Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 157: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 142

April 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #60

Cover by Bill Everett

"The House of Fear!" (a: John Forte) ★

"The Monster in the Mist!" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★1/2

(r: Monsters Unleashed #7)

"The Trap!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★

"Secret of the Golden Idol" (a: Syd Shores) ★★1/2

"Trapped by the Little Men!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

(r: Chamber of Chills #13)

"When He Presses the Button!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

Leo Lucas inadvertently shacks up in a haunted house one stormy night and must fight for his life to escape. The next night, he's relating the story to his buddies and one of them, the egotistical Rod Bailey, claims there's a rational explanation for everything and, for fifty bucks, he'll stay the night in the house just to prove his theory. The boys take him up on his offer and that night Rod finds himself in "The House of Fear!" Dreadful stuff with a twist that's been done a thousand times before and the uninspiring art adds nothing.

A scientist and his crew are searching the sea for "The Monster in the Mist!" According to legend, a giant sea serpent cruises the waters and Professor Kerrin is bound and determined to catch a glimpse of said behemoth. An eerie mist rolls in and they come across a deserted island; suddenly the monster appears and threatens them. Just as it is about to destroy the boat, the saurian disappears and Prof. Kerrin opines that "for a few moments, time turned backwards" and he and his crew were witnessing an event from 1519! 

Despite biting off a little more than it could chew, "The Monster in the Mist!" is a fun and nicely etched little thriller, granting us a reprieve for just a moment from haunted buildings and warring Venusians and giving us a taste of what was to come in a few years. We could use a few more of these tales.

"The Trap!" is a cockamamie bit of nonsense about a businessman who discovers an auditor is in the office to do his books. Ordinarily not a problem, but this guy has been embezzling a ton of dough from the company, so he gets the bright idea of kidnapping the auditor while he whips up a new set of ledgers. Unbeknownst to our loser protagonist, the agent is a robot and he's quickly replaced by a newer, more efficient model. It's disheartening to see how bland Tony DiPreta's work had become by 1957; the eeriness of his older work gave way to simple sketching and no enthusiasm. The robot reveal is thrown in almost as an afterthought.

In "Secret of the Golden Idol," a petty thief steals a priceless statue that supposedly holds the secret of unlimited wealth. Try as he may, the dope just can't figure out the clues and ends up behind bars. There's really not much to this one, but it possesses a certain charm (the thief believes the idol's eyes--one red and one green--are telling him which direction to turn in search of his fortune) and Syd Shores's graphics are certainly a cut above those of DiPreta and Forte.

The three-page "Trapped by the Little Men!" is on the must-skip list, but for those who just have to know I'll synopsize as "man wakes up to find he's a prisoner of small people and then discovers he's a descendant of Gulliver." This reveal is a surprise to no one but the dope in the story. More lifeless Morisi art.

The Ace Detective Agency sends their best man, Haley, out to find an eccentric scientist who's become the heir to a fortune. When Haley tracks the egghead down, the goofball is working on a time travel machine and insists he has no time for business. He flips a switch and Haley ends up back at the beginning of the story. "When He Presses the Button!" advances the genre of time traveling not one iota but extra points go to the uncredited writer (I'd guess Wessler) for repeating the opening almost verbatim on the closing page. These guys weren't paid much, so hats off to this guy for padding his script.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #45

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Demon's Shadow!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★★

"Which One of Us Is Me?" (a: John Forte) ★★

"The Eyes That Never Closed!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"Something in the House" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"A Scream on the Screen!" (a: Christopher Rule) ★★

"What Happened to Harrison!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★1/2

Greedy explorer Jory is searching for the Temple of El Kasid, rumored to contain a priceless collection of golden idols. Jory finds his temple and enters the secret room containing the treasure but then discovers that the statues are of explorers before him. Suddenly, lasers shoot from the eyes of one of the idols and Jory becomes the latest exhibit in the temple. 

