Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 173: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 158

November-December 1958

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #49

Cover by Joe Maneely

"City of Giants" (a: John Forte) ★

"The Doctor Wears a Mask" (a: Alfonso Greene) ★1/2

"The World-Destroyers!" (a: Matt Fox) ★★

"The Little Green Man" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★★

"Morgan's Mad Machine!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★1/2

"The Room with Two Billion Cards" (a: Sid Check) ★★

After a 15-month lay-off, Journey Into Mystery returns to a depleted line-up. The question is: will it bring quality or just keep its head above water like the two remaining titles?

While working on a formula for "some sort of perfume," evil, greedy chemist Eric Wolton accidentally whips up a green vapor that makes him giant. The gears start working in that twisted (but pretty smart) brain and Eric hits on the idea of vaporizing the rest of Bromburg and transforming them into giants. Once that feat is accomplished, the mad perfumer runs around under the feet of his neighbors and robs all the jewelry stores and banks of Bromburg. The giant city council holds a meeting to solve the problem of the "City of Giants." Another loony home-taught chemist resorts to nefarious deeds in order to line his pockets. When will these eggheads learn that crime does not pay in the post-code era?

Two "eminent sociologists" visit the rural town of Compton, hoping to find an answer to the burning question: why does this burg have the lowest crime rate of any city in America? To help the men in their research, the town historian relates the sad, twisted story of Doctor Wallace, a GP who arrives in town one day and immediately sets off a furor. You see, "The Doctor Wears a Mask." Yes, the man is never seen without his odd facial disguise, but hey, as far as medicine goes, no one can beat him. In fact, the town is downright astonished by the fact that the doc practically shows up at emergencies before the excitement starts.

After several severe accidents and building fires occur, the town rabble rousers use their McCarthy-era arithmetic and demand the doctor's head on a stick. After all, there has to be some reason he's always first on the scene. When they confront the physician, they demand he remove his mask and, when he does, they get the surprise of their lives. The doc is an alien sent from (in his own words) "out there" to help humankind. But this medicine man has had enough. Humans are stupid, stupid, stupid, and he's hitting the vapor trail. Having learned a lesson, the town votes out its mayor and other corrupt officials and... well, you know the rest. A town without crime. Another of the Stan Lee-esque message stories about loving your neighbor and not giving in to paranoia, delivered at a time when Stan was also okaying anti stinkin' Commie comics. 

In "The World-Destroyers!," three aliens arrive on Earth to detonate a bomb that will lay waste to mankind but make a simple blunder that proves costly. There's no reason given for the invaders' mission (perhaps our warring ways make the rest of the universe nervous?), but the simple plot is obviously second fiddle to the great art by Matt Fox. Stockbroker Marcus Gabel finds "The Little Green Man" in a curio shop while vacationing with his wife in Hong Kong and, fascinated by the little mandarin, he quickly snaps it up and takes it back to the States with him. Immediately, Marcus sees a change in how he views the business world and his decisions reap a fortune, but success comes with a  high price. His wife hates the change in him (she notes how he's starting look just like the jade statue) and his friends begin to shun him. Is the statue using some kind of supernatural force to transform Gabel from a mild-mannered stockbroker into Gordon Gecko? We've seen this plot (and umpteen variations) before, but the pace is quick and Brodsky's simple but efficient art is a plus.

Two con men stumble onto the sure thing: a goofy old inventor who's come up with a gizmo that turns rocks into gold. They think they're swindling the geezer but they end up tutored in the long run. "Morgan's Mad Machine!" elicited at least two chuckles from this grizzled old funny book vet and the climactic reveal is handled cleverly. It might be my imagination, but Ed Winiarski's pencils actually seem to be getting better. Last up this time is "The Room with Two Billion Cards," in which a washed-up actor discovers that all the world is, indeed, a stage. This one is slow-paced but almost won me over with its dark final panel.-Peter

Strange Tales #66

Cover by Joe Maneely

"The Ghost Came C.O.D." (a: Reed Crandall) ★1/2

"The Replacement!" (a: Alfonso Greene) ★

"The Voice of Fido!" (a: Werner Roth) ★

"It Waits Under the Sea!" (a: Al Eadah) ★★1/2

"The Eerie Experiment!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"He Wore a Black Beard" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★1/2

Antique store proprietor/con man Eban Goad has the perfect money-making scheme: he scans the obits for freshly interred corpses and sends faux invoices to the estates. Most of his victims don't hesitate to send him a check to avoid late fees, but Eban sends one notice too many and the dead man shows up at the antique shop to contest his bill. Oh, don't worry, CCA, this guy's not a zombie, but a Martian in disguise! "The Ghost Came C.O.D." sees the great Reed Crandall wasting his skills on a flimsy script.

On the run from the law and wearing a very "loud, checked jacket," killer Jack Hartley ducks into the bedroom of a dying man and steals his coat, thus assuring him of a clean getaway. Rummaging through the pockets of the coat, the criminal is astonished to find a plane ticket and heads quickly to the airport. After a brief skirmish with the pilot, the hood muscles his way on board but notices that there's no one else on the plane. The jet takes off and the cops later find Hartley's broken body in a field. Turns out Hartley took the dying man's place on a plane to Heaven, but St. Peter doesn't allow the living through the pearly gates. Or something like that. So dumb it's almost amusing, "The Replacement!" leaves so many questions unanswered and then, to compound the problem, tries to explain its plot hook in a lame, four-panel exposition that really does bring out the giggles.

