Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 143: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 128

December 1956 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #56

Cover by Joe Maneely

"They Walk Thru Walls!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

(r: Beware #8)

"Afraid to Dream!" (a: Jack Kirby) ★★1/2

"Something Waits for Me!" (a: Bob Forgione) ★★★

"No Answer" (a: John Forte) ★★

(r: Beware #2)

"The Face in the Glass!" (a: Dave Berg) ★★1/2

"Voodoo!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★1/2

(r: Strange Tales #172)

Clayton is about to attempt a coup but his efforts are delayed by men who walk through walls. The strangers abduct Clayton and take him to their hilltop prison but, upon arrival, he escapes when he learns that his kidnappers cannot use force against him. Days later, he's picked up and brought to a hospital in bad shape. His rantings about men who walk through walls draw the attention of a psychiatrist who listens intently to Clayton's story. He then gives his findings to the hospital staff, asserting that the patient is indeed insane. Work done, the shrink walks through a wall. "They Walk Through Walls!" is a four-page preachy about hope in a world of violence that feels more like forty pages but is tolerable thanks to the Paul Reinman art. 

Morrison's nights are filled with horrible dreams of gigantic suns that sear the planet and leave a burnt wasteland. Terrified to close his eyes, he visits a psychiatrist and spills the beans on his never-ending nightmare. The shrink literally does nothing but take Morrison's money and advise him to see the dreams through. The next day, nightmare gone, Morrison is a new man and he thanks the shrink over the phone. Millions of miles away on "the fourth planet of a giant star," explorer Kartu Kon is hurried into an underground shelter as the gigantic sun rises above the horizon.

I have no idea what the uncredited writer of "Afraid to Dream!" was striving for here; it's either a brilliant climax or a cliched twist, take your pick. Usually, a plot device like Kartu would be mentioned early in the story so that when the hammer falls there's a bit of context, but not here. More important than the muddled message is the first appearance of Jack Kirby in a Timely/Atlas/Marvel comic in the 15 years (well, before I'm called out for bad research, yes, I know Jack drew a story the previous month in Battleground, but this is the artist's debut in an Atlas genre funny book), since he and Joe Simon pulled up anchor and headed for the more lucrative waters of DC. 

After the dissolution of the Kirby-Simon partnership and a sparsity of work, Jack returned to the company where he created Captain America in 1941. The move was a smart one and soon Jack (along with Ditko, Heck, and Lee) would shift the Atlas SF books toward gigantism and mysticism and then later... well, you know what happened later. Kirby was personally responsible for nearly 200 stories in the Atlas SF books from '56 through '62 (most titles begin with "I" as in "I Found..." or "I Battled...") and I, personally, can't wait to rediscover the wonders. Let the fun begin!

Scientists Ted and Bob discover a bottomless fissure in the desert and Ted enters the crack to investigate. When he finally exits, Ted claims that the fissure is just a harmless hole in the Earth and best left alone. Bob realizes there's something very odd about his pal and, when they get back to the lab, his fears are justified when Ted grabs the super-secret rocket test data and heads for the crack in the desert. Realizing Ted is under some kind of evil spell, Bob races to the fissure and heaves a stack of dynamite into the chasm. Spell broken, Ted returns to normal and Bob decides it's best that his buddy never knows he was about to be a traitor. 

Call me crazy but "Something Waits for Me!" pushed all the right buttons. The art is amenable and the ambiguous climax is a definite highlight. We never see the underground force that is compelling Ted to turn traitor; is it the introduction "off-screen" of the Mole Man, the Earth protesting its bad treatment, or just another commie ploy? Unlike in "Afraid to Dream!," the enigma is best left unexplained

Burdock is working on a big gadget called a "Space Transmitter" that will hopefully open new doors for mankind (or at least sell more units than a four-slice toaster) but his boss, Mr. Petty (whose name is a little too on the nose, methinks), is leaning on him for quick results. When it comes time for a demonstration, nothing happens, there is "No Answer" from the great beyond, and Petty fires the young mastermind. Billions of miles away, a message is received and atomic weapons that had been aimed at our world are repositioned. You see, Burdock inadvertently saved mankind from total destruction. I would have liked to see a few more panels explaining why the distant planet was preparing to blast Earth into a zillion pieces in the first place.

In the not-too-distant future, there may be a war between Earth and Mars so a manned spaceship heads for the red planet on a peace-keeping mission. Along the way, the captain tries to communicate with his Martian counterpart who's visible on a TV screen but he can't seem to break through the alien's stern countenance. The impasse is broken when a simple-minded engineer tells a joke or two to the stone-faced Martian and ends up tickling its funny bone. I love the Dave Berg artwork, simple but striking, and the message is clever. Substitute Commies for the Martians and I could see this as a Stan Lee script.

Gene Colan's gorgeous penciling elevates "Voodoo!" from a mediocre trifle to something worth having a look at. Claude Carvel uses voodoo dolls (well, actually voodoo statues) to climb the corporate ladder and displace the upper brass who have been keeping him down for years. Carvel becomes CEO after forcing the men to do unspeakable acts (like not replacing the filter in the coffee machine) but, in the end, it was all a dream! Carvel gets his promotion and swears off voodoo forever! I would have thought "voodoo" would have been on the list of CCA no-no words but evidently not. To be fair, this version of black magic wouldn't scare a five-year-old. Overall, one of the best post-code issues I've read.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #41

Cover by Bill Everett

"I Switched Bodies!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★

"He Came from Nowhere" (a: Gray Morrow) ★1/2

"Prison Without Bars!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Unseen" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★

"The Perfect Hideout!" (a: Syd Shores) ★★1/2

"The Swirling Mist!" (a: Joe Sinnott) ★1/2

Journey Into Mystery #41 begins with the absolutely ludicrous "I Switched Bodies!," wherein a brilliant (but old) scientist discovers a way to teleport his brain into that of a younger fella. He does so but faces the ultimate predictable irony when the police pick up his new body for missing a meeting with his parole officer.

