Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 199: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 184

August 1961

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Amazing Adventures #3

Cover by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

"We Were Trapped in the Twilight World!" (a: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers) ★★

"The Teddy Bear" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

"Doctor Droom Meets Zemu!" (a: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers) ★★ (r: Weird Wonder Tales #20)

Paul Harper's just had a tremendous argument with Professor Barnes at his college. You see, Paul is a science major and thinks he knows it all, including the fact that our Earth is surrounded by alternate Earths and alternate space and time and all that complicated mega-verse nonsense. Paul is a little angry so he does what anyone would do: he grabs his girl, Cathy, and goes for a long drive in the country.

As they're tootling along, minding their own business, a sinister green fog comes out of nowhere and envelops their convertible. Paul has to stop the car and the couple explore the fog on foot. When the mist evaporates, Paul and Cathy are horrified to learn they're in some prehistoric world, complete with cavemen and dinosaurs. That means Paul was right! While he rants on and on about "I told him so! I told him so!," Cathy hits him upside the head with a Stegosaurus jawbone and tells him they'd better find a way out of this place pronto before they're served up as dinner.

After several near-fatal encounters with the wildlife, the couple stumble across a more intelligent caveman who calls himself "Cro" and shows Paul and Cathy the way out of the valley. The dazed lovebirds climb back in their car but Paul is obviously still rattled as he drives his auto off the road. Luckily, who should stop by to help but Professor Barnes (Paul never questions that his world is full of coincidences), who scoffs at his pupil's tale, even when Cathy exclaims "We Were Trapped in the Twilight World!" But the old stick in the mud has to change his tune when he finds a necklace of tiger teeth (a gift from Cro) in the back of Paul's hot rod.

Don't you just love how everything turns out for Paul and Cathy in the end? And how about the fact that Paul is the guy who proves his whole alternate world/dimension theory is true? What are the odds? Probably better than the odds that the first Cro-Magnon man would be able to name himself "Cro!" You think scientists stumbled over a tree with "Cro Was Hear" etched in its bark? How about Cro tossing his necklace at Cathy? Was that his way of saying "Let's go steady?" Alright, enough, we all know the script is going to suck, but at least Stan has a reason to order Jack and Dick to whip up some cool dinosaurs for us pre-teens.

Jim really loves Carol but she won't get rid of that damn stuffed teddy bear, even when he's trying to get to third base in the back seat of his Ford they get married! Carol insists "The Teddy Bear" is her bodyguard and if Jim doesn't like it, he can pound sand. Jim's a surveyor so, a few months after they're married, he has to go camping in the wild. Carol insists on accompanying her new hubby and brings Teddy along for the ride. One night, Jim goes out hunting a big cat he suspects has been circling their camp and he's taken by surprise. The mountain lion runs right past him and heads for Carol's tent. Horrified, Jim throws open the tent and finds the lion dead and Teddy a little worse for wear. What's more astonishing? That Teddy was actually alive or that Jim married Carol even though she was an obvious mental case?

Last up is the latest adventure of Doctor Droom! In "Doctor Droom Meets Zemu!," our hero discovers that a popular magician is actually a warrior sent from the planet Saturn to hypnotize the Earth's population. Droom turns the tables on the Saturnian and Zemu is led away (in a very posh ascot and smoking jacket) to prison. Wholly preposterous stuff (everyone knows space warriors always come from Mars!) but, as usual, very entertaining. A different "Zemu" (sans the cool attire) will battle the Human Torch in Strange Tales #103, another example of how Jack and Stan constantly cannibalized their older work for the new Marvel era in the 1960s.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #71

Cover by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

"I Brought the Roc to Life!" 

(a: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #10)

"The Boy Who Vanished!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Fear #4)

"The Painting" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #6)(r: Amazing Adventures #24)

After having survived his marriage ceremony, archaeologist John Avery is thrust into an entirely different but still dangerous and horrifying event. He and Anne are driving through the desert of Cairo looking for bones and stuff when Anne shouts out that a nearby sand dune looks too "geometrically perfect" and must be hiding some mysterious object.

Sure enough, when John gets a shovel and starts digging, he unearths a huge egg. "Why, this must be an egg containing the mythic Roc, a bird so gigantic it could fly away with elephants in its talons!" John decides he's going to go back to Cairo and get a crew of men to transport the egg back to "civilization." Even though John seems to be a bright guy, he leaves the egg exposed to the sun and it hatches.

Out pops a giant chick and he seems to be feeling fowl. Very soon thereafter, he gains the gift of flight and heads off to town for a good time. The big bird begins disassembling structures such as bridges and skyscrapers and carting off passenger trains (don't get yer panties in a bunch CCA--the trains were emptied first); only John Avery knows what's going on. Yep, the big fella is building a nest!

So, John goes to the World's Foremost Scientists' Bar & Grill, where he powwows with a bunch of boring characters (at one point confiding that, yes, "I Brought the Roc to Life!") and convinces them that they have to build a rocket ship version of the Roc and blast it into space. That's the only way to destroy the Giant Claw. Sure enough, once Mecha-Roc flies past the real thing, NASA hits the "Space" button and both monsters head deep into outer space, never to return. Anne tells John she's going to want a better honeymoon and he chuckles, heading back into the desert in his jeep.

When I Googled "How fast do Rocs grow wings?" I was met with a blank stare. This little guy not only grows fast (Stan could have at least leaned on the conspiracy theory that Cairo was testing A-bombs in the desert) but then takes to the air in a matter of seconds! I sure hope we get a "Return of the Roc!" wherein the metal contraption finally runs out of fuel and the big chicken heads back home.

Thirteen-year-old Billy Carter (yes, that Billy Carter) is confined to a wheelchair but dreams of walking again someday. In fact, after reading the latest issue of Journey into Mystery, he closes his eyes and dreams himself into the future. There, he meets the really pretty Alana, who makes fun of him because he won't stand up and walk, and is informed that Alana's Pop is a doctor who can do anything. Sure enough, the doc cures Billy and sends him back to 1961. There, Billy's mom sobs tears of joy when her boy walks across the kitchen and asks what's for lunch. "The Boy Who Vanished!" is the pits, no two ways about it. Paul Reinman's pencils have degenerated into lifeless scribbles and Stan/Larry's script is pieced together from old strips. Poor Billy's physical condition is called "lame" and that's a pretty good label to apply to this story.

