Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 185: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 170

March-April 1960

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #57

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Orogo!! The Nightmare from Outer Space!!" 

(a: Don Heck & Jack Kirby) ★1/2

(r: Fantasy Masterpieces 2)(r: Where Monsters Dwell #12)

"The Earth-Crawlers!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #12)

"The Metal Monster" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #12)

"The Martian Who Stole My Body!" ★1/2

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers)

(r: Fear #7)

"Orogo!! The Nightmare from Outer Space!!" arrives on Earth looking for laborers to bring back with him in his gargantuan spaceship. No one can avert their gaze from Orogo's hypnotic eye and soon the giant is nudging thousands of earthlings aboard his vessel. Only one man can stand up to the mighty Orogo; ironically, it's an old man who spends his time sitting on a park bench and staring off into space. It's 100% predictable why the elderly gent is not swayed by Orogo's pulsating orb, but the secret is played out over six pages. My favorite panel is when Orogo is defied and his entire metallic body shuts down; it looks like he's throwing a tantrum!

Would-be inventor Henry Salt has a nagging wife who wants her hubby to whip up a gizmo that will make them rich. Henry insists he's working on something that will make the world a better place to live. "Pshaw!" exclaims the old ball and chain, "Get to work on making my life easier!" Shrugging off his first impulse to bury a hatchet in the old crow's head, Henry continues his work.

Meanwhile, in Africa, disgraced voodoo witch doctor Tutaku escapes from prison and swears vengeance on all mankind. He heads back to his hut, grabs his magic potion, and stands triumphantly on a cliff overlooking the valley. He dumps the formula out over the land but then, in an unfortunate accident, he is killed by his own secret potion. Down in the valley, the vegetation goes wild, growing to mammoth proportions and absorbing all the water around it. Scientists decree that the world will end soon as a dry and arid wasteland if something isn't done.

Coincidentally, back at Henry Salt's place, the quasi-scientist is demonstrating to a prospective buyer the incredible function of his new invention: a machine that can stop rain from falling in certain areas. What are the chances? Henry's attention is diverted to a nearby TV screen and he learns about the troubles in Africa. After contacting the State Department, Henry is rushed to the "dark continent" by the military and saves the world! Hurrah! I can only thank Henry for having the wherewithal to work on such a niche gizmo or we would all have succumbed to "The Earth-Crawlers!" sooner or later. What would the benefits of such a machine be? I was completely caught up in this silly yarn thanks to the imaginative script and Ditko gloss.

Construction foreman Mason accepts a job in Europe to build a road through an ancient forest but runs afoul of a group of gypsies who place a curse on him. Shortly thereafter, Mason is attacked and stalked by his own bulldozer. Salvation arrives in the form of one of the gypsies who elicits a promise from the construction boss to detour his road away from the forest. A really dumb and suspenseless fantasy yarn with ho-hum graphics from the declining Paul Reinman. It's obvious that when Stan and his brother/writing partner Larry Leiber were cooking up "The Metal Monster!" they thought it perfectly fine to "borrow" from Theodore Sturgeon's "Killdozer!" (a story that would, ironically, pop up fourteen years later in an authorized adaptation in Worlds Unknown #6).

The day is not going great for John Warren. First, his Dalmatian, the uniquely named "Spot," won't behave and then John runs into a rogue Martian (here on Earth avoiding persecution on his home planet) who switches places with our hapless hero. John is stuck inside a gigantic red-orange body and can't make his neighbors see the truth. After all is said and done, the authorities take his word for it when Spot starts licking his gargantuan feet. You can't fool a dog! John gets the Martian to switch bodies and the world is safe again. Well, who knows, since the sequel, "The Martian Returns!," debuts next issue. "The Martian Who Stole My Body!" follows the Lee/Kirby (or is it really just Kirby/Kirby?) formula to a tee; pert near every gigantic menace from here on out will sport swimming trunks to preserve their modesty.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #8

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Monstro... the Menace from the Murky Depths!" ★★1/2

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers)

"The Story of Sammy Snork!" (a: Bill Everett) ★

"I Am the Changing Man!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

"The Runaway Planet!" (a: Doug Wildey) ★

"It Walks by Night!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

The stinkin' commies are up to no good again, this time testing atomic weapons and exposing the sea's creatures to radioactivity. Thus is born "Monstro... the Menace from the Murky Depths!," a gargantuan octopus who slinks his way into a commie port and begins destroying everything around it. In an awkward show of good faith, the American government allows Professor Faraday to fly behind the Iron Curtain to study and hopefully defeat the newly-monikered Monstro!