When the arresting cop tells him that he's now facing life in the pokey (unless this is Gotham, that is), he's only too happy to spill the beans.  Luckily, he's caught the receptive ear of a detective who believes him and they're able to put brains back in their rightful receptacles. Life in prison for standing up a parole officer? I'm walking the straight and narrow from here on out!

Meanwhile, a very much younger but still brilliant scientist is busy inventing something so life-altering, so earth-shattering that he doesn't even blurt out what the marvel is! Anyway, he finishes this startling formula and just gets done bragging to his old lady when out of nowhere pops a very strangely-garbed individual who introduces himself as a man from the future. He's there to destroy the scientist's "work, the house, everything!" 

He whips out a ray gun and just as he's about to zap the egghead and the egghead's wife with a Proton Projector, the scientist's butler reveals that he's a man from the future as well but he was sent to our present day to protect the professor and make sure the invention got invented. The butler zaps the bad guy and they both disappear back to the future, leaving the scientist and his wife to ponder the insignificance of life and whether it was worth it to risk death for no-tears shampoo. Well, no, I'm just being silly.  I have to be to keep reading predictable nonsense like "He Came from Nowhere." What did Jimmy Buffet once say about Atlas post-code science fiction comic readers? "If we weren't crazy, we'd all go insane."

What in the world is wrong
with Mr. Emory's arm?

Harvey Cowan is serving a lengthy sentence in the stir when he gets an offer he can't refuse: a brilliant scientist will be able to control Harvey's mind and, therefore, make him do only good when he's released. As much as Harvey tries to minimize the voice inside his head, he is compelled to work a steady job, dry the dishes for his wife, and play catch with his little brat son. Finally, a happy ending!

I'd like to say Ed Winiarski does what he can with the gawdawful Carl Wessler script for "Prison Without Bars!" but, with the wretched work Ed turns in, it's like a race to see who comes in first place. How will this experiment work going forward into the future? I picture a whole bunch of scientists sitting in a room concentrating on released cons making their way back into society and said scientists not inventing no-tears shampoo or other necessities of today's society.

When a spaceship lands and the hatch opens, scientists are thrown into a tizzy when the insides reveal... "The Unseen!" Yep, invisible aliens are wandering to and fro without even an invitation and scientists are left to ponder their next step. The government wants to destroy the ship and, they contend, "The Unseen" will be captured and destroyed. Meanwhile, eggheads want the ship studied so that voyages to other planets will be possible in months rather than years. 

Eventually, "The Unseen" make a move and steal their ship back but the top professors in the world have already "perfected a blueprint for man's first spacecraft" after scrutinizing the alien vehicle. Two brilliant scientists watch the ship zoom off and explode shortly after, admitting it's a shame they needed to destroy the invisible creatures even though they were pretty sure "they came in peace!" Finally, a dark climax in the post-code era, just about the darkest we've seen in years, with our top brains acknowledging that a little sacrifice isn't so bad as long as we get what we want. The Pakula art is a step above Winiarski but it's still not very palatable.

"The Perfect Hideout!" is a clever three-pager about a dictator fleeing from his enemies in a flying fortress. Deciding he'll be better off running on his own, he turns his gun on his three henchmen and orders them to leave him on a deserted island and head back to certain death in their homeland. But these henchmen aren't as dumb as they look. Nice Syd Shores penciling and a great climactic twist make this one the best of the bunch this issue. The finale, "The Swirling Mist!," is about a writer who's researching plantations and falls into one of them pesky time warps where he ends up vying for the hand of a Scarlett O'Hara wanna-be. It's got Joe Sinnott art so we know it's not a complete loss but is it asking too much for Carl Wessler to actually try to come up with something unpredictable and interesting?-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #52

Cover by Joe Maneely

"The Ice-Creatures Cometh!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

"They Met at Midnight!" (a: Werner Roth) ★★

"When the Moon Vanished!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★

"The Pig That Prowled!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★★

"A World to Conquer" (a: Larry Lieber) ★1/2

"Dinosaur-at-Large" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

Henry Garov is exploring an Arctic glacier when he finds a group of men dressed like Vikings who are frozen in the ice alongside a large cache of gold bars. Although Garov is already rich, greed takes over and he digs out the gold ingots; in the process, the Viking-types thaw out. Their leader, Rahvig, explains that they came from beneath the Earth 2000 years ago and tried to conquer the world but were defeated by Vikings, who sealed them and their gold in an Arctic cavern, where they have been in suspended animation ever since.

In exchange for the promise of the gold and a leadership role when the creatures take over the world, Garov agrees to help them. He flies off and soon returns with a dozen ships. The creatures begin to invade and take over counties one by one, but when they're heading for Henry's country his son signs up for the army to fight against them. When Rahvig arrives, Henry tells him to load all his men onto ships and Henry will make it easy for them to conquer his nation. Instead, after the creatures board the ships, Henry tricks them into sailing into another Arctic glacier, where they are once again frozen. Henry's son is proud of his father for sacrificing his ships to save his son and his country.

Who  else but Carl Wessler could shoehorn 50 pages of ridiculous plot into a four-page dud like "The Ice-Creatures Cometh!"? None of it makes a lick of sense and Dick Ayers's art is as uninspired as ever. The final twist, where the greedy Henry turns out to be a good guy after all, is nonsense. He could have stopped the creatures on page one rather than going through this elaborate scheme to refreeze them. And what of the other countries they conquered, where puppet leaders were put in place? What now? The most interesting thing about this story is Wessler's use of the adjective "Quisling"--did kids in the '50s know the term?