In the all too predictable "The Voice of Fido!," Hank Walton wants to follow in his old man's footsteps as a new generation of ventriloquist but, instead of a wooden dummy, Hank wants to use his dog. No problem, Pop says, and sure enough Hank is an immediate hit. Then Fido starts spouting ad-libs. Sure, Pop is in the audience, but the old man admits it ain't him, so who's responsible for the new jokes? They both look at Fido and shrug. 

He's a genius and a really smart guy, but the Super-Secret Adventurers Club laughs and scoffs at Felix Bradin's notion that his little mini sub can cruise around the world under water for six months. Only one man believes in him, ultra-rich Harry Spahn! Harry promises to finance the entire trip, provided Felix takes Harry with him. Short on dough and figuring he could use the company, Felix quickly agrees but, as the days approach and Harry takes on a boss man's attitude, Felix regrets his decision.

On launch day, Felix gets up really early and jumps in the vessel, motoring away before Harry has his Omelette de la mère Poulard. Giggling, Felix can't wait until the world finds out he's conquered the undersea world. Then his curiosity gets the best of him and he explores a really weird cavern. Miles in, the cave door closes and Felix is trapped, hoping he can survive in this unknown realm on six months' worth of granola bars, Playboy magazines, and no porta-potty. As we leave a clearly disheartened Felix Bradin, we discover the steel plate cavern door is the ocean entrance to Marineland and (don't worry, CCA) the attraction will open in thirty days. Felix will be saved. "It Waits Under the Sea!" is goofy fun; we're expecting Harry Spahn to reappear, seeking revenge for the slight, but that never happens. Instead, we're given that last panel twist, one that's actually worth the wait.

In this issue's reminder that the Russkies are dirty rotten stinkin' rats, two 1977 teens run "The Eerie Experiment!" and use a special Ham radio to contact the Feds twenty years in the past to warn of a secret Commie meeting. The day is saved, but don't try to keep up with the complicated Carl Wessler (I know, I know, when have I ever used those three words together in a sentence) script. 

Okay, keep up, because I won't be repeating myself. Wally Rogers is insanely jealous of his friend and co-worker, Ralph Blaine, for stealing the company limelight with a secret project Ralph is working on that will change the course of history. Wally hatches an elaborate plot to frame his buddy for embezzlement but can't figure out a way to establish an alibi for himself in the process. Luckily, at that moment, a stranger appears in Wally's room and explains that he's from the future, out for a joy ride in his time travel machine. 

The lightbulb goes on over Wally's head and he talks the visitor into helping him with his criminal deed. But the forces of good always trump those of evil and Wally gets what's coming to him in the end. "He Wore a Black Beard" has a very complicated plot (that's two examples just in this issue of Carl Wessler taxing his brain) and the super surprising twist (sarcasm) is built upon the smile out loud assumptions that Wally wouldn't know Ralph was working on a time machine and, even funnier, wouldn't recognize his old pal with a mustache and beard. Still, that final panel of Wally running the whole scenario through his head is classic.-Peter

Strange Worlds #1

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers!" ★★1/2

(a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule)

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #32)

"I Captured the Abominable Snowman!" ★★1/2

(a: Steve Ditko)

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2 & Journey Into Mystery #13)

"I Am Robot!" (a: Uncredited) ★★

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2)

"I Am the Last Man on Earth!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

Why does everyone laugh when a man tells them that "I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers!"? He recalls being fascinated by the subject as he grew up, yet his investigation revealed nothing certain. One day, in a remote forest, he witnessed a flying saucer land! A voice entered his thoughts and explained that it came from another solar system and its civilization was far beyond our own. Overpopulation led to space exploration, which led to an unintended landing on Earth. The alien will leave tonight, as soon as it regains its strength, and asks the man to tell no one about it until it's gone. In exchange, the man asks to see what the alien looks like, and the alien responds that it is the spaceship! Of course, after it's gone, no one believes the man's story.

This certainly feels like a milestone at Atlas Comics. The story is seven pages long and features Kirby pencils and many of the things we'll come to expect from him: inventive page designs, splash and half-splash pages, and detailed depictions of machinery. The story is not particularly novel and the big twist, that the spaceship is the alien, is handled well but followed by a pointless page of the man telling everyone what he saw in vain. Still, the story gives me hope that Atlas might try something new.

Hoping to be able to announce to the world that "I Captured the Abominable Snowman!," a greedy man steals equipment and plans from a scientific expedition and sets off alone. He finds a Lama monastery and forces an aged lama to take him to meet the Yeti. The creature approaches the lama, who transforms it into a human. The greedy explorer then learns that he must take the place of the Yeti until the next selfish man comes along.

Ditko's art is the highlight of this story, which follows a familiar pattern. The aged lama foreshadows Ditko's depiction of the Ancient One and the artist creates suspense on page four with a trio of panels that show the explorer in increasingly close shots as he awaits the Yeti's arrival.

Thorne, a scientist in the year 2468, creates a robot sensitive enough to handle a delicate object, yet strong enough to punch through a wall. This new robot can also speak and think! Thorne agrees to let the robot spend six months in his home taking care of his infant son, and if all goes well, thousands of the robots will be produced. Thorne's wife is fearful of the mechanical man, but the inventor reassures her. One day, the parents leave their son alone with the robot to test it. While they're gone, space aliens land and grab the little boy. The robot fights them off and they leave, but he is damaged in the battle. He pitches off a cliff and is found in wreckage at the bottom after Thorne returns. Everyone thinks the robot went berserk and plunged to its doom, and Thorne agrees that no more units will be produced. No one knows that it saved the child and the human race.

