Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 196: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 181

May 1961

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #68

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

" 'Spragg' Conqueror of the Human Race!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★1/2

(r: Creatures on the Loose #15)

"Where Walks the Ghost" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #16)

"The Man from Mars!" (a: Don Heck) ★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #15)

After a massive earthquake rocks Transylvania, Professor Bob asks his boss if he can investigate. After arriving in Dracula's home town, Bob is given the cold shoulder by the villagers when he asks them about a strange, hastily erected wall just outside of town. With all the skill of a mountain climber, Bob scales the tall structure but is amazed to find that, at the top, the wall is electrified!

Not one to give in easily, Bob returns the next day with a rented plane (from Transylvania Plane Rentals, no doubt) and flies over the fence. The plane disintegrates and Bob is lucky that (for some reason) the other side of the wall is stocked with haystacks. His fall is cushioned and he travels farther inland to investigate. What he stumbles on drops his jaw to his feet. Several villagers, obviously under the spell of some diabolical mind control, lugging heavy mechanical instruments around a small mountain.

You think Bob has had it bad already? Just imagine the chills that run up his spine when he sees the hill has eyes! Yep, the mound of earth is alive and spouting out instructions for its slaves. Bob quickly learns the thing's name is " 'Spragg' Conqueror of the Human Race!" and that the only reason he, himself, is not under the control of the evil mountain is that his helmet is made of steel. Lucky Bob!

Bob has stumbled upon the evil Spragg just as it is about to reveal its horrifying origin: millions of years before, when our sun exploded and made the planets, Spragg and his colleagues became part of the underground, just waiting patiently for the right time. Now's the right time. What is Spragg's mission? To become the ruler of Earth and a really rich mountain. It dreams of receiving big bundles of cash and jewelry as tribute (honestly, this is really his goal--I ain't making this up!). With billions of dollars and lots of slaves at his command, Spragg will be the most powerful mountain in Europe!

But Bob has an ace up his sleeve and a keen knowledge of how mechanical instruments can be used against evil hills. He transforms lots of pipes and fuel (!) into a "rocket apparatus dynamo" and Spragg achieves liftoff, sending it into the deeps of space. Man is safe once again thanks to Bob the Builder. Just for that final series of panels of Spragg, angry look on his face, blasting into the air, this story is worth slogging through. This is one entertaining strip, possibly the first in Atlas history to feature a menace incapable of movement! But for its mental capabilities, Spragg might be dismissed as a novelty by locals who've been terrorized by more imposing monsters in the past.

In "Where Walks the Ghost," "Big" Monk McGraf escapes police custody and heads into the country to look for a place to hide. He finds a perfect house but the real estate agent swears it's haunted. Once Monk gets the keys, he threatens the agent with death but, the surprise is on Monk, the old man is the ghost that haunts the dilapidated estate. Scared out of his mind, Monk rushes to the police to beg them to arrest him. Last up is the equally lame "The Man from Mars!," wherein famously cheap carnival owner Joe Krunk hits on the idea of a new attraction: a man from Mars! He talks a skid row bum into dressing up as the alien but then Joe gets the surprise of his life when... yep, you guessed it... the bum is the real deal. Only Joe was fooled.-Peter

Strange Tales #84

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"The Wonder of the Ages!!! Magneto!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #24)

"Twelve Silent Men!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"They Met on Mars!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #24)

Super freak Hunk Larken (all eight feet and 350 pounds of him) only wants to find his place in society but everyone treats him like a carnival attraction. Hunk thinks he's found a friend in a man who acts as his agent, trying to farm Hunk out to a professional sports team, but his gigantic proportions throw his timing off and baseball, basketball, and boxing all go out the window.

Without a job and on his own, Hunk stumbles upon a carnival, where the owner hires him for the freak show. That goes well for about twenty minutes and then the big galoot grows tired of perfect strangers asking him how the weather is up there and starts pounding hayseeds into the ground. Once again, Hunk is without a vocation. Then, he answers an ad placed by the government looking for a few good men to send up in rocket ships to do a little space testing.

Astronaut Hunk Larken exits Earth's atmosphere and rockets right through a strange radioactive mist that makes him feel really ill. NASA brings him home immediately but, upon exiting the capsule, Hunk discovers that he can attract metal objects with his left arm and repel them with his right! Gone is Hunk and in his place stands "The Wonder of the Ages!!! Magneto!" The big guy swears, as God is his witness, he'll never go hungry again and starts robbing banks and picking up big boats and silly stuff like that.