Faraday dives down into the sea to get a better look at the monster and evidently sees something no one else can see. He surfaces and explains to the stinkin' Red military officials that within 24 hours Monstro will disappear. Taking this as a show of cowardice, the Reds give Faraday a less than appreciative boot in the ass on his way out of town. Sure enough, the next day, the giant octopus disappears and Faraday explains to his Washington boss that he immediately recognized that Monstro had been exposed to a huge dose of radioactivity due to atomic testing and the side effects would only last a day. Chuckling, Faraday turns to the window and hopes that this will be a lesson for the commies: it's not good to mess with atomic weapons (well, unless you're the U.S., I guess).

"Monstro..." isn't more brilliant than "Orogo" or "Mummex" or "Gorgolla," but I really like the Kirby/Ayers vision this time out. Sure, Monstro never shows more than four or five of his deadly tentacles and he's got a funny set of peepers, but he's one of the more dynamic giants we've seen so far. 

By 1960, the three-page sf/f tale had become virtually extinct in the Atlas titles, yet in this issue we have two, neither of which is noteworthy. First up is "The Story of Sammy Snork!," wherein the titular bank robber stows away on a carnival ride purporting to be a Martian spaceship. Guess what? You're not going to believe it but... yep... it's a real spaceship! Sammy goes to Mars and becomes an exhibit in a zoo. Never saw that ending coming. In "The Runaway Planet!," brilliant and really smart Professor Hauptmann insists the planet that's heading for a collision with Earth will never hit. The Prof is sure that God has more of a plan for us than extinction by accident. He's kinda right. What these two short-shorts have in common is some nice art and cliche-riddled writing. Both also look like they may be "vault" stories, which would explain their length.

Ozak is sent from the planet Deth to scout an invasion plan for Earth. Ozak's greatest asset is that he can assimilate any shape or form so he impersonates television reporters and newscasters in order to spread disinformation and sow the seeds of anarchy. Unfortunately for "The Changing Man!," his awesome ability becomes his Achille's heel and his plot is derailed. The reveal is pretty silly, but Ditko (who would create a "Changing Man" character several years later for DC) does his best to keep us turning pages. 

Last up is "It Walks By Night!," wherein we discover that by 1999 mankind has become fat and lazy and depends on robots for all activities. Then, when the robots rebel against their human masters, androids are declared illegal, rounded up, and destroyed. But one lone scientist swims against the tide, building what he considers to be a bigger, stronger robot, ignoring the fact that if he's caught he'll be executed. His plan is discovered when he's testing his new toy out in the woods and the authorities converge on him, destroying the machine and cornering the genius on a high cliff. Opting for death by fall rather than firing squad, our hero (?) takes the dive. Later, after the cops have left, the man rises from the water with a bit of his metal skin showing through. Oh my God, he's a robot too! To be continued next issue. That last panel, of course, is full-on cheat, since we're given no clues throughout that this guy is anything but a brilliant but flawed scientist. Heck's design for the Robot: Mach II in "It Walks..." is just a little too close to that of "Orogo" in JIM #57. This is the second tale this month with a sequel on the horizon.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #8

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"I Dared Defy the Floating Head!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #2)

"I Live Again!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #3)

"I-Am-The-Genie!" (a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Fear #1)

"Mummex---King of the Mummies!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Fear #1)

On a hot summer day in 1965 in New York City, a huge, green, floating head appears in the sky and announces that it is the harbinger of an invasion force from the planet, Aqua Mentorus. Air force jets open fire but the head disappears and reappears over Long Island. The head explains that it can travel by thought alone and also cause destruction, something it demonstrates by willing an empty warehouse to blow up.

Fortunately, a teenager named Bruce quickly deduces that the head is just a projection and its booming voice is coming from loudspeakers. The cops arrest a group of criminals in Central Park who had planned to force an evacuation of the city so they could loot it. The mayor thanks Bruce for teaching everyone the lesson of not panicking in the face of danger.