"I Am Robot" does not benefit from art by Kirby or Ditko; in fact, the GCD is unable to identify the artist, and I can't, either. The story is narrated by the robot but is not particularly engaging.

In the year 2035, a spaceship from Earth lands on the planet Xernes and  spacemen discover that humans could live almost 500 years before reaching old age. On Earth, people are so excited that they spend the next decade in a mass exodus to the new planet, destroying all their property before they leave. In the end, the last man and woman (named Adam and Eve) agree to start rebuilding Earth civilization.

Don Heck's art is impressive on "I Am the Last Man on Earth!" but the story is drawn out and pointless. It seems that Adam and Eve (groan) think the rest of civilization should not have given up the happy, peaceful life they had built on this planet. It didn't make much sense to me. This first issue of Strange Worlds is interesting in that it is more geared toward science fiction than the Atlas fantasy titles and it features three of the artists who would soon make Marvel a successful comic company. It'll be interesting to watch the title develop.-Jack

World of Fantasy #15

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"The Secret of Stephen Durham" (a: Kurt Schaffenberger) ★★

(r: Journey Into Mystery #17)

"He Stole 50 Years" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"Mystery of the Mountain" (a: Christopher Rule) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #38)

"Strange Doings in Cell 4-B!" (a: Joe Certa) ★1/2

(r: Vault of Evil #19)

"The Uncanny Keys" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★

(r: Vault of Evil #16) 

"The Sinister Supermen" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

Clark Wendall wonders, what is "The Secret of Stephen Durham"? They are close pals and research scientists, whose fathers had great adventures together, but lately, Stephen has been jumpier than ever. Clark peruses his father's diary and reads of an escape from an Aztec death trap and a close call with a giant octopus. During a lecture about how an object traveling at the speed of light will not be subject to aging, Steve jumps up and suggests that he and Clark head to Mexico.

They visit the same places where their fathers barely avoided death, and Clark wonders how Steve seems to know about these events without having read his father's diary. Back at home, Clark follows Steve and witnesses him entering a chamber where he travels at the speed of light. Clark suddenly realizes that Steve is really his father, who has kept himself young.

This has to be a Wessler script, since it has some interesting events along the way but is overly complicated and ends with a revelation that isn't very interesting or surprising. At least Kurt Schaffenberger turns in a professional job on the art.

A newspaper publisher named Slade prints lies and uses blackmail to silence complaints. He forces a scientist named Carlin to show him the Electronic Cavalcader, which brings to life events of the next fifty years. Slade spends the night watching all of the amazing things that will happen in the decades to come, unaware that, in the end, he will have aged fifty years and all his notes will be too yellowed and faded to read.

I was pleasantly surprised by "He Stole 50 Years." in which we learn that there will be a revolution in the Soviet Union in 1967 and that the Eastern Bloc will be free by 1969, atomic power plants and atom-driven planes will follow, and deadly diseases will be cured. Interplanetary travel will occur in 2000, and a woman will be president by then. It's a shame that none of this came to pass, at least not in the positive, lasting way portrayed here. I especially liked the last panel, which shows a suddenly aged Slade.

Two state troopers are puzzled by "The Mystery of the Mountain," which consists of silent explosions at Mount Rushmore in the middle of the night. A professor from D.C. is called in and posits that the explosions are coming from a parallel dimension, whose inhabitants are honoring one of their great men. Sure enough, the bust of an unknown spaceman appears next to that of George Washington. A pointless story with listless art, this one is unsettling in light of the current president's desire to see his own face join the others.

A brawny prisoner named Porter discovers that his elderly cellmate, Pop, can make things appear just by wishing. Porter decides that the "Strange Doings in Cell 4-B!" can be used to his advantage, and he forces Pop to wish for three guns and a car. The jail break is going well until the guns and car suddenly disappear and Porter and his pals are captured. To their dismay, they learn that Pop died of old age and, when he passed away, the things he wished for disappeared.

Joe Certa's art is solid if a bit on the cartoony side--Pop reminds me of Uncle Marvel from the Captain Marvel comics.

Shelton's uncle sends him out to get a copy made of the key to his safe. Shelton visits a locksmith where he sees the proprietor in a room filled with treasure! The man explains that it's due to "The Uncanny Keys," which are magical and which he received from a gypsy. Shelton grabs the key ring and finds that each key reveals a different room when put into the keyhole of any door. After finding himself in rooms filled with silver and gold, followed by a South Sea island, Shelton turns one key too many and finds himself in a prison cell with no keys. He realizes that the last key was a jail key!

Of all the Atlas artists, Richard Doxsee may be the most disappointing, since he's gone from terrific to terrible in a short span of time. The worst thing about this story is that the panels that are supposed to show the rooms filled with treasure barely show anything.

A sailing ship and its crew are mysteriously drawn toward an island by "The Sinister Supermen," criminals who were hiding out there in a cave when an H-bomb test accelerated their evolution to the point where they were all brain and little protoplasm. Having proved their unlimited power to themselves, they let the sailors leave and only the force of nature prevents the ship from being drawn into a whirlpool. The island and its inhabitants sink out of sight.

