★★

"The Strange Ones" (a: Joe Kubert & Sy Moskowitz) ★★1/2

"Little Black Bag!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

An elderly couple seem to have magical healing powers for the wayward travelers who happen upon "The Lonely House." The twist is that the old folks are ghosts who have been allowed to revisit their house one last time. It's all very maudlin and the stilted dialogue is hard to read through the tears of laughter. In the equally saccharine "And a Little Child…," Earth is visited by alien beings and only the children are unafraid and prepping for annihilation. The CCA had gelded the comics industry, but surely the writers could have come up with better material than this syrupy family fantasy.

Newspaperman Cal Nort has a theory that Hero of Alexandria, Da Vinci, and Nostradamus were all able to make spot-on predictions because they were time travelers. Laughably, his editor buys this preposterous theory and puts it on the first page of the New York Daily Views! Cal becomes the toast of the town, but fellow reporters want pesky stuff like proof, and Nort provides them with the blueprints for a time machine. He cautions that, since this machine was actually built 500 years into our future, the scientists will only scratch their head in awe.

Actually, the scientists think Cal is a loon and they have him taken away to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats and… (sorry), but the joke is on the big brains since Cal disappears from the back of the ambulance and reappears in the future. There, he sighs and admits to Hero, Da Vinci, and Nostradamus that they were right. No one believed him. "No Time Like the Future" is a pleasant enough little fantasy tale that doesn't tax the brain cells and has a cute twist in its climax. The Ayers/Bache art makes me want to invent a time machine to go back to 1955 and plead with the editor. "Anybody but these guys, Stan!"

An alien from space is captured and interrogated by scientists, but the poor thing seems to have a complete loss of memory. You can barely see a bit of the Kubert style peeking out from under those Moskowitz inks here and there but "The Strange Ones," which begins as your routine "invasion" tale, comes up with a very effective twist that I never saw coming.

In the preposterous "Little Black Bag," a time warp sends physicians' medical bags from 1980 to 1955 and vice versa. Imagine the breakthroughs the doc from '55 could make with tools fashioned 25 years' hence! That aspect is explored but the uncredited writer seems more interested in heaping goofy (and needlessly complicated) twists on top of each other, with each successive panel more outlandish than the last.

Mystery Tales 29

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Up in the Air!" (a: Tom Scheuer) ★

"Mind Over Matter!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★

"Honest Abe" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

(r: Chamber of Chills #13, November 1974)

"The Crooked Stick!" (a: John Forte) ★★

(r: Crypt of Shadows #14, November 1974)

"Two Faces Have I" (a: Art Peddy) ★★

Little Tommy’s dad is testing the all-new X-16 fighter jet but, for some strange reason, the boy’s model plane (a scale model of his pop’s aircraft) is following all the same moves as its twin high above in the clouds. One morning, while dad is running a top secret mission, Tommy notices his toy has a split cylinder head (!) and calls the base immediately to inform his father’s C.O. of the problem. Naturally, the brass scoffs and Tommy's pop flies off into the heavens. Sure enough, the jet starts malfunctioning and the pilot surmises the problem immediately: a split cylinder head!

After an emergency landing, dad can't get himself out of the burning cockpit until an invisible hand lifts him and throws him clear of the fire. At home that night, Tommy Sr. learns from his wife that Tommy’s toy caught on fire and the boy’s hand was burnt as he lifted the toy pilot out of the flames. Never before has an Atlas strip so resembled the safe, cookie-cutter fantasy that would define Gold Key and Charlton in the early 1960s. The script is negligible and the art is uninspired. There were only two Tom Scheuer appearances in the post-code Atlas SF/H titles and thereafter the artist contributed mostly spot illos for the text stories in the romance books.

A scientist, studying "Mind Over Matter" learns how to make himself disappear for minutes at a time. He calls the leading scientists in the area to show them what he's capable of but changes his mind when he realizes this power can be used for villainous purposes. By mid-1955, the Atlas horror scripts had become as tame and violence-free as the romance comics, but at least we still had a few artists who could provide stunning graphics for the silly words. One of those was Bill Everett, who was responsible for dozens of gorgeous strips in the pre-code years and, fortunately, will be around to contribute 36 more times during this new era.

