Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 160: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 145

April 1957 Part IV

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Uncanny Tales #54

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Mystery in Midville" (a: John Forte) ★★

(r: Chamber of Chills #17)

"The Warning!" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★

(r: Vault of Evil #20)

"The Hidden Island" (a: Fred Kida) ★

(r: Tomb of Darkness #15)

"Inside the Tomb!" (a: Dave Berg) ★1/2

(r: Vault of Evil #19)

"The Terrible Fate of Mr. Wren!" (a: John Tartaglione) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #36)

"The Moving Walls!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★1/2

On the run from the law and starving, petty thief Mort Lowman wanders into Midville and finds a town devoid of greed, anger, and jealousy, The town has no crime and the only cop does little but direct traffic. All the folk in the town open their arms to Mort and, for once in his life, Mort feels happy and loved. There's just one thing, advises Mr. Dora, the man who "adopts" Mort: do not, under any circumstances, open the locked box found in Dora's living room. 

The natural crookedness arises in Lowman's heart. "I could take the treasure found in this here box and live like a king. And that's just what I'll do!,"  exclaims the dope. So Mort grabs a handy crowbar and pries the chest open. Out pops all the awfulness and black-hearted deeds Mr. Dora sucked out of his fellow Midvillians and stashed in the box. Suddenly Midville becomes the rotten place it once was and the cops come to arrest Mort Lowman for his petty crimes. You see, the crate in Mr. Dora's sitting room was Pandora's Box! Holy cow, what a surprise this was. Well, to be fair, I was expecting The "Mystery in Midville" to wind up being some kind of Martian testing facility or a really bad dream but at least we got a semi-satisfying twist and some decent art from John Forte.

Dr. Bishop has recreated the Midas touch in his lab but, in a strange twist, he's given the formula to his dog. This, he asserts, is to keep greed from common man and also because he likes to eat a meal now and then that hasn't been turned to gold. For a while, Bishop is able to control the objects the dog touches but then, one dark and dreary day, a fellow scientist enters the lab and assures Bishop he won't be leaving until he has that formula. 

The script for "The Warning!" is old news; we all know it's the Krigstein Midas touch we'll be paying attention to but, here, that touch seems to be muted a bit. Gone are the trademarked multiple thin panels and Bernie delivers his graphics in (for the most part) a standard Atlas fashion. It's still good art but it's lost the uniqueness. I was nowhere near the Atlas Bullpen in 1957 (in fact, I was nowhere near being born yet) but I have to think that Stan had something to do with reigning BK in. Hopefully, for just this one little saga.

Two misfits, a man and a woman, homely and scarred, leave the real world and travel to "The Hidden Island," a Pacific plot of land surrounded by mist and populated by Komodo Dragons. The island's magical powers turn the man into a big-muscled strongman and the woman into a babe. There, they find love and, hopefully, no mirrors. Even worse is "Inside the Tomb!" An archaeologist rises from an ancient Egyptian tomb in some sort of a trance (with a really low heartbeat!) and his fellow explorer must descend into the depths of the structure to find out how his friend became a zombie. Since not one soul has perished in an Atlas story since the advent of the Comics Corrode, all suspense and danger are discarded and all we can hope for is a little imagination and perhaps some eye-pleasing graphics. Good luck with that. The script is meh and Dave Berg does the best he can with it, but this is strictly snoozeville.

In the three-page "The Terrible Fate of Mr. Wren!," Hubert Wren survives a bad childhood to become a brilliant inventor who dreams up a gizmo that can perfectly duplicate anything. The world is his oyster until Wren proposes to a gorgeous dame but accidentally blasts her with his Duplicator Ray and, suddenly, the poor sap has two fiances. A terrible fate indeed! This one has a fun sense of mischief and some great art by Tartaglione (again, I have to believe Howard Chaykin must have been a Tart-fan). 

Last up is the shamefully padded (padded? I hear you say, how can a four-page story be padded?) "The Moving Walls!," wherein three stooges head into the Gorse Manor to steal the fabled Gorse Diamond but find a house full of startling obstacles. Three of the four pages are devoted to the crooks constantly reminding us how spooky the house is but at least pulpmeister Wessler delivers a good twist in the tail.-Peter

World of Mystery #6

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Secret of the Haunted House" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★1/2

"The Most Dangerous Man in the World!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★★

"Witch Doctor" (a: Gene Colan) ★★1/2

"Hideous Hide-out" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★

"Secret Under the Sea!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★1/2

"The Sinking Man!" (a: Chuck Miller) ★

In order to join a local social club (nope, not a JD gang, but one of those nice, innocent circles that probably gather on Sundays to knit and help tend to orphaned children), three wacky teens break into a supposedly haunted house only to discover the rundown old mansion is a hub for inter-dimensional travelers. "The Secret of the Haunted House" has one of the three most overused plot hooks on the Atlas carousel (picture one of those twirly things on the Atlas breakroom table that holds ketchup, mustard, and cliches) but, for some godforsaken reason, I enjoyed it anyway. Yes, you're right, the Williamson/Mayo gleam probably has a lot to do with that. I'll take it.

Jack says to hell with deadlines
and marches out of the Bare Bones bullpen

Martin was just an ordinary schlub, walking the streets until the day he was struck by lightning and became "The Most Dangerous Man in the World!" Once Martin comes out of his bolt-induced coma (a rather short one at that), he discovers that his glowing hands can incinerate anything they touch. Will Martin use his newly gained energy to save the world or destroy it? Well, that's a good question, but it's one that's not answered. Oddly enough, Martin delivers an ultimatum to his hometown to follow his orders or perish but we never find out what his endgame actually is. "Most Dangerous" is a clever variation on the Midas Touch theme and it shows Ditko slowly but surely developing that unique style we all know and love.

