Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 164: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 149

June 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Astonishing #62

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Secret of the Pet Shop!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★

"No Way Out!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

"Something is Outside the Door!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★★

"Thru the Dark Tunnel!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Secret!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"It Comes Out at Night" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★★

How does Mr. Allen make a profit from his pet shop when he practically gives away his merchandise to all the neighborhood brats? When pressed, Mr. Allen will confide in folks that he lives for the joy in a child's eyes and that he has a "private means" of his own to make ends meet. Four local hoods begin noticing Mr. Allen's way of doing things and force the old man to hand over his private stash. Bad idea.

"The Secret of the Pet Shop!" is one of those Atlas tales that probably would have had more teeth had it been written during the pre-code era. You've got menacing youths and the big reveal (SPOILER ALERT: Mr. Allen's pets can transform into giant beasts when provoked) would have led to bloodshed had not the CCA been looking over the writer's shoulder at all times. As it is, it's a nicely illustrated JD tale with a safe, happy ending.

In the jungles of South America, Joe Foss is working on a railroad when he accidentally breaks through a rock wall and discovers a city of gold behind it. Thinking nothing of his co-workers, Foss sets off an explosion to make the hole larger, chops chunks off the gold buildings and then sets to work getting his haul out of the city. That's when the ancient Incan tribe shows up. "No Way Out!" has some spectacular Torres art (again, think Williamson, Krenkel, and even Frazetta, style-wise) but the script goes nowhere... literally. The final panels are of the tribe marching Joe back to their city for some undisclosed fate, as if there should be a fifth page of content

With his incredible new telescopic lens, Horace Peyton is able to take photos of objects millions of miles away, including the farthest planet in the galaxy, Desida! Horace takes his picture but, as the hours pass and the photo develops, Horace notices strange, shadowy shapes forming on the picture. Soon, the figures become clearer; they are monsters from outer space coming closer to Earth! What in the world can Horace do to keep these creatures from reaching the observatory? The goofy script and sharp Bob Powell art are a winning combination that make "Something Is Outside the Door!" a fun little distraction. When the things arrive at Horace's door and begin pounding, there's legitimate suspense, an element not found in too many Atlas strips of 1957.

Harry Hilton gives his buddies down at Pop's General Store hell for being so henpecked and refusing to accompany Harry on his quail hunting expedition. Then Harry gets home and the ol' ball-and-chain puts Harry in his place. If Harry doesn't get to painting the kitchen immediately (it does look like crap), he can expect bread and water for supper. The Mrs. ain't up for arguing. Well, Harry ain't one to take crap from the pals around Pop's kettle stove, so he shows the old lady and gets up really early to head out for hunting.

He and pal Fred Selby (the only bachelor in town) get separated in the forest when it starts raining and Harry finds himself in a strange cave. Exiting the rear, our he-man discovers a sunshiny day. Figuring Fred headed on home, Harry plans on minimizing the damage by painting the kitchen for the rest of the day but, once entering the house, he meets up with the Mrs., who walks right by him without a word. More ominous is the exact duplicate of Harry painting the kitchen. What gives? Who knows? "Thru the Dark Tunnel!" is another of Carl Wessler's magical scripts that gives no explanation for events and then gives no apology. There's a Harry-twin, a dark cave, a happy ending (Harry journeys back through the cave, heads back home, and everything is normal again), a cautionary lesson for rebellious hubbies, and come up with your own reasoning, ya dumb eight-year-old kid.

Combining two of the favorite pastimes in the Atlas Universe of 1957, "The Secret!" sees a quartet of stinkin' Commies drilling through a stone wall to find out what the big new American military weapon could be. The men are astonished when two American agents/scientists (?) materialize before their eyes and admit the big secret is invisibility! 

Young Billy Grayson can levitate, lifting himself into the skies and flying, but his ma and pa (think, oh, I don't know, the Kents, back in Smallville?) discourage him from doing so. Ever since Ma and Pa found him wandering the countryside and took him in as their own, they knew he was special and should keep his gifts undercover, lest he be taken away by the government and studied. So Billy promises he'll keep it on the downlow.

