Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 149: Marvel/Atlas Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 134

January 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #54

Cover by Bill Everett

"A Witch by Night" (a: John Forte) ★★1/2

"The Long Sleep!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★

"Something Strange on the Sand!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★

"Trapped in the Dark!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"The Man Who Talked!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★1/2

"The Punishment of Paul Phillips!" (a: George Roussos) ★1/2

How's this for a coincidence? Ben is on his way to give a lecture on the idiocy of people who believe in witchcraft when he stumbles onto an honest-to-gosh witch named Abby. She's a looker and it's not long before Ben proposes but, it turns out, the lady has a dark side as well. Whenever she gets mad, things tend to break. While nothing startlingly fresh, "A Witch By Night" is a nice break from the happy endings we've been force fed lately. Ben is stuck in this relationship and, even though it's never spelled out, he's going to take a long walk off a short pier if he even thinks about leaving!

After a heist gone wrong, Ted Pauley needs to disappear fast so he convinces a scientist to put him into suspended animation for forty years! When "The Long Sleep!" ends, Ted awakens an old man, sure the police have lost interest in him. He heads to a local library and looks through the newspaper archives, discovering that the police never had a clue about him. Can a story be hilarious and boring at the same time? I'm here to answer that question with an emphatic "yes!" In the equally dull "Something Strange on the Sand!," prospector Sal Fargo stumbles across a small village in the desert where time seems to have stood still. The secret, Sal discovers, is a big chunk of uranium and, before you can say "Radiation never hurt no one!," Sal is plotting his heist. The climactic twist, where the village is either a mirage or a madhouse (or both) is head-shakingly bad.

Joe Morse was a dirty rotten swindler, a con man who preyed on the elderly but, one night when he's running from the cops and "Trapped in the Dark!," Morse must face his old victims in a nightmare of guilt and boredom. The climax, where Morse discovers he's not been facing old ghosts but rather stumbled into a hall of mirrors, is somewhat clever but the rest is just a series of panels designed to waste space. Scripter Jack Oleck is biding time until a better gig rears its head.

In the supremely goofy three-pager, "The Man Who Talked!," a ventriloquist loses his dummy overboard while on a sea journey and loses his mind, confined to a hospital bed and jabbering out one liners. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away on an uncharted island, a primitive tribe finds the wooden prop washed ashore and is amazed by its ability to speak (the dummy is spouting the same gibberish as his master!). The natives place the doll on an altar and worship it as a God. I have to give this one an extra star just for its wild twists; it's certainly more unique than the rest of the pablum in this issue.

Heartless prosecutor Paul Phillips is about to put the screws to an innocent man in court when suddenly he... has a toothache! The judge grants a recess and Phillips heads to his dentist, a man he naturally hates. Though he's been given an anesthetic, Phillips feels the pain and swears he'll kill the offending dentist. Back in court, the lawyer is about to make his closing speech when... he's arrested for the murder of his dentist! Phillips is quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. As the gas swirls around him, Phillips has an epiphany; has he really been a bad guy all his life and if given a second chance could he mend his ways? Faster than you can say "CCA," Phillips wakes up in the dentist chair. It's all been a dream! He heads back to the courthouse and tells the judge he wants more time to investigate the case. This man might be innocent after all. "The Punishment of Paul Phillips!" has a hokey happy ending and another of those unbelievable 180-degree personality changes; poor George Roussos has nothing to work with but talking heads.-Peter

Uncanny Tales #51

Cover by Bill Everett

"In the Dead of Night" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo(?)) ★1/2

"I Lived Forever!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★

"The Island of Captain Galt!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Where Did Joe Go?" (a: Gray Morrow) ★1/2

"The House on the Hill!" (a: Werner Roth) ★

"The Unwelcome Stranger" (a: Bernard Baily) ★1/2

After he suffers what his doctor considers a breakdown, frazzled atomic scientist Barrett Henderson lets his family talk him into a vacation up at their palatial estate in Grattan Hills. The first night there, Barrett is lying in bed when he discovers the bed and everything around him has grown to a huge size. Or has he shrunk?

The event happens several times and Barrett is about to accept his doctor's diagnosis: he's losing his marbles. In the end, we find out that his relatives are trying to drive him mad by switching houses on him. While Barrett sleeps, they carry him over to a house which has really big furniture and then, in the morning, they carry him back. What's their motive? Whoops! I guess our uncredited scribe forgot to put one of those in there, so what we're left with is a really dumb family going to extremes to send their most celebrated member over the deep end.

While vacationing in the Colorado mountains, Dr. James Haney runs across a man who claims he is immortal. A rock slide outside their cave entrance leaves both men trapped, so to avoid boredom, Haney insists on hearing more about the man's long life. "I Lived Forever!" is short on thrills but does have an interesting climax, wherein Haney learns that immortality isn't such a swell thing. 