Simon Squeed is a heartless bastitch who takes advantage of poor painters, buying their work and selling it for hundreds of times its original purchase price. But Simon finally meets his match when he steals "The Painting" from a gypsy in Bessarabia. The twist in the final panel has been done to death but it's given new life thanks to Steve Ditko, who just keeps getting better and better. This guy is going places, take it from me.-Peter

Strange Tales #87

Cover by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

"The Return of... Grogg!" (a: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #23)

"The Lighthouse from Nowhere!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

(r: Creatures on the Loose #24)

"The Macabre Mirror!" (a: Don Heck) ★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #23)

Miklos Zozlov, the renowned scientist from behind the Iron Curtain, is back! When last seen in Strange Tales #83, Miklos managed to escape Grogg. Now he's defected to the U.S.A., where no one believes his yarn about the fire-breathing dragon. Miklos wonders about Grogg, so one day, when government officials send him back to Russia undercover to find out what's going on in the Northern territory where there's a news blackout, he jumps at the chance.

In Russia, Miklos is aided by a friendly farmer named Ivan Grotsky, who also hates tyranny. Together, they journey into the snowy mountains and locate Grogg, who briefly attacks them before flying off. The men find a secret army base, where the Reds have built a huge spaceship. They plan to send a thousand soldiers to Mars to set up a base from which they can threaten the free nations of Earth!

Determined to stop this diabolical plan, Miklos and Ivan summon Grogg using a torch and set off an explosion at the army base. Miklos manages to trick Grogg into entering the spaceship, which Miklos then blasts off into space! His plan? Grogg will travel to Mars and be there to greet the Russians after they build a replacement spaceship and carry out their plan!

"The Return of... Grogg!" seems like an afterthought in this ridiculous story, where the fire-breathing dragon appears in flashback, briefly attacks Miklos and Ivan, and is tricked into being sent into space. Grogg has to be one of the dumber monsters out there, since Miklos deceives him by means of a small Grogg-like statue made of snow and some big shadows made with a flashlight. Just for the record, the obligatory panel showing Earth from space with word balloons appears on page 9, while the required panel of floating heads is on page 10. Kirby does a decent job on Grogg; it's a shame the story is so weak.

After a ship is wrecked in the fog off the coast of a small Scottish village, the townsfolk agree that they need a lighthouse. A week later, "The Lighthouse from Nowhere!" suddenly appears! Most people are happy to see it and don't ask questions, but the schoolteacher is upset that they received something they didn't build themselves. One night he blows it up! Agreeing to work day and night to rebuild it, the schoolteacher is unaware that the lighthouse was actually installed by aliens as a beacon to guide their invasion of Earth. By removing it, he saved the planet!

Even Ditko can't save this one. The only good parts are the splash page and the green aliens.

Long ago, a rich duke kept raising taxes on the people of a European province in order to increase his own wealth. When they couldn't pay, he confiscated their possessions. Finally, the only person he had not squeezed dry was Carlotta, the gypsy woman. The duke visited her and, since she had no cash, he decided to take "The Macabre Mirror!" despite her warning that it was enchanted. She told him it would have to stay with him always and he agreed that he wanted that. Just then, something mystical happened!

The duke disappeared and no one knew where he had gone, so eventually they took back their wealth and possessions. As for the duke, he was trapped inside the mirror, looking out at the inside of the gypsy's wagon, unable to escape!

Did any reader not know what was going to happen right away? Don Heck's art is usually better than this--it looks like he was in a hurry or just didn't care. This is a sub-par issue of Strange Tales.-Jack

Tales of Suspense #20

Cover by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

"Colossus Lives Again" (a: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #25)

"The Rocking Horse" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Bomb" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

After the fearsome events detailed in "I Created the Colossus!," the big lug has been hanging out in Moscow, doing little to nothing 24/7. The Russkies are invited to an international fair and decide to send the giant statue as an exhibit for all to see. They lash the Colossus onto their biggest freighter and set sail for New York!

Meanwhile on Cancresorius-III, the crab-like creatures who inhabited Colossus's stone body all those months ago have declared war on the entire galaxy. King Crab spins the wheel and it's decided that Earth will fall first. The crabs head back to Earth and once again inhabit the stone statue, bringing it to life and jumping ship, heading for America the hard way. Colossus rises from the sea on a California beach, causing a panic but stepping on absolutely no one.

At that exact second, fifty miles away, Bob, a well-paid set decorator in Hollywood, is trying to make time with famous screen star Diane Cummings (think, oh, I don't know, Sue Storm) and finding the task next to impossible. Diane wants a he-man with lots of money and bravery and nice shoes, but Bob checks none of those boxes. Grant Marshall does, though, and he woos and wins the starlet. Bob is left feeling gloomy until he hears the bulletin informing the public that a giant statue has been sighted at Long Beach. Bob grabs his special effects crew (including intern Wah Chang), a couple of hammers and a bag of nails and begins building the greatest prop ever constructed.

Coincidentally (or not), Colossus ends up right where Bob wants him and rather than step on these puny humans, he stops to have a convo with them. Bob tells the big guy to turn around and meet his maker. The grey gargantua does indeed turn and beholds... an even bigger monster! Without waiting to see if this thing even moves, the crabs jump ship and burrow into the new creature. Quickly, Bob screams "Now!" and his right hand man explodes the prop, blowing the crabs to hell!

Suddenly, Diane arrives and embraces Bob, telling him he's all the man she'll ever want. Forgetting that, just twenty minutes or so before, she called him a spineless worm, Bob picks up Diane in his arms and proposes to her. Colossus stands immobile once again but, he muses, at least he ain't gettin' married!