Years pass and Grayson grows up to be a respected astronomer, blazing new trails for science. As an elderly man, now retired, he looks up to the stars and remembers his gift for flight. Up, up, and away he goes right to another planet, where he is welcomed home by the officials who placed him on Earth to study our culture. Billy Grayson is finally home! I have to say that "It Comes Out at Night" (a really dumb title, but I guess better than the obvious alternative, "The Man Who Could Fly to the Stars With No Problem Breathing!") is a whole lot better than my cynical synopsis. Sure, there's more than a hint of Superman mythos, but our uncredited scripter does a good job of keeping sappiness at arm's length and the climactic reveal comes off as heartwarming rather than maudlin. The Doxsee work adds an exclamation point.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #47

Cover by Bill Everett

"Bring Back My Body!" (a: George Woodbridge) ★★

"It Hides Under the Ground!" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

"They Can't Find Me!" (a: Manny Stallman & Bob Fujitani[?]) ★1/2

"The Blinding Flash!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Face in the Darkness!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

"He Sits in the Fog!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★★

Craine has a special power; his spirit can leave his body and he can drift anywhere he wants while his body remains in a yoga-trance. Rather than do something good for mankind, Craine decides he's going to kill Burton. Why? Because Burton gets all the attention down at the clubhouse and that really irritates Craine.

So, one afternoon, he lets his butler know he'll be meditating and sends his spirit over to Burton's flat. There he attempts to murder the man but quickly discovers that Burton might have an equally effective countermeasure Craine had not planned for. Realizing he'll have to replan the deed, he heads back to his body, only to discover he had a heart attack while his spirit was elsewhere. "Bring Back My Body!" will probably elicit more chuckles than chills but it does have a decently grim finale. Craine is just as dumb as your average Atlas scientist, possessing a power he could use for good but opting for evil just out of jealousy and spite. Some decent work by newcomer George Woodbridge, who'll only hang around for a few months and contribute five stories to the Atlas post-code H/SF library before settling in for a long run over at Mad.

Looking to get out of the country in order to avoid the service, 25-year-old Otto Krantz uses his make-up genius to apply prosthetics that help him look like a man in his 60s! Then, while researching how old men talk and behave at a nearby museum, he overhears two elderly gentleman discussing Odin's Chariot, a mythological vehicle used to transport dead men to Valhalla. One of the old guys remarks how he'd give most of his fortune to own the chariot.

Ding! Ding! Ding! goes the bell in Otto's head and before you can say "Ragnarok" he's signed a contract with the men to find the chariot (believed to be buried in the hills of Norway) and receive a fortune in dough for his troubles. When he gets to Norway, Otto assembles  lumber and paint and creates a chariot, believing the old men foolish enough to pay for anything. To authenticate his "find," he hires men from the local village to dig the thing up and sign affidavits to that effect. When the chariot has been unearthed, Otto heads into the hills only to discover the workers have unwittingly stumbled upon the actual chariot! "It Hides Under the Ground!" is another amusing, semi-entertaining strip, with most of the giggles going to opening panels, where Otto lays out his grand plan to avoid the draft!

"They Can't Find Me!" details a disenchanted military scientist who's working on an invisibility formula but can't get anyone to pay attention to his theories. Then the stinkin' Commies arrive at his door and promise him the moon if he'll only steal the American government's top secret Process X-9 and bring it to their headquarters. Now he's pissed at both sides so he gives the men a little demonstration of what he believes will be the most revolutionary weapon in the history of mankind. He takes his serum and stands back, daring the men to see him. They all laugh because he's clear as day. Too late, this nitwit egghead discovers his formula makes him invisible only to himself! 