Joe Benton comes home one night to find a doppelganger has taken his place at the kitchen table. His wife Alice doesn't recognize him and begs her husband to call the police. The cops arrive and haul Joe off to jail, where he sits and tries to make some sense of his day. Turns out Joe was run over by a truck that morning and killed but had begged the strange, robed figures who were about to take him to the afterlife to wait until he "straightened out his affairs." The double was their way of helping Joe out. Mystery solved and affairs arranged, Joe accompanies his guides to whatever awaits him in death. The plot is a bit confusing at times (at what point will Joe #2 just up and disappear from Alice's life and will she discover he was at the dinner table while he was also on a morgue slab downtown?), but I applaud the bullpen writer for at least injecting some imagination into "Which One of Us Is Me?"

The publisher of a "tell-all" rag blackmails a brilliant scientist who has created an x-ray camera that can see through the walls of the city's most popular celebrities. The newsman intends to use the tool as a way to increase his circulation despite repeated warnings from the egghead. Joke's on our blackmailer in the end: every time he's opened the camera to change film he's received a dose of high radiation. In the final panel of "The Eye That Never Closed!," our doomed protagonist ponders his remaining time on Earth. The reveal might have been more of a shock if the scientist hadn't repeatedly (and I do mean repeatedly) warned his blackmailer of the dangers of his experimental creation.

Larry and Kit Keith buy an old house and begin to fix it up but they quickly learn the structure is a money pit. They pour their life savings into the building but new cracks form every day. Still, they love that house! One night,  a quartet of armed robbers break in and hold the Keiths hostage, explaining they just robbed a warehouse and need a spot to chill. No one would think to look for them in this old dump. But the thieves soon learn there's "Something in the House," something that's protecting the Keiths and isn't happy about the break-in. Unremarkable script and art.

Through all his wife's protests, Bert Bates continues to screw with the insides of his TV, trying to get a better picture. It works even better than Bert could dream as the set begins broadcasting shows and news from the following day! Bert dreams of calling his bookie and his stockbroker immediately with the news that the Edsel will soon be the biggest selling car in America and wife Helen fancies herself in a mink stole bigger than that of  Wilma McGillicuddy down the street. All goes super until the news flash that Bert Bates was electrocuted in a freak accident the night before. After the event does indeed occur, Bert lies in his hospital bed and realizes he let his greed overcome his happiness with life. Helen sighs and admits that Bert will just have to get that second job in order for her to wear mink. For a three-pager, "A Scream on the Screen!" is not bad and elicited a few grins from this old grump.

In the closer, "What Happened to Harrison!," Professor Sims creates a machine that can "send a man's subconscious back in time" but Professor Harrison isn't buying this theory. He challenges Sims to test his theory in front of a board of scientists and Harrison agrees. The test subject turns out to be a man who saved Harrison's father from drowning years before and the experiment begins. Harrison smells a rat and attempts to throw the demonstration off but fate intervenes and tragedy strikes. A very predictable conclusion, especially since Prof. Sims warns against the outcome all through the story. A very average final piece to a very average issue of Journey Into Mystery.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #56

Cover by John Severin & Carl Burgos

"The Man Who Went Too Far!" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

(r: Amazing Adventures #22)

"They Won't Die!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★1/2

"Your Life for Mine!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"The Wrong Choice!" (a: Werner Roth) ★

"The Voice in the Night!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

"The Impossible" (a: Bill Everett) ★1/2

(r: Amazing Adventures #25)

Martin has created a ray to find out if there is life in outer space. Despite the warnings of his friend York, Martin points the ray skyward and succeeds in pulling a transparent, shadowy man from space down to Earth. Martin spends five days trying to communicate with the man from space, but York thinks Martin is "The Man Who Went Too Far!" and is about to smash the ray machine with a wrench when Martin intercedes. In their struggle, the ray is pointed downward and unexpectedly draws up a creature from below the surface, a creature that can move through earth and stone with ease. Martin and York look with horror at the footprints left by the unseen creature, which is heading for the city.