With his charity clinic closing due to lack of funds, a doctor looks to faith and his fondness for "Honest Abe!" Lincoln to find a way. Lackluster Bob Powell work here accompanies the predictable story. "The Crooked Stick!" is four pages of ludicrosity, anchored by some fine John Forte graphics. Elmer Bittle uses his divining rod to locate multiple wells during a debilitating drought but those around him can't figure out how he does it. One day, there's an accident on the job site involving Bittle and a doctor draws blood, only to discover the man's veins are filled with water! Huh? Cute twist doesn't really hold water (see what I did there?).

Harry Norton is in love with the gorgeous girl who pops in at the diner every afternoon for lunch. Problem is, Harry’s so homely this girl might do the scream-and-scram if she were to see him looking her way. So Harry does what any red-blooded male in love with a gorgeous Atlas doll would do: he buys a handsome mask to wear when he asks her for a date.

Well, Gloria flips over this hunk of guy and one date becomes many. After a bit of time passes, Gloria professes her love for Harry and the poor schmuck feels like a heel. He admits to her he's wearing a mask and doffs the plastic only to discover that his inner beauty has taken over and his face is the same as the mask! Gloria flips all over again. The climactic reveal was a different one from the other obvious twist (Gloria has a mask too), so I bumped the rating up a star but, seriously, if we have to wade through these sub-par panels for another six years worth of material, I hope there are plenty of surprises to come.

Mystic 37

Cover by Carl Burgos

"There Grows a Rose" (a: Gene Colan)

(r: Crypt of Shadows #12, September 1974) ★★★

"The Strange Valley" (a: Mort Lawrence)

(r: Beware #8, May 1974) ★1/2

"Mr. Meek" (a: Mort Lawrence) ★★1/2

"Man in the Dark!" (a: Pete Tumlinson) ★★1/2

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #14, February 1976)

"On the Air" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

After a lifetime spent as a landscape gardener, old Mr. Mooney finally opens his own flower shop, but the stalks of his roses are sentient and one reaches out and steals a visitor's wallet right out of his pocket! The next customer is a woman, and one of the roses reaches out and steals her pearl necklace. Mooney figures out what's going on and returns all of the stolen goods, but the cops put him in jail because his story sounds implausible. Mooney's mighty rose stalks reach all the way from his shop to the jail cell and bend the bars to set him free, so the old man shows the astonished cops. He's sent to a shrink who says that the only solution is to hypnotize Mooney and remove his love for the roses; that way, they'll have nothing to return and will lose their power. The scheme works and Mooney ends up back in his shop, reduced to selling knick-knacks and curios.

"There Grows a Rose" is a strong story up to the disappointing finale, with flashes of the style we'd grow accustomed to seeing from Gene Colan on titles like Daredevil and Tomb of Dracula. It would be better if it had a less mundane, downbeat ending.

Jaded tourists from New York don't see anything unusual about "The Strange Valley" and don't believe their Native American guide when he calls it a place where the gods hunt, dance, and sing. Sam the Indian takes the visitors into the valley the next day and they witness a giant foot stepping on a stone. Skeptics no more, they leave the valley in a state of shock and never speak of what they saw.
Mort Lawrence's art is sub-par and four pages isn't long enough to do more than set something up and deliver a payoff. Too bad all we see is a big foot.

"Mr. Meek" is bald and skinny and everyone pushes him around. The only person to show him kindness is the barber, who gives him a bottle of hair restorer that works like a charm. With a full head of hair, Mr. Meek is suddenly popular--he even has super strength that allows him to stop a runaway car! All the attention bothers him so much that he shaves all of the hair off of his head and is again weak and disrespected, but he prefers it that way.

The third story in this issue is very funny, and Mort Lawrence's art, which was a letdown on "The Strange Valley," fits the humorous tone perfectly.