Silas Norby may be 65 years old, but that doesn't stop him from lusting after pretty Donna Mack, who is just 24. Silas learns of a man who can help and visits Borovo on Greymist Island. Borov takes a photo of Silas and repaints it to make him look like he's in his early 20s--suddenly, Silas looks younger, too! Borovo wants $5K but Silas only has $100, so he strongarms the artist/wizard and takes off for home with his retouched photo.

Love quickly blooms between Silas and Donna, but one night he returns home to find his photo ripped to shreds and his mirror image 65 years old again. Silas rushes back to Greymist Island and pays Borovo the $5K, which means he appears young again. To his surprise, Donna reveals that she also has a retouched photo from Borovo!

Again, Wessler needlessly complicates what should be a straightforward story, but it works a bit better in "They Met At Midnight!" in part due to the competent, workmanlike graphics by Werner Roth. The happy ending, where Silas and Donna share a hearty laugh when they discover that they are both older folks masquerading as younger folks, is disappointing.

"When the Moon Vanished!" scientists were puzzled, so a pilot named Jeff Stone decides to fly the first spaceship to where the moon was last seen so he can determine what happened. After a month in space, his ship is pulled down onto the dark side of the moon, where one-eyed aliens explain that the dark side is the secret home of the Galaxy Government. When the dark side began to shift, they used shadow lamps to hide their location from Earthlings and, as a result, the moon could not be seen. 

The aliens tell Jeff to fly back to Earth and not disclose what he's learned; if he can do that, it will demonstrate that Earth is ready to join the Galaxy Government. Jeff gets home and tells everyone, unaware that he has landed on a parallel world where the people were warned about what was going on. On the real Earth, no one knows where Jeff went!

Yet another story about how Earthlings aren't advanced enough to join the higher beings in the rest of the galaxy. The only good things here are Robert Sale's yellow, one-eyed aliens, who are kind of cute.

Police are amused when Prof. Watson bursts into the station house sounding the alarm that the pig has escaped! He explains that he developed a serum that would stimulate mental growth and gave it to a guinea pig, which quickly became a genius, tied the prof to his bed, and left a note promising revenge on humanity. Watson takes the cops to his lab and demonstrates on another guinea pig; as a result, they put out an A.P.B. for "The Pig That Prowled." Days later, it turns out that the professor actually gave himself the serum and fooled the cops into thinking a crime wave was the fault of the guinea pig. Fortunately, the chief of police also took a shot of the serum and figured out Watson's scheme.

The story is so silly that I enjoyed it, especially the whiplash on page four between the professor admitting that there was no rampaging genius guinea pig and the police chief taking matters into his own hands! Carrabotta's art is just right for the story.

John Lorimer has invented a machine that will take him anywhere in the universe at the push of a button, so he likes to practice planting the flag of Earth in order to be ready when he finds "A World to Conquer." His wife, Helen, worries that things won't go so smoothly. Just as John is about to transport himself to Mars, a Martian appears and plants the flag of Mars on Earth. John hopes the Martian won't be as callous as he had planned to be!

This is the first artwork we've seen from Larry Lieber, Stan Lee's younger brother, and it's not much good. The story is heavy-handed and mercifully brief at three pages. The only notable item is the four-armed Martian.

Clyde Norris invents a radio receiver-transmitter that can pick up the voice of anyone on Earth and translate it! General Henson and his men arrive for a demo and the radio tunes in a voice that says there's a "Dinosaur-At-Large"! He's not from the past but rather the future--1967, to be exact. While running from the dino, the man explains that he raised it from a large egg he found in Arizona. Clyde guides the young man across a bridge and, when the dino follows, the bridge collapses and the dino falls in a lake. Suddenly, Clyde recognizes the voice, runs out to the barn, and smashes the big egg his son just found.

It's too bad Paul Reinman's art continues its downhill slide--he was one of the better Golden Age comic artists. Once again, Carl Wessler tries to jam too much dialogue into a short story and ends up making things unbelievable. If I were running from a dinosaur, I don't think I'd go into the entire origin story, but that's just me.-Jack

Marvel Tales #153

Cover by Bill Everett

"They Prowl on Earth!" (a: Herb Familton) ★1/2

"No One Can See Me!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"It Can't Be Done!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★

"The Last Man Alive!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"Scare at Sea!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★1/2

"Saucer in the Sky!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★★

Joe Maddon has not succeeded in striking oil. As he sits moping, he realizes he can hear the thoughts of a nearby group of successful oilmen as they discuss a new territory. Joe stows away on their plane, dozes off, and wakes up when it lands. Outside, he sees oil derricks and hears the oilmen's thoughts as they reveal that the men are actually from the planet Mercury! Joe runs to a nearby town to rile up the citizens, but when a mob follows him back to confront the oilmen he realizes that he's on Mercury and they're all against him.

Broken record time: Carl Wessler can't seem to write a story that makes sense from page one to page four. Oilmen? Mercury? Herb Familton's art in "They Prowl on Earth!" is an odd mix of scratchy faces and swipes from photos.

Lyle Mercer orchestrates the death of the professor for whom he works and plans to sell the old man's invisibility serum to the highest foreign bidder. He goes to a swanky party where everyone avoids him, so he thinks he must have gotten some of the serum on himself and become invisible. On his way home, his car crashes in the fog and he dies in the same way the professor did. What he didn't know was that the people at the party were just pretending to ignore him and that the professor left a note saying that the formula didn't work.

Robert Q. Sale's weak art isn't enough to elevate this story to the level of mildly interesting. It mustn't be by Carl Wessler, though, because "No One Can See Me!" makes sense, inane as it is.

