The Marvel/Atlas
Horror Comics
Horror Comics
Part 127
November 1956 Part III
by Peter Enfantino
and Jack Seabrook
Cover by Bill Everett(?) and Carl Burgos (?)
"Simon's Stooge!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★1/2
"Who Lurks There?" (a: Dave Berg) ★
"The Empty Chair" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2
"The Frightened Man" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2
"The Last of Professor Hogarth" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★
"You Can't Find Me!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★
Lobar, the man who can read minds and make fabulous guesses about how much money is in the wallet belonging to a customer, is bringing in thousands a week, but it's his "manager," Simon, who's raking in the dough. Simon gives Lobar only a small percentage of the gate and yet Lobar seems perfectly happy about the situation. Simon's over the moon as well!
That's when the spaceship lands and takes both men to a distant planet, where Lobar becomes the boss and Simon the stooge. Yep, Lobar was an alien the whole time! Though the plot and reveal are both old hat, I enjoyed "Simon's Stooge!" thanks mostly to Joe Sinnott's no-nonsense graphics. I'm not sure if Joe did his own inking or if the assist man is lost to the ages, but the shading makes all the difference with Sinnott's art.
A group of villagers must band together and prepare to fight when giants in a "flying village" invade their world. In the end, we discover the "giants" are an archaeological research team attempting to locate a mythical village of lilliputians and their "flying village" is a helicopter. "Who Lurks There?" displays zero imagination and zero enthusiasm on the parts of both writer and artist. Berg's art seems to have taken a full three steps back. The only moment of entertainment comes from that intro panel where, seemingly, Lem is giving Tod a full-body massage in front of a giant typewriter. Wertham must have been already on to his next conquest (Rock + Roll = Rebellion?) and missed that image, or else he'd have the comic biz back in the courts. I'd have rather gone into that story rather than the cliched nonsense we're given. The tiny people are (ostensibly) Americans; why are they so tiny, why are they in Africa and, more important, how did they get their expertly made tiny clothes and tiny equipment?
Early the next morning, Seth breaks into the room holding the chest that contains the fortune in gold and heads out the front door, destination the bus depot. There, the weird 1976 stranger appears, nabs the chest, and takes it back home. The next day, Seth attempts a partnership with the stranger and an agreement is reached: the visitor will take the fifty grand with him back to the future and Seth can claim it in twenty years. Seth insists on a receipt but doesn't read it until the stranger disappears. The promissory is signed "Thomas Holt, aged 30!" (yes, that exclamation is on the note!!!).
Holy cow, the stranger was Tommy from the future come back to 1956 to make sure Cousin Seth didn't run away with the money. I had to take two Excedrin for a headache from the Carl Wessler-penned script and Visine for the eye strain from the purely-by-the-numbers Orlando pencils. By the smile on Tommy's face in the final panel, I assume he knew that the stranger was an older version of himself (he does talk in an oddly mature way for a pre-teen), but then does that mean he keeps that secret to himself for the next twenty years? And who's going to hand over the gold to 30-year-old Thomas? Wouldn't future Seth follow Tommy to the gold and then kill him? Would the gold suddenly appear in a safe deposit box, the location of which is known only to the elder Tommy... more Excedrin please! I should have listened to the two-hours-older Peter who appeared at my table just before I started reading "The Empty Chair!"
Professor Hogarth has developed a way to transfer a human brain into another body without using scalpels and all that other messy stuff, but when his body breaks down and he asks his colleague, Doctor Kalmus, to find a suitable vessel, all poor Kalmus can find is their dog, Rover! Beggars can't be choosers, so Kalmus does what he's told and, just like that, Rover is theorizing about quantum physics and biological conundrums. But not for long. The brain switcheroo also gives Hogarth a sixth sense and he suddenly sees Kalmus's desire to use Rover to rule the world. Hogarth starts yapping and eating his Kibbles 'n' Bits. "The Last of Professor Hogarth" is actually entertaining while insanely inane (inanely insane?). The panels of Rover talking like Hogarth are minor gems, but the Winiarski art resembles what Rover will leave in a pile in the yard after he eats his dog chow.