"I Dared Defy the Floating Head!" is not a good start to this issue. The art by Paul Reinman is below average and the premise is idiotic. Why would New Yorkers not figure out that the head was being projected and the voice was coming from speakers? It's more likely that they would've ignored it.

One of the statues (presumably Evil) from last issue's "I Spent Midnight with the Thing on Bald Mountain!" announces that "I Live Again!" and climbs back up the mountain to find an empty castle. It goes on a rampage, destroying everything in its path. The living statue hops a ship to America and reaches Florida, where it enters a dark place that it thinks it can wait, undisturbed, before wreaking more havoc. Oops! The statue is on a rocket ship that takes off for outer space, never to return.

Well, I guess that's that. There was no sign of the Good statute that also fell off the mountain in the prior story. This story is at least as bad as the one about the floating head and Ditko, whose art is usually good, isn't even trying. If it weren't signed, I'd wonder if someone else drew it.

While he's in prison, Freddie Sykes passes the time by reading fairy tales. His favorite story is the one about the genie, so when he's released, Freddie heads to the library and does some research. He reads about an old gypsy who tossed a bottle with a genie in a swamp, so he heads south, locates the bottle, pulls the cork, and out comes a giant genie!

Freddie demands a solid gold castle, which the genie provides. He asks for a winged horse and gets one. Freddie's demands grow more outrageous: he tells the genie to make the Atlantic Ocean disappear and to blot out the sun. Finally, Freddie decides that he wants to trade places with the genie. The genie agrees, but what Freddie didn't realize is that, once he's a genie, he has to obey orders! The former genie confines the evil Freddie to a bottle and leaves him to ponder his fate.

The story in "I-Am-The-Genie!" is run of the mill but the art is interesting in that it's about 80% Ditko and 20% Kirby. There's the standard Kirby panel at the bottom of page five where a crowd of onlookers gaze up in horror, and the panel in the middle of page six showing the genie's face is pure Kirby, but the rest of the story is much more Ditko than Kirby, and I prefer that.

Paul Fleming's archaeological trip to Egypt takes a surprising turn when "Mummex---King of the Mummies!" suddenly rises from the desert sand. The huge mummy wanders around, looking for something in one pyramid after another before heading to Cairo. He pulls the roof off of a museum and looks inside before giving up and returning to the desert. Fleming discovers that Mummex had a spaceship buried in the sand--he was an alien from another planet and he departed from Earth!

On the planet Andromeda, Mummex--whose real name is Rakka-takes off his mummy bandages, which protected his body during space travel, and announces that he was unable to find any stranded spacemen on Earth. It turns out he's with the Galactic Missing Persons Bureau!

I feel like a broken record. Don Heck's art is pretty nice but the story is dopey. There is never any sense of menace from the enormous mummy, which just lumbers around looking for something and then departs. The revelation that it's an alien is worthy of a big groan.-Jack

Strange Tales #74

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"Gorgolla! The Living Gargoyle!!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #1) (r: Astonishing Tales #22) (r: Where Monsters Dwell #35)

"Beware the Hands of Hundu!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #35)

"I Was Trapped in the Nightmare World" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2

"When the Totem Walks!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #10)

David Hartnell's summer assignment for his architecture class is to research the origin of gargoyles. He travels to Tibet and finds a remote valley with a gigantic stone wall. Behind the wall, David discovers "Gorgolla! The Living Gargoyle!!" The giant stone creature picks David up and nearly talks him to sleep, explaining how all the gargoyles on Earth are actually (surprise, surprise) aliens who traveled here from the faraway planet of Stonus Five and are waiting on buildings for the right time to attack the human race.

Gorgolla explains the awful events that will follow and, despite David's pleas, the creature sends out the signal for the gargoyles to stop hanging out atop buildings and start attacking. To the giant gargoyle's dismay, gargoyles arrive from all over the Earth and attack Gorgolla! Why did they turn on their leader? The gargoyles helpfully explain to David that they watched humans and learned of love and charity, which beats their slave status on Stonus Five. They're happy to serve as guardians of the human race. David goes back to class at summer's end and tells the prof that he was unable to learn the origin of gargoyles, deciding that the story of Gorgolla should be kept secret.

At seven pages, this may be the longest story we've read yet. It's not bad, and the inks by Dick Ayers really bring out all of Kirby's artistic quirks. The gargoyles really look similar to the sort of creatures we'll see in a few years in the superhero comics.