In the hilarious "The Island of Captain Galt!," the titular yachtsman wrecks his boat on an uncharted island but everyone on board is saved and the ship is salvageable. When Galt investigates the tiny piece of land, he discovers a bounty of gold. After the yacht is patched up, Galt gets on his short-wave and calls his friends to come get him, then forces the others to sail away without him. The tiny ship encounters Galt's rescue ship along the way and the ship's captain boards, inquiring as to the whereabouts of the Captain. When he hears the story, he reveals that the island the group landed on is actually a piece of Atlantis that rises above the waves now and then but only stays submerged for seven days. And this is day seven! Ulp! The calm demeanor in which the Atlantis twist is revealed made me chuckle out loud. That's worth something.

On the morning he's to contend for Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe Danner manages to drive his car off a high cliff and winds up in the hospital with various life-threatening injuries. In the hallway, the doctor lets Joe's wife know that they'll be able to save him but the pug will never fight again. Joe, in a dazed stupor, overhears his crying wife sputter out, "Don't worry about anything, Joe! I'll get a job at Macy's and pay all the bills! I told you not to take that car out for a spin but you didn't listen to me! I wonder how much life insurance I've got on you!" Knowing he'll be disgraced if his wife has to go back to work, Joe throws off his blankets and bandages and heads down to the arena for his ten rounds against Harry Judd.

The contender puts up a decent fight but the champ is too much and wins by a narrow margin. Upon hearing of the fight, all of Joe's friends and family rush into his room, only to find the man sleeping. But how could he be in two places at the same time? The bout is nationally televised and millions tune in. Won't there be questions? Won't the Boxing Commission become involved? Your guess is as good as mine. Pulp typist Carl Wessler never thought to offer up an explanation for "Where Did Joe Go?," as he was already onto the next script. 

In the three-page "The House on the Hill!," out-of-work John and his family take refuge in a deserted house and discover their luck has changed. Thousands of miles away, a similar scenario unfolds with a different family.

Back-stabbing John Nash wants to climb the corporate ladder down at the atomic plant he works at but he's not a patient man, so he begins framing his co-workers, effectively axing the competition. Then one day, while Nash is inspecting the Cyclotron, a stranger arrives in the room, a man with no name or memory. Nash's boss is smitten with "The Unwelcome Stranger" and immediately gives him a job higher than Nash's (after all, I'm sure it's extremely easy to get a job down at the local nuclear facility sans references!), which royally pisses our protagonist off. He swears revenge and thinks he gets it. In a weirdly random reveal at the climax, we learn that the stranger is actually an older Nash come back to the past for some unexplained reason. And that perfectly sums up this issue.-Peter

World of Fantasy #5

Cover by Bill Everett

"Fade-Out!"(a: Bob Powell) ★★

"The Man Who Plunged!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Death Waits Below!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

"Smaller... Smaller... Smaller!" (a: Vince Colletta) ★

"Back to the Lost City!"(a: Dave Berg) ★1/2

"Beware the Eyes of Arch!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★★

Frank Sutter is angry at the thought that his uncle must have left the bulk of his estate to Frank's cousin Paul. Wandering down to the cellar, Frank tests one of his uncle's inventions and is thrown five years ahead to the year 1961. After four hours, Frank finds himself back in 1956, where Paul introduces Frank to his pretty fiancee, Ruth. Frank concocts a scheme to get Ruth and returns to 1961, where he frames Paul for robbery by showing the police a photo of Ruth that the burglar dropped at the scene. The photo is signed, "To my darling husband." Paul is arrested and Frank returns to 1956, but when his uncle's will is read it turns out he left half his estate to Frank. Soon, Ruth tells Frank she's broken up with Paul and wants to marry Frank, who realizes that in five years he'll go to jail as Ruth's husband!

Carl Wessler's stories seem to pack about 15 pages of plot into four pages. I wonder if "Fade-Out!" would work better in a longer format? Is that a masochistic question? At least Bob Powell's panels are competent.

Albert Ellis wants to be left alone to daydream, but his wife nags him incessantly. While out for a walk, he sees "The Man Who Plunged!" falling off a cliff. Albert breaks the man's fall with his own body and, in return for saving him, the man offers to grant three wishes. Albert asks for two things: enough money to take care of his family's needs, and for his wife to stop nagging him. The problem is that, when he gets home, his wife has been struck mute and his neighbors blame him for buying up their mortgages and auctioning off their homes. Albert wishes everything back to normal and all is well, but at the cliff another man is witnessing the plunging figure.

So many of these Atlas stories have the germ of a good idea and then fall flat at the end. This one is reasonably well illustrated by John Forte but it's basically the umpteenth version of the old monkey's paw story, where wishes are granted and don't turn out as expected. The final panel, which sets up a recurring event, is unnecessary. The plunging man's face is always in shadow for no good reason.

When a plane carrying four men and $500,000 in loot catches fire over the jungle in Kenya, there's only one parachute and Casey grabs it and jumps out. The bag of money he's carrying opens and all the cash goes flying, but that's okay--when he lands he's treated like a god by the natives, who worship birds. There's just one problem--they take him to the edge of a cliff and expect him to recreate his flight!

Setting aside the very mid-fifties portrayal of the Kenyans, who carry spears and spend all their time gawking at the white man, this is a fairly good story with an unexpectedly ambiguous ending. Casey is left at the edge of the cliff, trying to figure out if he should jump to his death or reveal his mortality and become a slave to the natives. Quite a quandary!

