Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 182: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 166

September-October 1959

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #54 (September)

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"I Unleashed Monstro on the World!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

"I Dared to Defy... the Idol's Curse!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★1/2

"My Other Face!" (a: Al Williamson) ★1/2

"I Know the Gargoyle's Secret!" (a: John Severin) ★★

"I Am the Menace from the Purple Planet!" (a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule) ★

Sam "Spell" Binder is the greatest showman on Earth, able to tame a fierce gorilla named Moko and make him do parlor tricks for sold-out audiences. But then Moko has a bad fall and suffers a concussion, rendering him unusable in the act. Binder hears a rumor of the world's largest gorilla living in a jungle on an island off the African coast and hops a plane.

Binder is pleasantly surprised to discover the natives have held "Monstro" captive for decades and would love to be rid of him. With a little gas, Binder knocks Monstro unconscious, packs him on a boat, and heads for New York, where Monstro becomes the toast of Broadway. On opening night, Binder hypnotizes Monstro and then orders his chains removed, advising the audience that all is safe. As happens with these giant ape melodramas, that is the furthest from the truth. Monstro goes ape and destroys half of New York before being gassed in a tunnel. Just before being shipped back to Africa, Monstro is examined by a vet and it's determined he is blind! No wonder he didn't respond to hypnotism.

"I Unleashed Monstro on the World!" is goofy fun; obviously, the plot was lifted from King Kong, but then so will be half of the giant monster tales penned by Stan Lee and brother Larry Leiber in the months to come. The variations here are that Monstro is an albino and that he's allowed to survive after his rampage; he's shipped back home to his African village where "he's happy again..."

Dunstan Blake fancies himself an adventurer and rapscallion, but everyone else around him knows he's nothing more than a cheat and a thief. Blake hears of an idol that has mysteriously appeared "in the Northern region of Tibet," one that is supposed to hold the world's largest diamond, and he quickly hops a plane. He finds the idol and, despite warnings from the natives, enters its core. Suddenly a noxious gas fills the chamber and Blake passes out. He awakens to find himself encased inside the idol and a voice tells him the statue is actually a spaceship now headed to Superius Rex. Dunstan Blake will be studied by an alien race! "I Dared to Defy... the Idol's Curse!" is weak and silly. This idol magically appears and science doesn't want to study it? At least it's got a nice Sinnott polish.

Jason Gibbs has been plagued by his ugly face all his life; people won't treat him like a real man once they get a gander at his sour puss. But now Jason has gotten news that Dr. Rectumus on Mars has created a potion for good looks and he barges into the Professor's lab. As he grabs the beaker holding the potion, the egghead warns him it's not been tested. Shoulda listened! With "My Other Face!," we get a really nice graphics display from Al Williamson and that's about all. One of only two stories (of twenty) this time out that doesn't start with an "I." I guess Stan thought "I Was Trapped By My Other Face!" didn't roll off the tongue.

Pierre Duval lovingly cleans and cares for the gargoyles of Notre Dame during the Second World War. When the Nazis invade France, Pierre signs up for the Underground, fighting and killing the stinkin' Nazi bastards any chance he can. But like so many freedom fighters, Pierre is caught by the Germans and sentenced to die by firing squad. He is blindfolded and awaits the bullets of death, but before any damage can come to his flesh, he hears screaming and the sound of running feet. He tears off his blindfold to find the firing squad has vanished. What gives? The war over, Pierre heads back to Notre Dame, where he discovers chips out of his stone friends as if they had been shot at! 

Gargoyles have always creeped me out, but the problem with "I Know the Gargoyle's Secret!" is that any sense of dread has been eliminated by the CCA. In the pre-code Atlas strips, the critters would have torn the soldiers to pieces, whereas here, in the Gilded Age, the Nazis turn tail and run before any harm can befall them. The other problem is that the monsters are only spotlighted in a couple of panels; the human monsters get most of the attention. Nice Severin art, but I think the best gargoyle story is still the ultra-creepy "House of Gargoyles" by Jack Sparling (from House of Mystery #175). Last up is "I Am the Menace from the Purple Planet!," wherein an alien from outer space and his super robot land in New York to deliver an ultimatum to the human race: show Gxenu the latest war weapons or face the wrath of the planet Orion Major. I'm pretty sure I don't have to break it down much further. Shameless Stan mining the rich ore Hollywood had delivered.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #5 (September)

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"I Became a Human Robot!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★

(r: Fantasy Masterpieces #1)

"I Fought the Tyrannosaurus" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★★

"I Walk Thru Walls!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2

"I Travelled Thru Time!!" (a: Carl Burgos) ★

"I Was Trapped in the Tunnel to Nowhere!" (a: John Forte) ★★

On a planet a billion light years from Earth, a nasty plot is hatched: Gammus will travel to our world and use plan X322K (masquerade as a robot) to gain the trust of earthlings, the better to spy on our military status. Gammus saves lots of lives and becomes a hero of the people, but our government wants to cut him open and see how it is that he can operate as if he has a human brain. Once the professors decide they'll get no information from the tin can, Gammus is deactivated and put on display at the Atlas Museum for Used-Up Cliches. "I Became a Human Robot!" is the umpteenth reworking of the "distant planet invasion" plot. For the umpteenth time, I ask why a planet sixty-two katrillion miles away would have the slightest interest in a civilization that is obviously more primitive.

Rod and Kate have wanted to take an African vacation for years and when they finally make the trip, they take advantage of their time and explore dark caves. That's where they find the dinosaur egg! Overcome with awe, the couple grab the huge oval and drag it out to the sand. Unfortunately, the rays of the sun work their wonders and within a few hours the egg cracks open and out pops a baby T-Rex.