Hundu's paintings bring him fame and fortune, but nothing brings him any closer to Anne, the woman he loves, since she's in love with a writer named Mark Walker. When Anne sends Hundu a telegram that she's marrying Mark, the artist loses his temper and lashes out at the old man who cleans his studio. Mark decides to take a trip to Europe to forget his sorrow. In Germany, he sees an old gypsy man and convinces the fellow to sit for a portrait. The old gypsy gets sick before the portrait is finished and gives Hundu a box of oil paints that will make any picture he creates come true!

Hundu discovers that the paints work and uses them to create a picture of his rival, Mark, in prison on Death Row. After starting on a self-portrait of himself as dictator of the world, Hundu leaves his studio for the night. While he's gone, the old cleaner accidentally knocks the painting out the window and it falls three floors to the ground. As a result, Hundu lies broken on the floor, unable to reach the magic paint. Once it is all washed down the drain, everything Hundu magically created disappears, and Mark and Anne live happily ever after.

"Beware the Hands of Hundu" doesn't even try to make sense. The first thing Hundu paints is a silly hat on a picture of himself, in order to confirm that he was a fool for dealing with the gypsy, but the next thing he paints (of course) is a treasure chest filled with jewels. He then paints Mark on death row, followed by a picture of the Empire State Building upside down! In the end, if the paint's disappearance makes everything go back to normal, why is Hundu still injured? This is not one of Don Heck's better efforts.

Mr. Brown has a theory that people have similar dreams because there is a dream world that everyone visits while they sleep. He goes to sleep and enters the dream world, where he encounters ghostly figures and strange things. In the end, the ghostly figures reveal that they are afraid of him and consider him a nightmare creature. He awakens and wonders if life is but a dream.

"I Was Trapped in the Nightmare World" is slightly better than watching paint dry, but not by much. It's too bad this wasn't assigned to Ditko, who would have made the dream world more interesting.

Hunk and Bull escape from prison one night and make their way to a small Indian village by dawn, where they hold the natives at gunpoint and demand food. The convicts decide that they will have to kill all the Indians to eliminate them as witnesses, so an old man asks a large totem pole to come to life. That night, Hunk and Bull discover that, "When the Totem Walks!," it's coming after them! Bullets don't stop it, so the cons head back to the prison, thinking they'll be safe, but the totem pole bends the bars on the prison window and... continued next issue!

It's a little far-fetched to think of a large totem pole chasing anyone--it does more of a hop or a teeter-totter than a walk--but Ditko pulls it off and the story is reasonably enjoyable. Will we start to see more continued stories now?-Jack

On Thursday...
Peter Openly
Invites Derision

And Next Week...
Beware of...
RRO!!!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 184: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 169

January-February 1960

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #56

Cover by Jack Kirby 

"I Brought Zog Back to Life!"  (a: Don Heck) ★★1/2

(r: Where Creatures Roam #6)

"I Spent a Night in the Haunted Lighthouse!" 

(a: Joe Sinnott) ★1/2

(r: Fear #4)

"I Planted the Seeds of Doom!"

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

(r: Where Creatures Roam #6)

"I Shrunk Away to Nothing!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #6)

A gigantic snow-white monster encased in a block of ice suddenly appears in the North Atlantic. Helpfully, the thing's name, "Zog," is etched into the ice. The world's leading scientists counsel the world powers and strongly advise that the creature not be tampered with. For if it should escape its enclosure, the world would be in peril!

Scientist Charles Burton does not agree with his colleagues; Burton believes the thing should be released and then studied for hostile behavior. No one will listen to him, not even the huge audience that watches him argue his position on the Ed Sullivan Show. No, it will be up to Burton to discover if Zog is a rampaging beast or a passive visitor. Burton rents a plane, drops a "thermo-liquifying bomb" on the behemoth, and screams "I Brought Zog Back to Life!"

The military catches Burton and he's quickly sentenced to die for treason. Just as he's about to be ventilated, the execution is halted and Burton is brought to a council room where the brass and a select set of scientists are watching Zog on a TV broadcast. Remarkably, the beast is not destroying everything in its path--quite the opposite. Zog dips below the surface and rises several minutes later, once again encased in ice with the word "Zog" above its head. Burton finally sees the truth: Zog is an alien who got lost in space, landed on Earth, and quickly froze itself. You see, its home planet is made of ice and the word "Zog" is not its name but rather the equivalent of our "SOS." At least that's what know-it-all Charles Burton theorizes.