A group of men build a time machine and draw straws to see who will go back in time to stop John Cabell from discovering the principle of modern weapons. Helen Morrissey is not happy that her husband George draws the short straw, telling him that "It Can't Be Done!" He and the others insist it's no big deal, so it's back to 1756 for George. He breaks into Cabell's workshop and is overcome by Cabell and his assistant; he presses a button and pops back to 1956, where the time machine self-destructs. In 1756, Cabell picks up the gun that George dropped and declares that he's discovered his ultimate weapon.

The third story in this issue to feature lousy art is the umpteenth version of the time travel story where an inadvertent act changes the course of history. Do they all trace their lineage back to Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder?" Someone more knowledgeable about science fiction would know the answer. Of course, in a 1956 Atlas four-pager, there is no subtlety or consideration of ramifications--George takes a gun to 1756, drops it, Cabell finds it. Done.

Freddy Kruger (!) lives on a colony and works at a machine that teleports goods to Earth in the blink of an eye; it would take two lifetimes to fly from the colony to Earth. Freddy hates living on the colony and wants to teleport to Earth, but that's against the rules, so he comes up with a plan: he sends a note to Earth saying everyone else is dead and begs to be allowed to use the teleportation machine. His ruse works and "The Last Man Alive!" (or so he claims) finds himself on Earth. There's just one problem: he claimed that everyone on the colony died of a plague, so he's locked away alone until a cure can be found!

I was pleasantly surprised by the twist ending of this one, which actually makes sense. Jack Oleck is the writer and it seems like he has the capacity to tell a less complicated story than Carl Wessler. Ed Winiarski is not one of the better Atlas artists, but the final panel is unexpectedly good. When I saw the teleportation device I figured this would rip off The Fly, but no such luck--we'll have to be satisfied with the first appearance of the guy from Nightmare on Elm Street, though Kruger is spelled differently.

Two Chinamen on a fishing boat are scared away by a sea serpent, not realizing that it is a fake that is positioned atop a submarine. The crew of the sub gloat until their vessel is pulled down to the depths by a real sea serpent that was attracted by the sounds of the fake monster.

It may only be three pages long, but "Scare at Sea!" demonstrates that Bill Everett had the ability to draw circles around his colleagues at Atlas. The large panel on page one looks great, as does the final panel with the real sea serpent.

Bart Tearle fills in for the editor of the Clarion-Express and immediately prints a sensational headline about a "Saucer in the Sky!" Scientists demand proof and Searle shows them grainy film footage of Mercurians landing and disembarking. The Army mobilizes in order to respond to the invasion. Editor Frank Bowles returns from vacation and does some digging; he quickly discovers that Bart fabricated his resume. Bart admits it was all a hoax and slinks away. Or does he? Bart hops in his flying saucer and returns to Mercury, where he explains that he has set the stage for an invasion of Earth. Too bad the scientists and leaders on Mercury don't believe that Earth is inhabited! I remember Pete Morisi from his work at Charlton and his art style here looks just the same. The story is kind of funny, but the conclusion is in line with what we've seen countless times before.-Jack

Next Week...
Neal Adams...
Thank You, Sir!
Can We Have Another?

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 141: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 126

November 1956 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Marvel Tales #152

Cover by Joe Maneely

"Trapped in the Chinese Garden" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★1/2

"When the Bubble Burst!" (a: Joe Orlando & Wally Wood) ★

"When Mongorr Appeared" (a: Norman Maurer) ★

"Beware the Invisible Trap!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★1/2

"The Menace of the Mole-Men!" 

(a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★

"The People That Never Were!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★

Enwright becomes enamored of his neighbor's Chinese Garden and decides he has to have it at any cost. When Mr. Omen tells him no, Enwright fumes. Omen explains that the Garden comes with a curse and must be maintained at all times. Sometime later, Omen falls ill and is taken to the hospital, where he (obviously) cannot water his Garden. In a panic, he calls Enwright for help, but the once-friendly neighbor now tells Omen that he will only water the foliage if he can purchase the plot.

With no other choice, Omen agrees and Enwright quickly becomes the toast of New York, displaying his new treasure to the beautiful people of the city. After a while, the bloom is (literally) off the rose and caring for the Garden becomes too much of a chore. Enwright lets the magical vegetation go to pot and suffers the consequences. "Trapped in the Chinese Garden" has some nice graphics by Mac Pakula, but Enwright's sudden transformation from loving neighbor and plant enthusiast to total jerk in just a few frames is not entirely believable. The climactic panel, where Enwright is literally trapped in the garden but looks hopefully at the sky for rain, perfectly captures the safety of these post-code strips.

In the three-page "When the Bubble Burst!," a Martian, encased in a bubble, suddenly appears at the White House, demanding an audience with the President. The Commander-in-Chief obliges and listens to the alien as he unveils the shocking news: there are Venusians living on Earth! Mars wants to escalate its war with Venus and so the emissary is here to assassinate the U.S. leader. Of course, the Martian reminds POTUS that Earth weapons will not pierce his incredible bubble but, luckily, the Prez is actually a Venusian and blasts the alien's sphere. Atlas writers must have had some secret intel, since this is at least the dozenth time Venusians and Martians have declared Earth a battleground. Wood and Orlando are magical when on solo trips but obviously cancel each other out when they team up. This art is bland and lifeless.

Treasure seekers find an odd chunk of crystal while searching for diamonds in Africa. Suddenly, a man appears identifying himself as Mongorr, explaining that he must have the crystal but will exchange wonderful gems for the rock. Suspicious, the two men hoof it but are soon tracked down. Mongorr takes his crystal and leaves a pile of diamonds in exchange, but our treasure seekers are too bummed out by their loss to have a look. I was elated when I saw the title, "When Mongorr Appeared," thinking finally we're getting to the "Giant Monster" era of "I Found Sporr" and "Bruutu, Monster of the Seventh Dimension!" but, alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, we get a barely illustrated fantasy with a really lame but ironic climax.