Wouldn't it have made more sense for the Crabs to lay low and get a free ride to the US on the big boat? Walking underwater to New York must have taken them years. And how does Bob know where to build his greatest achievement? What if the traffic on the 101 was murder and Colossus opted to bypass Hollywood and head for San Bernardino instead? Of course, this was not the last we'd see of Colossus since he was rebooted in 1973 by Tony Isabella for a short-lived series in Astonishing Tales. You can read more about that here. I thought Tony's take was awful (and the dreadful art of Dick Ayers--who had graduated to penciling by 1973--didn't help), but your mileage may vary. 

Poor little "lame" Hamim wishes he had a rocking horse to keep him company; his father thinks his son is selfish for wishing for such a luxury when the family is starving but Hamim writes a letter to America and gets his wish. "The Rocking Horse" arrives and his father keeps bitching until the day an earthquake strikes and the rocking horse saves little Hamim. Stan the Man calls up Reinman, tells him he's got a "lame" script that needs some "lame" art, and Paul comes through.

A gigantic, ticking mechanism from outer space lands smack-dab in New York, setting off a panic. Could it be an explosive device? The army is being cautious, leaving "The Bomb" alone to see if it blows. Then, once a team is sent in to investigate, the object heads back into space without a by your leave. Unbeknownst to anyone not reading Tales of Suspense #20, the craft lands on Saturn, where an old man sits and ponders why no sounds were made around the mechanism. Surely, that planet must be dead and so it won't be given all "our knowledge and secrets of long life." Klaatu Barada Nikto.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #22

Cover by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

"I Dared to Battle the Crawling Creature!" (a: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #13)

"Help!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Creatures on the Loose #15)(r: Crypt of Shadows #21)

"For Whom the Drum Beats!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Creatures on the Loose #20)

Walter Carter is a high school bookworm who enjoys reading stories about creatures who live under the Earth's surface. When the government builds a new drilling machine and is looking for a volunteer to head way under ground, Walter is first in line! Down he goes and, in a subterranean tunnel, he comes face to face with cavemen who warn him about a big creature that crawls around and generally causes trouble.

Suddenly finding reserves of bravery, Walter goes looking and discovers a great big lizard! "I Dared to Battle the Crawling Creature!" says he and the cavemen help out by dumping a load of salt, knowing that the lizard won't crawl over it for some reason. Walter decides that the best thing to do is to lure the big lizard up to the surface, which he does without much difficulty. Luring it to the edge of the Grand Canyon, Walter makes sure that it ends up at the bottom and he's able to escape by means of a handy helicopter. Government agents make Walter promise to say nothing, so he heads back to school to face more bullying.

The Crawling Creature isn't much of a threat. It's not an alien or a Commie and it never menaces a big city. It really doesn't do much at all. Fortunately, Walter's complex plan works, though the big lizard lives in case of a sequel. There is a panel where we see the Earth from outer space and three dialogue balloons on page 10, but no panels with floating heads this time.

A writer buys a second-hand typewriter to replace one that breaks and soon finds that the machine has a mind of its own, typing out a message crying for "Help!" It gives instructions to go to Liberty Road and Route 42. The writer heads out and, at the designated location, finds a car teetering on the edge of a cliff, its driver afraid to move. The writer hooks up a chain and tows to car safely away from the edge. The driver gets out and, when he hears about the magical typewriter, reveals that he is the person who sold it to the second-hand shop! 

I like a story about a writer who buys a magical typewriter. Don Heck is at his best when drawing men in suits who like to smoke cigarettes, so this five-pager is right in his wheelhouse.

Max Kole may be in the Swinging Six, a hot jazz band, but he doesn't like being second drummer, since all the chicks dig the first drummer. After a gig in Transylvania, Max visits a gypsy known as Madame Grimm and insists that she cast a spell to make him the greatest drummer. She reluctantly agrees but gives him the usual warning. Max quickly becomes the undisputed king of the drums, but there's a catch--he can't stop playing!

"For Whom the Drum Beats!" ends with Max unable to stop drumming. Any reader above the age of five saw this coming a mile away. At least Ditko provides cool graphics, even though the portrait of the hip jazz group and its adoring teen fans seems a decade or two out of touch.-Jack

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Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 198: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 183

July 1961

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Amazing Adventures #2

Cover by Jack Kirby & Sal Brodsky

"I Led the Strange Search for Manoo!" 

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★

"The World Below!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #22)

"Rocky's Last Ride!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

Poor (and I do mean poor) Billy Jones can't get himself invited to any of the rich kids' parties; they tell him to stay in his own "social set." Heartbroken, Billy walks through the woods one day and stumbles upon a sight hundreds of Atlas protagonists before him have taken in: a busted-up spaceship and its mildly damaged cargo, a very strange looking alien (think, maybe, Humpty Dumpty with frog legs). The creature tells him that he is on Earth searching for the dangerous space criminal, Manoo, who has gotten the better of him and disappeared into the city. 

The alien explains that their race can morph into anything they want; right now his prey is disguised as a human. The only way to tell the invader from a normal human is that he won't cast a shadow. The creature hands our hero a ray gun and tells him to find Manoo and blast him before he destroys Earth. Billy lets out a cry of "I Led the Strange Search for Manoo!" and heads out on his trek. Even though there are millions of humans in the city, it doesn't take Billy very long to find Manoo hiding in an abandoned theater. 

Billy takes aim but just can't pull the trigger. Manoo takes the ray gun away and asks Billy where he got it. When Billy spills the beans, Manoo lowers his ray gun and explains that it is he, Manoo, who is the outer space policeman and the other big egg the real criminal. Billy doesn't know who to believe so he marches Manoo back into the forest at gunpoint and delivers him to his adversary. The two giant goofballs engage in some fisticuffs before the truth comes out and Manoo rewards his new friend for his bravery. Billy receives a gargantuan diamond for his troubles, heads back to town, buys the university all the rich kids were going to enroll in, and denies them entrance. So, in the end, Billy learns a valuable lesson: do unto others before they do it to you and if they've already done it to you then do it back even worse.

"Manoo" is the pits, the umpteenth tale that begins with a stroll through the woods and a shipwrecked alien. There's literally not one aspect of this crap I can recommend. The script is not the only low point; Kirby and Ayers are clearly running on fumes; the creature design is pathetic and it's hard to tell one human from another. And how about that climactic moral: good job, Stan! It's no wonder that this was one of only a handful of the Kirby/Lee monster tales that was ignored for reprinting.