Hard to argue with the guy who lays it all out so clearly in the final panels of "Zog" in a speech so well thought out you wonder why Chuck didn't know all this before he thermo-bombed the big guy. I enjoyed this one despite the fact that it's the rare giant monster story where the destruction is imagined rather than played out. Don Heck isn't an artist I would associate with giant monster tales but his work here is okay.

John is fascinated by the old abandoned lighthouse and his buddies tell him the word on the street is that... it's haunted! Later that day, John is at sea in a small boat when it capsizes during a brutal storm and he's forced to swim to the lighthouse. Once inside, John looks around but finds no ghostly figures. Those arrive shortly thereafter on the ghostly boat that anchors just off the dock. John hides and witnesses a terrifying scene: ghost pirates ransacking the lighthouse and loading provisions onto their ship. The next day, John screams "I Spent a Night in the Haunted Lighthouse!" to his friends and, of course, they laugh... until he produces a life preserver labelled The Flying Dutchman! 100% predictable, but the sight of the pirates loading ghostly cargo onto their ship is pretty cool. What's in the crates? Where are they stored in the lighthouse? Do the provisions replenish themselves automatically?

While being chased by the dinosaur-like creatures on Planet X-41, astronaut Hank Garnett barely has time to stop and pick some of the exotic flowers he finds along the way. Once he makes it back to Earth, Hank finds the seeds absorb a whole lot more water than Earth seeds but eventually grow to be gorgeous flowers. Hank gets a brainstorm: why not sell the thousands of seeds that fall from the flower and make a bundle? Just as things are looking up for Hank, he gets back to his luxury apartment to witness an awe-inspiring event: his flower transforms into one of the dinosaurs of Planet X-41! Before Hank has to time to scream "I Was the Guy What Planted the Seeds of Doom!" he's being chased around his apartment by a T-Rex. 

Luckily, the beast collapses due to dehydration. "Of course!" reasons Hank, "Back on X-41, it rains every fifteen minutes!" With luck, Hank is able to round up the thousands of seeds he sold and he tosses those and the big guy into his rocket ship and heads for X-41, having learned that there are some areas of botany man was never meant to tamper with. Hey, it's a dopey strip, but it's got all kinds of energy and the twist, that the dinos grow from flowers, is an original one. I love how, in the final panels, Hank and his fellow astronauts agree that they should be more careful with what they bring back from now on.

At the same time Brad becomes bored of the world around him (having experienced adventure in every port in the world), he gets word that his brother is gravely ill and must have costly surgery. To work up the dough, Brad answers an ad placed by Professor Ace, whose new machine will revolutionize... something... if he can just get it to work! He needs guinea pigs, which is where Brad comes in; Ace will pay Brad ten grand to be zapped by his gizmo and shrunken down to microscopic size. The egghead has zapped animals in the past but now he wants to go for the gold. The only problem is, none of the test patients ever came back!

"Hang it!" exclaims Brad, "I'm in no matter what!" When Brad gets laser-beamed by the Shrinkobob, he vanishes immediately and, sure enough, keeps shrinking. Eventually, he ends up in an alternate universe version of Earth and wonders if he'll ever see his real home again. "I Shrunk Away to Nothing!" must be some sort of Marvel milestone as it's the first (that I can recall) to posit the theories of Earth-1 and -2 and... The only question I have is: why does he stop shrinking right there? Shouldn't he keep minimizing?-Peter

Tales of Suspense #7

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"I Come from the Shadow World!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Strange Tales Annual #1)(r: Chamber of Chills #14)

"I Know the Power of... the Genie!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Crypt of Shadows #15)

"My Name is... Robot X!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"I Was Trapped Inside of the Martian Maze!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★

(r: Tomb of Darkness #15)

"I Fought the Molten Man-Thing!" 