Richard Doxsee's art is the highlight of this wordy tale that must have been penned by Carl Wessler. It keeps circling around a slightly interesting premise but never quite gets there, and the conclusion is disappointing, promising carnage without actually showing anything but footprints.

During the war, Dan Morley survived a shell blast but was certain his buddy, Phil Brice, was killed. Later, when Dan learns that Phil survived, Dan begins to research other men around the world who mysteriously were not killed in tragic accidents. Looking for a reason why "They Won't Die!," Dan theorizes that the Other Men, as he calls them, must be aliens or something else unusual. He speaks to an FBI man without success and becomes paranoid, but when Dan is packing to leave he is confronted by Phil Brice. In his rush to get away, Dan falls out a window, but he is shocked to feel his body healing rapidly after a fall that should have been fatal. Phil patiently explains that Dan is one of the men who possess a strange power to heal themselves; Phil adds that they plan to dedicate themselves to the service of mankind.

This big yawn of a story is fortunate to feature the art of Pete Morisi, who enlivens the dull proceedings with a few nice depictions of Dan falling out of a window.

Paul Carew is a scientist whose experiments in time travel use so much energy that they have damaged all the nearby houses. When his neighbors complain, Paul lies and says he'll give up his work but instead goes inside and cranks the machine up to full power, bringing a man forward from centuries ago and taking his place in the past. Paul looks around the man's laboratory and realizes he's taken the place of an alchemist whose neighbors have formed an angry mob--a mob that plans to do away with Paul!

"Your Life for Mine!" is dreadful, with Kirbyesque art by Marvin Stein that looks forward to the style that will dominate Marvel comics in several years.

A modern pirate ship run by Captain Tovar is sunk by a police craft and Tovar descends through the water to find himself in Atlantis. An old man called the Wise One tells Tovar he can have one wish, but Tovar wants three things: to return to the surface, to be big and muscular, and to be rich. When told he must pick one, Tovar makes "The Wrong Choice!" and ends up seven feet tall and burly, thinking he'll dominate those around him. Sadly, he discovers that the denizens of the undersea kingdom are all much bigger than he is!

It seems like we see a variation on this twist ending every few issues in Atlas comics, with a character either ending up too big or too small--usually too small. Here, Werner Roth's panels don't add much to the convoluted tale, which starts out above the water but ends up with yet another greedy man getting his just desserts.

In a Nazi prison camp in 1944, PFC Bill Sanders makes a little soldier doll for his daughter but must endure cruelty from Sgt. Fritz Bruner. One night Bill escapes and is chased through the countryside by Nazi soldiers, including Bruner. Suddenly, Bill hears "The Voice in the Night!" giving him instructions on which way to turn to make his escape. The voice, which seems to come from the doll Bill made, successfully guides Bill to safety. Eight years later, Bill is in the audience at a ventriloquist's show when he hears the same voice coming from the dummy onstage. Bill realizes that the ventriloquist is Sgt. Bruner, who was throwing his voice in the woods in order to aid Bill in his escape.

There's a lot to like in this one, even though the surprise ending is hard to swallow. Bruner is a terror in the prison camp and makes it clear that he wants to be the one to catch and kill Bill when they're in the woods, so it seems implausible that he was really the one who helped Bill escape. Still, the sheer wackiness of the story and some smooth art by Frank Bolle make this the most enjoyable entry in this issue.

Many years ago, the people of a small, landlocked country with no large bodies of water were confused by persistent maritime distress signals. The calls are traced to the home of the Minister of Enlightenment, who discovers that the S.O.S. calls were coming from a ship in a bottle.