Doctor Droom is hired by a steamship company to find their missing luxury liner, the Luxuria, which has vanished into thin air at sea. Droom boards a bathysphere and stumbles across a hatch on the bottom of the sea. When he enters the hole, he discovers it's a portal to the lost city of Atlantis. Investigating "The World Below!," he finds that the Atlanteans are about to launch a full scale attack on the surface world. Through the magical art of hypnosis, Droom quashes the invasion and saves all mankind. Though the script isn't breaking any ground and the art isn't much more than a bunch of talking heads, I still like the idea of a series character breaking up the monotony. 

Rocky Baines, manager of the local automated car wash, has been working the perfect con: he convinces the old people who drive into his wash that they've A/ run over his foot; B/ clipped his hip with their fender; or C/squashed his head under their tires. The con nets him lots of extra bucks but then this goofy guy comes in driving a "foreign model" and Rocky goes into his act, only to discover the mark ain't got no dough. When the nut hands Rocky the keys to the auto and tells him to keep it, the con artist quickly learns that this ain't no ordinary "foreign model." It's the old "Car from Mars" twist that's been used a few times before and ain't getting any newer, believe me.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #70

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"The Sandman Cometh!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #13)

"A Thousand Years" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Crypt of Shadows #6)

"The Stone Man" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Kull the Destroyer #12)

Afraid his only son is becoming a limp-wristed mama's boy, Steve Bronson grabs the kid off his piano stool and tosses him onto an airplane bound for Mexico. Along with his wife, Anne, Steve visits a wonderful little village, hoping the outdoor atmosphere will stimulate little Bobby's manliness. The three discover a remote cave and do some family exploring. 

In the back of the cave, they find a locked steel door. Unable to jimmy the portal, Steve grabs hold of some blasting powder and blows open the door. Behind it they find a single, shapeless statue. Suddenly, the form comes to life, tells the startled family that he is the Sandman, and relates an origin story told many times before: centuries before, the Sandman had flown to Earth from the planet Sandinia-X410 (okay, I made up that part), but his ship had crashed and the natives, afraid Sandy was an "evil spirit," locked him away in the cave. Finally, he is free!

Being a he-man macho dude, Steve begins pummeling the alien, but to no avail; the monster keeps reassembling his disembodied grains. Sandman assumes a human shape and forces the Bronsons to drive him to America, so that he can scope out the vulnerability of Earth's people. Steve manages to draw the attention of the army but Sandman is not worried... once he hits the beach, it's Katy bar the door. He will absorb all the grains of sand in the world and become unstoppable. That is... until little Bobby tosses a bucket of water at the astonished creature and then scoops up all the wet sand and locks it in a crate. Steve congratulates Bobby on his intelligent thinking. Sure, the kid's reading books like a little fruitcake, but he destroyed a menace the army couldn't stop. Maybe an education isn't so bad.

No, but "The Sandman Cometh!" definitely is bad. The only things this microwaved mess has going for it are the two mighty guffaws I let out at the aforementioned scene where Steve just happens to have blasting powder while taking a hike with his family, and that climax, where Bobby takes a pretty small pail of water and destroys a six-foot-plus sand monster. I'm not sure why the Sandman can't just bust out of that crate. His plan for world conquest, as with that of other alien forces in the Atlas comics, needs a little filling in. What will he do with the world once he is its master? And how come he's called "Sandman" when he comes from outer space? Universal language?

In the deadly dull "A Thousand Years," a convict spending life behind bars wishes out loud for freedom and then is startled when the devil appears in his cell (well, we know he's the devil but Stan can't call him that lest the CCA stamp a "Refused" on the script). Old Scratch tells the con that he'll give him one thousand years of freedom for his signature. Satan gets the guy's mark and then causes an earthquake, releasing the prisoner. With hounds right behind him, the dope hides in what he believes is a plane on an air force base (best place to hide, no?). Later, he screams in shock as he realizes the craft is a rocket and it blasts into space. 

Last up is Steve Ditko's "The Stone Man," wherein an old man begs the statue of war hero Dralla for relief from hunger and poverty. The old-timer goes home and takes a nap, unaware that outside on his land gold nuggets begin popping up like mushrooms. Unfortunately, his greedy neighbors snap up all the shiny morsels and become rich, then enact laws that forbid the poor in their village. Dralla's statue is so enraged that it comes to life, transforms the gold into worthless dirt, and hustles the old man away to Valhalla. One of the better strips this month, despite its heavy moral climax (if you believe, you will win out) and awful proofreading (halfway through the story, Dralla becomes Drallas!). Sharp Ditko graphics.-Peter

Strange Tales #86

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"I Created Mechano!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers)  ★★

"The Secret of 'Georgie's Globe!'" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

"Beware of Meeks Bringing Gifts!" 

(a: Jack Kirby & Sol Brodsky)  ★★

Little Tommy's parents are worried about him since he's been spending so much time with "that old tramp Hopkins," but the little imp loves how Hopkins can make anything out of small pieces of nothing. When the State Fair is announced, Tommy convinces the old geezer to make something "real big," like the "biggest machine in the world!" After some thinking, Hopkins agrees if the kid will give him a hand.

One year later, the giant machine is ready to be tested just in time for the State Fair. Bobby christens the nuts 'n' bolts "Mechano" ("absolute genius," sighs Hopkins while questioning whether it was a good idea to let the kid play with the soldering iron) and Hopkins throws the switch. Sure enough, Mechano walks right out of the factory and along the city streets to the fairgrounds. Unfortunately, once he gets there, Mechano is accidentally blasted with an experimental atomic transmitter. Absorbing a ray of pure energy, Mechano becomes his own man and heads out of the fairgrounds to stir up some s**t. 

The police arrive on scene and shoot the robot full of holes but it just keeps coming. Hopkins grabs a crowbar and attempts to jam Mechano's pinion bar (!) but fails to stop the marauding monster. At just that time, an unscheduled armada arrives from space on a mission to conquer Earth. A group of coneheads pop out of the ship, armed with ray guns, remarking that their intel is crap. They were told earthlings were weak and read too many funny books, not that they were gigantic steel machines. After their rays do little damage to Mechano, they hop back in their tin can and fly back into space. The police arrive and blast Mechano with machine guns, destroying the savior of Earth.

