Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 145: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 130

December 1956 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Stories of Suspense #12

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Changeling" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"The Secret of the Graveyard!" (a: Herb Familton) ★

"The Blank!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★1/2

"What the Mirror Revealed!" 

(a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★★

"They Can't Resist!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★1/2

"Fear Follows Fenton!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★

Mean ol' Mr. Miles has a vacant lot on his property that's going to waste and the town's brats really want to use it as a playground. Miles doesn't see it going that way and tells the kids if they don't high-tail it back home he'll turn the lot of them into scarecrows. Two of the kids head off to the field to "get their stuff" while Wally runs distraction. Mr. Miles gets royally pissed, says the magic words and, presto!, Wally is turned into a scarecrow. Problem is, Mr. Miles didn't even know he had the power!

It's not long before the town's mayor arrives and tells Mr. Miles he's in deep doo-doo, what with threatening the kids and then transforming Wally into a sack of straw. The mayor advises the old man to promise he'll hand over the vacant field to the city for the kids to play and maybe Wally will change back into an annoying little brat again. Mr. Miles promises and, presto!, Wally is back! As Mr. Miles happily walks away, assured he'll spend no time in the city jail, the mayor congratulates Wally on the success of the con. Just then, the other two rugrats show up with the magic equipment. They were detained and couldn't get back in time to use the visuals. Mr. Miles really changed Wally into a scarecrow! Nice Forte art highlights a dopey plot and twist (one that had been used at least one million times through 1956); Mr. Miles enters a villain but then, in the end, elicits sympathy. At least from this brat-hating old codger. Imagine a politician using sleight of hand to get what he wants!

Ivory poachers Blinky and Lew are searching for the fabled Elephant's Graveyard in a remote jungle of Africa. Through a despicable act of violence (where no one gets hurt), Blinky forces a local chieftain to draw the men a map. They follow the instructions until they come to a cave and enter, only to discover the ground is quicksand! "The Secret of the Graveyard!" does a great job... of making four pages seem like forty.

In "The Blank," Lee is sent back in time to 1956 to stop a well-intentioned old professor from blowing up the world. While doing so, he falls for the scientist's gorgeous niece and, when the shop is done, he loads her in his time machine and brings her back to the future as his wife. Not a bad little fantasy, with some striking art by Torres (including some harmless cheesecake that might have riled up the pre-teens), whose style clearly sets him apart from the rest of the pack. 

Gorgeous Karen sets her eyes on millionaire inventor, Professor Walden, to the dismay of her boyfriend, Glenn. Karen argues that Walden is handsome, rich, and always striving for more while Glenn is a lazy bum who has no motivation. Walden, taking a look at Karen's incredible breasts and milky thighs agrees and challenges his competition to a test. The trio head to the scientist's estate, where he activates his neuro-chromium, high-siliconic electronically controlled mirror, a device which reveals the true past of the person standing before it. Walden goes first and his past, full of back-stabbing and lies, is revealed to Karen and Glenn. Then when the other man steps up, a past filled with battlefront bravery and unselfish business choices is unfurled. 

Forgetting just how materialistic she was a mere hour before, Karen tells Walden she could never be with such an SOB and she and Glenn exit the building and enter a new life filled with love but no money. Walden's wife emerges from the shadows and kisses her husband, amazed he could come up with so many nasty lies about himself on such short notice. The twist for "What the Mirror Revealed!" is a good one but Karen's 180-degree switch in personality is hilarious.

Invaders from Ganymede bank on the curiosity of earthlings in order to spread a vile disease but these visitors aren't the brightest bulbs in the pack. You can resist "They Can't Resist!" In the dismal finale, "Fear Follows Fenton!," Detective Phil Ryan is tasked with the capture of dangerous escaped criminal, Bob Fenton, and collapses from the pressure. However, the bedridden cop receives help via divine intervention in one of the schmaltziest climaxes afforded an Atlas fantasy. If there's anything positive to be said, it's that while Mac Pakula was never a higher tier artist, here he contributes decent graphics.-Peter

Strange Tales #53

Cover by Bill Everett

"I Died Tomorrow!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★★★

"The Brute!" (a: John Forte) ★

"They Crawl By Night!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★1/2

"What Stanley Saw!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★1/2

"The Gray Thing!" (a: Gene Colan) ★1/2

"The Man Who Crushed Rocks!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★1/2

Brilliant young scientist Earl Burton has created a time machine but his wife, Kay, doesn't want anything to do with it. Earl presses on and calls a secret meeting of his fellow scientists to demonstrate his new toy. He takes questions from the scientists and then pops into the future to find the answers. When he returns and, sure enough, he's seen what lies ahead for mankind, the eggheads are impressed!