Meanwhile, Hunk's sports agent sees the behemoth on TV and contacts the government, informing them that the only reason the giant is acting up is because he's been mistreated by his fellow man. Magneto just needs a little kindness and he'll stop his criminal ways. Hunk overhears a news report that the government plans to send another ship into space. Knowing he'll never fit in on Earth, he stows away on the rocket and blasts off to parts unknown. In space, Hunk "Magneto" Larken gets a message from NASA, informing him that the rocket is a gift from Earth and apologizing for the rude behavior shown him. The ship has enough food onboard to last for years. "Good luck to you, Magneto! May you find your destiny--out there!"

Here's an apology for ya--we've treated you like the ugly stepsister for years so, to make up for it, we're blasting you into space and you may or may not find a planet more to your liking; if not, you'll die of starvation! There's entirely too much character buildup and not enough payoff (we're to page eight of thirteen before Hunk gets his powers) but the draw here is the obvious inspiration for the X-Men's most famous nemesis just a couple years before the title was launched. Hunk is unique in that he doesn't grow to 20 feet tall or sprout fangs and a hairy suit (unlike the guy on the cover); he's already a really big guy. Sometimes, spotting these early influences is the most fun these 1960s Atlas strips provide.

Victor Fabius, the world's most successful lawyer (122-0 with 88 knockouts in the courtroom) has grown bored with his relatively small fortune and decides he really must expand his horizons and make some serious coin. So Victor does what any other inhabitant of the Atlas Universe would do: he steals an experimental time machine and travels one hundred years into the future, with an eye to checking out old horse racing magazines and Wall Street Journals and then heading back to 1961 armed with lots of sure-fire info with which to grow his fortune. Victor runs into a problem when he's put on trial for stealing the time machine. "Twelve Silent Men!" begins with a ludicrous concept (if time travel is possible then everyone would travel to the future to cash in) and fizzles out quickly.

Last up is "They Met on Mars!," a fairly decent red-scare quickie about two aliens who meet on the red planet, ready to declare that world as their own. Turns out one is American and one is a stinkin' commie. Of course, since this is 1961, the Russkie is scouting an outer space base for the commies to destroy anything and everyone they find objectionable. Have no fear, since the American blows up the USSR ship and flies away to freedom. This one starts promisingly but transitions into overly familiar (Stan Lee) territory. At least the always dependable Steve Ditko is holding our collective hand as we make our way through the land mines of the Cold War.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #17

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Beware of Googam, Son of Goom!!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #16)

"There is Something Strange About Mr. Jones!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Fear #10)

"What Lurks in the Mountain?" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

(r: Creatures on the Loose #18)

Two issues ago, we read about Goom, a creature from space who wanted to rule the world but was outsmarted by an astronomer named Mark. Little did the scientist know that Goom left his infant son, Googam, hidden in a nearby cave!

Mark's teenaged son, Billy, is out exploring one day when he is captured by Googam. When Mark points a rifle at the young alien, Googam breaks the gun in half and announces that he's moving in with Mark and his family. They will be his prisoners until he's fully grown and his powers mature. Googam puts a force field around Billy each night to prevent the family from escaping.

A local busybody named Sara pays a visit to Mark's house and is scared away by the sudden appearance of Googam, but by the time she gets home she's convinced herself it was a prank. Googam keeps growing and getting stronger, passing the time by demonstrating how he can shrink Mark's family just by concentrating. Mark tries to alert the mailman with a note thrown out the window, but Googam witnesses this and chases the letter carrier away.

Finally, Billy has an idea. He challenges Googam to a game of tag and the alien chases the lad down the mountainside, where Googam sinks in quicksand that Billy avoided by climbing a tree. Will Googam return in a future issue?

"Beware of Googam, Son of Goom!!" features the odd spectacle of a big monster who never goes anywhere and who never really menaces anyone. In addition to the red swim trunks that match his skin color, he also appears to have some sort of cape that only appears when he raises his mighty arms. During the time he lives with Mark's family, does he wash his outfit? Does it have to be washed in cold water because it's red? Does he have an extra-large bathrobe to wear while Helen is doing the laundry?

The other thing we've mentioned before is Kirby's penchant for including, in what seems like every story, at least one panel that shows a view of planet Earth from outer space, with dialogue balloons showing what the earthbound characters are discussing. Why? Is this supposed to make the story seem more universal? This story includes two such panels, one on page eight, where Sara and her husband discuss her need to know what's going on with Mark's family, and another on page eleven, where the mailman talks to others about Goom and they insist he needs a vacation. What does it all mean?

A petty crook named Freddy Sykes ambushes an old scrub woman in an office building and steals her purse, netting him fourteen dollars. A cop spots him leaving the building and Freddy hides among the crowd at Grand Central Station, where he overhears Mr. Jones say that he keeps his entire fortune in a locker that is one hundred percent safe! We may realize that "There is Something Strange About Mr. Jones!," but Freddy isn't that savvy, so he follows the man to the waterfront. Freddy holds Mr. Jones at gunpoint and demands to see his locker. Jones obliges, grabbing Freddy and jumping off the side of the pier. Jones pulls Freddy down and shows him where his fortune is hidden--in Davy Jones' Locker!