"The Blinding Flash!" is a total groaner about an egghead who invents an "Atom Power Machine" that can project one's image into the past. There, ostensibly, the image can change the future. The scientist can't get anyone interested in his gizmo (everyone is "too afraid of the consequences") until a two-bit hood needs to go back in time and find the lighter he dropped near a safe he cracked. Hilarity and huge coincidences ensue. 

In "The Face in the Darkness!," wealthy businessman and part-time mystic arts enthusiast J. Alfred Torgan searches high and low for a swami who can actually connect him to the dead. When he reveals a seer to be a fake, he runs them out of town. But when he stumbles upon Swami Leon, he gets a strange feeling that this guy is for real. Truly awful writing (slowly... piece by gauze-like piece, like a cloud buffeted into a strange configuration by high winds in a storm-blackened sky...) and amateurish art make this one to skip at all costs. 

Last up is "He Sits in the Fog!," wherein Carter tries to convince his business partner, Prentice, to float him a loan against the company's assets. Prentice refuses, citing several recent similar loans and a high probability that Carter's gambling debts might bankrupt the company. That's when Carter turns to murder. He fixes Prentice's breaks and, just like that, Carter is sole owner of their business. As he boasts of getting away with murder, a fog surrounds him and gets thicker; we learn eventually that Carter has died in the gas chamber. That final panel is quite effective but the build-up is odd; the protagonist brags about getting away with the crime but we're never even let in on the investigation of the case. We simply move from the act to the punishment. Still, that grim climax beats anything else in this mediocre issue of Journey Into Mystery.-Peter

Journey Into Unknown Worlds #58

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Graveyard" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"Who Waits in the Fog!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

"Age of the Iron Men!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★1/2

"The Thought Stealer!" (a: Mort Drucker) ★★1/2

"He Hides By Night!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"I Dare You to Move!" (a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito[?]) ★★

The captain of a ship called the North Star has a plan: he'll steer his ship into a "Graveyard" of weeds in the Atlantic and collect the insurance money, certain that he and his first mate will be rescued by the Rose Wilson. As the ship is drawn into the weeds, the crew abandons it, but the captain and first mate stay aboard to make sure it's hopelessly stuck. They finally exit in a small rowboat and are dismayed to see that the Rose Wilson is also among the ships in the graveyard.

Richard Doxsee could have done more to illustrate this story, perhaps showing more of the abandoned ships in a moody way, but instead he chose to depict numerous panels of the captain and the first mate talking to each other. At least the story has a beginning, middle, and end, sans Martians or Commies.

Abner Gough runs from his miserly uncle's house, clutching a valise of stolen cash and worried that he will be discovered to have killed the old man. In the fog, he encounters a mysterious man who says that the police are on his trail and hands him tickets to a ship headed for Paris! Abner is unable to enjoy Paris, certain that everyone is watching him and that they know what he's done. The shadowy figure gives him tickets to Rome, where the same thing happens, then to Athens, Cairo, and Johannesburg. Finally, the figure reveals himself to be a dead ringer for Abner, who realizes he can't run from himself and turns himself into the police. They don't know what he's talking about, since the coroner said that his uncle died of a heart attack!

"Who Waits in the Fog!" suffers from the Atlas curse of having too many twists, none of which are particularly interesting, and from the mediocre stylings of Frank Bolle, which don't make any of the fog-enshrouded mystery evocative.

In the year 2026 (!) engineer Marc Braydon creates humanoid robots that begin to take over the jobs of mankind. As the decades pass, the "Age of the Iron Men!" takes hold and robots gradually enslave humans until people revolt and turn on their machine overlords in 2056. But wait! It's only a movie! The robots in the audience are anxious that humans might really revolt, unaware that underground meetings are already underway.

I'm not well-versed enough in the history of science fiction to say where this idea originated, but I have to hand it to Carl Wessler and Joe Maneely for telling a captivating story in a mere three pages. It's fun to read it 70 years later and compare what happens in the comic to what has happened in real life.