But hidden away inside a closet is a roving reporter who hears everything and then writes up a story on the fantastic new invention. After that, Earl has no peace and quiet and, in the end, the machine may just spell his doom. "I Died Tomorrow!" is a better-than-usual cautionary tale about time travel (can you have a cautionary tale about something that doesn't exist?) that explores the pitfalls of such a feat. Earl crows about how all his future facts come true but wife Kay insists that the fact that the public knows about the predictions sways the events (Earl states a company will go bankrupt and all its stockholders withdraw their support). The climax is also interesting in that it's (deliberately?) vague about the fate of our intrepid young scientist and his wife. An enjoyable read.

Racketeer Julie King can't find his main muscle, "The Brute!" That's because the Brute is actually Brutus and he's gone back to his home in ancient Rome. And that's when Julie wakes up and discovers he's actually Julius Caesar and it's the 15th of March and I'm not spending one more second wast... Next up... "no good shiftless unemployed bum" Ed Pauley travels from town to town just looking for a place to settle down but there's always John Law to run him out of town. No vagrants! Walking across a field in the moonlight, Ed falls into a very deep hole and runs across a group of shapeless blobs who introduce themselves as a race of people from the earth's core. They've been slowly but surely climbing up through the layers in order to reach the surface world. "They Crawl By Night!" (even if there is no light underground!). The goal of the blobmen is to take over the earth and enjoy the sunlight. They need Ed to make his hole a little bit bigger so's they can get through. At first Ed is willing but, in the end, he changes his mind. So he's not such a loser after all.

During a flight, pilot Stanley Gray watches in wonder as a flying saucer lands in a small valley. His boss considers Stanley's story a hoax designed to gain attention and he advises his employee to change the narrative or take a walk. Stanley can't lie so he's booted out of Friendly Airlines. Next up... how to tell his fiance she'll have to do without that new mink stole? Our poor hero finds out that beautiful Martha has more in common with his boss than with Stanley himself and, very soon after he confesses, Stanley's a free man.

Determined to kick sand back in the faces of those who mock him, Stanley heads to Blue River Valley to find the UFO and regain a modicum of manhood. Upon arriving, he's set upon by a group of aliens who relate their tale of woe: they come from Pluto, which has become overpopulated, and they're searching for a new home. They're friendly and they ask Stanley not to tell his fellow humans about them. Meanwhile, back at Friendly Airlines, Martha has become worried about her ex and enlists Stan's boss to accompany her to the Valley, where she's sure Stan's talking to himself. He's a sick man, y'know.

Marsha and Mr. Friendly land and are amazed at the sight: lots of little Plutonians running hither and yon. Stan explains the situation and the trio promise the aliens they won't tell anyone they're living in the valley. Marsha asks Stan for her ring back, Mr. Friendly promotes his pilot, and the Plutonians snicker and gather for their full-blown invasion. Well, no, not really; "What Stanley Saw!" climaxes with the typical 1956 Atlas sappy ending, but the yarn is fun enough and it's graced with some gorgeous graphics compliments of Mr. Torres. I'm beginning to think that Angelo was the go-to guy when Al Williamson said "no."

In the three-pager, "The Gray Thing!," an antique dealer tries to sell the titular object to a man who's become fascinated by the relic. Long story short, it's a robot and the time is 2856, but the story makes no sense whatsoever, since the flashbacks show men in Victorian garb. I hate cheats. Kenyon is a very bad guy and the town runs him out very unceremoniously one day so he has to take shelter in the swamp. Growing thirsty, he takes a drink from a spring and discovers he's become very strong, in fact he's "The Man Who Crushed Rocks!" It takes him only a few minutes to head back to town to get his revenge on Sheriff Taylor, the man who ran him out. Kenyon robs a bank and makes sure everyone sees him so they'll send Taylor after. Sure enough, Taylor arrives and informs Kenyon he already knew about the powers of the spring but the magic only lasts two days. Time's up! If you're looking for quality Crandall, look elsewhere. This is not Reed's finest hour, but then he was probably handed a rush job and paid $10 for his troubles. The only thing noteworthy about this dud is that it's perhaps the most unique in the seemingly unending series of "The Man Who..." titles. Hey, I'm a glass-half-full type of guy.-Peter

Strange Tales of the Unusual #7

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Man Who Feared Mirrors" (a: Dick Ayers) ★1/2

"Screams in the Night!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

"No Place on Earth!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★

"The Man Who Never Returned!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"The Story Nobody Knows!" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel (?)) ★1/2

"Poker Face!" (a: Jack Kirby) ★★

Joe Lanier turns up at a circus sideshow, begging for a job. What made Joe into "The Man Who Feared Mirrors"? It all started when pretty Marie Sloan turned down his marriage proposal. Certain that she'd treat him differently if he were rich, Joe headed for a mine in California where he thought there was plenty of valuable uranium. Deep down in the mine, he met a lot of funny-looking folks and put them to work, promising to build them a city if they dug the uranium for him. Once all of the uranium was above the surface, Joe betrayed the creatures and buried them, but one yelled up to Joe that being down there so long would make him look like them. Back at his hotel, a look in the mirror showed Joe his face had grown deformed! The circus manager sends Joe packing, realizing that he looks normal but his conscience makes him see a distorted self-portrait in the mirror.