Cover by Carl Burgos
"The Man With No Face!" (a: Gene Colan) ★1/2
"Four Frightened People" (a: George Roussos) ★★
"I Follow Him!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★
"The Lifeless One!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★
"The Man in the Satellite" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2
"Footprints to Nowhere!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★★1/2
Clive Talbot is not warming to his new neighbor, especially when the man parks his junk wagon in the drive. Clive tells his wife he won't stand for it and will start a petition to remove the junkman. Alice calmly reminds Clive that if he were to take that huge stick out of his ass, he'd remember that he got his own start as a junk dealer before blossoming into a legitimate antique huckster.
For some inexplicable reason, Clive gets it into his head that if he goes over and breaks bread with "The Man With No Face!," Alice will forego the divorce proceedings. The couple visit "The Man With No Face!" and the second Clive apologizes for his rude behavior, the man grows a face. It's the younger version of Clive! Alice smiles and admits that this is the man she's always been in love with and the couple lives happily ever after.
Now, you might be asking yourself, "What are the logistics of this situation?" "The Man With No Face!" disappears along with his horse and wagon, but all the residents of Elm Street saw the guy and knew Clive didn't like him. Will there be a police investigation? Could Clive go to the chair for a murder he never committed? Will the bank foreclose now that young Clive (who had to sign some papers for the loan, right?) has taken a runner? Don't ask me; none of it makes sense. Well, one thing makes sense: it's a Carl Wessler script! The Colan art is as good as usual but I still pine for the days when Gentleman Gene would draw men with lobster hands.
Riik and Kujo, aliens from Atron, are tasked with kidnapping an Earth couple and bringing them back to their planet for study. What Riik and Kujo find is the Wyatts, who dwell in a loving family environment (not like what you'd find on Atron) with noisy brat kids and neighbors who visit nightly and drink all of Paul's beer and eat all his peanuts. Realizing they've found just a little slice of heaven on this tiny green planet, Riik and Kujo head back to Atron to tell their commander that Earth is uninhabited and a desert wasteland. They then arrange for a tiki party with dancing girls and loud music. "Four Frightened People" is that one-in-ten Wessler script that hits all the sweet spots: it's stupid as a reality show with classic Robot Monster-esque dialogue (Paul ignores the possibility of a horrible death and insists that Riik and Kujo must leave because the Wyatts are expecting company) and hilarious situations. As dumb as a box of rocks, "Four Frightened People" is nonetheless entertaining.
Arctic explorers Lewis and Shaw happen upon man's greatest discovery... the missing link frozen in ice. But it was actually Shaw who found the caveman and Lewis is hungry for fame and fortune, so he deliberately loses his colleague in a blizzard and heads into camp to take credit for the discovery. To his shock, Shaw makes it back alive and promises that Lewis will rot in prison.
Not one to take failure lying down, Lewis sets out on the ice to blow up the missing link. If he can't claim the rewards, no one will. When the rest of the expedition arrive at the scene of the explosion, they find two sets of footprints leading from the scene and no Lewis! Though this snowman/yeti/ bigfoot/caveman plot had been done to death by 1956, "Footprints to Nowhere!" squeezes out some enjoyment anyway. Back in 1953, Lewis would have put an axe in Shaw's head and then found himself facing the missing link, but since the CCA deemed violent snowman comics were leading to teenage alcoholism, we're left with this tame stuff. Some nice Carrabotta work here. Let's make the best of it!-Peter
Cover by Bill Everett
"The Strange Wife of Henry Johnson!" (a: John Forte) ★★
"A Robot Among Us!" (a: Herb Familton) ★
"Girl in a Trap!" (a: Werner Roth) ★1/2
"The Frightened Ones!" (a: Ruben Moreira?) ★1/2
"The Only Clue!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★
"Voice of the Dummy!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★1/2
Why is Henry Johnson running through the streets at night? He thinks back to a few months before, when he was strolling by the lake and a blinding flash was followed by the sudden appearance of the beautiful woman he would soon marry. Their life together was happy, so Henry began to worry, especially when she gave him warm milk every night to help him sleep. One night he only pretended to drink the milk and, when he was in bed, he heard his wife talking to two men.
Henry snuck out of the bedroom and found two men from space who complimented his wife on drawing knowledge from Henry's mind with her thought tentacles. They discover Henry and try to seize him, but he escapes and makes a run for it. He is quickly caught and taken to their spaceship, but his wife tricks the spacemen into taking off without her and Henry. She admits that she came to Earth as a spy but fell in love with him!