An amateur chemist named Amos Kirk accidentally invents a gas that allows him to become "The Thought Stealer!" He can see what other people are thinking and, like every other Atlas character, decides to use this newfound ability to get rich quick. After trying to blackmail three strangers, it turns out that they were all innocent and Amos misread what he saw in their heads. Unfortunately, one of them turns out to be a detective, and he sees to it that Amos's blackmailing days are over.

We can always count on Mort Drucker to turn in solid work and this story is no exception. The plot is one we've seen before.

After a robbery, Freddy Galt kills his partner, Joe, and goes on the run with a satchel of stolen loot. Thinking the police are on his trail, "He Hides By Night!" and follows a shadowy figure into a cave, squeezing his thin frame through a crevice. Night after night, the figure's arm reaches through the crevice to pass Freddy food until Freddy is too fat to exit and the figure reveals itself to be Joe's vengeful ghost.

Bottom of the barrel stuff, this story features some of the worst art we've seen from "Solly" (as he signs his name on page one) Brodsky in an Atlas comic. 

Mason makes it to Tibet, in search of the cave of light, where anyone who enters will live forever. The High Lama says the cave is not for ordinary men, but when Mason holds him at gunpoint, the Lama leads Mason to the cave, where he meets the wise old Li Orn. Feeling rays of light passing through him, Mason feels immortal but is shocked when Li Orn explains that his life will end the moment he leaves the cave. Uncertain as to the truth, Mason is stuck inside, as if Li Orn had said: "I Dare You to Move!"

The GCD questions whether Mike Esposito inked Ross Andru's pencils this time out, and I don't think so, since the panels don't have the usual cartoony look that we see from that duo. Instead, it has the feel of a page by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, oddly enough--see the panel reproduced here.-Jack

Mystic #60

Cover by John Severin

"The Children's Hour!" (a: Gene Colan) ★ 1/2

"The Mystery of the Tattooed Man!" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo) ★★ 1/2

"You Only Live Twice!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"What Happened to Doctor Dorrm" (a: Sid Check) ★★1/2

"The Changing Man!" (a: John Forte[?] & George Klein) ★★

"Nothing Can Save Us!" (a: Jay Scott Pike) ★1/2

Hiding from the law, Duncan Larkin and two partners in crime hide out at the home of his Aunt Alice and Uncle Jim, chasing away the children who play outside. The first time the kids return, Duncan chases them away again, but the second time, when he hears their voices by the nearby swimming hole, Duncan finds not children but gremlins, who drag him into a hole in the ground. The cops soon arrive to take away his colleagues.

Once again, an Atlas twist comes not out of left field, but out of a far stranger place. "The Children's Hour!" features fair to middling art by Colan, which means it's better than what we get from most of the Atlas regulars. Why do gremlins play outside the home of Aunt Alice and Uncle Jim? Your guess is as good as mine.

Curtin and his gang have to get away fast, even if it means forfeiting half a million bucks. They charter a plane and head for Haiti, but engine trouble means a crash landing in the water, where they are rescued by an old sailor who has a treasure map tattooed on his chest. Curtin and his gang force the man to take them to a nearby island, where they dig down fifty feet before finding millions of dollars in gold and jewels. The tattooed man fades away and reveals himself to be the ghost of Captain Kidd; too bad Curtin and his gang are so far down that there's no way to climb out!

Al Williamson and Ralph Mayo do stellar work on "The Mystery of the Tattooed Man!," which makes up for the plot. I'm not sure four men could dig down fifty feet in the course of a day, especially after surviving a plane crash and time in the water, but I'll stop quibbling and enjoy the visuals.

The cops interrogate a man with amnesia who was found with a silver cigarette case in his possession. Accused of killing Paul Winslow, the man runs for it, climbs a bridge, falls into the water, and vanishes! Suddenly, he's observing the events of a week before and understands that his cousin caused amnesia by tripping him and is now trying to frame him for murder. The man turns out to be Paul Winslow himself, and when his memory returns he clears everything up for the police.