It's always hard to identify the worst story of a post, but this has to be it. The art is so weak that, in the panels where the supermen first appear, I first thought a kid had taken a marker and scribbled random lines on the page. After a few moments of study, I realized that those lines were actually supposed to be the outline of an arm and hand with a pointing finger.-Jack

Next Week...
The Era of Ditko and Kirby
Officially Begins...
But Will They Bring 
Quality With Them?

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 168: Atlas/Marvel Horror & Science Fiction Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 153

August 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Mystery Tales #54

Cover by Fred Kida

"The Last Lap" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★

"Prisoners of the Valley of Fear!" (a: Jay Scott Pike) ★1/2

"Death of a Gambling Man!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★

"Can of Soup!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Nobody!" (a: George Klein) ★1/2

"The Labyrinth!" (a: Sid Check) ★★

Race car driver Rex Bilbo will do anything to win and that includes cutting his competitors off at the final lap. This is how Rex wins. Then along comes "The Kid," the fastest racer anyone's ever seen. Rex knows he can't beat the newbie, so he loosens the young man's tires; next day, on "The Last Lap," The Kid hits the wall and... bloooey!

The other racers know what Rex has done but can't prove it. But they'll get him, they promise. One night, when Rex is working on his GTO, The Kid rises from the grave (still wearing his speed racer outfit) and heads for the track. Next thing we see is Rex's new auto, with real human skin upholstery, Rex's eyeballs as headlights, and a tank full of blood. Alas, that's not what happens, but in the early pages it sure seems like we're going to get the first honest-to-gosh EC-style revenge tale in years and the cherry on top is the Reed Crandall art. The CCA wouldn't have okayed my scenario, but the sappy (and inane) climax we're given is safe enough for the 8-year-olds. No nightmares here.

Planes flying through Austria are disappearing from sonar without a trace. Government agent Alfonse Grumet suspects foul play, so he commandeers a dirigible to fly the same path in hopes the truth will unravel. Sure enough, the blimp reaches the same area as the missing planes and is stopped in mid-air by a huge net. The net brings the vehicle to a landing and Grumet and crew are taken prisoner by a group of bald ruffians. Grumet is taken to the wizard of this Valley of Fear, disgraced Professor Kalendru, whose theories of... something... drew waves of laughter from his colleagues.

As his revenge, Kalendru traveled to this deserted valley and created a city of miracles. Kalendru orders his mute slaves to take the dirigible to a populated city and kidnap hundreds of people in order to build Kalendru's army of slaves. But Grumet has an ace up his sleeve and puts the kibosh on the evil emperor's plot. Everything about "Prisoners of the Valley of Fear!" smells like an old cinema serial, with hidden cities, beast-men, and an explosive finale. The elements it's lacking are a good script and excitement. We're never really clued in to what Kalendru's goal is; he builds a "paradise" to get even for all the slights aimed at him through the years. Heck of a revenge.

Larry Hall worked for Matt Trevor, one of the biggest crooks in the city. Trevor is opening a new casino and his biggest enemy is the mayor, whose daughter happens to be in love with Larry. Get all that? Well, when Trevor gets wind of the secret affair, he uses the mayor's daughter as a pawn in his war with her father. Luckily, Larry stumbles on a secret room at the new casino filled with chemicals and stuff. He uses the potions to make the casino disappear, thus preventing any harm to his one true love. Larry has made the ultimate sacrifice. "Death of a Gambling Man!" (hey, spoiler alert!) is cheesy Wessler pulp junk that's good for a couple of chuckles when it changes direction in the final page, but little else.

Starving, a hobo steals a "Can of Soup!" from a truck, unaware that this "soup" is actually nitroglycerine. It's evident right from the get-go what the mystery can is, but what's not clear is why Stan okayed the truly awful Robert Q. Sale art. Yeccch! In the equally brainless "Nobody!," a flight filled to the brim with stinkin' Commies lands in Moscow to find an empty city. Panicked, they jump back onboard and head to the next Red city they can find. Same thing. "Nobody!" In the end, it's all a case of brain manipulation by a stinkin' Commie scientist. They see only what he wants them to see. But the joke's on Ivan when he tries to end the hold on his comrades' brains and the machine goes kaput. So does the plane. 

"The Labyrinth!," the final story in Mystery Tales #54, helps the title go out on a high note (or at least a higher note than the four stories that preceded it). A race of underground men try to make it to the surface world but can't seem to work their way through a maze of tunnels. Turns out the poor chaps are stuck in a subway tunnel. Some nice throwback penciling (meaning it looks like the penciling was done in the 1940s) by Sid Check and a fairly decent twist ending. Quality-wise, the 54-issue run of Mystery Tales was middle of the pack, neither better nor worse than its sister pubs. Two stories from pre-code MT made my Top 50 list: George Tuska's "Marion's Murderer" (from #14) and Bill Benulis's "The Little Monster" (from #15).-Peter

Mystic #61

Cover by Bill Everett

"Someday It Will Open" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★

"The Thirteenth Floor!" (a: Bernard Baily & Gene Fawcette (?)) ★

"Mister Backwards!" (a: Frank Bolle) ★★

"Too Dangerous to Live" (a: Carl Burgos (?)) ★

"The Strange Sea!" (a: Alfonso Greene) ★

"The Face in the Mirror!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

Professor Klauser returns from the jungles of South America with a souvenir, an odd, stone-like object he dubs a "thought pod." Kaluser is convinced that if he concentrates on something hard enough, that thought will materialize from out of the pod. His colleagues all think he's daft, but Klauser sits in his chair staring at the pod, certain that "Someday It Will Open." And it does. It just doesn't produce anything interesting, unfortunately. Not even the Doxsee art can elevate this one above the basement floor.