But he doesn't stay a wee lad for long, growing ten times his size in a matter of minutes, and he naturally does what dinosaurs do: they stomp things. Feeling responsible for the wreckage caused by the critter (because... well... he is responsible!), Rod won't rest until the thunder lizard is eliminated. Dinosaurs + Ditko? Sign me up. Who cares if the script makes no sense (no explanation is given for why this egg never hatched a million years ago or why it's still hatchable or why the T-Rex grows so big so fast), the ride is a fun one.

"I Walk Thru Walls!" is almost so bad it's worth reading... almost. An ex-con is hired as a janitor for a brilliant but absent genius scientist and this grunt loves to just "take things apart and put them back together again...," so he dismantles some unknown gadget and reassembles it in a way that it makes objects disappear and then reappear several feet away. Well, this ex-jailbird knows a payday when he sees one, so he starts using the "matter transmitter" to rob banks, but he doesn't plan for the one cop in New York who might be smarter than he. I laughed out loud at least one time during my reading of this nutty tale. Only in the Atlas universe do you have an uneducated criminal building something that scientists could only dream of simply because he put a few bolts in the wrong place. And then you've got the High-IQ beat cop who figures the whole thing out immediately ("I think that burglar's invented some means to make him disintegrate, pass through a wall, and integrate on the other side of it!") and sets an elaborate trap, involving a large building and a fake notice in the paper, all on his own without precinct approval. Now that's genius.

"I Traveled Through Time!!" tells the inane tale of three stinkin' commie spies who are tried and convicted of espionage and sentenced to death. They escape and head for the lab of Professor Pskov (pronounced piss-off), a stinkin' genius commie scientist, the only man in the world to have invented a time machine (evidently these commies don't read Atlas comics or they'd know there are lots of time machines popping up around town). They order the egghead to send them back in time so they can avoid the inevitable FBI raid. Pskov warns his clients that they will arrive in the past in another person's body; that's just the way it goes (what happens to the soul occupying that body is not detailed). The brilliant but politically incorrect Pskov only has time to send Vladimir Gorki back to the 18th century, where Gorki finds himself in the body of... you guessed it, Benedict Arnold, just as he's being arrested for treason. I love how elaborate the plans of these Atlas criminals can be. Rather than the usual way of meeting a freighter in New York harbor and hiding out in the cargo, these guys take it on faith that they can travel through time.

"We Were Trapped in the Tunnel to Nowhere!" tells the sad story of two bloggers, Peter and Jack, who thought it would be fun to read every post-code Atlas SF/Fantasy comic book published and regretted their decision very quickly. They shoulda listened to their wives. Believe me, that true story is so much more intriguing than the five pages masquerading as a legitimate comic book story.

Brilliant but arrogant construction engineer Eric Lansing, tired of hearing that so many other CEs are more brillianter than he, proclaims he will dig a tunnel under the sea from the US of A to Europe. A 3,000 mile tunnel! Why? Because he can. Unfortunately, halfway to his destination, Lansing and his crew encounter an undersea race of man-like fish who live in a big bubble at the bottom of the ocean. These critters are not happy about the off-ramp leading through their Atlantis and set some explosive charges to halt the construction. Lansing and his boys barely make it out of the tunnel before the ceiling caves in. 

There are all sorts of scientific questions that even my uneducated brain had to ask: At no time is it mentioned what sort of transport would run through the tunnel, be it trains or personal vehicles. Was Lansing intending on build gas stations and restaurants every few miles through his massive hole? The hole has to be miles below the waves, yet the diggers wear no protective uniforms to save them from the pressure. Is the title meant to infer that Europe is "Nowhere"? The best is saved for last when the creatures blow their TNT and the roof caves in, 1500 miles from safety. Our heroes simply hop in a mine car and ride back to the States, confident there will be no structural damage or leaks ahead of them. I'm of two minds (even though, as I've admitted, I'm not sure I have one brain) about "I Was Trapped in the Tunnel to Nowhere!"; it's dumber than a $250 bill but induces more laughs than... well, a $250 bill.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #5 (September)

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"I Was Trapped by the Things on Easter Island!" 

(a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule) ★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #24)

"I Am the Menace from Outer Space!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

"I Can See Tomorrow!" (a: Don Heck) ★

"I Found the Nightmare Note" (a: Al Williamson) ★1/2

"I Landed on the Forbidden Planet!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

"I Was Trapped By the Things on Easter Island!" cries a pilot to anyone who'll listen. After crash-landing on the famous, remote spot, he had witnessed the stone heads emerge from the ground, bodies and all. They stood around chatting about how they were waiting for orders from their home planet to attack and conquer Earth. The man escaped in a boat and thought people would believe his story and bomb the heck out of the island, but everyone thought he was hallucinating. The stone statues decide to leave the poor guy alone, since no one believes him, and wait for orders as long as it takes.

It's a miracle that the main character survives a pretty severe crash landing in his plane, but what's even more amazing is the sudden appearance of an abandoned native boat, just as the guy is about to be caught by the statues. Big stone objects fit in perfectly with Kirby's art style and the panel on page five, where one of the things is looking in the window as the main character sleeps, recalls a similar shot in King Kong. How did we survive the '50s with so many aliens bent on taking over?

On a faraway planet, the people decide to send Krag to Earth to gather intelligence in preparation for an invasion. Krag takes off into space, but soon sees a big, beautiful space cruiser and decides to capture it to bring it home after his visit to Earth. Krag boards the ship, finds it empty, and discovers that it's actually a living organism that swallows him up!