Bill Everett does his usual fine job illustrating "The Impossible," but I'm slightly confused by the end--is the entire village inside a bottle and the minister saying that life can't exist in such a small form? That's what it looks like. It's a dopey ending to a poor issue.-Jack

Marvel Tales #157

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Secret of Murdock Farm!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

"The Black Blob!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★1/2

"The Man Who Was Replaced" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"Impossible Island" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★1/2

"The Man Who Changed!" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

"It Waits in the Dark!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

Albert Carter works as a soda jerk at a drugstore counter and is unhappy in his work. He finds a newspaper in the cellar and reads a classified ad about a Model T car being sold for $35, so Albert takes a bus out of town to a desolate spot where he learns "The Secret of Murdock Farm!" Intervening when the family who owns the farm is threatened by crooks who want to buy it, Albert falls for pretty Lillian Murdock and fights off the crooks, only to discover that she and her family are the ghosts of people who died years ago. Albert decides a life with a pretty ghost is better than his humdrum existence and runs back toward the farm, begging Lillian and her family to let him join them.

Joe Orlando was such a skilled draftsman that I can't give this convoluted story only one star, but one and a half is the best I can do. Carl Wessler never ceases to amaze me with the amount of pointless twists and turns he can throw into a short story and the utter meaninglessness of most of it.

Herman Miller is a spy who never found anything useful with which to betray his country. Now he's haunted by "The Black Blob!," a floating cloud that no one else can see. The blob tells Herman that it's the harbinger of an alien invasion and it gives him the power to walk through walls and walk on air. The failed spy walks through the thick, metal walls of a government building, hoping he can finally steal some useful secrets. In the morning, he's found dead inside a sealed room that contains lethal rays and a pool of black, oily stuff is on the floor beside him.

As with the prior story, the only thing to recommend this one is the art. Pete Morisi's style is an acquired taste, but I like it. It brings back memories of Charlton and 1970s Atlas comics, which were way more fun than 1950s Atlas comics.

When Phil March returns from his travels a wanted man, he makes his identical twin brother, Ben, "The Man Who Was Replaced." Phil uses hypnosis to confuse Ben and, after a month, he is good enough at the imitation game to fool the secretary at Ben's office. Ben catches on and confronts Bill, who calls the cops on his brother. The cops arrive and arrest both men, one for crimes committed elsewhere and the other for a stock swindle.

The GCD tells us that this tepid tale is written by Jack Oleck, proving that not all the bad stories we're suffering through can be blamed on Carl Wessler. Marvin Stein's art is utterly forgettable.

A Navy patrol plane is forced to make an emergency landing on an "Impossible Island" in the China Sea. They find an alien spacecraft but no sign of aliens until a group of strange, robot-like creatures approach and the men hide in the jungle. After gathering their courage, they discover that the aliens are friendly creatures who welcome humans into the brotherhood of the stars before taking off into space, their survey done.

Even the great Bernie Krigstein  can't enliven this one, despite his trademark page layout that features numerous, small panels. One problem is that the color separation is awful, at least in the copy I'm reading, and this makes it hard to tell what's going on some of the time, especially in the last panel on page two, where it looks like a bunch of animals and birds are wrapped in cellophane.

Carl Mason finds an old locket with mystic symbols scratched into its surface and soon every wish he makes is granted. He becomes greedy and his neighbors and clients begin to resent him. When the police come to arrest him for a swindle, his wishes to escape fail because his wife unknowingly polished all the mystic symbols out of the piece of jewelry. Sam Kweskin's art is below average even for Atlas in 1957 and this three-pager treads well-worn ground.

A pair of old explorers named Brooks and Cain discuss the amazing reappearance of John Calder, who had been missing in the Brazilian jungle for twenty years until Cain saw what looked like a spirit of Calder on the edge of the unexplored territory. Cain followed the spirit deep into the jungle and discovered Calder's body lying next to the legendary tree of life. Dragging the sleeping man out of the jungle, Cain rescued him and explains to Brooks that the tree put Calder in a state of suspended animation and then protected an image of him on the edge of the jungle. Brooks is shocked when Calder walks in and looks as if he hasn't aged in twenty years!

Tony DiPreta's art on "It Waits in the Dark!" is nothing special and the surprise ending is one that has been done before, but the jungle setting and the appearance of some Kivaro (Jivaro) Indians made me give this two stars, making it the least bad story in a dud of an issue.-Jack

In Our Next Issue...
A Double Dose of
Bernie Krigstein!