Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 120: Marvel/Atlas Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 105

May 1956 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Marvel Tales #146

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Lost World!" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel)  ★

"Reach for the Stars!" (a: Joe Maneely)  ★★

"As the Crowd Roars" (a: Bob Powell)  ★

"Address Unknown" (a: Bob Bean)  ★★

(r: Tomb of Darkness #23)

"One Man's Leprechaun" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★★

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #20)

"The Secret Land" (a: Bob McCarthy)  ★1/2

Brilliant scientist Mark Terrel is found wandering in the desert, fifty years after he disappeared from Earth. What's the story? Turns out he had been stranded in Africa, penniless, and decided he could walk his way back through the desert. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as we discover later), Mark slipped through a "time flaw" and ended up in Atlantis, where he was welcomed with open arms. He fell in love with the beautiful Arla and made a life for himself, but one of the city's elders asked Mark to make a return visit to the world he once knew and drop off a handful of "gifts of science" from the people of Atlantis. Mark made his visit, dropped off the miracles, and zipped back to his girl. Schmaltzy and dopey, "The Lost World!" makes very little sense when you think about it. Brilliant scientist decides a long trek through the Sahara might just be the trick. All the menace and danger has been sapped out of these things and we're left with cornball romance and cliched characters.

Equally cornball and safe, but at least given a professional sheen by ace Joe Maneely, "Reach for the Stars!" involves brilliant scientist Pete Coleman, who's developing a spaceship for the military. Turns out a race of aliens has discovered Pete's brilliance and are even now heading for Earth to discuss the project with him. Of course, the military immediately circles the wagons and is on the brink of blasting the UFO into hell when a miracle occurs and the aliens are allowed to blast back into space. But not before leaving the vital information Pete needed to finish his rocket ship. 1950s aliens would have annihilated all of mankind rather than given them a Golden Wonka Ticket.

Evidently, that "time flaw" that swallowed up Mark Terrel never got properly closed as only two stories later, in "As the Crowd Roars," we meet wanna-be boxing manager, Manny Kimble, who just can't seem to find that future superstar pugilist until he takes a walk out the gym door one day and finds himself back in Ancient Rome, where he's introduced to Antonius Galleo. Within weeks, Manny has trained Antonius to be the number one gladiator in Rome. This infuriates Nero, so Ant and Manny have to take a powder. They end up back in crumby ol' Brooklyn and Antonius (now known as Tony Galleo) begins his ascent to heavyweight glory.

All the tenants of Mrs. Milworth's boarding house make fun of Herman Hofferman for stashing stones in his room. Only Mrs. Milworth cuts Herman any slack because he's such a nice man, even if he hasn't paid the rent in over a year. If only the other guests knew that Herman was working on a machine that turns rocks into diamonds, they'd keep their petty opinions to themselves, the wankers. Unfortunately, when Herman fires up the gizmo for the first time, it does nothing. Despondent, he gives the machine a good shove and leaves the house forever rather than hear any more baloney from the unwashed. Herman heads back to a life of poverty, begging on the street, not knowing that the extra heave-ho he gave his Tinkertoy was all it took. The thing is spitting out diamonds, to the delight of Mrs. Milworth! Yeah, it's a cliched ending, but it still brought a smile to my face, as did Bob Bean's nice art.

Leo Loomis only wants the best for his small town of Marshville, so he puts it out there that he's running for mayor. Well, the townsfolk just about split a gut at that news, so the despondent Leo heads out to the local crick to do some fishin' and happens upon a leprechaun (who dresses like Santa for some reason), who gives Leo the tools to turn his fortune around. Leo brings Marshvile out of its doldrums but the town still won't vote for him. Now here's a charmer that's not schmaltzy or fake, just a load of fun. Of course, the fact that "One Man's Leprechaun" is drawn by Mort Drucker is a big help. Mort's characters can't help but elicit chuckles.

In yet another variation of the "dimension-dimension time slip," two explorers hike to the top of Mt. Everest and discover the door to a cabin. Waiting out the storm, the pair of hikers exit the cabin to find a beautiful paradise awaiting them. Frank and Jack discover the land is ruled by King Rodj, who welcomes them and makes them feel at home. They spend several weeks with the king but eventually wish to get back to their families. When the king insists they can never go back, the men escape and find their way back to the cabin. The next day, they exit to find they are back on Mt. Everest. They make the descent, but their story is laughed off by anyone they tell. Meanwhile, King Rudj welcomes back the spaceship that sat atop Everest to his home on Jupiter. Do I need to whine that nothing about "The Secret Land" makes any sense? How did Frank and Jack get back to Everest from Jupiter? Did they accidentally fire up the ship? Why would King Rudj of Jupiter go to such fuss to transport two "guests" to his planet? Sheesh.-Peter

Mystery Tales #41

Cover by Bill Everett & Carl Burgos

"Out of the Darkness" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★★

"The Mystery of the Doomed Derelict!" (a: John Romita) ★1/2

(r: Vault of Evil #4) 

"The Man in the Mirror!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"While the Town Sleeps!" (a: Kurt Schaffenberger) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #20)