Professor Volan invents a vapor that can project a moving picture of a person's thoughts. He sells it to the leader of his unnamed country (think, oh, I don't know, Russia), who then uses it to weed out his political enemies and anyone who might be a threat to his power. In a deliciously ironic climax, Volan uses his vapor to show his people the leader's true colors and they elect Volan President. But when some of Volan's vapor leaks out and his thoughts are pictured, we learn that the people of the Commie Country might have been better off with the other guy! For once, a clever (though typically heavy-handed at times) political essay in an Atlas funny book, All that's missing are some decent graphics.

In the vapid "The Menace of the Mole-Men!," a strange fog envelops a small village and mole-like creatures (who wear space suits) emerge from the Earth's center to wage war on society. Only the quick wits of a small boy ward off disaster. Here I was, as with the previous selection, hoping for a prototype of Marvel yet to come, but I was dismayed to find nothing of  the kind. Just a fog. In the finale, "The People That Never Were!," inveterate gambler Randolph Knox discovers a hidden city when he becomes trapped in a rockslide (don't ask for more details, please). Once introduced to the inhabitants, Knox becomes BMOC and woos the daughter of the town's leader, talking his girl's pop into loaning him one hundred grand to open a casino. From there, it's just a matter of time before the Eden becomes a hovel. There's your moral: gambling is bad. So was this issue.-Peter

Mystery Tales #47

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Man with No Face!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"At the Stroke of Midnight!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★

"The Only Woman!" (a: Herb Familton) ★★

"A Knock at the Door" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"Something Strange About Smithtown!" (a: Joe Certa) ★★

"When They Wake Up!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

In "The Man With No Face!," hardened criminal Dany Rice is chased around the globe by a spirit dubbed "Detective X," a voice that inhabits multiple bodies in order to get Danny to surrender to authorities. This one just meanders through its four pages, giving us endless word balloons like, "You'll never find me now!" Spoiler alert: Danny's found and, of course, decides it's the right decision to give himself up. 

Professor Proctor is amazed by the sudden materialization of a nattily dressed alien who introduces himself as Dagon. Before you get all excited, thinking of Lovecraftian demons, I'll remind you this is the Post-Code era and the name was probably just picked randomly out of a hat rather than through some kind of inspiration. Anyway, this other-worldly Bowie impersonator tries to convince Proctor that he has a lot of vital information to impart to the egghead about atomic energy, but first Proctor must tell Dagon what our scientists have already learned. And Dagon is on a deadline: "At the Stroke of Midnight!" he will turn back into a pumpkin or some such and the Earth will have lost out on some pretty cool insights.

Suspicious, Proctor refuses to divulge his knowledge and security comes charging in to arrest the goofball in tights. Dagon easily gives him the slip and, sure enough, disappears at midnight. All Proctor is left with is an x-ray inadvertently taken of Dagon that reveals... he had wings! A really goofy distraction that doesn't make a lot of sense and wastes the talents of Reed Crandall but that does have a great final panel, one that doesn't really have any bearing on atomic energy or distrust in your fellow man, but still looks kinda cool.

Homely Ted Davis resigns himself to a life without women. They don't appreciate his inner self, averting their gaze when they see his unattractive features. All that changes when Ted visits a local museum exhibit focused on a gorgeous (incredibly unwrinkled) mummy named Princess La-Ni. Ted is convinced that, if he possesses the Princess's gargantuan diamond necklace, he can get any girl in town. Shortly thereafter, Ted meets the enchanting Evelyn Vinson, who cares not one bit about Ted's appearance nor his priceless gem. Evelyn only cares about the love within. She's "The Only Woman!" who won't run and hide from Ted!

Ted proposes and Evelyn accepts, but their bliss is interrupted when the woman is kidnapped by two mummies and no ransom is forthcoming. The police have no answers, so Ted does what any heartbroken man would do: he revisits the Princess La-Ni exhibit and finds Evelyn. She's the Princess! I think. Or maybe she's replaced the Princess? Who knows? If scripter Carl Wessler knew, he was being coy. Or inventive. Or both. The Herb Familton art is nothing to alert the media about, but it does the trick well enough. Evelyn must have been one divine soul before she was reduced to mummy status, because Ted is the absolute definition of ugly, thanks to Familton.

In the three-page "A Knock at the Door," Jameson has a voodoo doll made to resemble his cousin, who won't lend him money, in order to... well, he's got a plan. Unfortunately, the doll has friends and they come to rescue him. The "evil doll" trope goes back as far as horror comics do, but this is as tame as they come, thanks to the evils of the Post-Code. The word "voodoo" is never used, probably because it became taboo after the CCA stepped in, and the final panels of the dolls making their escape would never elicit fear from a pre-teen.

Traveling salesman Fred Ames stops in Smithtown to pick up some orders, but finds the population has been replaced... by aliens! Yep, spores from space land on Earth and duplicate the town's occupants. But, never fear, the CCA notified the previous tenants before they were eaten or absorbed or whatever and warned them. They got out and live on the edge of Smithtown now. Yes, there is "Something Strange About Smithtown!" It's not the fact that it's a blatant rip-off of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but rather that it's devoid of anything resembling chills and thrills. These aliens just want to have fun for a year (their lifespan) and then they'll fade away. Ames remarks what bad condition the town has fallen into, but it couldn't have been invaded very long before. The only plus is the decent art by Joe Certa; his splash is goofy as hell, with that young boy looking like he's about to set off firecrackers under Ames's feet!