Far from a classic Bond novel or film, "You Only Live Twice!" in this instance is yet another piece of birdcage liner created by the dynamic duo of Carl Wessler and Robert Q. Sale. Sale's characters are just plain ugly and their poses sometimes defy human anatomy. It's so bad it's almost proto-Underground Comix.

Beneath the waters of a hidden lake, somewhere in Africa, live a race of fish people who have long had to limit their population growth due to lack of space. Brilliant Dr. Dorrm leads them to the surface in airtight tanks; they ride to the nearby sea and enter it, certain that it will provide all the room they need to expand and prepare for world domination. If only they'd realized that they can't survive in salt water!

It had to either be air or salt water! The highlight of this three-pager is the terrific artwork by Sid Check, whose fish people look back to (or forward to) the denizens of Atlantis in Sub-Mariner comics. The panels underwater are colored blue and black, which makes the panels above the lake seem even more bright and colorful.

Burt Carter returns to his wife Lil after disappearing for three days and explains how a bolt of lightning made him "The Changing Man!" Burt was riding home one night on a bus as a thunderstorm roared outside. He was looking at the other passengers and imagining that their day jobs were easier than his. A bolt of lightning hit the bus and suddenly Burt found himself in the body of a man he thought was a clerk--he's really a steeplejack, washing windows on a skyscraper! Burt falls and finds himself in the body of the next man, who digs tunnels through rock way below a river! Burt is trapped in a cave-in and finds himself in a third body; this guy is a test pilot! A fire erupts in  his plane and he's back home in his own body, explaining what happened. But wait! There was another man on the bus! Burt suddenly finds himself transformed into the tubby driver, promising his wife he'll be back to normal tomorrow.

I got a chuckle out of the surprise ending, which makes no sense in light of what happened before (Burt did not change back to himself or return home any of the other times) but is fun, nonetheless. The GCS notes that George Klein did the inks and either Klein or John Forte did the pencils--I agree, since some of the panels definitely look like Forte's work but the strip as a whole does not.

Frank Emmons invents a TV that can tune in someone anywhere in the world, but he's annoyed that his teenaged brother, Barry, keeps tinkering with his inventions. When Frank gives a demonstration to bigwigs from the TV biz, he's shocked to tune in a man who appears to be in the polar region but is really in New York City in 1967! A young inventor's machine to provide cheap refrigeration to every home went haywire and now the ice is moving south from the North Pole, covering everything in its wake. When the man from the future tells Frank the name of the inventor of the ice machine, Frank runs into his lab and smashes Barry's new invention, disproving the claim that "Nothing Can Save Us!"

Jay Scott Pike turns in decent work on the last story in a pretty good issue of Mystic. No reader has any doubt as to the inventor of the icemaker, but the story moves satisfyingly from beginning to end and the art has a '60s DC feel to it.-Jack

Next Week...
The First Casualty of the Atlas Implosion.
RIP Spellbound!

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

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 143

April 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystery Tales #52

Cover by John Severin

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

"The Fish Men!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★★

"The Betrayer" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mystic #58

Cover by Bill Everett

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

"The Straw Man!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★

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

"Dinosaur" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mystical Tales #6

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Iron Trap" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

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

(r: Tomb of Darkness #11)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spellbound #33

Cover by Carl Burgos

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

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

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

"No Way Out!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

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

"The Unhuman" (a: John Tartaglione) ★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 152: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 137

February 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Stories of Suspense #13

Cover by Bill Everett

"The One Who Watches!" (a: Gene Colan) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #25)

"The Black Beard!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★

"When the Yogi Speaks!" (a: Bob Forgione and Jack Abel (?)) ★

"The Most Dangerous Man in the World!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"The Strange Seed!" (a: Dick Giordano (?) & Vince Colletta) ★

"Tachzillo the Terrible" (a: Bill Everett) ★★

Ivan Von Gent, self-anointed "world-famous scientist," and explorer of the unexplained, sees truth in the words of an old man whom the rest of the village deems mad. The old codger claims he can see a monster rise from a local lake and Von Gent wants to get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately for the brilliant professor, he discovers the secret behind the monster and it costs him his freedom. 