"I Am the Menace from Outer Space!" is a pretty good story, with more going on than there was room for in the rigid, five-page slot. Joe Sinnott's art is smooth, as always, and he draws the aliens in a lizard-like way, with circles all over their yellow skin and webbed fingers. On page two, the aliens give Krag the ability to transform into the spitting image of an Earthman, in a neat, four-panel sequence where his alien skin and outfit melt away and are replaced with a man in a suit and tie; the man looks just like Thor's alter-ego, Dr. Don Blake. Of course, this is an example of misdirection, because poor Krag never makes it to Earth. I was expecting him to fall in love with an Earth woman and never return home, but the conclusion surprised me.

A small-time crook named Willy Adams steals a camera from an antique shop. The shop owner warns him that the camera takes pictures of tomorrow. Willy tests out the device and it works so, like every single other Atlas main character, he decides to use the power to make money. He takes photos at the racetrack and the stock exchange, certain that he'll cash in, but when he takes a self-portrait and the print shows an empty chair, he realizes that he may not live through the night.

It's bad enough that Don Heck's art on "I Can See Tomorrow!" looks like it was dashed off during a subway ride to pick up his check at the publisher's office, but the story is trite and the ending a letdown. Willy is sitting in the chair when he snaps a picture, and the picture that comes out shows the chair empty the next day. Willy concludes that, for him, "there might be no tomorrow." Isn't it more likely that the chair will be empty because he'll be at the racetrack collecting his winnings?

Joe Baxter works as an assistant in a record store. After hours, he experiments with sonics, searching for a note that can render a person unconscious. "I Found the Nightmare Note," he thinks, when the store's pussycat passes out. He sells a record to Spencer Worthington, the richest man in town, and waits outside his window, watching for the moment when the old guy collapses,  but to no avail. Joe slinks home, thinking that his plan failed, unaware that Spencer is deaf and bought the record for his wife.

I know we've seen that twist ending before, and not long ago. I think Al Williamson was on the same subway train as Don Heck, judging by the quality of the artwork. It looks like someone else must have inked this.

Tim Korey is dying to know why one particular planet is considered off limits, so he hops into his spaceship and heads right for it! "I Landed on the Forbidden Planet!" he exclaims and soon discovers it's a dangerous place. He barely avoids being crushed by a gigantic wheel, he manages to escape huge stone blocks falling from above, and he sees one giant insect after another. Tim races to his ship and takes off, glad to get away from a planet that we readers see, in the final panel, is called Earth.

At least Steve Ditko puts some effort into the art, even if the story is a rehash of one we've read over and over. From the start, I suspected that the mysterious planet was Earth, and I wasn't disappointed. Actually, I WAS disappointed by the lack of originality.-Jack

Strange Tales #71 (October)

Cover by Jack Davis

"I Dared to Defy Merlin's... Black Magic!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★★

(r: Chamber of Darkness #5)

"I Am the Man Who Will... Destroy Your World!" (a: Don Heck) ★★1/2

(r: Fear #1)

"When the Saucer Strikes!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #6)

"I Fought the Man Who Couldn't Be Killed!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

(r: Fear #1)

"I Am the Man Without a Face!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #2)

While on a business trip in the Balkans, a man wanders into an old curio shop, where he picks up a beautiful old copy of Merlin's Diary. The shopkeeper insists that he put it down, but the man opens it and is cast back in time. He meets Merlin the Magician but remains skeptical. Merlin informs that man that he will believe when he sees a sign. The man returns to the present and looks in a mirror, where he is shocked to see that his hair has turned white. He leaves the curio shop and the owner, who turns out to be Merlin, vows to do a better job of hiding his diary.

"I Dared to Defy Merlin's...Black Magic!" is a strong story with evocative art by Ditko. Both theme and design look forward to the Dr. Strange comics. There are mentions of the mystic arts and, when the man is cast back in time, he is surrounded by multi-colored lines and finally slides down a rainbow slide into Merlin's presence. The story is a welcome break from tales about aliens invading Earth or people going to planets where the ants and spiders are giant-sized.

Mool is the emperor of a race on a planet far from Earth where they bathe once a year in rejuvenating waters that grant them eternal life. This warlike race travels to the vicinity of Earth, where Mool goes down to the surface to observe humans to decide if an invasion is a good idea. He promises to report back after 24 hours.

After landing on Earth, Mool breaks into a clothing store; he steals a suit and dons it, only to be caught by John, the proprietor, who runs the establishment with his sister, Anne. Mool tells John that he's Ralph Masters and that he's been down on his luck and was stealing a suit to wear in his job search. John feels pity for the man and hires him. Ralph meets Anne and it's pretty much love at first sight. The alien visitor, who arrived thinking that "I Am the Man Who Will... Destroy Your World!," initially thinks the Earthlings weak, but quickly responds to their kindness and love. In the end, he destroys the gadget that would send a report back to the invading force; Ralph gives up his immortality for the affection of a good woman.

I can't believe I'm typing these words, but that's two decent stories in a row! Heck's art is solid but nothing special, yet I was intrigued by Ralph's transformation from cruel, alien ruler to kind, loving Earthman--all in the space of 24 hours!

A jet pilot is flying along at night when he suddenly sees a flying saucer heading straight toward the plane! The pilot manages to avoid a collision and, when he lands, he reports what happened. All of the other passengers were asleep, except one man who says he didn't see anything. The pilot decides he needs to get some rest. The passenger who said he didn't see anything drives off, meets up with the Martian ship in a remote spot, removes his human mask, and tells the pilot to be more careful next time.

Dull art by Paul Reinman accompanies a predictable tale in "When  the Saucer Strikes!" The title is misleading since the whole point of the story is that the saucer did not strike.