Brand is convinced the partying people on "The Thirteenth Floor!" are wearing priceless jewels and he's intent on robbing them. His friends tell him he's nuts since the hotel has no 13th floor, but he's convinced it isn't a mirage. When one of the hotel employees tells him that the hotel used to have a 13th floor but it was destroyed by a fire and never rebuilt, it gives him an idea. He sets a fire and watches as all the "shadow people" run into the elevator. He heads for their jewelry but fate has other ideas. What a dumb story! How can an entire floor of a hotel building be destroyed and removed without affecting the floors above and below? 

Ralph Paval buys a wonderful hourglass at an auction house and quickly learns it has the remarkable power of turning back time. All Ralph has to do is turn the hourglass over and... ta-da!... it's the past. Of course, since Ralph is living in the Atlas Universe, the first thing he does is rob a bank. Then he turns the hourglass over several times and it's ten years before. Ralph takes the money he made from the robbery and invests it in a sure thing in the stock market. Ralph's not as smart as thinks, though, as evidenced by the G-Men who come to arrest him for counterfeiting. The dope used 1957 currency in 1947! You'd think that would be the end of "Mister Backwards!" but, as with Mr. Brand in the previous story, Ralph finds fate has a way of evening things up for time travelers. I thought this one was semi-clever, but my only question would be, if Ralph is going back in time, why does he get to keep the dough he robbed in 1957, a heist he hasn't even committed yet? Am I thinking too much?

Really smart genius Professor Rajec is forced by the stinkin' Commies to build the perfect weapon, an explosive device they plan to use on the enemy. The Reds test three ounces of Rajec's formula and it destroys a square mile of land, but it also gives Rajec a bad case of amnesia; he can't remember the formula. After interrogating and torturing him for weeks, the Commies leave him be, hoping his brain will come around. At last, Rajec tells his bosses he's okay and ready to build another, bigger gizmo. But Rajec has a better idea and a better device to build: an air purifier that will suck up all the radioactivity caused by his first bomb. When last we see the professor, he's driving away with a U.N. escort, and the Commie colonel who once led his interrogation is giving him a thumbs-up. Bar none, "Too Dangerous to Live" contains the fastest (and funniest) transformation from bloodthirsty sadist to peacenik ever portrayed in a funny book strip. 

In the three-page, "The Strange Sea!," Jeff Marlowe yearns to be a seafaring lad like his ancestors, so he signs up to be a sailor. On his maiden voyage, he's swept overboard by a giant wave but, luckily, he's saved... by his great-grandfather. I know just how Jeff feels, swirling around in a whirlpool of bad comic stories. The finale, the last story ever to appear in Mystic, stars a pair of thieves, one of whom has become something of an animal, brutalizing everyone he comes in contact with. "The Face in the Mirror!" has yet another predictable, inane twist ending and uninspired Joe Orlando art. Four Mystic stories placed in my Pre-Code Top 50 list: Sol Brodsky's "The Devil Birds" (from #4, which landed smack dab in the number one spot), Mort Lawrence's "Help Wanted" (from #19), "The Living and the Dead" (from #26), and Russ Heath's "Who Walks with a Zombie" (from #27).-Peter

Mystical Tales #8

Cover by Fred Kida

"Stone Walls Can't Stop Him!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

"The Dream People!" (a: Ruben Moreira) ★1/2

"The Lair of the Thunder Lizard!" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★1/2

"The Sleeping Man" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"Try-Out!" (a: Sid Check) ★★

"The Island of No Return" (a: Sam Kweskin) ★

A convicted killer named Carl Brent walks right through the bars of his prison cell as if they were not there! Even "Stone Walls Can't Stop Him!" and he walks through one of those as well on his way to freedom. Roy Anders, the prison guard, doesn't tell anyone because he thinks he'd be ridiculed. He goes home and his wife encourages him to consult his "scrapbook case histories of all the men who have been executed on Death Row." (Roy is clearly a little off.)

Reading about Brent, Roy recalls that the criminal seemed to have a heart, never taking all the cash when he robbed a store and begging for forgiveness from a young woman he mistakenly shot during a holdup. When the woman, whose name was Molly Spinner, died, Carl was sentenced to death. Roy has an idea and drives to the cemetery, where he observes Carl kneeling on Molly's grave, asking her to forgive him. Roy hears her voice granting forgiveness and the guard drives back to the prison, where he learns that Brent was found dead of a heart attack on the floor of his cell, a contented smile on his face.

Doug Wildey does a decent job with this rather mournful story and I enjoyed it. The final twist, such as it is, comes from the surprise on the face of the guard on duty when Roy tells him he knows Carl died with a smile. Not much of a twist, but a pretty good story.

After dreaming of standing before an audience, a playwright named Baker is convinced his new play will be a hit. "The Dream People!" can't be wrong! Instead, his play is rejected and one written by his roommate, Philips, is accepted. Baker lies to Philips and takes his place, taking credit for the work and watching the rehearsals. Philips catches on and threatens to go to the cops, so Baker kills him just as the police burst in. He is tried and convicted and finally realizes that the audience he dreamed of was the members of the jury. Once again, Ruben Moreira works hard with a run of the mill idea.