Nothing about "The One Who Watches!" makes sense (though the GCD cites no writer credit, I'd bet my stack of Monsters on the Prowls that the brilliance behind the typewriter was Wessler's) but then that's what makes it so readable. No explanation is made for the lake monster nor why the thing needs to be watched and Von Gent's fate (the poor egotistical scientist is fated to take over for the old man as "watcher" of the lake) is a much-used plot device, but the sheer goofiness contained within the four pages brought more than one smile to my face. The Colan art is, predictably, atmospheric and award-winning.

I can only guess at the scribe behind "The One Who Watches!," but we know Carl Wessler is responsible for the dreadful "The Black Beard!" I'm amazed Carl was able to sell script after script of cliches and "borrowed" plots, this one about a con man (who happens to know how to fly supersonic jets!) on the run from the cops who has an encounter with himself after breaking the speed barrier. Gray Morrow is wasted on talking heads who don't say much.

In the equally daft "When the Yogi Speaks!," a gang of bank robbers are desperate to get across the Canadian border without being nabbed by the cops so they (naturally) kidnap the Yogi Panjur and force him to teach them the ways of yoga. The thugs manage to float across the border without being caught but the yogi never did teach them how to land.

Henry's tired of being ignored in the diner he frequents. All the other regulars call him a "nobody" but a sudden crazed idea in Henry's worm-riddled brain takes form. He tells his fellow patrons that he is "The Most Dangerous Man in the World!" because he can predict the death of each one of them. They scoff until one of the customers walks out of the restaurant and is hit by a truck. Suddenly they're all ears! 

In the three-page "The Strange Seed!," a sadistic scientist finds the roles reversed when the plant he's been experimenting on reaches out and does a little of its own research. It's an early example of Dick Giordano's work, but not even that can save this snoozer. In the tantalizingly-titled "Tachzillo the Terrible," an escaped con slips across the Mexican border and terrorizes a small village, forcing the inhabitants to feed him and keep him hidden. When the cops get wise and approach the village, he forces a little boy to guide him through the neighboring swamp, only to discover the kid is the legendary Tachzillo the Terrible and the thug is now stranded on a small island in the middle of the swamp for the rest of his life. You'd think that, given a whole lot of free time, this dope could find a way off the little plot of land, but I guess it's a really big swamp. I was hoping we'd get an honest-to-gosh monster popping up at some point but at least we have Bill Everett's graphics to keep us company for four pages.-Peter

Strange Tales #55

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Jack-In-The-Box" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★1/2

"Octopus!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

"What Goes On Down There?" (a: John Giunta) ★1/2

"Earth-Trap!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Man Without Fear!" (a: George Roussos) ★

"The Threat from the Void" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

Clem Carter and his gang of poachers are cleaning out Africa of all its ivory, using terrorist tactics to keep native guide Keena pointing them in the right direction of new mines. When Clem gets wind of an elephant's graveyard stacked high with tusks, he forces Keena to show them the way. But Keena is terrified of the curse that accompanies said resting place and hoofs it out of camp one night. Clem & co. follow the fleeing native to his camp, where they witness a witch doctor handling an odd box. Keena explains that the object is merely a toy.

Smelling riches, Clem grabs "The Jack-In-the-Box" and pries it open, only to watch as a giant elephant god materializes before him. And that's it! End of story! This one smells like a five-pager nipped in the bud but that's okay; a fifth page would have only offered us lame justifications for the gargantuan elephant (with a six-pack and wearing a loin cloth!). As it is, "The Jack-In-The-Box" is a goofy breath of fresh air, utilizing an old trope (the greedy and sadistic explorer) that should have been left on the shelf in the early 1950s in a unique way. The Pakula art is perfect for the story's theme.