In prison for armed robbery, Duke Jordan escapes after serving ten years of a thirty-year term and heads straight for the warehouse where he used to work. Duke breaks in and robs the safe but is quickly discovered by a policeman who can run super-fast, shrug off a large crate that Duke pushes over onto him, and remain unharmed by gunfire. It seems a lot has changed in ten years, since the police are now robots!

I shuddered when I saw that this story was drawn by Sol Brodsky and I was right to have that reaction, since the art in "I Fought the Man Who Couldn't Be Killed!" is pure dreck. The story is awful as well. Paul Reinman, come home--all is forgiven.

A band of gypsies arrive in the quiet country town of Goosepan and Rufus Watkins is none too happy to see them. The mayor doesn't listen to Rufus's complaints about the new arrivals and the town's leading citizens tell him to relax, so Rufus heads to the pool hall and rustles up some folks to confront the Roma. After a fight erupts and a gypsy knocks Rufus out, he and his pals don black hoods and approach the camp, blowing horns to scare the gypsies away. Before they leave, however, the head of the gypsies tells Rufus that he'll regret his actions. As a result, Rufus can say that "I Am the Man Without a Face!," since the gypsy curse means he's never able to remove his black hood without another black hood appearing beneath it.

There's almost a decent story here and it's helped immeasurably by the art by Joe Sinnott, who has quickly become one of the stalwarts at Atlas. Like many a story by Carl Wessler (I don't know who wrote this one), things chug along reasonably well until they come to a screeching halt with a concluding twist that makes me scratch my head. The last panel has Rufus sitting alone in a room with innumerable black hoods piling up around him as he swears that he has learned his lesson about intolerance.-Jack

Coming This Thursday...
The Most Controversial...
The Most Daring...
The Most Fun...
What Is It????

And Next Week...
More Proof That
Heck Was No Hack

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 180: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 165

July 1959

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #53

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"Only Twelve of Us May Live!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

"Beware of Tomorrow!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

"The Stranger in Space!" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

(r: Strange Tales Annual #1)(r: Vault of Evil #20)

"Shadows in the Night!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★

"He Made the Machines Go Mad!" (a: Don Heck) ★

A runaway planet heads right for Canopus Minor, a world located in a galaxy far, far away. The world leaders are in a panic since there is only one space ship available and its occupancy is a mere twelve. How will the leaders pick the lucky dozen who will survive the cataclysmic collision? The twelve youngest? Twelve most intelligent? Twelve with the best hair? Luckily, miles from the capital toils brilliant but exhausted Sfeen, who's trying to come up with a way to save the entire population. Sfeen isn't tired from his research but from the nagging of his ball-and-chain, Urbaam, who seemingly does nothing but cook dinner and complain.

In the eleventh hour, his work complete, Sfeen contacts the leaders and tells him to gather the entire population of Cannibus Sativa around the rocket ship. He then has his friends and neighbors walk through a line of electricity. That quick and painless zap reduces each person to about one inch tall, easily fitting the fourteen million souls aboard the Rocketship X-250. Relieved about saving all their constituents, the leaders ask Sfeen to whip up a gizmo to shrink 140,000,000 ham sandwiches to micro-size. Happy ending, nothing new to "Only Twelve of Us May Live!" Let's see the lost panel that shows the sleeping arrangements and the tiny toilets for all these little people.

A strange old man, supported by a cane and sporting a trench coat, shows up at a police precinct and warns that the train carrying the ultra-fancy telescope lens will be destroyed. Of course, the cops laugh and tell the old man to grab a hunk of highway. Believe it or not, the lens is destroyed when a rock slide derails the train. The next day, the stranger shows up at "Project Mole," a top secret digging experiment in the Arizona desert and warns of a disaster to come. Again the seer is rebuffed, and again disaster strikes. 

Mike Wells, World News correspondent, hears of the predictions and begs his editor to let him write up a story on the phenom. Sensing that the old man might show up, Mike heads for the launching of Rocketship X-2500 in Florida and is not disappointed when he witnesses firsthand the dismal treatment of the prognosticator. Even when Mike warns the base colonel about the stranger's track record, the launch goes on. Seconds after lift-off, the rocket explodes and the old man walks away, swearing he'll never help these morons again!

If you're here for Ditko's art, that's fine, I understand, but the script for "Beware of Tomorrow!" is like a cheese grater, filled with holes (in logic). Why does Mike seem to be in the right place at all the right times? Why is this mystery man showing up at what seem to be minor disasters? The final panels have Mike asking the stranger how he knew so much about the future, with the man's reply being, "To me, this isn't the future. But the past!" Yep, another visitor from our future trying to undo some event which will trigger something even bigger down the line. Our "savior" lets it be known that now he realizes that the past can't change because then there would be no future. Well then, does that mean in the future any dunderhead can jump in a time machine and attempt a do-over and we just got lucky this time? I'm so confused.

In the 29th Century, astronaut Frank Mason stops at one of those newfangled self-serve gas stations in space to put petrol in his X-671 (definitely an upgrade from X-2000) when he notices another X-671 landing at the next pump. Well, that's interesting, thinks Frank, since there aren't many of these models flying around the galaxy right now. Curious about the coincidence, Frank gets on his telecaster and contacts "The Stranger in Space!" who answers his question with alarming replies. Frank thinks this might be a holdup, so he grabs his blaster and heads over to the other ship. When the hatch is opened, Frank meets... Frank! You see, one Frank was coming from Earth and the other was heading to Earth and one of them got duplicated in the space/time continuum or some such nonsense. Let's just leave it there. Hilariously enough, the final panel basically says, "Who knows how these things happen and who knows how this will right itself?" as though our uncredited writer threw up his hands and gave up. Kinda like I did.