 (a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Journey Into Mystery #15)

A shadow man from another galaxy lands on Earth ahead of an invasion armada to see if earthlings have the type of weapon that can defeat the intruders. "I Come from the Shadow World!" Casey, a really smart but "ordinary" electrician comes up with a way to destroy the beast and save the planet. Some nice Ditko graphics but a pedestrian script. I'm not sure why the world's biggest-brained scientists couldn't come up with the kind of elementary trap Casey devised. 

After her Pop puts her over his knee and gives her a good spankin' (where was Wertham when we really needed him?), naughty little Nancy wishes with all her might and a genie appears in her bedroom (Wertham material again), granting her as many wishes as his new boss can make. Once she's exhausted the little stuff (relocating the Eiffel Tower and flooding the Sahara), she wishes that she were the only person left on Earth. That gets old after a while and she tells the genie she wants it all to be back the way it was before he popped in. The genie agrees but warns he will not be back since little Nancy has exhausted him! Wish granted, Nancy hears her father warning her he's about to put her across his knee. A fun little tongue in cheek fantasy, "I Know the Power of... the Genie!" veers from the usual formula and makes a precocious pre-teen the ultimate power in town.

In the lame "My Name is... Robot X!," it's 1990 and master criminal Joe Kane begins using a robot to help him with his heists. The big tin guy hates what he's doing, but Joe is his boss, so he keeps right on bending bars and breaking open safes. That is, until his joints rust due to a lack of oil right in the middle of a heist. Looks like Joe's crime spree will have to be put on hold. In 1975, the Martians have put trade talks on hold until we simple earthlings can figure out how to get out of their mystery maze box. Earth's smartest scientists give the box a crack, but no dice. Looks like we'll have to do without those Martian hovercrafts for one more year. "Hang on just a sec'!" exclaims simple spaceship steward, Will, "Can I have a go at this thing?" And just like that, Willy becomes the only man who doesn't scream "I Was Trapped Inside of the Martian Maze!" 

After a particularly harrowing close call, pilot Frank Harper loses his nerve and turns in his wings. His boss talks him into taking a vacation and thinking the situation over. Frank agrees and heads to the Pacific island known as Napuka for a little R 'n' R, but his beach time is interrupted by the eruption of the island's long-dormant volcano. Out of the lava lurches the Molten Man-Thing (or "Man-Thing" for short), a living glop of lava that heads for the nearest native village.

Using the intuition of a pilot, Frank realizes that lava cannot just get up and walk, so something must be inside the beast, something like a living engine. Frank manages to lure the thing into a wind tunnel at a local airstrip. The cool air proves to be too much for lava thing and it heads back to its home inside the volcano, leaving Frank to explain the scientific hows and whys to a bunch of natives who have no idea what he's saying. That's OK, though, I was having a hard time making heads or tails of the baloney he was spouting, too. Like all the best Atlas monster destroyers, Frank just happens to know what makes this one tick. The Kirby-Ditko team (I see lots of Kirby but very little Ditko) do what they can on "I Fought the Molten Man-Thing!" but there are way too many talking heads and not enough Molto.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #7

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"He Waits for Us in the Glacier!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Strange Tales Annual #2) (r: Where Creatures Roam #2)

"We Met in the Swamp!" (a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #5)

"I Lived a Ghost Story!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #5)

"I Saw the Other World!" (a: Dick Ayers) ★

(r: Fantasy Masterpieces #1)

"I Spent the Night with the Thing on Bald Mountain!" 

(a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Where Creatures Roam #2)

While cruising near the North Pole, an atomic sub encounters a giant glacier and uses gamma rays to melt through it. This releases a giant creature that lifts the sub up and then uses mental telepathy to tell a strange story. The creature explains that it is an alien from another planet and it has spent a million years waiting for the major life forms on Earth to die out. First, the dinosaurs disappeared, then cavemen, and on through the various civilizations of mankind that warred with each other. The creature warns that atomic weapons could finally wipe out the human race and, when they do, it will rise from the glacier and claim Earth for its planet. The creature fades from sight and the sub commander ponders its warning.

"He Waits for Us in the Glacier!" is a combination of a boring history lesson and a cautionary tale. The story is nothing new, but Don Heck draws a nice giant creature.