Old Edouard Duval likes to spin yarns about seeing dinosaurs in a nearby cave, describing it as if it were "The Lair of the Thunder Lizard!" Young Jacques Rambeau doesn't believe it and enlists two friends to explore the caves with him to show that the old man is making up stories. The trio descend into the cave and photograph what lies in the darkness, certain it's nothing. To Rambeau's surprise, when the film is developed, it shows the thunder lizard! Duval volunteers to visit the cave and Rambeau agrees to film the outing; the old man shoots into the darkness and the film records the death of the creature. The cave is sealed off and Duval is a hero! Days later, Rambeau finds a small lizard that crawled into his camera and looked big in the pictures. He doesn't have the heart to burst the old man's bubble. Leave it to Krigstein to wring some emotion out of a weak story by Wessler. The artists gets the feeling of the French folk right and Rambeau's kind decision at the end seems genuine.

In the year 1457, Wolfgang Roebling invents a machine but when he shows it to the authorities they throw him out, insisting that it's evil. On his deathbed, Roebling entrusts the machine to his faithful servant, Karl Rieger, who promises not to give up until the world recognizes Roebling's genius. In a secret cellar room, Rieger sleeps for a century and awakens to show the machine to a man in Italy, who calls it a work of darkness. "The Sleeping Man" nods off in the catacombs for another century, wakes up, and tries his luck in Paris, where he is nearly killed when one of the king's ministers doesn't react well to the invention.

He sleeps for another hundred years in a cave in the Pyrenees, but when he wakes up, the king's secretary tries to steal the machine and Karl runs off to another extended nap in a tower castle. He gets the same reception in England in 1857. Finally, it's 1957 (surprise!) and Karl stows away on a ship to America. He arrives, but the perpetual motion machine Roebling invented 500 years before is scoffed at. Karl finds an underground spot to doze off and the robot hopes that, in a hundred years, the machine will be accepted. I kind of liked this story, not for the hideous art by Sale but rather for the plucky robot who keeps thinking that, if he just tries again in 100 years, people will accept his inventor's gizmo. I did not know he was a robot till the last panel, so I guess Wessler got me this time.

A booking agent named Stanton yawns through a presentation by a man named Lund, who narrates a travelogue to Neptune, the Earth's core, and the moon while showing images from a projector on a screen. He then suggests a talk on telepathy and ESP, but Stanton is unmoved. After the "Try-Out!" fails and Lund exits the office, Stanton is shocked to discover that Lund accidentally left the projector behind and there's no film in it! Sid Check's regular panels with people talking are smooth and the panels where he depicts the wonders presented by Lund are impressive, but they're not enough to make the story interesting.

Bruce Marner bullies everyone in Merville, a small town on the coast of Canada, and has one thing on his mind when he sees Hover Island, where there's a safe filled with gold coins in a long-abandoned bank. Marner commandeers a boat and heads out to "The Island of No Return," but when he gets the gold and tries to navigate his way back to the mainland, he discovers that the boat keeps ending up back at the island. Sam Kweskin's art on this forgettable story is a hair better than that of Robert Q. Sale on "The Sleeping Man," but the narrative is much less interesting.

So ends the short run of Mystical Tales, which never rose above the level of ho-hum. My highest-rated story was "Someone Behind Me!" by Reed Crandall, in #3.-Jack

Next Week...
Watch Helplessly as Matt Fox
Tries to Save Atlas From
the Deadly Implosion!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 156: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 141

March 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #56

Cover by Bill Everett

"Something Is On This Ship!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★★

"The Metal Master!" (a: Vince Colletta) ★1/2

"More Than a Mortal!" (a: Pete Morisi) ★

"Hide-Out!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Nothing Can Stop It" (a: Howard O' Donnell) ★★

"The Shock!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★

An aging sailor uses subterfuge and the superstitions of the sea to get himself a good job aboard the Sulu Queen but discovers too late that there might be something to this "haunted ship" nonsense. In the end, he discovers that "Something is On This Ship!" Eye-pleasing Wildey graphics balance out the stale plot.

An artist wishes there were more hours in the day so that he could create more beauty on his canvass so he does what any other painter would do... he builds a sophisticated robot that can paint exactly as he does. But, in the end, should man create artificial beauty, creations without soul, just because he can? I gotta tell you, while I was reading "The Metal Master!," I wished for a robot who could read a lot of these dismal, pretentious Atlas SF tales for me and find something original to say about them. "The Metal Master!" was good for a chuckle or two (chief among them the fact that a painter could suddenly become a brilliant scientist and build an intelligent automaton seemingly on a whim) and its final preachy panel is very prescient in these AI-dominated times. 

Joel Barr is a bit obsessed with William Shakespeare, so much so that Joel is convinced that the Bard was "More Than a Mortal!" How else could one man have concocted such masterpieces of literature? So, Joel makes it his life's work to prove that Shakespeare was... I don't know... a Martian or something? In a slightly off-topic sub-plot, we discover our protagonist has killed his uncle for an inheritance and that revelation plays into the "startling" twist found at the story's climax. This is one brutally bad funny book story. Pete Morisi does his best with the meandering script.