"Behind the Mask" (a: Jim McLaughlin & Sol Brodsky) ★

"This Primitive Planet!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

Amidst an atmosphere of fear and hate, Leonardo DaVinci creates a race of robots, stashes them and all his wacky inventions on a spaceship, and blasts it off into space where they will be safe from human hands. The robots land on a planet and create a society based on law. One free-thinking robot (let's call him Leo) is accused of transgression and forced into suspended animation. Back on Earth, modern day scientists tackle the problems of space travel. "Out of the Darkness" is a wild tale, the likes of which aren't usually found within the pages of a post-code Atlas. Its climax is a sputter rather than an exclamation point, but I'll still give it extra points for being, yep, transgressive. Mort was the perfect artist for this goofy yarn.

Captain Wedgwood drives his crew to madness and exhaustion time and time again. Now, Wedgewood finds his crews are literally disappearing on him while still at sea. In a waterfront store, Wedgewood finds a book of magic and inside it is a spell to "transport men from one place to another without their consent." The captain boards his vessel, says the spell and, voila! instant crew. This bunch has heard how hard Wedgewood can be but they're keeping an open mind. A few days at sea and their minds are closed again. They vanish from the ship and Wedgewood is left to wonder about the vagaries of mankind. How do you run a ship without breaking some eggs? Like most of these Atlas tales, "The Mystery of the Doomed Derelict!" (a really dumb title if there ever was one) has some really nifty art but not a lot of pizazz in the little word balloons. 

Meek Harold Farnum really digs his boss's daughter, Sheila, but she's a chip off the old block, treating Harold like a lapdog and belittling him in front of others. Then one day, while Harold and Sheila are at an auction, Harold accidentally bids on and wins an ancient mirror. Sheila reminds him what a spineless mouse he is and doubles up on her assurance that she'll never marry him as long as he's a wimp.

Once home, Harold gazes into the mirror and (holy cow, not again!) is magically transported into the time of King Arthur's Court. He is known as brave knight Sir Guy de Montfort and witnesses a knave chasing a pretty wench, who looks startlingly like Sheila, through the castle halls. Sir Guy defeats a score of armed soldiers. Having preserved the pretty wench's maidenhood, Sir Guy gets the girl in the end. And, back in the present, Sheila enters Harold's dismal apartment to belittle him yet again. Instead of reaching behind him for the cutlery (which he would have done in 1953), Harold tells Sheila to shut her yap and marry him. A new day has dawned and man hath spoken. Sheila squeals in delight and agrees to be Harold's property until death do they part. The naïveté (or misogyny if you prefer) of some of these pre-PC strips can't help but make one laugh and the climax of "The Man in the Mirror!" is guaranteed to make even the sternest feminist let one rip.

"While the Town Sleeps," the raging sea batters the dike that prevents the town from flooding. With no one to patch up the dam, the statue of a local lad who stuck his finger in a dike (hey, no laughing now!) and saved the town two centuries before comes to life and reenacts his heroic deed. In the morning, the townsfolk find the hole in the dike and the statue's missing finger. The only really outlandish aspect of "While the Town Sleeps!" is that the statue's plaque is worded: In memory of the brave Dutch lad who saved our countryside from flooding 200 years ago... Does this mean every year they change the number? 201...202...203... Schaffenberger's graphics are strong enough that I can remember distinctly reading this as a kid in Where Monsters Dwell and liking it, despite a dearth of monsters.

Sidney Burr has a problem... he's a homely, heartless wretch who needs to find a rich woman to wed so that he can be lazy the rest of his life. To that end, he visits master mask maker Eric Hoblund, who cranks out a series of disguises for the dishonest gigolo. The masks work until the very moment that Eric lowers the boom on his prospective spouses and then the disguise vanishes, leaving an ugly, greedy jerk once again. Despondent, Sidney walks the streets until he comes across a rather pretty, weeping lass who confesses to the smitten sod that she has no money and cannot eat. Sidney buys her a burger and falls in love with the girl but admits he's wearing a "handsome" mask and that, below the shiny surface, he's just another creepy, middle-class slob. To come completely clean, Sid unmasks and the girl sees... the same handsome blond. Love conquers greed. "Behind the Mask" magically transforms a money-hungry lounge lizard into a caring individual in the matter of a few frames. Brodsky's pencils admirably fit a sappy romance strip.

Mike Dawes hires a new guy for his welding and metal-cutting company despite the fact that the man can barely speak English but, after a few hours of inspecting the work, Mike declares the experiment a disaster. The man begs for another chance and, hours later, Mike is impressed with the cutting the new employee has made. The guy even speaks better English now! After only a few weeks, Mike's new hire is saving the company millions of dollars and is promoted to shift manager. He asks Mike if he can work on his own project in the after hours. Mike happily agrees.