"Witch Doctor" is an inane and supremely silly tale about a movie company in Africa that lands on the wrong side of the titular medicine man. The maladies that befall the cast of the film escalate as did my giggles. But never mind that cuz Gene Colan to the rescue. Colan's guys are tough, girls are gorgeous, and noir the noirest. The dopey script (courtesy of the reliable Carl Wessler) and strong graphics continue in "Hideous Hide-Out," about a sweet old woman who runs a unique museum. Her pieces are not made of wax but are animal subjects frozen in suspended animation. Enter the vicious Rocky Larsen gang, who are looking for somewhere to hide and decide that Mrs. Turner's museum is just the right place. A huge smile came to my face as I watched Most Wanted Criminal Rocky and his gang sit outside the museum all day waiting for a good time to invade. I'd be looking for a hiding spot a bit faster but then I'm not a wanted felon. That's four well-illustrated stories in a row. May be a record for a post-code Atlas issue. Could the streak continue?

Well... Sol Brodsky's art on "Secret Under the Sea!" is not up to the standards set previously this issue but the work is certainly not bland nor boring. As for the plot of the three-pager: a strange sea captain can locate sunken ships and no one knows how he does it. It's uncanny. The secret, once the captain gets under the sea, is that he's likely one of Namor's second cousins. The truly wretched art arrives finally in the form of "The Sinking Man!," penciled by Chuck Miller, who has one of those generic styles half the bullpen acquired over the years. Lots of talking heads (in this case, bald heads) going on about time travel and mental telepathy. I'm sure there was more but, seriously, you're not going to read this tripe so why go on about it? Let's hold on to those first three stories this issue (and honorable mention to the fourth) and pretend "The Sinking Man!" never appeared.-Peter

World of Suspense #7

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Face!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #32) 

"When the Creature Escapes" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo)

(r: Chamber of Chills #13) ★★1/2

"The World's Strangest Crime" (a: Bernard Baily) ★1/2

"The Lost Island!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"Escape from Nowhere!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

(r: Amazing Adventures #28)

"To Walk Unseen" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

Roy Farnum has put up with cranky old millionaire, Wallace Lawson, for 14 years in hopes of inheriting his millions, but when Farnum learns of a long-lost son, he is certain his dreams of wealth will not come true. Farnum meets a stranger who, for $1000, takes him to  meet an inventor whose machine can change a man's face to resemble "The Face!" in a photograph. For another $8000, Roy has his face changed into that of Andrew Lawson, the missing son; the inventor takes Farnum's face as his own. The old man dies, the will is read, and--surprise! (NOT)--Wallace left his fortune to Roy rather than to his no-good son. Roy suddenly realizes he's been had by the inventor, who is none other than Andrew Lawson!

Carl Wessler once again packs eight pages of captions and dialogue into a four-page story where the twist is telegraphed well before the last panel. Joe Maneely's art may not be what it used to be, but it's still pretty good.

After catching a strange sea creature, Dr. John Halsey brings it back to the aquarium, where he begins to sense that it is highly intelligent. Eventually, the creature begins trying to communicate telepathically with the doc, who fears what it might do. "When the Creature Escapes," Halsey grabs a gun and searches, soon learning that the nearby atomic pile is reaching the danger point. The doc finds and shoots the creature, only to learn that it entered the atomic pile and stabilized it, possibly saving the world from destruction. Oops!

Williamson and Mayo do their best with a rather static story, providing a nice half-splash page with the creature being pulled from the sea in a net, as well as a very sharp panel of Halsey shooting  among its tentacles. I did not expect the creature to be benevolent, so the ending was satisfying.

Warren and Grayson decide to commit "The World's Strangest Crime" using their new machine that can send a man back in time and view scenes from the past. The Cooper Gang stole $20,000 in gold coins a century ago and Grayson proposes going back to that moment, grabbing the loot, and returning to the present while the gang members are too startled to react. Everything goes smoothly until Grayson returns with the money and he and Warren are surprised by a man from 100 years in the future, who grabs the money and disappears back to his own time while they are too startled to react.

Jack Oleck demonstrates that he's learned well at the feet of Carl Wessler, penning a story that plods along to a dull finish. At least Bernard Baily's artwork is not the worst we've seen from him.

Joe Brock breaks out of the death house and makes his way to a port, where he holds a boat's crew at gunpoint and insists that they take him along on their scientific expedition to the South Seas. A storm washes the boat ashore on a remote island, where Brock notices a Geiger counter clicking furiously. He assumes that this means that the island contains valuable uranium, so he pretends to see dangerous animals in the jungle. The rest of the crew get back on the boat and leave. Brock thinks he's sitting on a fortune in uranium until he sees a beetle that has grown as big as a man. When he sees a sign with a warning that the island is being used as a disposal area for atomic waste, Brock realizes that he'll grow giant-sized just like the beetle.

I usually like Pete Morisi's quirky style, but on this story he was just collecting a paycheck. The story itself is awful and the worst part of all is the idea that Brock somehow thinks he can profit from being left alone on a remote island with uranium. Does he think he'll mine it all himself? Then what? Wait for a passing ship and cart it back to civilization? The ending is worse--he's being exposed to high levels of radiation and his main concern is that he'll grow bigger?