A reporter journeys deep into Black Tree Swamp to interview an old man named Lem Whipple, who spends his time looking up at the sky. Lem explains that he's waiting for aliens to return and confesses that "We Met in the Swamp!" Years ago, an alien ship landed in the swamp and got stuck. Six aliens emerged and offered Lem their greatest treasure in exchange for tools to free the ship. He complied and they gave him a box and took off. Once Lem realized that, when the aliens return, it would be to conquer mankind, he vowed never to look inside the box and to keep watching the skies until it was time to sound the warning about the aliens' return. The reporter opens the box to find only air, which Lem realizes is the most important thing to anyone traveling through space.

A bit of a letdown, but I'm enjoying this new Atlas development where Ditko inks Kirby. Look at the face of the man on the cover--pure Ditko, while the giant creature is all Kirby. In this story, Ditko succeeds in smoothing some of Kirby's rough edges and improves some of the faces without taking too much of the Kirby style away.

A real estate agent named Howard tries to talk a prospective buyer named Lang out of purchasing the old Greenwood place because it's haunted. Lang insists on checking out the house and agrees to spend a night there. At night, ghosts appear and make a believer out of Lang. The next day, he tells Howard he wouldn't buy the house for anything. That night, Howard heads to the Lang house and joins his fellow ghosts, glad that they avoided having a human move in.

"I Lived a Ghost Story!" reminds me of the sort of tale found in 1970s Charlton ghost comics--safe, corny, and not particularly well illustrated.

A cameraman runs into the street, shouting "I Saw the Other World!" Explaining that he's discovered a parallel dimension, the cameraman says he found a most unusual camera the day before. When he took random photos on the street and developed them, he saw an ultramodern city and concluded that it exists side by side with his own. The cameraman supposes that the camera came from that world, but the man he's talking to doesn't believe him. Just then, the sky gets dark, a lightning bolt strikes, and a hand emerges from an electrical force field and grabs the camera. The man that the cameraman was talking to has also disappeared! The cameraman thinks he imagined the whole thing. In the parallel dimension, the man who disappeared is now in the position of the cameraman, trying to convince a stranger on the street that another dimension exists.

Dick Ayers's art is even worse than Paul Reinman's, and this four-pager was a bit confusing at the end. I finally figured out what happened, though. The big hand coming from the sky reminds me of a Batman story with a big green hand coming out of the sky.

A successful sculptor named Anton George moves to a castle atop Bald Mountain in Central Europe, where he creates giant statues of two figures representing Good and Evil, locked in battle with each other. During a storm, the Evil statute is struck by lighting and springs to life, chasing George around the castle before grabbing him and hurling him at the Good statue. Good suddenly comes to life and puts George down safely before battling with Evil, a fight that ends in both falling to their death. George wonders what caused Good to come to life and save him from Evil.

For my money, Steve Ditko is single handedly making these comics worth reading at this point. "I Spent the Night with the Thing on Bald Mountain!" is really stretching things as a title, since the mountain is never identified, the statute is hardly a "thing," and the sculptor spends a few minutes being chased by it--hardly "spending the night." In any case. Ditko gives it his all and makes it worth a look.-Jack

Strange Tales #73

Cover by Jack Kirby & Bill Everett

"Grottu, King of the Insects!" (a: Jack Kirby & Bill Everett) ★★

(r: Strange Tales Annual #1)(r: Where Monsters Dwell #3)

"I Saw the End of the World!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Fantasy Masterpieces #3)

"I Was Captured by the Mole Men!" (a: Don Heck) ★★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #14)

"I Am a Walking Time Bomb" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

A reporter named Frank receives an urgent telegram from his friend, a scientist named Lynn, alerting him to the biggest story of the century! Frank hops on a jet plane and soon is with Lynn, who tells him that an African native wrote to Lynn about an army ant that is as big as a house and has human intelligence! Frank and Lynn voyage for three days to Mombasa, Kenya, before making their way into the jungle.

The native, Kasenga, tells them that, months ago, Commies came to Kenya and conducted an atomic bomb test. Not long after, the natives saw a swarm of army ants, and one of them was "Grottu, King of the Insects!" Grottu led the army ants on a path of destruction and communicated by mental telepathy. Frank, Lynn, and Kasenga soon locate the army ants and Grottu and find that they are headed to Mombasa to destroy it! The men convince everyone to evacuate the city, but when the ants arrive, Grottu leads them to the port. It plans to spread destruction to other countries! Luckily, Frank has a plan. He lures Grottu to a warehouse, where a huge amount of sugar is dumped on top of him. The rest of the army ants come scurrying for the sugar and smother Grottu, killing him and eliminating the menace.