Another month, another invasion from space, but at least this one is a little different. I like the interaction between mentor and pupil and the fact that, after he's created his glorious machine, Hopkins doesn't opt to get revenge on all his neighbors who've kicked him out of the country club. The art is hot and cold; some of the panels of Mechano are nicely inked while others look almost ignored. The aliens are hilarious; are those helmets or their heads?

What is "The Secret of Georgie's Globe?" Besides five pages of wasted space, it chronicles the adventures of Georgie, who receives the fabulous gift of a replica of Earth from his parents for his birthday (what kid wouldn't crave a globe?) and then discovers, to his dismay, that anything that happens to the sphere happens in the real world. He spills a glass of water on the Sahara and the Sahara floods, etc. Then, while moving house, the globe drops and breaks. Is it the end of the world? Not quite.

Reporter Walter Johnson is the only man on Earth who mistrusts the Meeks. Who are the Meeks? Well, they are a band of critters from another world who land on Earth and hand out gifts, claiming they are friends from another planet who exist only to make others happy. But Walter is wary. He cries "Beware of Meeks Bringing Gifts!" and forces a Meek onto his TV show to confess that the aliens are here to inherit the Earth. Their plan, to make humans fat and lazy (so that's how we got this way!) so that they could enslave them, worked like a charm until Walter Johnson saw through their scheme. I like the Kirby/Brodsky art but the (clearly) Stan statement in the last panels is a laugh.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #19

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"The Green Thing!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #14)

"The Haunted Paper!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #14)

"The Coming of Maaboo!" (a: Don Heck) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #14)

Why is a botanist so jumpy when he sees a plant sway in a breeze? His bored colleagues listen to the man's story about his efforts to create a serum to increase a plant's intelligence. Once he was satisfied that he had the right formula, he journeyed to an uninhabited island for a test and injected an ordinary weed with the fluid. The weed immediately grew six feet tall and began to move and speak.

After a shaky first step, "The Green Thing!" got its act together and demanded that the botanist ferry it to the mainland so it could embark on world domination. The man refused, raced to his boat, grabbed the outboard motor, and dove beneath the water, intending to smash the motor on the undersea rocks. Before the plant could stop him it had to do battle with a huge shark! Back on land, the botanist vainly tried to beat back the walking, talking plant with a tree limb before climbing a tree in an effort to avoid the Green Thing.

The plant compelled the tree to bend and deliver the man back to the ground, but the plucky botanist made a run for it and hid in a cave, where he found a small Ignatius Rex plant growing in the soil. This was the plant he originally intended to use for his experiments because it's known to be the highest form of plant life. The man injected serum into the little plant and it grew big and smart and defeated the Green Thing in stalk to stalk combat. Ignatius Rex bid the botanist farewell, cautioning him never again to fool with Mother Nature. That's why, when he tells his colleagues his tale, the botanist claims that his experiments were a failure.

The best thing I can say about "The Green Thing" is that it doesn't involve an invasion from outer space. Kirby and Ayers's art is adequate, as usual, but there's only so much that can be done to make a walking, talking weed visually interesting. It kind of resembles a prototype of Jack Skellington if the pumpkin head were green. The botanist makes some pretty questionable decisions along the way. Since he can't find one Ignatius Rex plant--the whole reason he went to this isolated island--he decides to inject a random weed instead, and why does he jump into the water to destroy the motor? There are plenty of surface rocks available. In my ongoing study, I see one panel with a view of Earth from space and dialogue balloons (p. 5) and zero panels depicting a group of floating heads.

A crook named Nick Rover has to leave town when he hears that the income tax boys are after him, so he relocates under another name, adding a pair of glasses and dyeing his hair black. Nick uses his ill-gotten gains to purchase the town paper, where he discovers that Olef, the old typesetter, has a knack for writing headlines trumpeting unfortunate events before they occur. "The Haunted Paper!" is always right and Nick demands to know how Olef can predict the future. The next day, the headline reads: "Smalltown Newspaper Owner Meets With Serious Accident!" and Nick quickly turns himself in at the police station, certain that a nice, cozy cell is the safest place. Back in the composing room, Olef chuckles to himself and remarks that sometimes fate needs a helping hand.

Ditko's art is so strong at this point that I wish he'd be assigned some longer stories. These five-pagers don't give him enough room! It's funny that the taxman is what strikes fear into Nick's heart; I guess he heard about Capone.

Charlie Wilkes will do anything for a buck. Presently, he's kind of beaten up and, when an old pal runs into him in Burma, Charlie tells the tale of "The Coming of Maaboo!" Having heard the legend of Maaboo, an alien who came to Earth ages ago and commanded local natives to gather up all the gold they could find and store it until he returned, Charlie hired a native guide to take him to visit the tribe. He disguised himself as Maaboo and announced that he was back and wanted the gold. The natives obliged and Charlie was on his way back to the city with his guide when the guide revealed that he was the real Maaboo and he was none too happy with Charlie.

Another dud from Don Heck. The odd thing about this story is that it ends with Maaboo menacing Charlie but it begins with Charlie back in the city, a bit beaten up and without gold, but not that bad off. I guess Maaboo didn't rough him up too badly.-Jack

Tales to Astonish #21

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Trull! The Inhuman!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Creatures on the Loose #10)

"It Happened on 'The Silent Screen'" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #8)

"Open Wider, Please!" (a: Don Heck) ★

An alien rocket ship crash lands in Africa, killing its sole occupant. The creature's life essence survives and floats through the air, looking for a new form to inhabit. Meanwhile, Phil, an engineer whose career came crashing down when a large bridge that he designed fell apart right after being dedicated, is on a ship bound for Africa, where he tries to forget his former fiance, Gloria, who dumped him after the bridge collapsed.

Gloria has taken up with Bart, the foreman of a construction crew slated to build a village in the African jungle. The project will utilize a big steam shovel designed by Phil. On site, Phil stops Bart from whipping a recalcitrant elephant and, just then, the wandering life force decides to enter the steam shovel, bringing it to life. The steam shovel suddenly acts on its own and announces that its name is Trull and it's an alien who plans to rule the world.