Turns out the guy is actually space traveler, Oron, who crash-landed here on Earth and has been biding his time until he can build himself a new spaceship. Mike stows away on the craft and Oron drops him off on a remote Pacific island among a passel of hungry headhunters. Mike must prove his superior intellect and produce fire to keep the savages at bay. As Mike crafts a raft to escape the island, he watches as Oron zips over en route to outer space, musing that he and Oron are a lot alike. Superior beings amongst morons. At first glance, the climax of "This Primitive Planet!" might seem hopeful and contemplative, but then you remember that Mike is stuck on a raft in the ocean and will probably die very soon of exposure or starvation. That Oron isn't such a nice guy, after all.-Peter

Mystic #47

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Man Who Could Do Anything" (a: Dick Ayers) ★1/2

"The Magic Mixture!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★★

"It Happened at Night" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"Just One More Chance" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

"The One They Left Behind!" (art: Charles Stern?) ★

"The Eager Stranger" (a: Bill Benulis) ★1/2

Six months ago, Tod Carter was out prospecting for uranium (as one does) when he met a giant of a man who told him where to find a deposit. The man introduced himself as Sram and he and Tod quickly became pals. Sram was "The Man Who Could Do Anything," and he demonstrated this by capturing a lion with his bare hands and rescuing a planeload of people when the craft burst into flames. On a ship heading back to America, Sram showed a scientist where canals are on a map of Mars. When Tod was swept overboard, Sram rescued him by swimming over a hundred miles.

After the long swim, Sram disappeared and Tod followed his trail to a mountain cabin that was suddenly struck by lightning. In the ruins, Tod found a medal that read, "Champion Athlete...Stellar Space Series." Tod then wrote out SRAM on a sheet of paper and held it up to a mirror. Guess what? SRAM spelled backwards is MARS, where the giant came from!

Boy, I feel dumb not figuring that out myself. At least next month, when we read a story in Marvel Tales about a powerful man named SUNEV, I'll be a step ahead of the writer.

Raymond Barton is an unhappy man until he meets a strange scientist in a cabin who sells him four bottles of "The Magic Mixture!" for ten bucks. Ray goes home, drinks the bottle labeled "wealth," and is immediately flush with cash, but he soon tires of loneliness. He drinks the bottle labeled "friendship" and has tons of friends overnight, but that, too, becomes tiresome. The bottle labeled "travel" leads to many trips, but only when he drinks the bottle labeled "truth" and realizes that true happiness comes from generosity is he satisfied.

Thank goodness Bernard Baily drew this one. Otherwise, it would be a total waste of four pages. I'm quite fond of Baily's art, but the platitudes presented in this dull tale cause no reader excitement.

College student Ralph Doyle is calm and relaxed when he's abducted by men with shiny silver skin and flown in a spaceship to the moon. On the moon, local folk sniff the flowers and walk around holding parasols. They order that Ralph be returned to Earth, so it's back in the flying saucer for another trip. On Earth, the moon men remove their costumes and reveal that it was all a fraternity initiation prank, something Ralph knew all along. When the flying saucer takes off, they all realize that they really did visit the moon!

So many of John Forte's male characters seem to wear bow ties that it seems like a mid-1950s uniform. Here, college student Ralph sports a red one, while his frat bros all go to elaborate lengths to pretend to be Martians. I don't fully understand what happens at the end, when the flying saucer takes off, since it seems like all of the moon men are college students in disguise.

Jack and Joan are in love and wish he made enough money for them to get married. He longs for a bright future while she thinks things were better in the past. They visit a fortune teller and, after drinking her special tea, experience life both in the past (in the time of knights and ladies) and the future (where baby girls are assigned husbands at birth). In neither time do they find happiness so, back in 1956, they decide that they should go ahead and get married and appreciate what they have today.

Frank Bolle does a nice job illustrating "Just One More Chance," but it seems like Atlas goes too often to the time of knights. I have to wonder, who would a story like this appeal to? It's too lovey-dovey and corny for kids and too dopey for adults.

A crew of astronauts who are about to leave Saturn make one final effort to locate "The One They Left Behind!" They fail to find the crew member and blast off for Earth. The missing orderly emerges from hiding, gleeful that he'll no longer have to work hard and is free, but after a year he's bored and lonely. Back on Earth, the ship lands and reports that one crew member is missing. They are sent back to recover the orderly, even though he's only a robot.

Three wasted pages with below average art and a punch line anyone could see coming a mile away. It seems like it took a year to fly back to Earth from Saturn, and now the crew is being sent back to retrieve a surly robot? Seems like a poor use of resources.

"The Eager Stranger" is a little boy who walks into town determined to help everyone he can. He uses his mental powers to prevent a car from hitting a pedestrian but, to his surprise, the people involved complain. He helps a woman retrieve a necklace she had pawned, but she is upset that she wasted money she could've spent on necessities. Finally, he trips up what appear to be bank robbers, only to discover that he's wrecked a scene in a movie being filmed. Having learned his lesson, the little boy ascends back to Heaven, his angel wings now visible from behind.

Decent pages drawn by Bill Benulis can't save this saccharine story! With poorly conceived covers and interiors heavy on moralizing, the Atlas line of comics seems to be marching slowly toward oblivion.-Jack

Next Week...
Black Magic Woman!