The highlight of this story is the design and coloring of the spacesuits on the aliens; they have groovy shades and a yellow and purple color scheme that is appealing. I knew that Henry's wife was in love with him, so "The Strange Wife of Henry Johnson!" isn't so strange at all.
It's the end of the 41st century and a ruthless tyrant rules Myklovia. A spacecraft lands and the ruler is told that there is "A Robot Among Us!" The robot is sent to see the ruler but never arrives, and when the Myklovian guards find it they are surprised to discover that it is an empty metal shell. A freedom fighter named Torgus reveals himself and admits that he used the robot as a Trojan horse to gain admittance to the ruler's chamber. The ruler summons his guards, but they all stop in their tracks, since they are really robots and the freedom fighter disabled their controls. He tells the ruler that "mankind always wins out."
Herb Familton's art reminds me of some of the bad art I saw in Charlton or Gold Key comics of the 1960s. His characters are so stiff that they make John Forte's panels look supple! The story is nothing much.
Anna Malkin is a pretty young woman who lives in a country behind the Iron Curtain. A gypsy tells her that she will meet a bold, dashing man who will help her escape from the Communists; when she runs from the state police and is given shelter by handsome Josef Roebler, she thinks the gypsy's prediction has come true. There's just one problem: Josef keeps saving her and then disappearing from sight! Anna finally escapes across the border and meets Josef, an embassy attache who swears that he's never been to her country. The young woman suddenly realizes that the visions of Josef she saw were the personification of her hope.
In the time I've been reading along with Peter, there have not been many stories that came right out and said that the bad guys were Communists--usually, it was some sort of made-up place that stood in for the Eastern European lands. I wonder if developments in 1956 led to this more overt story? The art by Werner Roth is not very good, but it's better than much of what we're seeing at this point. The story by Carl Wessler is the usual mess.
On the planet Og, the kindly Ogians build a spaceship and plan to fly to Earth and make friends. Unfortunately, Og's evil giants escape from somewhere and the Ogians run and hide, causing the giants to call them "The Frightened Ones!" The giants like the idea of flying to Earth so much that they build a giant spaceship and spend months on a journey through space. To their surprise, when they reach Earth, they discover that humans are giants in comparison to the giants of Og, so they head back to their planet.
The GCD suspects that the uncredited artist is Ruben Moreira, and his Ogians and giants are kind of cute, but there is not even enough plot here to support the three-page story length.
An archaeologist named Elder is on his last expedition, and he's determined to make an important find. He and his colleagues travel through the jungle until they find natives; Elder asks them who built the ruined city to the north. They offer to let him ask their god, Tualco, who is inside a grass hut, but Elder scoffs at the idea and insults them, which causes them to chase him and his colleagues away. Too bad Elder didn't look inside the grass hut, where "The Only Clue!" resides! It looks like a totem pole with images of a stone idol, a native, and possibly an American soldier.
Bob Powell tries his best to make the story interesting and includes one of his patented panels where we see a partial close up of a character's face, but the problem with this story, for me, is that the payoff in the last panel isn't clear. I'm guessing at what the faces on the totem pole are meant to represent, but my lack of certainty dooms the story.
A trio of hoods needs a hiding place for their loot, so they enter the tent of a ventriloquist called the Great Gabby and hide the stolen jewels inside the ventriloquist's dummy named Droopy, telling the pretty assistant, Julia, to keep quiet. The cops come and take Gabby away, convinced that he's at fault. Once the police are gone, the head crook picks up Droopy and suddenly hears the "Voice of the Dummy!" warning him that the cops are coming back. The crooks hop on the roller coaster with Droopy, who tells them to run once the ride is over.
They next enter the funhouse, where Droopy guides them out the back door and into a nearby truck that turns out to be the paddy wagon. Once in a cell, the head crook accuses Gabby of being their leader, but Julia reveals that both Gabby and Droopy are dummies and she's the real ventriloquist!
Thank goodness this mess was handed to Bernard Baily to illustrate, since he makes it palatable. The plot makes as much sense as any other Wessler tale. In the splash panel, Gabby is sitting up with Droopy on his knee, and on page two, Gabby walks out of the tent with the police, It makes absolutely no sense that he's a dummy, but Baily does the best he can.-Jack
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