A petty criminal named Danny steals an old man's life savings and the old man curses him by telling Danny he'll get "Smaller... Smaller... Smaller!" before he can enjoy the money. Danny makes a run for it and hides in a hothouse, where he sees giant-sized pieces of fruit hanging from trees! He calls to a passing police officer for help, unaware that the hothouse was the site of a professor's experiments with growing giant plants.

Raise your hand if you saw that ending coming! It's an Atlas trope--in fact, the same sort of thing happened in this month's Uncanny Tales!

Somewhere in the desert, two ragged, thirsty explorers see what appears to be the lost city of Ciba! Mason insists that it's a mirage, and, though Fields sees Incans, emerald necklaces, and plentiful water, Mason keeps telling him it's all illusion and finally drags the man back into the desert, where an old prospector finds them and takes them to a hospital. Mason sees an emerald necklace in Fields's room and rushes "Back to the Lost City!," unaware that Fields bought the necklace for his wife.

It's interesting to see Dave Berg's non-Mad work in the mid '50s; I can't decide if it's primitive and bad or primitive like underground comix art. The panel I've reproduced veers in the comix direction. Berg's art in this story is more interesting than the plot.

Arch Hanson has spent 20 years trying to understand how Medusa could turn things to stone, and now everyone has to "Beware the Eyes of Arch!" because he's figured it out. He turns his wife Helen's pet canary to stone with a look and insists that he can do the same to a person if he removes his dark glasses. Arch heads outside and crosses the street to enter the bank, where he is immediately caught by the cops. Back at his apartment, the cleaning lady tells Helen that replacing the real canary with one made of stone was just a little joke.

With employees like that, who needs an enemy? I did not see the twist ending coming, so the story gets two stars. Bernard Baily's art isn't great, but it's adequate to get from page one to page four without confusing the reader. And at Atlas at the dawn of 1957, that's nothing to be sneezed at.-Jack

Next Week...
Jack and Peter Put a Bow
on the 1960s Caped Crusader!

Batman in the 1960s Issue 59: September/October 1969

 

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

Adams

Detective Comics #391

"The Gal Most Likely to Be--Batman's Widow!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

"Strike!"

Story by Mike Friedrich

Art by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson

Tim's a great guy, but he's stuck in a low-paying job as a trainer and his girlfriend, Ginny Jenkins, "The Gal Most Likely to Marry Batman" ('tec #380's "Marital-Bliss Miss"), just got a job as food reviewer at an ultra-ritzy magazine owned by the dodgy, shady Arnie Arnold. Coincidentally, Arnold is in for a massage and steam and lets Tim know his place, bragging that he's going out with a real piece of cheesecake for dinner. At that moment, in walks Bruce Wayne.

Arnold finishes up and lets Tim know a couple of his friends will be joining him in the sauna. Since this is a CCA-approved funny book, we know the only shenanigans that will go on behind that sweaty steamy door will be criminal. Arnold's friends show up and one of the dummies accidentally hits the intercom switch, allowing Tim and Bruce to overhear the conversation, wherein Arnold confesses his boys will be applying some muscle to the owner of the Groaning Board restaurant. Seems the proprietor refused to take out a full-page color ad in Arnold's magazine and now he's going to pay.

Bruce excuses himself while Tim takes some refreshments out to the swimming pool, where Arnold is waiting with his new squeeze. To Tim's horror, the "cheesecake" turns out to be Ginny, who gives him the cold shoulder and dives into the pool hand-in-hand with "Arnie." Tim is bereft and later goes after Arnold in the locker room, only to have a gun stuck up his nose. 

That night, at the Groaning Board, Batman breaks up an attempt to extort the owner but the man is too afraid to reveal the whole story, instead paying Arnold the dough he wants. At least, the Groaning Board will get solid advertising in Whatever He Calls It Magazine for a full year! Arnold takes Ginny home but, just before she opens the door, Tim pops out of the shadows to ask his girl why she's keeping time with a criminal. Ginny denies any knowledge of bad behavior and tells Tim to grow a set of wings. Only Batman can tell her what to do!

That sets the gears moving inside Tim's head, so he goes to the local K-Mart and buys a Batman Halloween costume (which looks just like the real thing!). The next day, he records Arnold and his thugs discussing another restauranteur refusing to see the light and off Tim goes to play make-believe. Ominously, a Bat-gloved hand reaches around a corner to grab the recorder. That night at the Seventh Heaven, Arnold's goons try to make a mockery of the chef's hamburger et frites but Batman and Bat-Tim put the kayo on the goons. Ginny falls madly in love with Faux-Bats (even though, when he's unmasked, she screams in disbelief, "No--It can't be!--Not him!) and the real deal is left pondering whether the altar-bound couple will ask him to be the best man!

I had to laugh throughout this entire adventure (actually, I usually do anyway), wondering what kind of money a full-page ad would bring for Arnold. I mean, you have to believe that there's a little bit of icing on that cake but it's never addressed, even by the goons. Ginny has to be one of the most self-centered, flighty, amnesiac little bitc... girls we've yet encountered. There's no disguising she's putting out for Arnold while keeping Tim on a string. It's only when "Arnie" instructs his men to toss Ginny off the restaurant roof that she suddenly sees Tim for the man he is. Add "Duplicate Batman" to the list of plot devices that should be put out to pasture for a decade or so. 