The Great Myron has always managed to escape, no matter the challenge. But when he's hit by a truck while crossing the street, Myron's return to life may be his most daring escape yet. "Escape From Nowhere!" pushes the boundaries of what should be included in a comic titled World of Suspense, since next to nothing happens and there's little to no suspense.

Fred Beasley delivers laundry to various folks. One of his customers is Doc, a scientist, who tells Fred that he's working on an invisibility liquid. Like every Atlas protagonist, Fred immediately thinks he can cash in. The Doc tells Fred that if a tiny bit of the liquid is rubbed on the skin, it produces temporary, safe invisibility, but too much will produce permanent invisibility, followed by death!

Fred tries a little and robs a grocery store, certain that he's invisible when the sole customer does not appear to see him. The crook returns to Doc's office, where he and Doc get into a scuffle and Fred is soaked with the liquid. He rushes outside and the same man who had been in the grocery store ignores him. When the police come to take Fred away, Doc explains that he was just kidding about the fluid causing invisibility and death. After the police leave with Fred, we see that the man on the sidewalk wears a placard: "Blind and Deaf."

After reading the last three Atlas comics from April 1957, the idea of being blind doesn't seem so bad. This ridiculous story depends on the blind man being present both in the store and on the sidewalk when Fred thinks he's invisible. Pretty far-fetched if you ask me.-Jack

Next Week...
Now This is More Like It!

"Hey, Mom and Dad! Look!
Have you thought about this yet?"

It's Coming!

 

Coming July 2nd.

But What Is It?

Keep Watching This Space

For Clues!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 159: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 144

April 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Stories of Suspense #14

Cover by Bill Everett

"Beware... a Martian" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★

"Someone is in the Trunk" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"When His World Vanished" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★

"All Through the Night" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

"Child's Play!" (a: John Tartaglione) ★

"Inside the Hidden Well!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

You know that oddball vagrant who's been living in the small shack on the outskirts of Raffington? You're not going to believe it, but he's really a Martian! At a town hall meeting, the grizzled, bearded old man dispenses with his disguise and introduces himself to the populace as Nardo the Martian!

Nardo insists that he loves the town and really digs the people who live there. Just give him a little time and he'll prove it. Within days, he's not only holding down a job at RR McGowan Manufacturing but also dazzling the boss with his business acumen. But, unknown to Nardo, there's one very unhappy Raffingtonite looking on from the fringes: Horace Vail, who swears he'll bring down the outer space man no matter the cost.

"Beware... a Martian" is a silly "cautionary" tale about man's inhumanity to Martian. Vail's escalating frame jobs (including nitro planted on the tracks of the town's passenger train) are hilarious, as is the preachy climactic panel (we can grow to love someone despite the color of his gills). As far as the art goes, I'd rather have seen Williamson, hold the Mayo. Not much of Al's magic power on display here.

Jerry Slade has been breaking into the rooms of the people he boards with over at Ma Pearson's Home and pawning the valuables for lots of dough. Poor old Mrs. Pearson has no idea Jerry is behind the robberies but something must be done... and quickly. Jerry salivates when his landlady explains that he'll need to share his room with another boarder for a brief time. More booty to loot.

Once his new roommate is off to work, Jerry rummages in the man's oversized trunk when, to his shock and horror, an image leaps out at him. "Someone is in the Trunk." I'll save you the wear and tear on your eyeballs (and patience) and spoil that the "image" is actually Jerry's face reflecting back at him from a mirror inside the trunk. Terrifying! The Ayers art is dreck but giggle-icious in spots, such as the panel of Jerry running (see above), which reveals just how oddly the human body can bend.

Rene Lacoeur owns the most profitable casino in Macao but dark forces are planning against him; the mob, noticing the huge profits Rene is pulling in, attempts to kill him several times. While racing away from a pursuing car, Rene runs over a little boy but doesn't stop to help. He turns to his loyal henchman, Kutso, and asks if he knows of any black arts practitioners who can lend him a hand. Kutso answers in the affirmative and takes him to an old man who works a spell and promises Rene he'll never die. Too late, Rene learns the kid he ran over was Kutso's nephew and now he faces a fate worse than eternal life.

"When HIs World Vanished" begins as a fairly intriguing and suspenseful crime drama but then changes lanes midway so that the story can actually fit into a sf/fantasy title. The switch is abrupt and lame and torpedoed whatever interest I had in Rene Lacoeur and his predicament. Robert Q. Sale's art is sketchy and ugly in spots, but serviceable.

Everett Marley mocks his wife, Lois, for her belief in the supernatural until an incredible event hits him right in the face. Coming home from the office the next day, Ev discovers there's a strange woman feeding unfamiliar kids in his kitchen. The woman is clearly not Lois but she identifies Everett as her hubby. Bewildered, he goes to work the next day and a similar conundrum occurs with his co-workers! What the heck is going on?

If you're waiting for a solution, clearly you haven't been paying attention to the majority of our synopses. All we learn is that Ev will surely change his mind by story's end. Clarification was never Carl Wessler's strong point. I know I boast this about stories every week but "All Through the Night" might be the single worst story I've read in the post-code Atlas era. 