Dumbest story of the month award goes to "Shadows in the Night!" (another head-scratching title), wherein soap scientist (no, I'm serious) Elias Burbank can't concentrate on new soap formulae when he's convinced there's an invisible world that exists right next to our own. It's never explained how Elias came to this startling conclusion (and, in a hilariously heated discussion between our kooky egghead and his two lab compadres, one of the other scientists wonders if there's really an invisible world, "then why can't we see it?!") and we get the standard twist that the world he's trying to find is Earth. Next!

Do I have to? Okay then, let's be quick. "He Made the Machines Go Mad!" is the 700th Atlas story of 1959 to document the perils of building the perfect humanoid. Stop me if you've heard this one before: Android XTT-4 slips a gear and becomes the most powerful android in the world, able to control every machine ever invented. The only thing that stands between XTT-4 and complete domination of the human race is the man who invented him. In the end, the moral is: don't invent anything ever again.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #4

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"The Invisible Army" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★

"One of Our Spacemen is Missing!" (a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule) ★★

"The Voice of Doom!" (a: Carl Burgos) ★★

"Beware of the... Robots!" (a: Al Williamson) ★★

"One of Us is a Martian!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

Hendrik Muir has finally perfected his groundbreaking gizmo that can make two hundred men at a time invisible. But, of course, Muir lives in Commieland, so when dictator Igor Zetaxas gets wind of the contraption, he has Muir dragged to the palace, pronto. When Hendrik hears the leader's plan, he informs Igor that his machine will not be used for evil means. Quicker than you can say "Siberia!," Hendrik is tossed into a small cell and told he will rot there until he consents to "loaning" the Reds his machine.

Weeks pass and Hendrik's resolve does not weaken, so Zetaxas visits the man in prison and tells him that, if the machine is not turned on immediately, Hendrik's wife and child will join him in solitude. The brilliant but weak scientist gives in and Zetaxas arranges to have his top two hundred military men brought to a small field. There, Hendrik zaps the soldiers and, sure enough, they disappear. Igor Zetaxas roars his approval and approaches "The Invisible Army." He realizes finally that not only are they invisible but they've vanished. Hendrik laughs and tells the crooked despot that the machine has sent the men to another dimension. Hendrik Muir is actually the leader of a resistance movement and his army is closing in on the capital as they speak. Glory be to freedom. 

Lester Wells and his space crew are orbiting in Star Cluster System 472 when they come across a planet that is startlingly similar to Earth in its oxygen levels and plant life. Lester's co-pilot Jim Stack wants to voyage down immediately to the planet's surface and take samples, but Les warns that they do not know enough about the lifeforms below. Jim poo-poos that, tells Les he's a wussy, and teleports down in a party of four explorers. The plant life indeed is excellent and Jim has brief thoughts of murdering his crewmen and bringing the flowers back to Earth and opening up a florist shop (sorry, that was the pre-code first draft), but good manners win out and they continue their expedition.

One by one, the men begin to disappear suspiciously and Jim radios Les to let him know something strange is going on. By the time Les gets the exploro-pod unhooked from the ship and arrives at the spot where Jim was supposed to be standing, the entire party has vanished into thin air. Well, not quite, since Jim is a brilliant (if slightly unmasculine) technician who tracks his comrades to a nearby field, where he discovers that the plant life is mobile and very hostile; trees have tied up the four explorers in their vines and seem to have bad intentions. Les lets the hyper-afterburners rip in full view of the tree-people; the walking elms exit stage left and the prisoners are freed to join their comrades back in the X-2500. They all have a laugh and head back to Earth to have a salad and reclaim their superiority over foliage. "One of Our Spacemen is Missing!" (a misleading title to be sure, since four spacemen are missing) is a fairly enjoyable and wholly laughable bit of nonsense, the highlight of which is a panel where the giant trees run like hell away from the flames.

An amateur ham radio operator somehow intercepts transmissions from what he believes is outer space, detailing an all-out war between two armies. Turns out "The Voice of Doom!" is being sent from a nearby ant hill! Clever twist and some dynamite Burgos art.

Al Williamson's art is the only saving grace of the ridiculous "Beware of the... Robots!" In the 23rd century, assembly line worker Joe Hughes loses his job to an android and is so outraged that he writes an article for the local paper about the dangers of robots. The piece is so popular that it leads to more exposure, including best-selling books, TV, and nationwide fame. Once Joe has all the dough, he does a 180 and decides that mechanical men are actually good for mankind because they push humans out of jobs and force them to focus on other vocations. Oh, okay, that's some new way of thinking, I guess. 

Atlas's Number Three Most Favorite Plot Device of 1959, the Martian (right behind the time machine and the android), gets a Ditko coat of paint on "One of Us is a Martian!" (another nonsensical title), wherein Earth preps the first rocket to Mars and the Red Planet reacts. Martians head to Earth to blow the spaceship to smithereens, but (since they're only one inch tall) they accidentally set their suicide mission on a little boy's toy rocket. If these Martians had only read Atlas funny books of the 1950s, they would have seen that this kind of silly mistake happens frequently.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #4

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"I Was a Prisoner of the Martians!" (a: Joe Sinnott)  ★★

(r: Creatures on the Loose #21) 

"My Forbidden Paintings!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

"I Made Time Stand Still" (a: Tom Gill) ★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #20) 

"I Love a Mermaid!" (a: Carl Burgos) ★1/2

(r: Giant-Size Chillers #2) 

"The Man Who Floats in Space!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

Darius Wolfe is the biggest director in Hollywood and he makes sure everyone knows it. He takes his crew into the desert to film a new sci fi picture, unaware that real Martians are on their way to invade and capture an Earthling to take back to their planet. They land right near where the movie is being filmed and, coincidentally, they look just like the Martians in the flick! The real Martians grab Wolfe and take him aboard their ship; the cast and crew think it's all part of the movie. After taking off, the Martians discover that the added weight of Wolfe causes their ship to shake, so they return to Earth to fix it. Will the cast and crew come to Wolfe's aid or will they let the Martians take off again with him in tow?