Heck is best when drawing sinister people and avoiding monsters, so this short tale works reasonably well, though the twist ending is hardly a surprise.

After taking over yet another country, the stinkin' commies work the locals hard. One of the old natives reveals that  a spaceship landed outside the village, so the greedy Red general demands to know more, thinking that capturing an alien ship will make him the greatest hero since Lenin. After using threats to get information, the general marches to the mountain outside the village, where he imagines what the aliens will look like. He reaches the top of the mountain and is angry that he sees no aliens, until the mountain itself launches into space, taking the general and his soldiers along for the ride.

There's little story in "What Lurks on the Mountain?," so Ditko has to find a way to fill five pages. The full page splash gives away the ending and page four features three panels that show what the general imagines the aliens look like, so Ditko gets to draw a dragon and two monsters. This makes two stories this month where a mountain blasts off into space!-Jack

Tales to Astonish #19

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Rommbu!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #7)

"The Thing with the Red Eyes" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #7)

"The Terrible Trap!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #7)

Being a brilliant geologist wasn't enough for John Hunter--he turned to a life of crime thinking the money was better. He's sentenced to life imprisonment and put on a train to the penitentiary, but the train trip is interrupted when a spaceship lands on the tracks and John escapes out a bathroom window. From the spaceship comes "Rommbu!," a big, red alien wearing tight shorts. As the big guy explains to a crowd of onlookers that he's a warrior from the Fourth Galaxy, whose inhabitants have chosen Earth as their next site of conquest, John scampers aboard the flying saucer to hide.

Rommbu demonstrates the awesome superiority of his weapons by pointing a ray gun at a pair of folks and shrinking them to twelve inches high. He announces that he'll return to the sky to await his fellow warriors and takes off into space! Rommbu soon senses John's presence aboard his ship and uses a Mind Prober to read John's mind and learn about his criminal past. The big red dude decides that John's lack of concern for his fellow humans will make him useful. Just then, American jet fighters attack Rommbu's ship in vain. He admits to John that, if Rommbu is defeated, the invasion will be called off.

When John learns that Rommbu needs to land somewhere to recharge his ship's batteries (how?), he recommends the deserted volcanic island of Watuna and the ship lands there, after blowing up a Polaris missile and lifting a submarine out of the water. John convinces Rommbu to land his ship right in the middle of a volcanic crater and, very soon, the volcano erupts, destroying Rommbu, his ship, and John Hunter. John's younger brother realizes that his sibling gave his life to save the people of Earth.

These giant alien/monster stories are definitely going in a different direction. No more do they appear and head straight for a large city where they can stomp around and do damage. It's interesting that John is killed at the end; usually, it seems like the main character finds a way to escape. I suppose he was allowed to sacrifice himself because he was a crook who had been sentenced to life in prison. I want to point out one more Kirby-ism in this story that seems to pop up frequently--the panel of floating heads in a crowd, usually featuring a selection of men's hats, eyeglasses, and facial hair to distinguish one person from another.

Back in the Roaring Twenties, Vince Kane was in charge of the Yellow Spider Gang. He doesn't care for Al Rocco, who is trying to take over the gang, so when he passes a store window and sees a pincushion doll that resembles Al, he buys it and shows it off the next time the gang gets together. To Vince's surprise, every time he sticks a pin in the doll, Al winces. A quick bit of research at the public library convinces Kane that the doll is some sort of voodoo thingy, so he goes to his office on the thirtieth floor and pulls the doll out of a drawer without turning on the lights. He drops the doll out of the window without looking at it and--surprise!--Al reveals that he's there, too, and that he switched the face on the doll so it resembles Vince. What will happen when it hits the ground?

The story's title is "The Thing With The Red Eyes," which refers to the voodoo doll. Where exactly can one find a store like this? I might bring my shopping list. Heck draws a pretty spooky doll, but what kind of an idiot is Vince not to look at the doll before he drops it out of the window?

Bart Magor is a proud, bald hunter who enjoys torturing animals. Universal Zoos, Inc., telephones and asks him to round up a new supply of wild beasts; just for fun, he brings along a little maze to watch a mouse struggle to find the exit. In Africa, Bart sets a trap and begins to collect wild animals, all the while watching the mouse run around in the maze. The next day, Bart is himself trapped by a pair of giant aliens who drop him in a maze and enjoy watching his futile efforts to escape "The Terrible Trap!"

Ditko really nails this one, especially his drawings of the animals and the aliens, who are both scary and fun. Bart refers to the rodent in his maze as a mouse but it sure looks like a rat to me.-Jack

Thursday...
Antonio Bay Celebrates
its Centennial!

And Next Week...
You'll Be Amazed at
These New Adventures!