In the three-page "Child's Play!," a respected professor finds himself testing out toys at a research center. Then, one day, a mysterious gizmo from the future arrives in his in-box. What could this thing be? It's not worth your time to find out. In the finale,  "Inside the Hidden Well!," American troops run across a deserting Afrika Corps soldier and take him prisoner. While searching for water, the soldier runs across the fabled oasis that Achilles drew his power from. Once he has several sips, he feels as if his body is made of steel. He heads back to camp to prove he's immortal. Long story short, he gets shot in the heel and dies. "Hidden Well" wins best-of-issue honors simply because it contains a bit of imagination. It's cliched, fer sure, but I'm starving for even a morsel of originality.-Peter

Strange Tales #57

Cover by Bill Everett & Carl Burgos

"You Used to Be Me!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★★

"Murder on His Mind" (a: Pete Morisi) ★1/2

"The Door That Wouldn't Open!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"The Voice of Doom!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★1/2

"Volcano!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★

"It Walks in the Night!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

Frank Evans grows up hating and envying rich John Wilson, he of the fancy Caddys and mansion on the hill and swears someday he'll have everything that Wilson owns for himself. With that goal in mind, Evans goes to science college and becomes the most brilliant professor in the world; he invents a mind-switching gizmo and (like every other mad/brilliant Atlas scientist) uses it for selfish reasons. The mad doc switches brains with Wilson and quickly regrets it. 

The setup is laughable but, for some reason (lack of sleep?), I never saw the twist coming and the Stallman art is pleasing as well. It does make one giggle when one thinks about all the dough Evans could make with his invention but instead insists he must own everything the other guy possesses. 

Vaudeville performer Frank Mason has wandered into a life of crime and now imagines the voice of his partner, Johnny Mason, ringing in his head, urging him to give himself up to the cops. Frank deep sixes that idea and promises to ventilate Johnny once he gets his hands on him. Breaking into "the old theatrical warehouse" where Johnny shacks up, Frank is surrounded by the cops and forced to surrender. One of the cops remarks that Frank must be insane thinking the man is hearing the voice of Johnny Mason, Frank's ventriloquist dummy!

I could see the climax coming right from the get-go thanks to the various "clues" the scripter threw in my face, but "Murder on His Mind" is almost worth the read to catch a glimpse of what 1950s cops were really like. Mason gets a stiff right in the breadbasket from two nattily dressed detectives. I thought that only happened in Manhunt.

Okay, pay attention, cuz I ain't repeating myself. Frankie Walford is a good-for-nothing bum who's been living off his genius inventor-guy father. His pop tells him if he goes straight and stops hanging out with JDs, the new gizmo the old man is working on will net him millions. "Pshaw!" exclaims the young louse. Pop dies and leaves his newest invention to junior, but there's a proviso: the kid, now 24, must prove his soul is full of love and he no longer wants to rob pizza vendors for fun and pocket change.

Pop's lawyer swears to Frankie that the old man isn't kidding; the thing he invented could revolutionize time travel (or something like that), but it's hidden away behind an impenetrable door. The only way the door will open is if Frankie proves his worth. Good luck with that. "The Door That Wouldn't Open!" is yet another badly illustrated snoozer about a brilliant Atlas scientist. In 1957, there were more time machine inventors than there were color TV sets in New York. Why didn't these guys get together and form a club to blow off a little steam instead of disrupting the natural timeline?

Radio "ham" Joe Talcott has zeroed in on a frequency from outer space but his other "ham" buddies don't believe him. Or won't. Could be that Joe is a pompous, self-serving, egotistical ass and the fellas don't want to spend another minute with the guy. "But hold on a sec, my bosom buddies..." Carl says, with a tone of elation, "Let's fix that Joe real good. We'll beam in on that alien frequency and pretend we're invaders from space!"

And that's exactly what the trio do. The prank comes off so well that Joe runs off screaming into the night, never to be seen again. The mates congratulate Carl on a job well done but the joke's on these two dorks: Carl is an alien readying an armada to invade Earth. Thank goodness he was tipped off to Joe's discovery! For three pages, I thought "The Voice of Doom!" was going to end with the obligatory "I meant to disguise my voice as a Martian but my tire blew out and I never made it to the microphone. Jeepers! Joe's telling the truth!" but thank goodness we got a bit of a variant for once. I enjoyed that last second twist almost as much as I enjoyed Gray Morrow's art, very much like George Evans in spots.

Speaking of time travel, Giovanni, the lead protagonist of "Volcano!," has developed yet another form of time travel: a pill. Giovanni has become obsessed with a treasure his ancestor left behind just before Vesuvius erupted and he's keen on traveling back and nabbing the big prize. In the end, our hero becomes a hero when he foregoes the treasure to save some children who are about to be lavalized. Another conceit of the comics code: all brilliant but selfish scientists must see the error of their ways before that final panel.

In the final saga of this special "Brilliant Atlas Inventors of 1957" issue of Strange Tales, a brilliant inventor creates a new form of plastic that can change shape with just a thought. While the egghead is demonstrating the elasticity of the goop to a pair of plastic company owners, one of the trio wills the plastic to take on a gorilla form. Then the ape walks out the door... The Reinman art is, as usual, nice to look at but, seriously, I've had it up to here with messages tacked on to stories about money-hungry creators. Let the innovators make a little dough once in a while.-Peter

Strange Tales of the Unusual #9

Cover by Bill Everett

"They Meet at Night!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★1/2

"Prophet of Doom!" (a: Jim Mooney) ★1/2

(r: Chamber of Chills #14)

"A Matter of Life or Death!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

(r: Creatures on the Loose #32)

"Mind Reader!" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

"Stowaway in the Sky!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Captured by the Cave Men!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

An old farmer named Morse sees something fall from the sky behind a copse and goes to investigate. He finds a man named Shoreham, who insists he saw a Martian spaceship land and overheard the Martians say that they had visited Earth a thousand years ago and can only come once per millennium. They're here to capture a human to take back to Mars as a specimen! Morse plays along and follows Shoreham as they approach the ship; suddenly, Shoreham leaps up and knocks Morse unconscious. Morse awakens on the Martian rocket ship, en route to the Red Planet, and happily anticipates returning to the home he left a thousand years ago.