In the finale, "When They Wake Up!," two cave explorers stumble across two ancient men who appear to be in some kind of a coma. Next to them is the potion that will awaken them, and nearby are what appear to be powerful weapons. The two dopes decide to wake the sleepers and convince them the world is a bad place that needs to be run by four men as peaceful as themselves. The trick does not work and, by story's end, there are now four sleepers. There's some really sharp work from Ditko here and the story's not bad, but these two explorers must be dopes to accept when the old guys offer them a drink to celebrate their upcoming monarchy.-Peter

Mystic #53

Cover by Bill Everett

"Inside the Locked Trunk!" (a: George Roussos) ★★

"I Entered the Forbidden Lagoon!" (a: Herb Familton) ★1/2

"The Threat!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★1/2

"The Man Who Wasn't!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★★1/2

"He Walks in the Night!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The City That Sank!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★

Neil is handsome but shy and feels trapped in the home he shares with his older brother, Caleb. Caleb reminds Neil not to look "Inside the Locked Trunk!" and promises that it holds great riches that will belong to Neil when Caleb dies. One night, Neil is overcome by curiosity and opens the trunk. Peering inside, he falls in and emerges in a parallel world, where he meets pretty Helen Barnes, who is similarly trapped and living with her older sister, Lydia. Neil and Helen fall in love and escape back to Neil's world via the trunk; they say goodbye to Caleb, who is left alone to admit that he lied to his brother about the empty trunk because he feared being alone.

George Roussos's art is average at best and Wessler's story features his usual, confused plotting. The ending, where Caleb is alone and laments his condition, is sad, but it doesn't make up for another run of the mill story.

Tod betrays his partner by selling a large number of pearls that they found and absconding with the money to a remote spot in the South American jungle. Planning to hide out for six months and then return to civilization a rich man, Tod realizes that "I Entered the Forbidden Lagoon!" The title body of water is a swell place to relax, but natives warn Tod that if he doesn't leave right away, he'll incur the water's wrath. Tod ignores the advice and camps by the lagoon for months after chasing away the natives and burning their village to the ground. When he returns to the U.S., he finds himself haunted by visions and sounds of the lagoon's waters rushing toward him.

Tod heads back to the jungle, only to find a dry lagoon bed. He spends weeks "at the lagoon basin, rebuilding the damage" he did, and soon the lagoon is full of water again and he is free from its curse. Tod does quite a job as a solo construction man, rebuilding all of the native huts from scratch with what looks like a sledgehammer or maybe an axe. What he can't rebuild is the sub-par artwork by Herb Familton or the minutes I spent reading and thinking about this story.

A great big, shiny ball from outer space has landed in the White House lawn! Aliens inside announce that they will ask Earth to join the federation of planets if its people prove themselves worthy. The president of the U.S. listens to his advisors for the next week and agonizes over what to do. In the end, the aliens emerge and tell the Prez that Earth passed the test because it sent his daughter Peggy, an open-minded, optimistic girl, as a representative.

It must have been rough in the fifties, what with aliens visiting the Earth on a seemingly daily basis. Actually, this story takes place in 1982, which means that Reagan was the president. He likely would have listened to the advisor who said to nuke the aliens, and where would Earth be then?

A palooka named Danny Mack loses a fight to Fred Willis and his manager dumps him. Danny then tells his pretty, redheaded girlfriend Kitty that he's washed up and she should forget him. Out in the alley, Danny meets a professor who takes him to his lab and shows him a robot version of Danny, built to be the perfect boxer. Danny agrees with the prof's plan to make a fortune, and "The Man Who Wasn't!" begins winning fight after fight, until he's up against the heavyweight champ. But there's a hitch--the prof tells Danny that the champ is also a robot who is guaranteed to win, since the prof intentionally messed up wires in the robot Danny.

Danny knocks out the prof and climbs into the ring himself, where he takes a beating but finally defeats the robot champ with a well-timed sock to the jaw. After the fight, Danny spills the beans to the boxing commissioner, retires from fighting, and hooks back up with Kitty, who admits that she could tell the difference between Danny and the robot.

I was all set to dislike this story when I saw the ugly, half-page splash that Dick Ayers chose to open it with. However, the story drew me in and, by the end, I was rooting for Danny. The wordless panel I've reproduced here is my favorite. A GCD comment compares this story to the "Steel" episode of The Twilight Zone; once again, I wonder if Rod Serling was secretly reading Atlas comics and mining them for ideas!

George Farren is a scientist who invents a machine that can track down criminals by picking up their thoughts. After showing it to the cops, he goes home to his wife and young daughter. George skips dinner and heads to the basement to put the finishing touches on his machine, but when he tests it, he summons an ancient, immortal man who will soon use his wisdom and power to enslave the world. George pulls a gun, but the evil man uses his mind to prevent him from firing it. Just then, George's daughter knocks on the door and the evil dude is distracted, so George wallops him in the noggin with his gun butt, killing him. George muses about the first law of man being to protect his young and concludes that love is greater than evil.

Not long ago, I would have assumed that the uncredited writer of this muddled mess was Carl Wessler, but the recent arrival of Jack Oleck has put that theory to the test, since Oleck's stories are just as bad. One thing's for sure--the art by Robert Q. Sale is hideous.

A pilot named Tex Avery (!) lands on an aircraft carrier and relates a strange story about having discovered "The City That Sank!" He landed his plane on an island that had developed the technology to rise out of the ocean and descend again; the leader (of course) plans to rule the world any day now. Tex managed to escape and report back, but the aircraft carrier's captain doesn't believe his story and has him confined to quarters. Meanwhile, the ship plows through the fog and is about the encounter the island.

At least, that's what I think happened at the end. It's not clear. Wessler's story is another version of the tired bit about a group planning to take over the world, and Bernard Baily's art is below average for him.-Jack

Next Week...
Learn the (Reprinted) Secrets of
The Batcave!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 134: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 119

September 1956 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Marvel Tales #150

Cover by Bill Everett

"I Plunged Into Darkness!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★

"The House of Shadows!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★

"The Shrinking Man!" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"The Man from Nowhere" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Ultimate Weapon" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★

"I'll Live Forever" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★

A psychiatrist sees a troubled young man who continually dreams about darkness. The shrink tells the man that he must put him under hypnosis to get to the root of the problem. During the session, the doc discovers that his patient was enjoying a solo mountain-climbing expedition when he fell into a crevasse. With death staring him in the face, he was saved by a beautiful ice princess and immediately fell in love. Her father forbade the union and stole the memory of the man, sending him back to the "real world." 