In the year 1980, the brilliant inventor Bruce Latham has come up with a fabulous new gizmo, the Histrometer, a tool that enables its owner to speak to anyone in the past. For some reason, Bruce decides the best place to test out his invention is aboard the yacht of multi-millionaire Rodney Davis, but in the middle of a demonstration, the ship is attacked by a giant octopus!

Realizing that the vessel is cruising in the Bikini Atoll waters, Bruce gets on his Histrionicometer, calls the 1954 Atoll base, and convinces a young radio operator that the yacht is in big trouble. Their only hope is that the operator grabs a rifle and shoots every octopus in sight (no, seriously!!!). Evidently swayed by Bruce's terrified voice, the ham man grabs his gun and starts picking off anything in the area with eight tentacles. Back in 1980, the "Octopus!" disappears and life gets back to normal. Millionaire Davis, clearly impressed with the Historectomometer, quizzes the egghead as to how he knew the call would work. "Simple!," exclaims Latham, "That radio man was 1954 me!"

Now, I hear you groaning and rolling your eyes (well, I can't hear that part but I can see it) and snickering. If that was young 1954 Bruce on the radio, why didn't 1980 Bruce know not to go cruising near the Atoll that day? I would argue that if you dissected these four-page mysteries as much as I do, you would reach out and grasp to your bosom any rare narrative that made you grin. And this one made me guffaw out loud. Writer Carl Wessler never explains how the box knows just who to contact and that gives it an even wackier charm. The drawback is the DiPreta art. What once used to be freeform, refreshing, and artistic, with odd angles and curves had, by 1957, degraded into the perfectly average dreck a half-dozen other pencilers pumped out for Atlas. 

In the three-page "What Goes On Down There?," the emissaries of an ancient race that has lived at the Earth's core since primitive times dig their way up with an eye toward surface domination. Problem is, the invaders are the size of ants and, once they see the size of a surface dweller, the attack is wisely shelved. In the dopey "Earth-Trap!," a medium fools an old man into believing he can make inanimate objects float. Unfortunately for the fake seer (and the inhabitants of Earth), the mark is actually the vacationing "Guardian of the Force of Gravity" who sits at the core of the Earth and makes sure things don't float away. The Guardian hits a switch and everything becomes anchored to the ground. What's a con man/fortune teller to do?

"Man Without Fear!" is a garbled, indecipherable mess about Luke Gavor, a soldier who's lost his courage but finds it again when his captain gives him the old patriotic speech about bravery and cowardice. Gavor becomes the shining light in battle, the first to rush into combat and guide his comrades to victory. Later, Luke's body is found, a bullet in his back, and his CO determines the killing wound was attained while Gavor was running away from battle. There's a message here but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Last up is "The Threat from the Void," an amiable piece of science fiction fluff wherein a brilliant scientist invents a radio that can contact distant planets. As the globe inches towards a third world war, the egghead receives a message from Jupiter, informing him that if the powers that be don't cease their endless bickering, Jupiter will send forth firepower to destroy Earth. The message works and peace is restored. There's a twist/double twist at the climax that's been done to death but actually works here. Like DiPreta earlier in this issue, I found the usually reliable Paul Reinman to be shooting blanks. Hopefully, this is just temporary and we'll see the two favorites back to above-average status soon.-Peter

Strange Tales of the Unusual #8

Cover by Carl Burgos

"Who Dwells Below?" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2

"The Too-Perfect Crime!" (a: John Tartaglione) ★

"The Disappearance" (Mort Drucker) ★★1/2

"Nobody Will Ever Know!" (a: Ted Galindo) ★1/2

"You Must Not Pass" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★

"The Bullet-Proof Man" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★1/2

The doctor thinks that small, primitive, carved statues that have been found floating in the Pacific, a thousand miles from nowhere, are evidence of sub-humans living below the sea. With the help of Tensing, he lowers food and tools as bait to discover "Who Dwells Below?" The doctor is on a submarine and orders it to submerge so he can watch the bait to see if it's taken. Hours pass and the sub strikes something! A leak develops and the sub's inhabitants must exit and head for the surface, but on the way up, the doctor and Tensing are grabbed by undersea dwellers and taken to a city under a dome, where they discover that the floating statutes were bait to catch humans!