Just because an ending is surprising doesn't make it satisfying. Why did Morse trick Shoreham into thinking him a human farmer? Why does Morse think that "it will go hard with him [Shoreham] when we arrive"? Is it because he's bringing home a Martian rather than a human? I need answers that "They Meet at Night!" fails to provide.

A bank president named Morse (apparently back from Mars already--see prior story) is visited by a man named Drew whom he fired four years ago for stealing. Now Drew announces that he's been studying in Tibet and can see the future. For example, Morse is about to faint (he does) and Drew is about to rob the vault in the confusion (he does). Drew walks out of the bank and boards a train, where he becomes a "Prophet of Doom!" when he has a vision of an impending train crash. He pulls the emergency cord and exits the train; moments later, the crash occurs and a piece of flying metal knocks him out. Drew wakes up to see police standing over him, having found the stolen loot in his pockets. They add that it was his tug on the emergency cord that caused the crash, which would not have happened had he not acted.

Jim Mooney turns in his standard, professional job on this tale, which fails to generate much excitement. I wonder how difficult it is to go to Tibet and learn how to foresee the future? It might come in handy with sports betting.

Tom Baker is a gardener who always buys the same products at Harry Farris's gardening supply store. One day, Farris talks Baker into buying a new product, a can of Lamond's Shur-Kil insecticide. Fifteen minutes after Tom leaves, Harry gets a call from the Lamond Chemical Company saying that they made a mistake and he'd better get that can back--it's "A Matter of Life or Death!" Harry races to get the police to help him find Tom, while Tom tries everything to open the impenetrable can--an axe, a drill, a steamroller--nothing works. Finally, he throws it far into the dump and it explodes! Harry arrives to tell him that the can was mistakenly filled with nitroglycerine!

Sol Brodsky's art is bad, but the panels that frame this story are worse since they feature Death himself as narrator. In the last two panels, he informs any readers left awake that it wasn't Tom's time to die. Apparently that's why he couldn't open the can. However, if it was filled with nitro and exploded when he tossed it in the dump, you'd think it would have blown up when run over by a steamroller!

In the fall of 1942, a Nazi sergeant named Hans Reuger is respected as a "Mind Reader!" and given an assignment: go to Newark, NJ, pretend to be an American G.I., and plant a time bomb in a munitions plane. Rechristened Harry Judson, the saboteur is dropped off by a submarine and paddles a raft ashore, where he meets Private Eddie White at a cafe. The two hit it off right away and Eddie says he put in for assignment to a U.S.O unit.

After spending lots of time together for a week, Harry tells Eddie his outfit is on the move, and the men agree to meet for the last time that night. Harry plants the time bomb and then meets Eddie in a hotel lobby. They exchange presents, but Harry tells Eddie not to open his till after midnight. At 12:01, Eddie opens his gift, a lollipop labeled "sucker." By 12:09, Harry is on a U-boat, where he opens Eddie's gift--the time bomb Harry placed at the munitions plant! The next morning, Eddie opens a letter and reads about his new U.S.O. assignment, where he will entertain the troops with his mind-reading act!

Forget the silly ending and just sit back and delight in four more pages of outstanding work by EC alumnus Krigstein, who is fast becoming the main reason to read Atlas comics of 1957. His draftsmanship is excellent and he's working twice as hard as anyone else in the shop, cramming small panels into his pages to try to make sense of another overly convoluted and wordy plot by Wessler. He does a darn good job and even creates some suspense at the end.

Ralph Healy is an aeronautical engineer who discovers Neutralium, a metal that floats on air and will revolutionize air travel. On his first test flight in a plane built with the substance, Ralph is held at gunpoint by two stowaways who want him to fly the plane behind the Iron Curtain. Ralph says no and two of his men are thrown out of the plane in midair. Appearing to agree to proceed to the Communist country, Ralph flies on, but when he lands, it's back in America. Turns out the two men tossed from the plane were wearing Neutralium suits and turned the plane around in midair from outside!

Groan. If the script weren't bad enough, we have to deal with more amateurish art by Winiarski. His panels look like they could have come from one of the backup (far far back) stories in an early 1940s comic.

On an archaeological expedition, Dr., Curt Ford wishes pretty Dr. Betty Cooper were less cold toward him. She thaws out fast when she falls down a deep hole and the duo are "Captured By the Cave Men!," members of an advanced species driven underground long, long ago by the more apelike ancestors of the human race. Curt throws a handy switch and he and Betty climb to the surface right before the big hole is sealed over and the menace avoided. Now it's Curt and Betty, no more of this "Dr. Ford" and "Dr. Cooper."

This isn't a particularly strange or unusual tale. In fact, the mediocre art by Tony DiPreta and the by-the-numbers plot are all too common in Atlas mags these days.-Jack

Next Week...
The Jungle Drums
of Gene Colan!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 158: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 143

April 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystery Tales #52

Cover by John Severin

"Mystery of the Silent Fog!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

"The Fish Men!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★★

"The Betrayer" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"The Too-Perfect Crime!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"The City That Died!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

"Midnight on the Moor!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★

After a rollicking storm leaves the town of Middleton enveloped in a thick haze of "silent" fog, the townsfolk become rattled and start throwing out crazed theories about what's happening to them. When the town idiot ventures into the fog and returns with a wild tale of seeing outer space all around the town, the mayor posits that the town is the target of an experiment by government scientists to see how normal people react to space travel. 