Phil, Bart, Gloria, and the work crew are forced to assist Trull as it studies the people of Earth and plans to take over. Gloria makes a run for it and is saved from certain death by the very elephant that Phil had spared from a beating by Bart. The elephant destroys the sentient steam shovel and the alien's life essence floats off again, presumably waiting for a sequel. Gloria tells Phil that she wants him back now that he's proven his manliness, but he tells her that she and Bart deserve each other.

"Trull! The Inhuman!" is truly all over the place. It's interesting that the Trull on the cover looks nothing like the big red steam shovel of the story; perhaps Lee and Kirby realized that it would look too silly. There was a tradition in science fiction stories of inanimate objects taking on lives of their own, but only in a 1961 Atlas tale would this be merged with a story about an alien who wants to take over the world. For the record, we have a floating heads panel on page 7 and panels with views of the Earth from outer space with dialogue balloons on pages 3 and 10.

"It Happened on 'The Silent Screen'" depicts movie theater patrons going to see a film called The Hulk. At the end they leave and the creature steps off the screen and into the auditorium! But wait, it's only a movie about that! No, the creature steps off the screen again! No, it's just a movie! And so on. A waste of five pages and of Ditko's talents.

Finally, in "Open Wider, Please!," a dentist determines that his patient is really a Martian spy. They grapple and it turns out that the patient is a robot from the Red Planet! The dentist pushes the robot's off button and ends the menace before revealing to the reader that he's a robot from Venus! Hoo boy, how many times will they pull out that twist ending? At least Don Heck draws a pretty nurse.-Jack

Thursday...
Jack Gives
a Damn

And Next Week...
The Sequel Absolutely
No One Begged For!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 197: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 182

June 1961

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Amazing Adventures #1

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Torr" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Strange Tales #175)

"Midnight in the Wax Museum" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Strange Tales #175)

"I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!" (a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #19) 

Paul Ramsay stands trial for the murder of his best friend, John Carter (not of Mars), but what would push a man to commit a cold-blooded killing such as this? I'm glad you asked... Some months before, Paul and John were two crazy astronomers, making jokes about Orion's Belt (just how tight does that belt have to be?!) and calling up grocers to ask if they had "Prince Albert in a can" when fate steered them down a different country road.

Just as Paul excitedly tells John that a UFO is tracing their signal beam, John wonders aloud if the occupants will be friendly. Too late, the ship lands and out pops "Torr," a hideous, furry, orange behemoth who quickly destroys Paul's rifle and then takes over the earthly form of John, all the better to blend in with the human race. He orders Paul to drive him to the city and, during the drive, Torr maps out his plan of destruction and conquest of Earth. Paul knows he must do something or mankind is doomed, so he grabs a pistol from a nearby cop and blasts Torr/John with a fatal shot.

Of course, this is how Paul ends up on trial. Just as the jury is about to bring back a (surely Guilty!) verdict, John bursts through the doors, much to the surprise of everyone in attendance, and blurts out the climax: Paul's deadly bullet actually killed Torr's "personality" rather than John himself (good trick, that) and the moment Torr died, John was returned to his bullet-riddled body. Paul is free to go and he and John (still leaking blood from the bullet hole) head back to the observatory to see what trouble they can get into next.

The first issue of Atlas's final new science fiction title begins with a wet noodle, a ho-hum, no-action melodrama pieced together with elements of dozens of previous Atlas giant monster tales. The creature design is, to say the least, interesting: orange fish with facial hair and yellow briefs. Even though I fully accept that Torr comes from some distant galaxy and couldn't find anyplace else more interesting, the fact that John survives his gunshot (does the bullet simply disappear and the skin heal?) despite being on a morgue slab for what must be months is a bridge too far. And where is the dead body of Torr? Back in the cave? The logic is Torr-ible.

Dangerous criminal Pierre La Roc picks a wax museum in which to hide out from the law but discovers the wax figures are alive! Brief but effective, thanks mostly to Ditko's choreography, "Midnight in the Wax Museum" makes good use of an old cliche. 

Doctor Anthony Droom is summoned to the Himalayas to care of a sick old man. When he is there, he is told he will not be paid for his services (he's fine with that), he will have to walk across coals (sure, why not?), and he must face the deadly Gorlion (half-gorilla, half-lion, of course) before climbing a suspended rope that leads, finally, to the sick man's room. There, Droom learns that the old man, a lama, is dying and was searching for the perfect candidate to pass his occult skills on to. Droom agrees, receives an Oriental facial and becomes the new lama. Now he will be taught all the skills he needs to fight the evil side of black magic.

"I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!" is a landmark story in several ways. It heralds the coming of Marvel's super-hero resurgence (Fantastic Four #1 arrives just five months later) and lays the groundwork for Ditko's Dr. Strange two years later. It's also the first continuing feature in an Atlas sf/fantasy title, appearing five times in Amazing Adventures and then rebooted (as Dr. Druid in order to avoid confusion with that guy from Latveria) by writer Roger Stern for Weird Wonder Tales in 1976. The character also made guest appearances in The Incredible Hulk and Ghost Rider.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #69

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"I Was Captured by... Korilla!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★

(r: Creatures on the Loose #12)

"The Iron Giant!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Kid Colt Outlaw #164) 

"When Darkness Falls!!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #13)

A cabbie picks up a late night fare who demands to be taken to 1446 Elm Street. The driver doesn't like the strangely garbed man's attitude but desperately needs the money, so it's 1446 or bust. Once they get there, the passenger pays his driver and exits the vehicle, but his cape gets stuck in the door and his true identity is revealed: he's a big furry monster!

The thing threatens to kill the cabbie but our hero manages to make his getaway and heads right for the nearest precinct. The Sarge there naturally scoffs at the description of "a big furry monster" but dispatches a couple of his best beat cops to investigate. They return shortly to inform their CO that a masquerade is in process at 1446 Elm Street and the owner of said establishment told the cops that the whole incident was a misunderstanding. The cops tell the cabbie to blow but our protagonist is determined to get to the bottom of the freakish incident.