In the back-up, Robin gives a middle finger and upper right cross to the underworld figures forcing a teachers' strike. Turns out the mobster behind all the violence and football game riots owned juicy real estate that would become devalued if the school's newspaper ran an editorial or something like that... just enjoy the Kane/Anderson work, which is sublime. Who knew a Robin strip could be so well-choreographed and exciting? Not me, that's fer sure.-Peter

Jack-Once again, it seems like Infantino laid out a cover, Adams drew it, and then poor Frank Robbins had to come up with a script to match. I think any reader by now knows that if the cover suggests Batman will die or be unmasked in this issue, it'll be some poor slob in a lookalike costume taking the hit. Ginny does seem like a real prize, doesn't she? At least we get more Kane and Anderson art to savor in the second story, even though Mike Friedrich's script is awfully thin and peppered with dopey wisecracks.

Novick & Giordano (?)

Batman #215

"Call Me Master!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Irv Novick & Dick Giordano

Three of Gotham City's leading citizens receive strange telephone calls in which they are given instructions and agree to carry them out as if they're in a trance. That night, the Dynamic Duo intercept what appears to be a warehouse robbery in progress, only to discover that it's been authorized by the man in charge, who happens to be one of the recipients of the phone calls. A similar series of events plays out twice later that night, as a robbery of a safe at a mansion turns out to be approved, as does a big jewel theft!

Batman discovers that the phone calls went to members of Gotham's Civic Conscience Council, of which Bruce Wayne is also a member. Bruce receives a phone call and agrees to carry out orders; that evening, Robin follows and sees Bruce handing over boxes of scarce antibiotics to shady characters. After the Boy Wonder breaks up the gang, he develops a theory that Bruce must follow orders and proves it by having his partner sock him in the face! Robin and Bruce understand that he and the other council members have somehow been the victims of mind control, probably when they were all together at a dinner last week.

Bruce calls an emergency council meeting and hands out pendants for each man to wear that will let Batman and Robin listen in on their every word. That night, they hear Myron Mycroft agree to deliver securities to an unknown caller. The Duo interrupt the delivery, unaware that Mycroft is behind the whole scheme. He realizes that Batman is under post-hypnotic suggestion and orders him to blow up Stately Wayne Manor, but fortunately Robin and Alfred intervene, saving the day and catching the crook.

Dick Giordano's inks spiff up Irv Novick's pencils in the tale and the splash page is laid out like a panel from one of Gil Kane's back-up stories in Detective, with Batman knocking Robin for a loop and Robin flying backwards through the air toward the reader. For once, no one is trying to unmask the Caped Crusader, though when Mycroft realizes that Batman is under his control you'd think he might put two and two together and conclude that Batman must be one of the council members.-Jack

Peter-It's amazing to me how Batman and Robin get so much crime-fighting done when they're constantly being manipulated by outside forces or splitting the team up. Congratulations to Robin and the World's Greatest Detective's butler for entering the Guinness Book of Records for speed. They were able to run all around the mansion, dig up the dynamite, and replace it with harmless sparklers and firecrackers (which they just had lying around the mansion) in about three minutes when it took the Big Guy an hour to plant them. Impressive. Also impressive is this issue's art by Novick and Giordano. It's not Neal but it's pretty close.

Adams

Detective Comics #392

"I Died... a Thousand Deaths!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

"A Clue... Seven-Foot Tall!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson

Batman has received a call from Angles, the number one goon in the underworld organization of Scap Scarpel. Though the Dynamic Duo are skeptical, Batman knows he must give it a shot. He meets with Angles out on Gotham Beach and the hood hands an attache case to Batman, assuring the hero that there's enough evidence to put Angles away for ten lifetimes. Just as Bats grasps the bag, Angles pulls a gun and shoots Batman to death. Well...

Celebrating the death of Gotham's Guardian, Angles is startled to hear a familiar voice behind him. Swirling, he sees... the Dark Knight, who informs him the dead Batman is actually a really life-like dummy. Angles uses a trick wristwatch to once again fool the Batman and both of them end up in the drink, with Angles coming away the winner, holding the Batman's mask in his hand.

Scap brings all his men together to raise a glass to the man who killed the Caped Crusader, but Angles tells his boss it might be best to keep mum. That way, the other  organizations won't try to muscle in on their territory. Scap agrees. But, after his primo victory, nothing seems to go right for Angles and, in the end, he stares down the barrel of a gun held by his boss. Angles tries to warn his boss that Batman is right behind him but Scap isn't buying it. Finally, he turns and faces... Batman! 

"How did you do it? How did you come back from the dead? How did you get into my super-exclusive bachelor pad?" Bats smiles and shows him his Angles costume, explaining that when they went into the drink, Robin was waiting below the surface in the Bat-submarine and nabbed Scap's main guy. Now Scap will finally face the inside of a cell, thanks to the man with a thousand lives.