He orders his friends and neighbors to go home and dress in the craziest costumes they own. Soon, the fog lifts... Was it just coincidence or the result of a crazed liquid lunch in the Atlas break room? The goofy last panel sure doesn't solve the "Mystery of the Silent Fog!" nor does it edjamucate us on the disasters a non-silent fog could put into motion. The art by Bernard Baily is the safe, stiff, boring work we've seen become the norm around these parts.

During a routine dive in his bid to be the man who discovers Atlantis, deep-sea diver Hank Ferris stumbles upon a series of holes in the bottom of the sea. Upon further investigation, he finds the portals are actually windows above the world of "The Fish Men!" The gilled goons capture Hank and explain they were just about to commence their worldwide invasion of the surface world and Hank is invited along to watch. 

Hank shivers in fear as he realizes the gill men easily outnumber his surface world brothers and sisters. But, in the grand tradition of War of the Worlds, nature steps in to halt the illegal immigration of these sea thugs. The sun burns their scaled skin and the warriors are forced back into the depths to plan another invasion some rainy day. A perfectly enjoyable (albeit completely inane) fantasy that neither taxes the brain nor scars the eyeballs. The Marvin Stein art at times reminded me of Don Heck's work.

After a vicious bout with amnesia, Paul Declaire heads back to France in order to discover the identity of the man who betrayed his platoon in WWII. Eleven men died that day at the hands of the Germans, with only Paul surviving. Now, he hears the voices of those long-dead comrades in his head, begging him to find "The Betrayer"! Well, let's help Paul solve this mystery. He's the only one who survived. Everyone else died. He had amnesia for years and couldn't piece it all together. I think I've got it...

In the three-page mundanity known as "The Too-Perfect Crime!," Roger Reynolds invents a camera that can shrink its subject to miniature size so, naturally, Roger starts photographing expensive sports cars on the street and taking them home in his pocket. Later, he reverses the process and sells the autos for big bucks. But when the cops get suspicious, Roger turns the camera on himself so he can hide. Problem is, once the detectives have left, the dope can't reach the camera to revert himself back to normal size.

Bart Graham and his fellow explorers stumble upon a priceless cache of gems buried under an ancient Mexican temple. Bart wants to split the profits with his partners but they, understandably, remind Bart that anything found on the expedition belongs to the museum! Bart's having none of that crap so he grabs the jewels and disappears into the night. He soon comes across yet another ancient temple, but this one is populated by ancient citizens. Has Bart stepped into a time warp? Well, kinda, but don't expect a sane rationalization to "The City That Died!" Instead you're going to get another of those cockamamie Atlas scientific theories guaranteed to made you giggle. The Winiarski art continues Atlas's backslide in the graphics department. What was once dependable has become spotty.

Another ridiculous denouement awaits those who make it through the four pages of "Midnight on the Moor!," wherein businessman Ken Barrow becomes stranded in Edinburgh mere hours before an important board meeting. His only way out is a haunted stretch of swamp. Will Ken make it? The only way I made it was focusing on the joys of Mort Drucker's penciling. Mort singlehandedly represents the word "art" in this dismal issue of Mystery Tales.-Peter

Mystic #58

Cover by Bill Everett

"Those Who Vanish!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★1/2

"The Straw Man!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★

"The Day the World Ended!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"Dinosaur" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

"The Swami Strikes Back!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Maha the Demon!" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

Unlike Mystery Tales #52, Mystic #58 has more than its share of good art and it gets started quickly with the atmospheric work Richard Doxsee contributes to "Those Who Vanish!" Clyde Duvlin is a genius inventor who just can't stand to be patient and wait his turn, so he schemes to rid himself of the upper rungs of management at World Electronics. Clyde invents a camera that transports its subject to wherever the developed picture is mailed and he takes advantage of the US Postal Service by mailing pics of all his bosses to places hither and yon.

Laughably, it seems those supervisors can't get back to the US and Clyde becomes the man in charge at WE. Unfortunately for him, his gorgeous wife is proud of the beautiful colors found in her hubby's developed pics and sends one she took of Clyde to her brother... who's serving time in a Chinese prison! That climax is alternately brilliant and giggle-worthy. Also hilarious is that Clyde invents this dazzling camera but doesn't realize its true power until his wife mails a pic of herself to her mother and is teleported to the old lady's living room. File Doxsee in with Angelo Torres and Al Williamson as pencilers who can lay out work that is alternately brilliant and sketchy but all the while dazzling.

Farmer Paul Miller always sees to it that "The Straw Man!" in his field is dressed to the nines in good times but pestilence and drought have struck Paul's farm and he decides it's time to pack it in and sell the land. A preacher comes to Paul's farm and begs him to pray to God for rain but Paul tells the holy man that he's all prayed out. Suddenly, it begins to pour and the priest points to the straw man, who's now in a kneeling position. The lord works in mysterious ways, indeed. There's no rhyme or reason as to why Paul had to endure all his traumas when a religious scarecrow watched over his farm the entire time, but I'm not one to pick nits. I wouldn't have been able to identify the art as belonging to Joe Maneely had it not been signed; gone are the detailed, gorgeous visuals Maneely was once responsible for and in their place is something very average and very 1958 Atlas.