In addition to the incredible coincidence that real Martians are dead ringers for movie Martians, I find myself wondering why Atlas comic book aliens often seem to have one big eye. Don't you need two eyes to see in 3-D? Wouldn't these advanced races be more likely to have extra eyes? Joe Sinnott's art is good, as usual, and "I Was a Prisoner of the Martians!" is reasonably fun until the dopey last panel, in which Wolfe realizes that his poor treatment of the cast and crew makes it unlikely that they'll rescue him. These moralizing conclusions are no fun.

Crane is a painter who is down on his luck. He meets a bum on a park bench and the man sells him a magic paint brush for a buck. The artist paints himself as handsome, and he suddenly looks great! He paints a picture called "Freedom" and is hailed as the world's greatest painter. Finally, he paints himself as a dictator and soon finds himself in charge of the country of Mythavia. Too bad Crane ignored the bum's warning that he'll live to regret using the magic paint brush! His painting of "Freedom" inspires the Mythavians to rebel and soon Crane is in prison.

Don Heck's art is fair to middling on "My Forbidden Paintings!" This is another story about being careful what you wish for, and it ends with an unfortunate panel (just like the story that precedes it) where the main character sits and swears to change his ways, having learned his lesson.

Sydney Burr was trying to invent a time machine, but instead his machine makes everything and everyone but him stand stock still. Like every single other Atlas character, he decides to use this as a way to get rich quick. He runs around town, robbing people, stores, the bank, and so on. He returns to his lab and pulls the lever on his machine, certain he'll be able to enjoy his newfound wealth. Oops! The cops arrive and tell him that, although everyone was standing still, they saw everything he did.

"I Made Time Stand Still" has a bad script and worse art. Tom Gill drew The Lone Ranger for Dell for more than a decade--remind me not to pick up any issues at the next comic convention.

For years, a man has been drawn to the sea, always searching for something. In the Caribbean, he encounters a beautiful mermaid named Alethea and it's love at first sight! She heads below the surface of the water at sunset and the man heads back to port, where he is roundly jeered. Next day, the man heads out to sea again and sees Alethea once more. "I Love a Mermaid!" he declares and dives into the sea to follow her. He discovers that he can breathe underwater and has a tail, so they live happily ever after.

I was a bit confused by this dud. Are we supposed to take away that the man had a tail all along? Carl Burgos never shows us the man below the waist until the last panel, where his merman parts are revealed, but you'd think the guy would have wondered why his legs were replaced by a giant fin. Maybe that's why he was always drawn to the sea. I don't understand why the mermaid wears a skintight yellow shirt with a yellow bra outside the shirt. I guess I just don't follow mermaid fashion.

"The Man Who Floats in Space!" is a decoy set out by Bogane, the Martian space pirate, to catch every ship that comes close enough to investigate. Three spacemen hide inside an asteroid and get inside Bogane's lair. Soon, the Space Patrol uses a real floating man to capture Bogane and get rid of the menacing decoy.

Ditko's art is wasted on this wretched tale. How much more godawful science fiction will we have to endure before things get more interesting around here? We're just two tears and four months away from Fantastic Four #1.-Jack

Next Week...
Don Heck Helps Us
Blow Bye-Bye Kisses
To Two More Titles

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 179: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 164

June 1959

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #69

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"The Man in the Iron Box!" (a: Carl Burgos) ★

"Rocket Ship X-200" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Fear #5)

"Journey Into Nowhere!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★

(r: Fear #3)

"The World That Was Lost!" 

(a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule) ★1/2 

(r: Tower of Shadows #9) 

"The Threat from the 5th Dimension!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

(r: Tower of Shadows #9) 

Brilliant but selfish scientist Phineas Stokes perfects a suspended animation coffin that will keep him alive and in a deep sleep for one million years. Phineas ain't digging the current affairs in the world and wants to wake up when war is over. Presumably, one million years will do the trick. Government officials come to Stokes's door and beg him to help them with defensive weapons, but Phineas sends them away, telling them he couldn't care less about America. 

The day arrives and Phineas Stokes takes his place in the Suspendo-Anima™ chamber to take his big sleep way below his home in a secret cavern. Meanwhile, far above his new bed, government leaders seem to get their acts together and join for world peace. War ends and, as the centuries roll away, earthlings spread their wings and depart for other planets in the galaxy. Earth becomes barren. "The Man in the Iron Box!" awakens (freshly shaved and his hair exactly the same length as when he laid his head down on his fluffy pillow) and roams the empty landscape until he's approached by a handful of commie-lookin' goons who explain that they're from a distant planet that loves war. Phineas is cuffed and taken prisoner, soon to be one of their "warriors."

Ironic, huh? We're reminded in the final panel (probably by Stan) that this is the fate of anyone who doesn't come to the aid of their government (presumably this means the Soviet government as well, but that's not stated), so if a Fed knocks on your door and asks you to build a better H-bomb, you should do it. I would have liked to know how this iron box stayed powered for one million years. Couldn't be solar and I would imagine the electric company shut Phineas's power off after three months of non-payment.