Mobster Rick Dawn makes a pretty penny providing shelter for crooks on the lam but he sure wishes he could get rid of a few of his competitors. Imagine the dough he'd bring in if he were the only game in town! Well, as fate (and Atlas Comics) would have it, when he's making that wish, Dawn is (for some reason) palming a peculiar hunk of glass and it's not long before he gets the news that the cops have raided all the other "Hide-Out!" proprietors in the city. Holy cow, could this worthless piece of glass he found in a deserted hovel be his secret weapon? Yes. Do we get any reasoning for this miracle? What do you think? Rick's inevitable fall comes when he accidentally breaks the bauble and police come to arrest him. Now where will he hide? "Hide-Out!" becomes more and more disjointed as the panels stumble on.

In the three-page "Nothing Can Stop It," a brilliant scientist creates a dissolving formula so that he can break into department stores and steal mink stoles for his gorgeous girlfriend, Carol. No, I'm serious. Despite Carol's pleas that a mink stole really isn't her thing (now, diamonds, that's another story...), the egghead pushes on with his research and creates a formula for an acid that eats through anything. Anything. As the scientist and police look on, the acid makes its way through the earth and heads for China, Armageddon its natural goal. Having had enough, Carol spins and heads for the door, swearing she could never love a man who would destroy the Earth. This one is a hoot, a very short burst of hilarity that came as a perfect tonic after the previous three snoozers. Carol's final reaction, blurting out muffled obscenities and insults, is the bee's knees. The list of brilliant Atlas chemists who used their brains for bad behavior is a long and storied one.

Joe Dillon is a real deadbeat, moving from town to town, staying only long enough to accrue lots of bills and skipping out before the creditors can nab him. His latest residence is a real pit but it's cheap. One night, Joe gets out of bed, trips over a frayed wire, and reaches out to the radiator for support. He gets "The Shock!" of his life in more than one way--Joe is teleported to another city! After interviewing startled passersby (remember, Joe is in his pajamas), he ascertains he's in Nebraska, a thousand miles away from his home. 

For some reason, touching that radiator and receiving a shock at the same time gives Joe the power of teleportation! The wheels begin turning and it's not long before Joe has a plan for a big heist involving the safe at his job site. Joe robs the safe and rushes back to his house but is in for a rude awakening when he discovers the electricity has been shut off due to nonpayment! I giggled through this light, breezy fluff, the twist is a good one, and it's always good to see the dependable Reed Crandall show up in an Atlas comic book.-Peter

Uncanny Tales # 53

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Mud Walks!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★★★

"Guinea Pig!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★★1/2

"Inside the House of Shadows" (a: Syd Shores) ★

"The Dreadful Discovery" (a: Angelo Torres) ★1/2

"Dead Silence!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★

"Nerve-Wracker!" (a: John Forte) ★

Sadistic Commandant Hass has an almost gleeful way about him as he makes his way around the concentration camp he oversees. Is it the fact that he personally sends so many Jews to their death or is it the huge fortune he's got buried under the camp? When two prisoners inadvertently stumble across Hass's hiding place when they attempt to build a Golem from mud, the commandant has them put to death to keep them quiet.

The war ends and Hass goes to prison for his crimes but is released ten years later. He immediately makes his way to the now-closed camp and digs for his treasure, unaware of the muddy figure making its way towards him. I'd have to go through my notes but I'm 99.9% sure this is the first time I've awarded a four-star medallion to a post-code story and "The Mud Walks!" absolutely merits the distinction. For one, it's a lot edgier than any of its contemporaries; revisiting the holocaust a mere ten years later seems like a very risky proposition, especially for a funny book. Sure, many Atlas yarns have featured sadistic Nazis as their evil protagonists but Hass seems much more realized and believable. There are no panels of the commandant behind a desk giving out orders or grinning wickedly over his cache. The panels depicting the doomed inmates are stark and depressing, a job well done by Orlando. Easily the best post-code story I've read thus far,

In "Guinea Pig!," Parker comes across a spell in an old book that can make wishes come true if the subject will speak a Latin phrase out loud. Afraid of side effects, Parker "befriends" a vagrant in the park and brings him home for a hot meal, later convincing the man to read the aforementioned Latin incantation. Once spoken, the man seems to have the power to make all his wishes come true. Convinced of the book's power, Parker reads the phrase and wishes for the vagrant's death but gets his own comeuppance in a clever twist. 

Finally released after fifteen years in the pokey, Charlie Cowan hurries to the spot where he buried thirty-six grand in stolen cash before his partners can catch him. Loot in hand, Charlie sees his old mates coming for him and ducks into a haunted house. Once "Inside the House of Shadows," Charlie discovers the rotted old structure is a gateway to the past. Charlie arrives at the moment he was caught by the cops fifteen years ago. He has only moments to make a fateful choice. You have a choice too and I urge you to skip this one.

Two scientists search for the elusive white whale, a mammal with a brain similar to that of man, but when they finally find a specimen, it gives them pause to reflect on life, destiny, and man's inability to make a good cup of coffee. "The Dreadful Discovery" isn't quite dreadful but it is dreadfully boring and, in the end, quite pretentious. The quasi-Williamson-esque Torres art usually can pep up a dragging storyline but here Angelo's muscular graphics just sit flatly on the paper.