Who is the "Man in the Dark!" who paces the snowy streets of town thinking about how cold and uncaring the people of Earth are? He's an alien, who has spent three days observing and who will now report back that this planet's population must be destroyed by war rather than befriended in peace. Suddenly, he is struck by a skidding car, whose driver takes him home to join his family's Christmas celebration. The alien is so impressed by the humans' kindness and generosity that he changes the message he plans to send home to his planet.

I'm a sucker for a sentimental Christmas story, and this is certainly a good example of that sub-genre. The art is more reminiscent of 1940s comics than those of the mid-'50s, but it fits just right.

Popular radio personality Morty Quirt suddenly starts insulting his listeners "On the Air..." and nothing anyone can say or do will stop him; he has a lifetime contract and is free to do what he wants. Everyone leaves except Bill Sawyer, his manager, who has no other clients, so Morty lets him stay. Morty is such a heel that Bill brings him tea and, after the radio announcer drinks it, Bill tells him it was poisoned and locks him in the studio. Morty appeals to his listeners for aid, but no one's tuning in, so he's convinced he's about to die. Bill returns to say it was a trick and Morty has learned his lesson.

Tony DiPreta's art is about the only thing to recommend in this rather pointless exercise in morality.-Jack

Uncanny Tales 31

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Paid in Full!" (a: Sid Greene) ★★1/2

"Moon Ahead" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★

"Paddy and His Leprechauns!" (a: Sid Greene) ★★1/2

"It Grows on Trees!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"The Miracle!" (a: Art Peddy) ★1/2

Bill is a handsome young man who keeps taking out loans to buy things for his wife and his house. He always pays off the loans to a lonely man whose name he learns is Tucker. Bill's wife has pity on Mr. Tucker and so Bill invites him over for dinner; the little man is overwhelmed by the kindness of the young couple. Later that night, Bill is driving his truck when he sees Tucker, standing in the road and waving him away from a bridge that is about to be washed away. Bill returns home safely to find that Tucker dropped dead of heart failure right after he left; from his pocket Bill pulls a receipt that reads, "Paid in Full!"

A rare story where the writing outshines the art, this one doesn't deliver any great surprises at the end but is nevertheless tender and satisfying. Despite Sid Greene's pedestrian art, the story of lonely Mr. Tucker and his ghostly way of thanking Bill for his kindness makes for an enjoyable five pages.

"Moon Ahead" tells of the first rocket ship to the moon, whose astronauts read Jules Verne's novel, From the Earth to the Moon, to ease the boredom of the trip. They ridicule his work and laugh at those who thought he was reporting on a real trip, but the joke is on them when they land and discover that Verne left his diary behind. There's not much Manny Stallman could do with this one, which is basically four pages of bored guys sitting around talking.

'Tis an unhappy man is Paddy O'Toole, since Casey will not give his blessing for Paddy to marry Casey's stepdaughter, Pegeen. Paddy tramps off through the woods at night, picks up a large stone, and throws it to let off steam. This act frees several leprechauns, who had been imprisoned in a hold beneath the stone. To repay Paddy, they visit Casey and drag him out into the woods to exact his pledge to let the marriage go forward. Casey reasons that there must be a pot of gold involved and agrees, but when he tells Paddy, the young man is so delighted that he picks up the stone and tosses it again, unknowingly re-imprisoning the leprechauns.

"Paddy and His Leprechauns!" suffers from a disturbing trend among many Atlas stories: it seems to be going along just fine and then just ends with a thud. At least Greene's art here is an improvement over his lifeless work on "Paid in Full!"

Mr. Gorse notices that "It Grows on Trees!" in Mr. Lewton's back yard--"it" being money. Lewton insists that Gorse is playing a prank on him and sells the tree to Gorse for fifty dollars. Lewton tells his friends that he grafted the bills onto the branches to fool Gorse, but the next morning he discovers that his grafts took so well that real money has continued to sprout!

There are too many twists and turns here for a four-pager and the back and forth pranks seem pointless.

"The Miracle!" is about as far from a horror comic story as you can get. A little girl believes that she can keep a rose alive through winter if she cares for it with love. Her mean brother cuts it off and presents it to her, but her faith keeps it alive. These Code-approved Atlas comics sure run the gamut, but there's not much horrible about them.-Jack

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Who's That Bat-Girl?