Dick Ayers draws some decent panels here and the story has promise, but the surprise ending is a letdown. Joe's face is shown in shadow in the panels set in the present day so we expect something shocking, only to be told that Joe is normal.

A radio sound effects man is sitting at home playing a tape recording of a woman's "Screams in the Night!" when he hears the real thing coming from outside! He rushes out and sees three men in shadows menacing a beautiful blonde who has blue skin! Our hero is hit from behind and knocked out. He wakes up on a spaceship heading for the planet Viburnum; the blonde is Spirea, a dissident leader who fled and was tracked down by a patrol ship. The trio who came after her are upset because they haven't seen their wives in a long time. They assure our hero that he and Spirea will be put in chains when they reach Viburnum. After landing, the trio hear women screaming outside the ship and rush to help, thinking the shrieks come from their waiting wives. But no! They were on the tape recording the man had at the start of the story. He and Spirea return to Earth and she becomes his blue-skinned happy homemaker.

I guess it's like Chekhov's tape recorder--an out of place object on page one had better play a role in the denouement on page four. The inhabitants of Viburnum look just like Earthlings, except with blue skin. One slight problem: in the last panel, where the narrator reveals Spirea to a reporter who is interviewing him, the colorist neglected to color her skin blue, which kind of misses the whole point.

In 1984, the world is divided into East, West, and Central. In the West, a scientist named Don Adams gets smart and invents a teletransport that will whisk people across long distances in the blink of an eye. Rumors of an upcoming attack from the East cause Don to flee to the Central, where he marries the pretty daughter of the man who helped him escape. But he doesn't love her and is unhappy. When the East attacks the Central instead of the West, Don quickly builds a new teletransport that can send troops to the East swiftly. He considers fleeing to the West but realizes that he loves his wife and wants to enlist as a soldier to fight the East.

There is "No Place on Earth!" where this mess of a story would be welcomed by readers. The East/Central/West nonsense is heavy-handed, Don's actions make little sense, and the conclusion is as sappy as it gets in an Atlas comic--and that's pretty sappy.

Eddie Peakes is a 42-year-old cabin boy on the Sarah Sue, a sailing ship in times of yore. He's tired of doing menial jobs! He's swept overboard in a storm and washes up on an island where he becomes a hero to a civilization of tiny people. When the Sarah Sue comes back looking for him, Eddie hides, preferring to stay with the wee folk, where he is a beloved giant. A portrait of the crew on board the vessel shows that Eddie was well below average in height.

I'm familiar with Sol Brodsky from his credits as an inker or a production manager. Judging from his artwork on "The Man Who Never Returned," we're fortunate his career took another path. This story is awful.

Why are the cops at Burt Clarke's place to arrest a bald man who wears a yellow and red outfit and a yellow cape? It all started yesterday, when Burt heard knocking coming from inside a closet and opened the door to find a man who said he came from 5000 years in the future and held a disc that transposed matter through space. The man tells Burt that he will become the greatest man on Earth! While the man sleeps, Burt travels 5000 years into the future and sees that his corporation has grown huge and powerful and there is even a statute of himself! Unfortunately, the corporation enslaves the people and they curse Burt's name. He zips back to the present, where the man from the future holds him at gunpoint and tells him that he has to go through with his plan or else be killed. Burt socks the man in the jaw and the cops take him away. Not wanting the future to turn out the way he saw it, Burt burns everything the man from the future brought with him and is satisfied to be a nobody, since it's better than being a pariah.

Yeesh. Again! Didn't we just see this same plot in another story? If any of them were memorable I could perhaps recall which one, but they are ephemeral and leave my head as soon as I read them. The art by Forgione and (probably) Abel is competent but it's in service of "The Story Nobody Knows!"

A great flying cylinder circles the Earth before landing in Russia. A strange creature emerges and the Russians attack it, but nothing fazes it. The creature inspects the terrain and takes off again in the cylinder. This sequence of events is repeated in various countries around the world and no one knows why. Finally, the creature lands in the desert, where an old prospector tells it to get off his land--it can't steal his gold! Breaking its silence, the creature speaks, telling the old man that it doesn't want gold. It wants Atrion and there's none on Earth, which it claims it owns after having won the planet in a game of Zanda, the equivalent of poker.

"Poker Face!" is a dreadful, pointless story that ends a terrible issue of Strange Tales of the Unusual. The only good thing about this concluding tale is Jack Kirby's art, especially the way he draws the alien. It kind of resembles a tall, skinny carrot with a round head and streamers for hair. Leave it to Kirby to bring a smidge of creativity to an Atlas comic!-Jack

Next Week...
Attacked by the 
Squad of CatWomen!