On the eve of war, brilliant scientist Dr. Eric Norath discusses the future of Earth with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. Both women declare hatred for war and the men try to explain calmly that those stinkin' evil commies will stop at nothing to rule the world. Something must be done to stop the Red Threat!!! A few days later, Norath is working in his lab when he accidentally tips over a vat of a solution he's working on (let's call it... oh, I don't know... how about oxychloride x?) and the liquid begins eating a hole through everything it touches.

Word is sent out to the government that nothing can contain the chemical and Americans watch as it dissolves miles of earth and moves downward, seemingly to the core of the planet itself. When the government appeals to the stinkin' commies to ally with them to find an antidote, the entire world joins forces and a solution to the solution is found. The Nations are at last United in peace while Mrs. Norath scolds her husband for dumping the juice and holding the antidote the whole time. With "The Day the World Ended!," writer Carl Wessler probably counted on very few of his 8-year-old readers being familiar with the old Lights Out radio show and its 1938 episode "Oxychloride X," which Wessler happily ripped off, later cashing his $27 check from Stan. 

Explorers in the Amazon run across some preserved dinosaur eggs and are elated by their historic find. Well, almost all of them, that is. All but Osborne, who hates mosquitoes and animals and vegetation and just wants to go home. So Osborne hides the eggs, stomps some fake dino tracks in the dirt, and waits to see what happens. His colleagues are mortified and skulk out of camp the next night, leaving Osborne alone. Surveying the camp, he finds giant prints in the dirt that he didn't make! Anything Bernie Krigstein worked on automatically becomes readable and the delightful (and delightfully simple) "Dinosaur" is a perfect example. The script (by Krigstein himself?) is almost a comedic romp, filled with funny dialogue and sight gags, and Bernie lays out the story in his trademark multi-mini-panel style. If only we could have had whole issues filled with Krigstein's work.

Egregious in both art and script, "The Swami Strikes Back!" tells the tale of a group of college punks who kidnap the titular entertainer to teach them how to project their spirit. In this way, they can rob a bank. Hard to believe a four-page story could take so long to read but allow for nodding-off time. Nap time continues with "Maha the Demon," about a museum guard who unwittingly unleashes an ancient pharaoh onto present day streets. The "stranger in a strange land" angle is amusing for a couple panels but then the entire affair ends tediously.-Peter

Mystical Tales #6

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Iron Trap" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"The Forbidden Room" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★1/2

(r: Tomb of Darkness #11)

"The Sinking Man!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

"He Hides in the Tower" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★

"In the Dark Attic!" (a: Dave Berg) ★1/2

"The Clock Strikes Thirteen" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

An unhappy physicist named Andrew Kastro is experimenting with atomic matter when it explodes, causing a brief flash of light and making everything in the room giant-sized! After two hours, he grows back to normal size and it dawns on the genius that it was he who got smaller while everything around him stayed the same. Like most Atlas protagonists, Andrew's thoughts turn to crime, and he decides that he'll shrink himself down and steal a valuable pearl from a museum. All goes as planned until Andrew forgets about the two-hour limit on his small size and is caught in "The Iron Trap"--a ventilating shaft--as he exits the museum with the pearl.

Groan! Dick Ayers was uninspired and his art is lifeless. The story isn't much different from "The Too-Perfect Crime!" in this month's Mystery Tales in that both deal with someone who accidentally discovers how to shrink himself and turns to crime. You'd think these brilliant scientists would see the pitfalls.

Helen is an aging woman whose husband forbids her to enter "The Forbidden Room" in their mansion. She can think of little else and finally opens the door one night while her husband sleeps. Inside the room she sees... her husband, who welcomes her! As she reaches for him he disappears; she passes out and wakes up on a psychologist's couch, where she is told that she is really an aging spinster about to wed who has finally conquered her fear of marriage, which was represented by the forbidden room. Got it? Even Joe Sinnott can't make this interesting.

The sole survivor of an explosion on a ship, Andrews finds himself on an island that is strangely familiar. He recognizes one thing after another and finally comes to a time machine; pushing a button, he finds himself back in the water, just having left the sinking ship and heading for the island, where the events will play out time after time.

"The Sinking Man!" is only three pages long and still seems tedious, but the art by Angelo Torres is at least bearable, if hardly his finest work.

From the moment Tony Lund sees Dorwin Manor, he becomes obsessed with the idea that there must be money hidden in the basement. He meets and seduces Madge, a pretty servant who works at the manor, and when she is about to elope with him he sneaks into the basement and finds the cash. Arnold Dorwin catches him in the act and a gun battle ensues, but Tony ends up locked in the attic after Arnold turns out to be a ghost and Madge discovers Tony's treachery.

I have to hand it to Bernie Krigstein--he put more effort into this terrible script than most Atlas artists would have. "He Hides in the Tower" has enough twists, turns, and verbiage for a ten- or twenty-page story, yet none of it is interesting or original.

A young man is used to using his handsome face to cheat people, so when he is approached on the street by a wrinkled old man offering to paint his portrait, the young man jumps at the chance, figuring he can cheat the old man out of some valuable pictures. Up the stairs they go till they are together "In the Dark Attic!," where the artist seems to paint an imaginary portrait on an imaginary canvas. In the end, the old man wraps the imaginary canvas around his face and, when the young man emerges into the daylight, he does not realize that the old man's wrinkled face has replaced his own.