"I Died... Two Fake Deaths!" smells of maximum contrivance, as if a whole lot of coincidences were stacked on top of a whole lot of ridiculous nonsense. I'm not sure why Batman felt he'd have to go to such elaborate lengths (and how he was able to make all of it work), but wouldn't it have just been a lot easier to simply arrest Angles and then arrest Scap Scaloppine? It'll never cease to amaze me just how life-like the innumerable dummies and robots Batman keeps stashed in his Batcave are. And how about that make-up job? 

Babs Gordon helps amateur criminologist Jason Bard investigate a brutal murder in the park. The clues lead them to the star of the Gotham basketball team. When Jason heads back into the locker-room he's attacked from behind. To the rescue comes... Batgirl! After the furious battle, Jason explains he has to get back to his date and Batgirl tells him she's staying behind to look for clues. But Jason makes it back to his seat first and wonders how he'll dump Babs to return to Batgirl for the hunt! Welcome future Batgirl heartthrob Jason Bard, who will co-star in several of Babs's back-up strips in the 1970s. Another thoroughly enjoyable Batgirl adventure, smartly scripted and gorgeously rendered. Was there a better back-up in DC comics in the late 1960s? I need to know.-Peter

Jack-I can't tell you, but I agree that this strip is fun! It's neat to see the first appearance of Jason Bard, someone we saw in our trek through the '70s. I wonder if he was the first comic hero to be injured in Vietnam? In the lead story, there are some nice panels depicting Batman's face in shadow as just black with white eye slits. Otherwise, it's a complex set-up with a limited payoff. Why do so many of Robbins's crooks have corny names like Chips and Topper, who turn up in the Batgirl story? At least the Robbins era marks a more adult tone to the series; Batman seems to die in every other issue, which is a big change from the days of Bat-Mite.

Adams

The Brave and the Bold #85

"The Senator's Been Shot!"

Story by Bob Haney

Art by Neal Adams

As he is celebrating winning the election, a new senator named Paul Cathcart is shot by a bullet fired from a passing van. Bruce Wayne was next to the senator on the podium, so he runs inside, quickly changes into his Batman costume, and pursues the fleeing van, leaping on top and trying to break in until he is knocked off when the van drives under a low hanging beam. Cathcart is hospitalized and in a coma, so the governor telephones Bruce and asks him to take the senator's place and finish out his term. Wayne reluctantly agrees, aware that Cathcart's new crime bill will be voted on in 24 hours and will help stop crime boss Mr. Minotaur.

Meanwhile, another millionaire, Oliver Queen, is in his penthouse office, looking at the plans for New Island, a landfill reclamation project that will help save the state from bankruptcy. Miklos Minotaur's construction company, Argonaut Unlimited, is competing to bid on the project and Queen worries that, if Minotaur succeeds, he'll not only control crime in the state but also wield great influence over the government. Oliver's assistant locks away the plans and, when Queen is alone, he dons his refashioned Green Arrow costume, wondering if his civic and social responsibilities have become more important than his crime fighting. Suddenly, a man posing as a window washer hurls a grenade into the penthouse, but a quickly-aimed arrow prevents it from going off inside.

At the gym, Bruce Wayne works out with Edmond Cathcart, the senator's son, as they discuss the request that Bruce take over as senator. Wayne explains his dilemma to Edmond and confesses that he's Batman, aware that Edmond's oath as a psychiatrist will prevent him from revealing the secret. They discuss which identity is more important before Edmond heads off to join Oliver Queen to survey the landfill project by helicopter. Queen shocks Edmond by revealing that he's Green Arrow and that he's facing a dilemma similar to that of Bruce Wayne: where can he do the most good, as a socially-conscious millionaire or a costumed super hero?

That evening, Edmond is trying to process it all when a couple of Minotaur's goons enter his office and take him to see their boss. Batman and Green Arrow arrive at Edmond's office later and discover he's gone; Batman tells Green Arrow to start looking for the missing shrink while he takes care of some other business. The next morning, Bruce Wayne is sworn in as senator while Green Arrow parachutes down to an island in the Mediterranean, where Minotaur is grilling Edmond about Wayne and Queen. Arrow avoids being killed by wild beasts and is joined by Batman, who made it across the ocean mighty fast. Both men think of their duties as private citizens--Queen has to submit his bid in 48 hours and Wayne has to be back in Washington to vote on the anti-crime bill.

Batman and Green Arrow smash through a window to join Minotaur, who has a gun pointed at Edmond's temple. A superb arrow shot by the archer jams Minotaur's gun and the heroes make short work of his goons, but Minotaur escapes by motorboat. Later, at Minotaur's office, Queen has the criminal arrested, while Bruce makes it back to D.C. just in time to cast the deciding vote. That evening, Queen tells Edmond that he realizes he can be useful in both identities, and Bruce tells the senator's son that his father is on the mend and can resume his senatorial duties. Alone at last, Edmond begins self-hypnosis to wipe the two men's secrets from his mind.