He heads back to Elm Street, where he is surrounded by two furry monsters and forced into the house where he meets their leader. It's at this point that the driver screams "I Was Captured by... Korilla!" The really big hairy orange monster explains that he was captain of a race of warriors on his home planet, a band of vicious barbarians who held the rest of the population as slaves. But the imminent threat of revolution had the warriors thinking they might need another planet to conquer and live on. That would be Earth!

Soon a deadly gas will be released into Earth's atmosphere and all living humans will no longer be... living. The cabbie sees an open back door and escapes, but first he turns the tables on his captors. He manages to beam a message to Korilla's world, informing the Great Poohbah that the invasion has been a failure. Korilla's commander is so mad that he sends a gas to Earth that is deadly only to Korilla and his crew. The cabbie saves mankind!

Terrible giant monster tale in both planning and execution. The creature designs are lame (Korilla's arm is bigger than the rest of his body!) and Korilla and the boys waste a lot of valuable time telling our hero all about their origin instead of just straight up killing the pesky human. Three hairy stooges. Oddly enough, there's no panel of Earth with word balloons this time out. I kinda missed it.

Crazy ol' Ben Perkins talks to his locomotive--why, he's even named her "Annie!" One day, a band of thieves board the train and steal the loot it carries. Before they leave, they grab ol' Ben and shoot up the train. Ornery cusses. Well, they get off into the night and dump poor ol' Ben in the middle of Injun territory because "dead men tell no tales!" But before they can cover much ground, the pack of them are chased by... you guessed it, "The Iron Giant!" Why, dagnab it if Annie ain't run off her rails and is dead set on runnin' down the dirty hombres that stole her engineer. Hours later, the sheriff rounds up the exhausted thieves (no one dies in a 1960s Atlas comic) and slaps the cuffs on 'em. The West is safe once more. The only thing that makes this one stand out, obviously, is the rare western backdrop. When it came time for reprinting, Roy opted to dump this snoozer into Kid Colt Outlaw!

Last up in this truly abysmal issue is "When Darkness Falls!," wherein a man swears he sees the mannikins in a department store moving around. The "twist" is that our protagonist is also a dummy. Slap this issue in mylar and never look back.-Peter

Strange Tales #85

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"The Return of Gargantus!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

"The Man Who Fell!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #25)

"The Ape Man" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #24)

Because the readers of Journey Into Strange Tales demanded it! "The Return of Gargantus!" Years after Gargantus was seemingly defeated by the thin air found on the surface world, little Billy (the co-star of "What? What? What the Hell is Gigantus/Gargantus?" has grown up, his pop has died and he's refused to turn the famed bathysphere over to science for study. Billy knows that if men of science get hold of Dad's startling creation, they'll want to explore the nether regions of the sea.

Just as Billy is remembering everything that happened to him all those years ago, his wife Anne returns from Wal-Mart with the groceries in tears (Anne is in tears, not the groceries); a group of Science Wives had met her in the Frozen Tater Tot section and told her of their mates' new invention: a submarine that can dive even deeper than Billy's dad's. The wives are so proud of their four-eyed he-men, but Anne can only stutter out excuses for her limp-wristed Bill. For his part, Bill completely ignores his wife's shame and concentrates on the startling news about the streamlined sub. He must stop the dive at all costs.

When Bill gets to the harbor, the trio of stud scientists scoff at his protests. "Go back home and drop a line in your goldfish bowl, ya wimp!" cries Professor Frank, with a Marlboro hanging from his mustached lips, and the vehicle enters the water. Sure enough, less than five minutes later, the trio are whining about the giant monster on their tail and Bill is sprinting home to wipe the dust off his dad's pride and joy. Bill drops down and sees a horrifying sight: Gargantus has the sub in his giant paws and is about to crush it like a soda can. 

Just as it looks like it's curtains for the taunting trio, Gargantus recognizes Bill's diving bell and gives chase. Bill barely makes it out of the sea ball before his old nemesis breaks water and towers above the frightened man, telling him that since Bill's dad has shuffled off this mortal coil, it's up to Bill to tell mankind they are doomed. Bill refuses and heads for cover; the monster, unable to find his prey, heads into the city to make some noise (no humans are harmed, I assure you). While the city is being torn to shreds, Bill gets to work on modifying his pop's bathysphere. 

His work done, Bill confronts Gargantus while he's about to lay waste to the entire US militia and issues a challenge to the giant behemoth: meet me in the ocean at noon or Bill will spread the word that Gargantus is a big chicken. The big orange galoot accepts and the next day, the two face off. Unknown to the sea creature, Bill has electrified the bathysphere and, because the further down you go, the more magnified the current becomes, Gargantus is fried to a crisp. The world is safe once more. Everyone except Anne apologizes for calling Bill a wuss.

It's tough to come up with reasons to read these things since just about every story is the same but, for me, the highlight has to be Anne coming home from the store to tell Bill he's a coward (you thought I made that part up, didn't you?) and then completely disappearing from the story. You'd like to think that after she dressed him down, she filed for divorce and took up with Robert Oppenheimer. 

Hans, the mayor of a small European village, has the hots for fortune teller Katrina and will do anything to win her love. Katrina wants nothing to do with Hans but accepts his wager that if she tells his fortune and it comes true, he'll leave her alone. The oracle predicts that Hans will be "injured by a fall." Hans heads home and instructs his butler to tie him up in the basement so there's no way he can fall. The butler gone, Hans settles in for an uncomfortable evening with images of Katrina dancing in his head. Then the chandelier falls on him. I have to admit to a soft spot for "The Man Who Fell," which I can recall reading one lazy summer day in 1973 in the pages of Where Monsters Dwell. The twist is pretty clever but the art is sub-par.