Dave Berg's particular art style, which tends to exaggerate faces, is perfect for this tale, though the denouement will surprise no one.

Villagers are shaken when "The Clock Strikes Thirteen," thinking that the imported edifice bears a curse. Little do they know that Fuller faked the thirteenth strike, certain that everyone in town will be so focused on the clock the next day that he can rob the local bank. Rob it he does and, when he's trying to get out of town, he's easily captured. It seems the thirteenth strike presaged someone about to suffer a great loss, and that someone turned out to be Fuller.

It's back to Earth after some pretty decent art this issue, as Howard O'Donnell puts no effort into illustrating a story that is needlessly complicated and has yet another letdown of an ending.-Jack

Spellbound #33

Cover by Carl Burgos

"At the End of the Dark Hall" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Don't Throw That Switch" (a: Ted Galindo) ★

"The Gypsies' Secret!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★1/2

"No Way Out!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Fury of Nick Foster!" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★

"The Unhuman" (a: John Tartaglione) ★

Pierre Denoir steals a woman's purse and flees through the fog-shrouded Parisian streets, ducking into a building and racing down the stairs. "At the End of the Dark Hall" he opens a door that reveals a group of criminals seated round a long table. Pierre recognizes them and remarks that they are all supposed to be dead! They chase him around for a while and he at first begs to join them and then grabs a gun and takes a wild shot before racing back up the stairs and into the waiting arms of the police. The fog has lifted and they point to the sign above the building entrance that reads "Mme. Rousseau's Wax Works."

It's nice to admit that, for once, Carl Wessler surprised me with the ending of this story. I was expecting Pierre to realize that he was dead just like the rest of the criminals. Instead, we get the old bit about the wax dummies seeming to come to life. John Forte's art, which I don't usually like very much, is rather evocative in the panels with fog and in the candlelit cellar.

Walter Garland learns a terrible secret from his dying grandfather--the old man has spent eighty years maintaining a machine that kept an unknown person from aging. The old man dies before he can tell Walter the young man's identity (hint, hint) and Walter quickly determines that his sworn enemy, Howard Blye, must be the man! Walter confronts Howard, who cries "Don't Throw That Switch!" and begins to pay blackmail money and welcome Walter into high society. Walter falls hard for Howard's fiance Joyce and, in order to get rid of his rival, turns off the machine. Not surprisingly, the young man who has been kept vibrant for eight decades turns out to be Walter.

Unlike the prior story, I knew what was going to happen in this one by the end of page one. The art by Ted Galindo does nothing to elevate the tired storytelling.

Tony Hayden is a con man who travels from town to town selling fake patent medicine at sideshows and carnivals. In one location he happens on a gypsy settlement and thinks he can make a quick buck selling his "medicine" (flavored water) to the seemingly ignorant folk. His spiel is interrupted by Kazar, a burly, bald Roma who says that Tony's product is fake and no substitute for the real thing that Kazar doles out. Kazar agrees to give Tony his secret formula to help his people and Tony promptly makes up more fake bottles of medicine and sells them as if they were Kazar's elixir. The people revolt once the trickery is discovered and they beat Tony and leave him in an alley. Kazar appears and cures Tony with his own formula before disappearing and leaving Tony to lament his failure to recognize a genuine cure-all.

"The Gypsies' Secret!" benefits greatly from fine work by Angelo Torres, who seems to rise to the occasion when given anything resembling an interesting script. This time out, the story mostly makes sense and has a satisfying ending, though I question why Kazar was so willing to give Tony his formula when Tony is obviously dishonest and Kazar could simply have given it to his own people himself.

Caught again on his sixth attempt to break out of prison, Blackie doesn't plan to give up, even though it seems that there is "No Way Out." A new prisoner says he's a chemistry professor and tells Blackie about a formula he's made from powdered wings that will give anyone who drinks it the ability to fly. Blackie takes a drink and is flying over the prison walls when he finds himself drawn toward the searchlight--too bad he didn't know the wings were those of moths!

Robert Sales's art isn't getting any more attractive and this three-pager is just plain silly. Some of Sales's panels really look like he's struggling with anatomy and perspective.

Nick Lazarus is a deep sea diver hired to recover undersea plant specimens for a scientist. Sick of encounters with sharks, Nick is excited to receive a radio message inviting him to join a salvage job where he thinks he'll get rich. The scientist insists that Nick finish out his contract, so Nick lies and says he sees nothing but rocks on the ocean floor. He tosses the ship's charts of the ocean floor overboard to force the scientist to abandon the mission, but when Nick brings up samples of undersea rocks he learns that they mention a treasure house in Atlantis, whose riches Nick will never find now due to the loss of the charts.

Holy cow, what a complicated way to get to yet another Atlantis ending! Harry Lazarus's art is mediocre and the script, undoubtedly by Wessler or Oleck, adds nothing new to the Atlas canon.

Who is leaving the mysterious notes that answer the major problems faced by scientists working on Project Satellite? Dr. Taylor decides that one of his fellow scientists must be "The Unhuman," a mutant with super brain powers. Dr. Fenn is shot and dies just before he reveals the identity of the unhuman. After Dr. Taylor rules out the other two, he is shocked when Dr. Fenn appears, having faked his own death. Taylor says the world isn't ready for Fenn's brilliance, so Fenn agrees and vanishes. This story should have vanished! The world wasn't ready for such uninteresting art and prose.-Jack

Next Week...
More Krigstein Magic
To Save Us From Madness!