This milestone issue is an instant classic and automatically gets selected as my best story of the Batman comics of the 1960s. It's the first time Green Arrow's new look and costume were revealed. and the art is tremendous. Haney's script is also tight and deals with interesting questions about the value of costumed super heroes in a politically-charged era. I consider myself lucky that I began reading comics right around this time, and issues like this were what set the bar high for my expectations. I'm surprised to see the script is by Bob Haney, since I associate this type of tale with Denny O'Neil. It wouldn't be long before he and Adams would start one of the greatest series ever in Green Lantern.-Jack

Peter-"The Senator's Been Shot" hinges on a few whopping coincidences and yet I was riveted from start to finish. If more Bat-adventures were this well-written, this would have been a more memorable decade. I kept waiting for Mr. Minotaur to lug out his ridiculous costume but, nope, he was just a mobster after all. Just a few months after this story, Neal would take over Green Lantern and essentially create "the superhero with super-contemporary problems" (y'know, not just keeping Aunt May from marrying Dock Ock but stuff like drug addiction).

Next Week...
Jack Wonders if 
Peter is Still Sane!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 148: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 133

January 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Marvel Tales #154

Cover by John Severin

"Something in the Sea!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★1/2

"I Live in Fear" (a: Bob Powell) ★★

"The Mystery of the Black Box" (a: Jay Scott Pike) ★1/2

"The Hidden Man!" (a: Dave Berg) ★★★

"The Stranger's Suitcase!" (a: Bill Walton) ★

"The Black Raven" (a: Syd Shores) ★★★

Seaman Allen Bale patiently listens to an old sea salt relate a fantastic tale about a voyage the old timer once took. On that trip, the ship he was on, the Sea Hawk, crashed into a gigantic iceberg. Studying the damage to his bow, Bale was amazed to see a giant eye in the iceberg. Soon, it swam away and the tar was amazed to see that the chunk of ice was actually a white whale. 

No one on board would believe him and the owner of the boat deemed him too dangerous to let sail. So he sits on a dock and tells his fantastic tale to anyone who will stop and listen. Bale scoffs at the sailor's story and walks away. Weeks later, a similar incident occurs on the boat that Bale is sailing on; sure enough, a giant white whale attacks the ship but only he sees it. Bale is called a loon and heads for the dock to apologize to the old man for mocking him, only to discover that he is the old man.

"Something in the Sea!" is a little hazy at the climax (it doesn't really add up) but at least something different was given a try and the atmospheric Reinman graphics make the journey worth it.  

A brilliant scientist tests out his new invisibility gizmo on his best friend, Jerry, a reporter. Smelling a good story or two, the newsman heads out into the population to invade privacy as no other reporter can. But Jerry soon screams "I Live in Fear!" when he discovers a secret race of invisible men who are out to get him. Another average SF tale enlivened by the artists' bullpen, this time Bob Powell, who brings a smart, sophisticated, throwback style to just about anything he does. Anyone desiring a big dose of Powell should check out the IDW hardcover, Bob Powell's Terror, chock-full of the artist's incredible work for Harvey. You can read the drooling, stark raving mad ravings by Jose Cruz and I about Bob Powell's Harvey stories here. And (unabashed promo) look out for our book-length study of the Harvey horror comics sometime next year.

Veteran criminal Nick Barto has just shot a man and is on the run from the cops. He hides out in his attic, where he finds a mysterious black box. The cops break in the door just as Nick is dropping his weapon in, and they make the collar. They take the violent criminal down to the precinct and present their lieutenant with the box and the goon. The boss opens the box and... no gun! At that very moment, 150 years in the past, Roland Barton, Nick's great-great-great cousin twice removed, steals a load of jewels and takes them home, where his wife scolds him and calls the police. Roland drops his bounty into a mysterious black box and comes away with a very peculiar pistol, one that he immediately knows doesn't need to be reloaded, uses 240-grain loads, and fires at a velocity of 1750 fps. Where did it come from?

Roland's wife takes the heater out of his hands and, for some reason, drops it back into the box, telling her hubby he's going to take his punishment like a man. Years in the future, the handgun drops out of the black box and the cuffs are placed on Nick Barto's wrists. What is "The Mystery of the Black Box!"? More lazy writing from pulpmeister Wessler, utilizing a prop that should probably be placed on ice for a while. Does it just seem like there's a black box story every month? I did emit a few chuckles at Carl's dreadfully purple prose: Neither Nick Barton nor the police knew of the box's unbreakable connection with the past! Nor did they know that the past was part of an endless time cycle that goes on forever in the universe! Jay Scott Pike is not at his peak.

Wessler fares much better with "The Hidden Man!," a complex, enjoyable little espionage romp featuring Stan's favorite bad guys, the stinking commies! The head of the underground, Ivar Pulescu, must be located and put to death before civilians rise up against their stinking government. Two agents, Rimak and Lota, are put in charge and each one independently hits the streets for information. Lota visits a local genius scientist who temporarily changes the agent's face to that of Pulescu, all the better to ingratiate himself to the political enemy's best friends and catch the criminal himself. When Lota finally tracks down and arrests Pulescu, of course it turns out to be Rimak, who visited the same brilliant scientist! Guess who Pulescu was? "The Hidden Man!" can get a bit complicated (much like the John Travolta/Nicolas Cage thriller, Face/Off) but I'll take complicated over cliche any day. And how many good commie yarns were to be found in the pages of Atlas in 1957? Probably one. Suitably noir-ish Berg work.