Last up is Steve Ditko's "The Ape Man!" Salty Gruner is convicted of being a commie (the only way you get tossed in the clink in the Atlas Universe) and sentenced to spend the rest of his days in a prison on Lost Island. The guards warn Salty and his comrades that the island is surrounded by a shark-filled sea and the jungle contains the legendary Ape Man. Not one to believe in old wives' tales, Salty escapes into the jungle with an eye to building a raft and sailing to New Jersey but quickly comes face to hairy mug with the titular beast. The gorilla politely informs Salty that he was once a human being and ran afoul of a native witch doctor who cursed him to prowl the jungle until another poor soul could take his place. Before he knows it, Salty has lost his prison uni and grown quite a bit of hair, cursed to wander the foul jungles of Lost Island forever. The last time we saw this "twist," I think it was attached to a genie. Still, Steve ignores the idiocy of the script and gives his all and we are the better for it.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #18

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Kraa the Unhuman!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #15)

"The Mysterious Mr. P!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

"Enter.... the Robot!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #20)

A geography teacher decides to liven up his dull existence by spending his summer break on a trip to Africa, where he will investigate the Wabuzi tribe and the strange statues they've started making. He manages to hire a guide to take him into the jungle, but after the guide robs him and abandons him, the teacher goes on alone, determined to find the Wabuzi. As he gets closer, he sees larger and larger statues of a grotesque figure until he finally reaches the village.

The natives worship "Kraa the Unhuman!" and, though the teacher at first thinks it's a giant statue, the creature is alive and captures him without much effort. "Kraa!" tells the teacher he'll grant one last request before slaying him, so the teacher asks Kraa to tell his origin story. The giant explains that, months ago, stinkin commies parachuted into the jungle, planning to use it for illegal nuclear testing. At that time, Kraa was a regular Wabuzi tribesman. He fell into a hunter's trap and was exposed to radiation from the nuclear testing!

Kraa grew into a big, orange monster and soon found himself the object of worship of the other members of the tribe, who did not recognize him as one of their own. He didn't mind being worshipped and liked when they made statues of him. Kraa decided that, when he stopped growing, he'd attack the civilized world to punish it for what it had done to him. The teacher feels sorry for Kraa and rubs ointment on his back to help soothe the pain from radiation burns. Kraa is surprised by the man's kindness and saves him from being crushed by a giant python, falling off a cliff during the struggle. The teacher returns home, where his students are amazed to see a newspaper report showing that the Wabuzi have carved a new idol in the teacher's image!

Whenever a giant creature falls off a cliff and we don't see its dead body, you can be sure he'll return in a future issue, supposedly in response to overwhelming reader demand. I fear the same may happen with Kraa. As I read the story, I was expecting him to be a visitor from outer space, but instead he's a victim of an atomic blast, the Atlas explanation for grotesque changes to the human form. Kraa isn't particularly interesting to look at, but the fact that he's a former tribesman makes it credible that he's not bad, just misunderstood. This story features one panel showing the Earth as seen from space and one floating heads panel. Had it been a year earlier, the teacher's last request might have been to gain the power to knock over a bank.

Who is "The Mysterious Mr. P!"? Teenaged girls hang around the stage doors at theaters where he plays his clarinet, hoping for his autograph. He came out of nowhere one day and quickly rose to the top of the charts. One day, some stinkin' commies show up and offer big bucks if Mr. P will give a tour in their country. He goes along and they lock him in a dungeon, where they insist that he tell the world that he just loves dictatorships. Instead, he starts playing his clarinet and all the commies can't help but follow him out the window and into the clouds, because he's the Pied Piper!

I had to wonder why the teens of 1961 would be so excited about a clarinet player whose music was probably at least a decade behind the times. It didn't take me long to identify "Mr. P" as the Pied Piper. Thanks goodness he's saving the world for democracy.

Max Garr is an obnoxious foreman in a coal mine who is not happy when the boss tells him, "Enter.... the Robot!" The mechanical man will work in the mines but Max doesn't want to lose his job, so he leads the machine down into a shaft and fiddles around with its wiring so it stops working. When Max is trapped in a cave-in with the robot, he's dismayed to learn its purpose is to tunnel for safety--but because Max wrecked its wiring, now it won't work!

Ditko does a nice job with the shadowy world of the mine, but that's about it in this story where nothing that happens is a surprise.-Jack

Tales to Astonish #20

Cover by Jack Kirby

"What Was 'X' the Thing That Lived!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Fear #2)

"One-Way Journey!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Fear #2)

Comic book writer Charles Bentley pens a story about a giant sea serpent attacking a ship and being destroyed by an atomic warhead. After the story is published (in Tales to Astonish), representatives from Naval Intelligence demand to know how Bentley learned of the true incident! He convinces them that he made it up and they leave.

His next story concerns a radioactive, two-headed demon from outer space. The same thing happens again after publication, when the Air Force informs Bentley that his story depicted true events. Once again, it's chalked up to coincidence.

Bentley wracks his brain for another story and ends up writing about an alien called X who can transform itself into any shape and can't be destroyed. The editor is so happy that he gives the writer a week off and Charles heads for the mountains to go fishing. He gets to the resort and sees on TV that X is on the rampage! It's back to the typewriter to change the ending to one where the creature is defeated. It's published but X keeps on going! Bentley suspects that his typewriter at home is the key, recalling that he bought it at an old antique shop in Europe.

But it's not so easy to get rid of X! The creature confronts the writer, fully aware of his plan, and chases him into the sewers beneath the city. Bentley manages to escape and return to his typewriter, but X follows him to his apartment and prevents him from writing a new ending! Only when Charles throws the typewriter out the window and it smashes on the pavement does X finally disappear.

We've seen these self-reflexive stories before and they're always the same. In "What Was 'X" the Thing That Lived," Kirby gets to draw a few monsters rather than being stuck with just one, but there's never any real sense of danger. The story isn't funny, so we're just left with a bloated, 18-page mess that is a chore to read.

A rich industrialist named Adam Gree wants to live forty years in the future, certain that it will be a Golden Age without war or disease, so he fires all his employees, sells all his businesses, and uses the cash he raises to pay scientists to build him a time machine. He travels to 2001 and finds it just as he predicted, but there's a catch--he's now 90 years old and will die soon!

Ditko's art is the best thing about "One-Way Journey!," yet another time travel story with a twist that falls flat. At least the splash page looks cool.-Jack

Thursday...
They're Heeeeere!

And Next Week...
Get Ready For
Another Marvel Prototype!