Now the head doctor struggles with the responsibility of telling his patient the truth. If he reveals the secret, he knows the man will head back up the mountain, but if he keeps mum, the sleepless nights will continue. Meanwhile, in a distant ice castle, the same paradox affects the Ice King. His daughter tosses and turns; should he restore her memory? Nice Mort Drucker graphics highlight the romantic fluff known as "I Plunged Into Darkness!"

Midville is home to a gen-u-wine mystery, a house that sits atop a grand hill but always stays in the shadows. What is the secret of "The House of Shadows!"? The secret is that the script is a load of hooey, with each page descending faster and faster into a paroxysm of inanity. From the "Why didn't I think of that?" department comes "The Shrinking Man," wherein an egghead is working on a top secret formula and is unaware of the anger building up inside his ape-like assistant, Gene, who wants to exploit the breakthrough for $$. The two men have a scuffle and the gas is released, shrinking the men quickly. There's a happy 1956 Atlas ending, though, and the twist is that the gas actually made the lab bigger, not the men smaller.

At least "The Shrinking Man!" has pleasing graphics. The same cannot be said of the inept "The Man from Nowhere" (surely, the most generic title in a land of bland), which details the mishaps of a "brilliant but careless" lab assistant who stumbles upon a spell that will summon a genie. The magic being, it is presupposed, will bring the klutz fame and fortune. But the dope doesn't draw a full circle around himself and that enables said genie to touch him. Everyone knows that the touch of a genie grants the bidder the exact opposite of what he wishes for. In the end, we see the poor sap in conversation with a quartet of tramps, begging for some food. The Winiarski art made me summon Visine. 

"Ultimate Weapon" is a nonsensical three-pager about a brilliant but eccentric scientist who's on the verge of a breakthrough and is kidnapped by agents from "Uralia" (that's Russia spelled sideways). The stinkin' commies promise the professor unlimited supplies and solitude to work but we know different, don't we? And so does the egghead, it turns out.

In “I’ll Live Forever,” Alex Hartley has long dreamed of immortality and the gift is almost dumped in his lap in the form of an island hidden somewhere in the Amazon. Though the journey is long and arduous, Hartley finally finds his island of youth but the locals inform the man that if he wishes to live forever, first he must spend a lengthy amount of time as a slave. Once his stint is up, he requests his reward but is told there’s a catch: he must live forever as a slave or return to the States a free man who won’t live much longer. In a cheesy final panel, Alex opts for freedom and delivers a preachy monologue about his decision. The Gray Morrow art is striking but the story is nothing new. In fact, it might live forever, recycled over and over. -Peter

Mystery Tales #45

Cover by Sol Brodsky

"The Man in Black!" (a: John Forte) ★1/2

"Shadow on the Sand!" (a: Syd Shores) ★

"He Stayed Down Too Long!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"The Secret of the Old House!" (a: Bob McCarthy) ★

"Secret of the Oraquiis!" (a: Bob Forgione & Jack Abel) ★1/2

"No Bars Could Hold Him!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★★

Ruthless businessman Lurton Gaxton thinks he's big stuff but, after humiliating one of his workers, he finds out differently when a mysterious stranger curses him and Gaxton finds himself smaller than an ant and fending off terrifying obstacles such as a kid on a bike. Don't worry though because, in the age of Atlas redemption, Lurton sees the error of his ways and swears he'll be a better man. Suddenly, he's back to normal size! "The Man in Black!" is the latest in a string of limp "shrinking man" yarns that do nothing with the hook. 

Lefty Gibson has been sitting in the blazing sun, staring into the distance like a "Shadow on the Sand!" What's he waiting for? Let me tell you what happened two years ago! Lefty and Matt break out of prison and come to Solville to hide out. Matt swears he just needs a little sleep and then they can hit the road. They take a room at a local boarding house and Lefty quickly falls in love with the landlady, Judith. The feeling is mutual and they decide to marry but this doesn't sit well with Matt, who's finally taken a (very long) siesta and is ready to hit the road. 

Lefty explains that he and Judith have already had three kids and bought a nice house with a white picket fence while Matt was sawin' logs and he ain't goin' nowhere; Lefty will take his chances with the law. Matt grabs Judith's Pop and heads out on the road (but forgets to take a car!!!) just as the cops show up. Lefty does his stint in the hoosegow and returns to Solville to claim his filly but discovers the whole thing was actually a mirage. There was no Judith! When Lefty was kissin' those soft, purty lips, he was only kissin' air. How depressing is that? The climax to "Shadow on the Sand!" is extremely random, I'll admit, until you realize 90% of the post-code stories made no sense whatsoever. No surprise this one was penned by Carl Wessler.

Equally silly is "He Stayed Down Too Long," wherein Mason is lord over a small tropical island, commanding the natives to dive for pearls while he flexes on the beach. Then a spaceship crashes on the beach and a man from Mars emerges, telling Mason he shouldn't be so mean to the natives. A kerfuffle ensues and Mason exits with the understanding that he's not really the strongest man on the island. The Robert Q. Sale art is okay but the script is inane and ends abruptly.

Making everything else in this issue look like quality is the truly inane "The Secret of the Old House!" Three lame heathens break into a supposedly haunted house and find a chest full of rubies and diamonds. But are riches beyond your wildest dreams worth your vitality? "The Secret of the Old House! might just be the perfect analogy for reading every single post-code Atlas horror story. Well, minus the rubies and gems, that is. 