Charlie Brewster still hangs onto his old-fashioned "Rocket-Ship X-200," which can only do the Kessel Run in 25 parsecs, unlike the new speedboats the young whippersnappers fly, which zip through space so fast they would miss an incoming armada of warships from another planet. Whoops, I got ahead of myself, but then there's not much here to blab away about. Charlie saves Earth and the other space jockeys decide there's room for old-timers in the space lanes. I never saw that ending coming... well, okay, I did. Nice Heck work, though.

Two brilliant but naive scientists perfect a time machine, but not just any time machine. You see, in the Atlas present day, everyone is building a time machine (and we've certainly read each and every one of their stories, haven't we?), but this gizmo will be different in that it will be the first time machine that can travel into the future. So, Walt and Tom hop into their multi-million-dollar machine and hit the way forward for one thousand years. When they step out, they're disheartened to see a tribe of cavemen wandering around with clubs.

 "Damn, it's the Republican National Convention of 2024"  "We seem to have made a miscalculation in our time/space continuum figures and arrived one million years in the past!," utters Walt, and the two zoom back to present day. One of the cavemen spots the two visitors and hoofs it back to the tribe to explain to them (and us) that the first wave of time travelers has arrived and they have to be ready when the next bunch lands so they can explain to them that it's not really the past but the future cuz damn us all to hell we did it we finally did it and after the 8th world war the planet will be ruled by... men in loincloths. Love that final panel that explains everything to the eight-year-olds that didn't get it. We've yet to see a really good time machine story here in the Atlas zines, so I'm thinking Bill and Al used them all up years before. Once you finish "Journey Into Nowhere!" you'll discover that at least the title is perfect.

Eccentric millionaire Linus Vermeer hires Captain Jordan and his crew to take him out to a part of the sea he's sure holds the lost city of Atlantis. The crew all think the bald, wheelchair-bound Linus is batty, especially when he orders the captain to drop anchor and says, "This is it!" However, the look on their faces turns from amused to astonished when Linus whips away his lap blanket and jumps into the sea, his huge flipper wagging in excitement. Holy cow, this guy's a mermaid! The climax, of course, is supremely predictable, there's no other way to end this thing, but I do find it cool that Linus is the spitting image of a certain wheelchair-riding mutant leader who'll pop up about four years in the future.

The finale, "The Threat from the Fifth Dimension!," does not chronicle the popular music group of the late 1960s but rather the horrifying story of a man who is attacked by demons in his sleep. Are these really creatures hoping to enter our world through our hapless hero's sleeping body or the hallucinations of a diseased brain? Either way, this is one sloppy read. The script meanders and Ditko's art looks like a mess of colorforms and empty backgrounds. Not what we've come to expect from the mystic dazzler. And that puts a bow on what could be the worst ever issue of Strange Tales.-Peter

Strange Worlds #4

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"Journey to Jupiter!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★★

"A Magician Walks Among Us!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

"The Man Without a Past!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"I Was the Changing Man!" 

(a: Al Williamson & Roy Krenkel) ★★

"Manhunt on Mars!" (a: John Buscema) ★★1/2

Far in the future, Earth has set up trade with every other planet... except Jupiter. We've done everything we could to convince the biggest planet that we only want peace and brotherly love. We've hurled rockets, H-bombs, VHS tapes of the Star Wars Christmas Special, everything we could at their force field, but nothing will allow us to "Journey to Jupiter!" and present our case to them that we are simply a peaceful race with only good will in mind.

Only ace astronaut Glenn Scott figures out a way to persuade the Jupiterians to let down their guard; he floats a giant black box just outside Jupiter's force field and the gullible dopes can't help themselves. They examine the box and find it completely empty. For some reason, this equates with peace in their minds and they turn off their defenses. Glenn lands and negotiates a fair-trade deal and the worlds co-exist in peace from then on.

There's so much stupid but entertaining nonsense here to unpack. Why would Earth decide that the best way to show we want to be friends is by destroying Jupiter's force field? One of my biggest chuckles came when Glenn returns from a business trip on Mercury. I wanted to see what kind of suit he'd wear to avoid going up up up in a puff of smoke. The Jupiterians turn out to be a friendly but gullible bunch, don't they? What if Glenn had planted a 40-trillion megaton Z-bomb in that box? I really wanted to see the climax we would have gotten in the pre-code days where Jupiter's leaders are putting pen to paper while Earth's armada arrives to invade and strip mine the planet of its minerals. Now that would have been a cool twist. 

In "A Magician Walks Among Us!," brilliant but goofy Professor Dolen builds a time machine and travels back to the days of King Arthur, convinced that Merlin the Magician was, in fact, a scientist who had traveled back in time. Dolen's machine blows up once he arrives in Camelot and he's stuck in the past. His search for Merlin is fruitless; no one recognizes the name. It's not long after that the prof realizes to his (but no one else's) shock that.... Holy Cow!... he's Merlin! Predictable but fun fantasy with Ditko back on his game. 

A man working on a rocket assembly line suddenly questions who he is and how he came down with amnesia. The bosses tell him to get back to work, but the man's anguish is too much and he breaks out of the building. After a full-scale manhunt, our hero is found and sent back to the android factory for reprogramming. The problem with "The Man Without a Past!" and most of these Atlas SF/F tales is that the writer (Carl Wessler?) sticks to a formula that's been done umpteen times already, so the reader can guess from the third or fourth panel where the veer in the road will take us. It doesn't help that the Reinman art is so awful that the characters all look alike; this from an artist whose pre-code art was in the top tier.

Brilliant but self-serving Duncan Sloan has invented a gizmo that allows him to "dematerialize" and enter the brain of another human being. Rather than use this machine for the betterment of mankind and maybe win the war against those stinkin' commies, Sloan decides to invade the body of Emerich Fabius, the richest man on the planet, in order to hang out on the bestest beaches of France and attract the hot chicks. 