A mysterious man pays an engineer a boatload of money to build him the world's fastest roller-coaster. When the ride is finished, the mystery man hops on for the first ride and when the ride is over, the man has disappeared. Suddenly, a man from the bank arrives to let the engineer know that the money taken from "The Stranger's Suitcase!" is from the fourth dimension. And the guy on the thousand dollar bill looks just like Larry David. More time traveling? Three pages of utter filler. 

Last up is "The Black Raven," an engaging, humorous tale of three dopey criminals who steal the titular idol in order to find the fabled, priceless Kaffir diamond. Myth has it that the bird will point in the direction of the gem and point it does. Through several mishaps and dangerous animal attacks, the trio find themselves in Africa. Two of the goons drop out and head home, leaving the final thief to face a pride of lions on one side and a snake pit on the other. Believing the statue to be evil, he throws it into the pit, hoping the spell will be broken and the lions will look for dinner elsewhere. Sure enough, the proud beasts turn tail and wander off. The goon turns to the pit and sees the remnants of the bird surrounded by asps, the gem lying amidst the broken pieces. Never saw that coming, and that's the very definition of a successful Atlas fable.-Peter

Mystery Tales #49

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Double Man!" (a: Goerge Roussos) ★★1/2

"By the Light of the Moon!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

"Something in the Fog" (a: Dick Ayers) ★1/2

"Midnight on the Moors" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"The Tiger's Fangs!" (a: Syd Shores) ★1/2

"Time Without End" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

First off, before I begin my lengthy diatribe about soft, safe horror comics of 1957, let me direct your eyeballs to that fabulous Bill Everett cover. It's gotta be the best Post-Code cover we've encountered yet, one that, for just a few seconds, makes us forget we're not in pre-code 1954.

Occult enthusiast Paul Jasons spends all his bread on witchcraft books, hoping to find that one spell that will lead to an easy life. He finds an old tome in a local Goodwill shop and enthuses about its contents to his best friend, George. Paul believes the book will help him create a double of himself, a clone who will do all the tedious day-to-day work for him. George poo-poos the idea and tells his friend he needs some rest and a good psychiatrist.

That night, Paul goes home and heads to the basement, where his butler has kindly drawn a five-pointed star on the ground and lit all kinds of aromatic candles. The stage is set. The next morning, Paul arrives at the office only to be turned away by his secretary, who informs him that, yes, he's the spittin' image of her boss, but Mr. Jasons is in his office right now. "Security!" Later, that night, Paul is barred from entering his home by his butler, who gives his boss the same spiel as the steno. Only one place to turn and that's George, who informs his buddy that he just spoke to the real Paul Jasons on the phone. Dazed, Paul stumbles and falls down a staircase, awakening in a hospital bed to find it was all a misunderstanding. The "other" Paul was a confidence man who had overheard the two friends talking at the restaurant and took advantage of the situation. George burns the evil volume, though, just in case! "The Double Man!" was a pretty good Weird Tales-esque horror story right up until that milquetoast reveal reminded us we're in 1957 Atlas, not 1954. Still, George Roussos contributes some dark, Lovecraftian vibes and that basement scene legitimately surprised me. How could Wertham and his cronies not have put witchcraft on the no-no list?

In the dopey "By the Light of the Moon!" attention-eager Lucas Morse fabricates a tale about UFOs and alien monsters and becomes an overnight hero. When a local newsman unearths the truth and reports the hoax, Morse goes back to being a "nobody." Very soon after, he witnesses a troop of aliens rising from the sea and heads to the cops who, naturally, don't believe him and toss him in lockup. "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" gets yet another drab retelling. 

A "certain important businessman" is about to land at a fog-bound airport when he looks out the window and sees "Something in the Fog," a strange apparition waving a red lamp. Understanding this must mean danger, he has the pilot pull up and, sure enough, the men look below to see they narrowly avoided landing on top of another plane. "Phshooooo, that was close!" On his way into the city, our "important businessman" runs into the signalman twice and both times narrowly avoids death. In the climax, we discover the businessman owns a television network and, when he arrives at home, he receives a call from one of his producers, informing him that the play that was to be broadcast, about a man with a red lantern who waves off danger, somehow didn't get aired. The bigwig smiles and tells his employee everything will be fine. 

American tourist Walter Price, staying in Ireland, mocks the local leprechaun legends but learns the little guys might just be real when he spends a "Midnight on the Moors." Primitive script and primitive art make this three-pager easily skipped over. Well, you can skip over it but I have a sworn duty to uphold. Don't say you weren't warned. All his life, tiger-tamer Hugo has lived a sham. Revered for his bravery with the big cats, only Hugo knows the tigers in his act are robots! You see, Hugo is really a coward but a genius wimp, able to craft a ferocious beast out of cogs and wires. But the beast master soon learns that he actually might have a bit of nerve in him when a real live tiger escapes a local zoo and Hugo discovers the real thing amongst his toys! "The Tiger's Fangs!" is harmless pablum, built upon the ol' switcheroo prank, with adequate Shores art.  