Harris and Barnes are on the cusp of a great discovery; the Oraquiis are a tribe that has never been studied or documented. And, Harris notes quickly, they've got a lot of rubies and gems stashed in a nearby tomb/temple. Using his keen wit and a native robe, Harris gains access to the treasure but is thwarted by the Oraquii God and is discovered the next day, disemboweled and hanging upside down from a cross for all to see. If only. Actually, "Secret of the Oraquiis!" ends with Harris wandering the jungle with no memory of what happened to him. Quite the mystery. 

Uniquely, a three-pager concludes this issue and, equally uniquely, it's the only story worth a read this issue. "No Bars Could Hold Him!" details the career of "The Great Gordoni," a magician and thief who continuously breaks out of any prison the law builds for him. Once he gains freedom, he pulls heists until he's caught. And on and on. Gordoni finally meets his Waterloo in the Sheriff of Crystal River, who's been hoping for Gordoni's presence in his town. When the lawman busts the magician mid-heist, he pops him in a special prison cell that ensures the genius trickster will be behind bars for at least twenty years. Sure, it's Ditko and that makes just about anything readable but "No Bars Could Hold Him!" is charming and the twist is a delight. Give Carl Wessler his props just this once. Just in time to rescue Mystery Tales #45 from the birdcage!-Peter

Mystic #51

Cover by Bill Everett

"Man in the Dark" (a: Lou Morales) ★1/2

"No One Will Ever Know!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

"Think! If You Dare" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★1/2

"Behind the Door" (a: Lou Cameron) ★1/2

"Wings in the Night!" (a: John Forte) ★

"The Imperfect Plot" (a: Gray Morrow) ★★

The "Man in the Dark" cries out from his lonely jail cell, recalling that he was a rebellious youth who grew up to be an unrepentant criminal. Every time he was locked away, he caused trouble, until finally he was exiled to a desolate, sunless planet where he was kept in a single cell prison in the only building on the sphere. Mystic 51 starts out with little promise; the big surprise at the end of the story is that it's the year 2062 and the prisoner is really alone in darkness.

After thirty years of searching, greedy explorer Jeff Peters finds the Golden City and vows that "No One Will Ever Know!" He arranges for the men who financed the expedition to leave after an Indian attack, but when Jeff returns to the city and brings back a pack full of gold, he is told that it is only fool's gold. He gives up exploring and wanders off alone, unaware that the clay in the boots he left behind yielded diamonds and he would have been rich! Marvin Stein's scratchy artwork dooms this story, which has a twist ending similar to many we've seen before.

An inventor named Wynn Laird invents a machine that can read men's thoughts. He sells it for $4,000,000 to Bontaro, a benevolent dictator who soon begins to jail everyone who has a bad thought about him. When it all gets too much, Laird is tossed in the dungeon, only to be let out to repair the machine. He switches a couple of tubes around so it tells the opposite of what people are thinking and soon Bontaro's guards turn on him and depose the dictator. Harry Lazarus's art is about average, which makes it right in line with the art in this issue's first two stories, if not a hair better. We've seen almost the exact same plot before, and not long ago.

Fuller has invented a machine that brings random objects from the past to the present. Each time he uses it, he wonders what will be "Behind the Door." His wife warns him about the danger of his experiment, but he doesn't listen. He builds a machine big enough to fit a person, presses the button, and disappears. From inside the machine steps his ancestor, who wonders what he's doing there and why his picture hangs on the wall. By bringing his ancestor forward into the present, Fuller has obliterated himself.

Before I looked at the art credit, I wondered if Dave Berg drew this one, since Fuller has a pipe clenched between his teeth. Lou Cameron is the artist, and his work is average, like everything else about this issue so far. The end of the story was telegraphed early on.

A flood threatens a town by a river until an unknown man signals a convocation of eagles to drop enough sticks and stones to build a levee. The man disappears after the town is saved. Another time, a forest fire erupts and signals eagles to build a rock barrier, once again saving the town. This time the townsfolk surround him and demand to know who he is. He identifies himself as Felix Talon and, over the ensuing years, he gets eagles to save the town from a series of disasters. Finally, an ornithologist climbs a steep cliff wall to the shack where Felix lives and asks him for his secret, but Talon orders the man away. Years pass and the ornithologist sees Talon fall. Climbing up the cliff to try to save him, the man finds Talon dead. Opening his shirt to check for a heartbeat, he discovers that Talon was an eagle!

The GCD doesn't credit a writer, but we know better, don't we? A mess like "Wings in the Night!" could only be the work of Carl Wessler. Atlas comics are so bad now that even the big surprise ending is botched by the lack of a drawing of the man with an eagle's chest--we see the ornithologist looking down, then he looks up at a bunch of eagles. Even John Forte, whom Peter likes more than I do, couldn't muster much interest in this dud.

After building a powerful transmitter, Erik Tanning succeeds in speaking to someone from the far reaches of space! Lucky for him, it's a woman named Ursula, who happens to be the daughter of the ruler of the planet Zanbora! In the 1956 version of Tinder, they hit it off right away. Erik loses interest in his blonde fiance Claire and happily builds a spaceship, using plans provided by his long-distance lover. Without even saying goodbye, Erik heads into space and flies fifty light years until he lands on Zanbora. Ursula, who is, in fact, a babe, is shocked and appalled when Erik emerges from the spaceship, since he has aged fifty years and looks every day of his new age of 90! "You're nothing but an ugly, old man," says the fickle Ursula, and Erik sits by his plane, head on his hands, pondering an outer space nursing home.

I read this issue hoping that Gray Morrow would swoop in to save the day at the end, but it was not to be. "The Imperfect Plot" is as bad as the five stories that preceded it. At least Mystic is consistent--consistently mediocre.-Jack

Next Week...
She's Back!