Not a bad twist ending, and Reinman's art is about as good as it's going to get circa 1957, but the story lacks enthusiasm and the irony is heavy-handed.

A scientist named Albert Evans and his partner invent an invisibility formula and Evans decides he wants it for himself, so he socks his partner, John Moore, in the jaw and makes off with the bottle of liquid. Pouring it over his own head, Evans turns invisible and attempts "The Too-Perfect Crime!" by entering a bank vault and making off with $250K. Evans later becomes visible and thinks he's in the clear until the police come and he panics. After burning all the cash, he's arrested for Moore's murder. Moore was found at the foot of the stairs in his home and he left a note stating that Evans cheated him and attacked him. The cops don't buy Albert's alibi, that he was invisible and busy robbing a bank at the time of Moore's death, so it's off to the pokey for the unfortunate scientist.

I know we've seen variations on this ending before. Tartaglione's art won't win any awards.

Lt. Tom Gorman is called before a court-martial board and made to explain his role in "The Disappearance" of an advanced jet plane called the XD-1. Gorman says that, when he took the jet out for a test run, he discovered that it flew so fast that it took him at least 5000 years into the past! He touched down in Ancient Egypt, barely avoiding being killed at Pharaoh's orders when the ruler's daughter, Na-Ni-Ma, interceded. They were married and, when Gorman suddenly found himself back in the present, he theorized that he didn't belong in the past and time caught up with him. The board members don't believe a word of it and sentence him to life in prison. That same day, archaeologists in Egypt discover the XD-1 in an ancient tomb and conclude that it's the Pharoah's solar ship, meant to carry him after death.

Mort Drucker's art makes this story quite readable. We knew he could draw planes and exciting air scenes from our reviews of his work for the DC War Comics, and he also draws credible scenes in Ancient Egypt and a reasonably cute Pharaoh's daughter. Let's face it, Drucker could draw anything!

Tired of being a nobody, George Beeman wanders out of town and into the countryside, where he notices that the sun seems to be pulsing. Elsewhere, astrologists discover that a hole has formed in the atmosphere, allowing cosmic rays to pass through in their pure form. As a result, sudden mutations occur, one of which is that George turns young and handsome and gains the power to will himself through space. He pops from place to place, using his enhanced brain power to give advice on how to stop giant, marauding plants and animals. His heroic work done, George reverts to being a nobody, and, though "Nobody Will Ever Know!" that he averted disaster, he has a newfound confidence and a much better attitude.

This story is all over the place, but Ted Galindo draws a few decent panels, especially the last three, where Ted walks toward the reader and the background is solid red.

A detour sign that has been blown off its intended spot by the wind of destiny causes the inhabitants of three different cars to rethink what they're doing. Soil Brodsky's art on this forgettable three-page entry is dreadful.

Karl Zymek is a scientific genius serving 30 years in the Federal pen for selling secrets to the enemy. He uses his big brain to cook up a formula that makes him "The Bullet-Proof Man" and allows him to escape from prison. Unfortunately, he created an impenetrable film to surround his body and it doesn't allow air or food in! He returns to the prison, begging for help, and it's uncertain whether the seal will be broken before he suffocates.

This is an unusual story because it doesn't have a happy ending. In the final panel, the caption asks whether someone will be able to free Zymek in time. Who knows? At least it didn't end with him breathing freely and eating a big meal. Maybe there's hope for some more serious stories to come?-Jack

Next Week...
Gene Colan Offers More Proof
That He May Be the Best Artist
of the Atlas Post-Codes!