When Fabius's tin mines are seized by the government and he goes bankrupt, Sloan decides it's a good time to exit, stage left... and lands in the brain of Hollywood idol Vincent Stalwart, he of vast riches and hot chicks galore. Unfortunately, with Stalwart's sex appeal come jealous jilted lovers and one of them puts a bullet in the screen star. Sloan once again has to make a quick exit without being sexually fulfilled and nary a trip to the bank.

After a third attempt at transferal goes belly up (this time with a South American dictator--what could go wrong there?), Sloan decides he's good enough being in the body of a seventy-something brilliant scientist and dumps his machine in the waste basket, never to be used again. "I Was the Changing Man!" has a few good laughs (for once, these are intentional) and some dazzling graphics from Al and Roy but has me once again asking the question, "Why do these eggheads turn to criminal acts rather than marketing their inventions for profitable gain?"

In 1993 Russia, political prisoner Anton Volocheck escapes a visit to the firing squad and hops aboard a rocket ship to Mars. Once on the red planet, he discovers its people are just as bloodthirsty as his communist compadres back home. He escapes death a second time and flies back to Earth to tell his government officials what he's found. He then escapes yet again and finds his way to America, where he finds an audience with our president. He informs the chief that he has told the Russkies that Mars is a friendly planet and will welcome the Reds with open arms. A clever twist is hard to find by 1959, let me tell you, so the dark and twisted reveal at the climax of "Manhunt on Mars!" had me smiling from ear to ear. This was the last Atlas art Buscema did before he quit comics and took up commercial art at a New York advertising firm. He would not return to Marvel until 1966. Who knows what Buscema could have done for Marvel superheroes from '61-'66 had he stuck around.-Peter

World of Fantasy #18

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"The Creatures Who Captured Earth!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

"The Clock Strikes Never!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

"To Build a Robot!" (a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule)

(r: Tomb of Darkness #11) ★1/2

"The Man Who Talks to the Stars!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Xom! The Menace from Outer Space!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★1/2

One day in 1980, the sky is filled with flying saucers! Aliens land and announce that they're from the planet Cygnus and they're here to show Earthlings how to have everything they want without having to work. Soon, people across the planet are living blissfully, but an astronomer named John Warren is having none of it. He concludes that the aliens plan to conquer our planet after we become lazy. At first, no one believes Warren, but he sneaks aboard a flying saucer and finds a book that lays out the aliens' plan, just as he suspected. He convinces everyone to fight the invaders and the aliens are quickly defeated. They leave and Warren tells us to remain ever vigilant.

The twist ending to "The Creatures who Captured Earth!" is that there is no twist. This boring tale is utterly straightforward. I was hoping it would turn out to be a pre-Twilight Zone adaptation of "To Serve Man," but no such luck. Heck's art is nothing to get excited about.

Frank Hanes steals the time machine he's invented and travels to the year 2059, only to find futuristic police waiting for him. He sets the wayback machine for the past and escapes, recalling how he felt unappreciated at his job at World Electronics, even when he invented a time machine for them. Unfortunately, Frank gets caught in a loop and finds himself a younger man, applying for his job and starting all over again.

Ditko's art is fun, but "The Clock Strikes Never!" makes about as much sense as any other Atlas time travel tale. By the end, the hooded personification of Fate is narrating, speaking directly to the reader and informing us that Frank's future will be based on the choices he makes. I have to hand it to Ditko for taking a mundane idea and making it visually exciting. The young Frank looks an awful lot like Peter Parker.

An inventor named Dexter Scott visits Luther Worthington, a titan of the automobile industry, and proposes a stunning plan--for a million-dollar investment, he'll build a thinking robot! Tut tut, says Luther, it can't be done, and he shows Dexter the door. Alone in his office, Luther admits that he has always discouraged experimentation because he, a thinking robot, doesn't want competition!

Yawn. More clunky art from Kirby and Rule, more simpleminded stories. "To Build a Robot!" barely qualifies as having a plot.

A reported named Hank Johnson gets a hot tip and rushes to the park to meet "The Man who Talks to the Stars!" The man in question is sitting on a park bench, calmly feeding the squirrels and the pigeons. He whips out his communication device and places a call to the star named Ursa Volans, but Hank isn't buying. The man explains all about the distant star and takes out his tourist map, which leads him to the realization that he's on the wrong planet. Oops! He's off in a puff of smoke, disappearing into the sky. Now Hank is a believer!

I got a kick out of the end of this one, when the man laments that "I landed on a restricted primitive planet by mistake! I'd better leave before I'm penalized and lose my passport!" I also am predisposed to liking a story with a newspaper reporter who calls another character "Mac." John Forte's style can seem wooden at times, but here it's just wry enough to work.

Philip Lindsay is a cosmic archaeologist in the year 2744, exploring a remote star system when he happens on an uncharted planet. He and his crew land their ship and are met by aliens who ask for help defeating "Xom! The Menace from Outer Space!" Xom is a great big, hairy creature who moves very slowly and is surrounded by a circular wall. Phil zaps Xom with this ray gun and that ray gun, but nothing has any effect. Phil then spies a plaque on the wall around Xom and confronts the aliens with the truth--Xom is a sweet teddy bear and they're the bad guys. They admit that they wanted the ivory from his giant teeth and, found out, they head off.

Once again, the aliens have one big eye. Xom doesn't do anything other than look big and menacing. I would have expected Kirby to draw a story with a creature like this, but perhaps the lack of a scene of Xom rampaging through the city streets meant it was assigned to Joe Sinnott.-Jack

Next Week...
Some Dazzling
Al Williamson!