On his way to his cell, new con Blackie attempts an escape by ducking into the nearest door. Unfortunately for this ding-a-ling, the door leads to high voltage equipment and, thanks to a "kinetic-electron force," Blackie is zapped into the 17th Century. Everyone seems to know the bewildered dolt but he decides he needs to get out of there pronto before his cover is blown. He takes shelter in a castle and attempts to rob the owner of his silverware. As he's fleeing, the "Electron-Voltex-Nimrod" takes hold of him and... just like that... Blackie is in the 18th Century. Same scenario plays out and Blackie finds himself in the 19th Century... and so on. "Time Without End" seems endless.-Peter

Mystic #55

Cover by Bill Everett

"Out of the Fog!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

"The Empty Cell! (a: Ted Galindo) ★★

"The Man Everybody Feared!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

"What Happened to Alice Prim?" (a: Doug Wildey) ★1/2

"Whirlpool!" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"The Folks Who Faded Away" (a: John Forte) ★

Professor Merlin thinks that if magicians in ancient times were as powerful as legends say, they would have been kings. He receives a telegram from London that proof has been uncovered of a powerful magician in the time of King Arthur, so he hops in a private plane and flies across the ocean. The plane catches fire and he bails out, his parachute dropping through thick fog and emerging in the time of Arthur, where his knowledge of 20th century technology causes him to be seen as a great magician. Sadly, he can't master any of the more common skills, like refining copper or making gunpowder, so he is relegated to being the king's magician.

"Out of the Fog!" features the usual above-average art by Don Heck and the usual poor color separation we see in these Atlas comics, which often distracts from the art. The story is predictable right from the start.

Where did the five men in cell 13A go? "The Empty Cell!" has Warden Roe baffled! Little does he know that, the night before, one of the men revealed that he was a visitor from Uranus, sent to Earth to bring back people to populate the planet. The other four convicts agreed and Yon, the man from Uranus, flew them to his home planet in his spaceship. Though Uranus is like paradise, the convicts soon grow bored and revert to their criminal ways, so the king sends them back to their cell on Earth.

I really like Ted Galindo's art here and wish he had more to work with. The Lambiek Comiclopedia tells me that Roy Lichtenstein used panels drawn by Galindo for romance comics to create several paintings.

"The Man Everybody Feared!" is a scientist named Grant who is working on a terrible weapon he calls Compound X. Grant is certain it will bring him great riches, yet the people in every town he moves to drive him out. That all changes when he moves to Sandsville, where no one seems to have heard of him or his experiments. He meets and falls for pretty Eva Lewis, but when he reveals the truth to her she tells him to get out before it's too late, as do all the rest of the townsfolk. That night, Compound X accidentally leaks out and kills everyone in town except Grant, who even finds Eva's body, stiff, staring, and lifeless. He flees Sandsville, vowing to work for mankind's benefit. Shortly after dawn, the town is blown up by an A-bomb test and it turns out it was filled with plastic model people.

Here we go again! Not only am I certain we've seen this twist before, but the story makes no sense. If all of the people in Sandsville were lifelike dummies all along, why didn't Grant realize it? A twist works only when it logically follows what came before.

"What Happened to Alice Prim?" Why does the middle-aged spinster hate and fear men? She says it's because the one man she loved, a sailor, dumped her twenty years ago, and she doesn't believe the rumors that he met with an accident at sea. A fortune teller predicts that she will meet a tall, dark man and that will be her end! Soon a tall, dark man appears at her door and she runs in fear, until he catches up to her and reveals that he's the sailor from long ago. He lost his memory and just now got it back. They march to the altar and the fortune teller's prediction comes true--no more "Miss" Prim!

Once again, the big surprise at the end is predictable to anyone with half a brain and Doug Wildey phones in the graphics.

Big Mike Bowie is a macho braggart whose canoe goes over a waterfall and into a "Whirlpool!" He emerges in the hidden City of the Brave, where only men brave enough to go through the whirlpool live. On a tour of the city, Mike drools when he sees a pile of gold; when he tries to steal it, he's tried and sent back to our world by means of the whirlpool. Sadly, he discovers that he's in an endless loop and will keep repeating the same actions.

Thank goodness Bob Powell drew this dreck so our eyes can get a brief respite from the Atlas assault.

Four men rocket down a snowy slope in a new bobsled until a sharp curve lands them in a large mountain town where strange events occur. A man points a gun at one of the sledders and suddenly disappears. A jewelry store fades to nothingness as a sledder picks up a necklace. And the whole town fades away in the face of an avalanche! Only sledder Al Grover is satisfied because he's got a date with pretty Grace Vance. The quartet get back in the bobsled and finish their run. Al realizes that they were going so fast that they surpassed time and all the events and places were not really there. All except Grace, that is, who hops in the bobsled with Al.

It feels like we are inhabiting some circle of Dante's Inferno where we are forced to read stories by Carl Wessler over and over without end. "The Folks Who Faded Away" doesn't even try to make sense and I wonder what John Forte was thinking when he drew four pages to try to illustrate it. Probably something along the lines of, "another ten bucks in my pocket."-Jack

Next Week...
Not a Hoax...
Not a Dream...
Not Another Stupid Robot...
Batman Dies a Thousand Times!