In the maudlin, predictable three-pager, "Dead Silence!," a surgeon pleads with his colleagues to perform a Thoracic Aortic Dissection Repair on a patient in the ER but his cries of anguish fall on deaf ears. They seem to be oblivious to the fact that he's even in the operating room, unmasked and in his street clothes. That is, of course, because they are operating on him! This is a plot that could be placed way in the back of the Atlas Vault of Ideas, ignored for a few years and no one would miss it. While we're at it, hide the story's O'Donnell art in that vault as well. In the equally bad "Nerve-Wracker!," a bored millionaire loves to play elaborate practical jokes on his friend but, in a convoluted and incredibly dopey climax, the buffoon gets his just desserts. Speaking of dessert, I'm leaving this tuna jello behind and searching for another "The Mud Walks!" Pray for me!-Peter

World of Fantasy #6

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Worm's-Eye View" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"The Three Heads" (a: Dave Berg) ★★

"The Machine That Talked Too Much!" (a: Bob Powell) ★★1/2

"He Saw It In the Swamp!" (a: John Giunta (?) and George Roussos)★

"The Child!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★1/2

"Monkey Man!" (a: John Forte) ★

After fleeing the U.S. following an armed robbery, Luke Dowd hides out in the Amazon Rainforest, where he discovers the secret herb that Jivaros use to shrink heads. Luke is determined to use his knowledge for personal gain, so when he returns to the U.S. he evades the police and commits robberies by shrinking himself and squeezing through tiny spaces. "The Worm's-Eye View" is his undoing when he encounters a hungry cat! Luke hides between walls and finds himself stuck in place when the herb wears off and he reverts to full size. The police discover him trapped!

Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man was published in 1956, so it's possible Carl Wessler read it and used the idea for this story. Richard Doxsee's art is above average but the four-page limit forces events to an abrupt conclusion.

On the run from the cops, a crook ducks into an old curio shop where he finds a Central American statue with three heads. He picks up the statue and wishes he could be elsewhere. Suddenly he's spinning and is dumped in the grass outside a ruined temple. He wishes the temple were new again, goes for another spin, and finds himself in a new temple filled with treasure. The man fights off a temple guard and one of the statue's heads breaks off in the melee. More guards approach and the man wishes to escape, but the wish fails! Back in the curio shop, the proprietor finds the statue on the floor, one head broken off, and wonders what happened. He thinks of the legend that the idol grants one wish per head and wonders how the object ended up broken on the floor.

"The Three Heads" is a fairly standard Atlas tale, where there's the germ of an idea but the story is too short to develop it and the surprise ending is a disappointment. Dave Berg's art is nothing special, which makes me think that his years of drawing "The Lighter Side" for Mad were successful more due to the writing than the art, which never changed much.

A scientist named Rupert Rawley invents a machine that can identify and locate criminals just by feeding it a physical clue found at the scene of the crime. The cops are amazed that the machine works, but it can't seem to lead them to the money that was stolen by the thieves! Rawley tinkers and tinkers but nothing works until the cops use the machine when its inventor is not around. It turns out that the machine was able to find all the loot after all, but Rawley was keeping it for himself!

Anyone reading "The Machine That Talked Too Much!" knows early on that Rupert Rawley found the money and was keeping it. The only thing keeping us reading is to find out how and when the cops will see the light. As usual, Bob Powell's graphics are a highlight; his attention to detail and his ability to draw striking panels have not changed since his Golden Age work.

On his deathbed, Ted's uncle gives him a strange bequest--a parrot that belonged to the pirate, Jean Lafitte, and that will bring back one piece of Spanish gold per day when asked. The old man warns Ted not to ask for more but, after his uncle has died, Ted gets impatient and takes the parrot to the swamps outside New Orleans, hoping it will lead him to the treasure. Instead, Jean Lafitte appears and gives Ted a whack. Forever after, Ted is a broken man, haunting the bars with tales of his failure.

The GCD says John Giunta may have penciled "He Saw It In the Swamp!," which was inked by George Roussos. Whoever is responsible has a lot to answer for, because it's just plain bad, both in story and in art.

John and Betty's one-week-old baby boy astounds the world when he begins to talk in coherent sentences. Soon, "The Child" is growing fast and announces that his evolution was speeded up one million years. By age four, he knows it all and has had enough, so he builds a spaceship and takes off, leaving a note for Mom and Dad. They hope for the best for mankind's future.

It's a bit odd that this story manages to be both depressing and hopeful in a mere three pages. It's depressing that everyone doesn't know what to do with the kid and ignores his helpful suggestions for things like conquering diseases, yet it's hopeful (in the usual, sappy Atlas way) because, in the last panel, Dad tells Mom that the child will come back someday to a better mankind. Good luck with that!

"Shanghai" Slader is a crooked sailor who hangs around Miami Beach with a monkey on his shoulder. He tries to teach the monkey to rob purses and pick pockets, but it doesn't go well, despite Slader's attempts to teach his pet and his constant repetition of "monkey sees, monkey does." Slader and his monkey stow away on a ship and end up in the Bahamas, where the sailor takes a job as handyman at the J.P. Henderson estate. That night, Slader robs Henderson's safe and shoots the homeowner when he's confronted. Unfortunately, the monkey finally follows Slader's advice of "money sees, monkey does," picking up the gun and shooting the crooked sailor.

Dreadful stuff. John Forte's art has gone from wooden to just plain ugly, and "Monkey Man!" lacks anything resembling an interesting character or situation. The ending is no surprise to any reader paying attention.-Jack

Next Week...
Jack and Peter Plead With Their Readers
to "Hang On... The Good Stuff Has Got to Be
Right Around the Corner!"