I was remined of D.W. Griffith's 1909 short film, A Corner in Wheat, where the villain is smothered by a load of grain dumped on top of him. I guess we've officially reached the Atlas era of giant monsters created by atomic blasts, and it's a relief to read something other than alien invasion stories or tales about people who suddenly develop powers and want to use them to get rich quick. Everett's inks let Kirby be Kirby and don't alter the panels quite as much as Ditko's inks do.

When a scientist figures out how to build a time machine, the scientific community says it's too dangerous and the military shuts him down. He begins to work in a hidden cave and builds the device, with which he travels to the future, stopping in 2009, 2109, 2209, 2959, etc. What he finds is that the development of civilization goes in an endless loop, with mankind advancing, going backward, and advancing again. In the end, he finds himself back in his lab, again figuring out how to build a time machine.

Ditko's regular panels are good enough, but his depictions of the scientist in his time machine, traveling through space and into the future, really stand out in "I Saw the End of the World!" Ditko's first Captain Atom story would hit the stands a month later, and I see strong similarities in this tale to that later work.

A young detective in the NYPD argues with his more seasoned colleague about the merits of acting quickly or taking time to think. Just then, a subway guard rushes in to report the disappearance of a subway train filled with passengers between 42nd and 59th Streets! The detective goes underground to investigate and finds a tunnel branching off from the regular line. He follows the tunnel down into the Earth and comes face to face with the  mole men! The detective manages to escape capture, board the subway train, and guide it back onto the regular line, arriving at the 59th Street station. To his surprise, the passengers are not happy, informing him that the mole men were members of an advanced race that was going to share knowledge about how to live underground, something that could come in handy in case of an atomic war. The young detective, chastised, admits to his older partner that sometimes it's not good to act without thinking.

This is the kind of story I've been waiting for! Although the end is a bit much, there's some thought behind what happens and Heck's art is above average. In a sense, the writer takes bits and pieces of Atlas cliches and weaves them together into something that seems new and more interesting.

A robot from Xenon Major lands on Earth and makes his way to the U.N., where he announces that "I Am a Walking Time Bomb" and he will explode in 24 hours! The choice is to surrender to the other planet's conquering forces or to be utterly destroyed. People are skeptical, so the robot is taken to a hospital for examination, where he is surprised to see that Earthlings care for their elderly. On Xenon Major, people are killed when they're too old to work. Out on the street in NYC, the robot is again surprised when a mother protects her child; on Xenon Major, no one risks his life for another. Eventually, the robot decides that people of Earth should be left alone and he heads speedily home to explode and destroy his own unworthy planet. At the U.N., representatives of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. shake hands, promising to stop their conflict.

Not as good as the story before it, but still not bad! Reinman's art isn't as strong as Heck's at this point, and the story features some of the cliches we've come to expect from Atlas, but perhaps the new, six-page length allows the writers to develop their themes a bit more.-Jack

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Cimarron Street Books is thrilled to bring you Expanding Suspense — your comprehensive guide to all three seasons of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963-1965); exploring each episode from the perspective of the story that inspired it. Hitchcock expert Jack Seabrook digs into the original source material and details how it compares to the filmed result. This is an indispensable companion to the classic television series. All 93 hour-long episodes are covered, featuring stories by the likes of Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, John D. MacDonald, Richard Matheson, Henry Slesar, Cornell Woolrich, and more!

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Cimarron Street Books is thrilled to bring you Sources of Suspense — your comprehensive guide to all seven seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962); exploring each episode from the perspective of the story that inspired it. Hitchcock expert Jack Seabrook digs into the original source material and details how it compares to the filmed result. This is an indispensable companion to the classic television series. All 268 half-hour episodes are covered, featuring stories by the likes of Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Fredric Brown, John Collier, Roald Dahl, Evan Hunter, Henry Slesar, Cornell Woolrich and more!

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Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 172: Marvel/Atlas Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 157

August-October 1958

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Tales #64 (August)

Cover by Joe Maneely

"The Secret Laboratory of Dr. Domino" 

(a: Al Williamson) ★★★

"What is Monium?" (a: John Forte) ★★★

"So This Is Mars!" (a: Bob Powell) ★1/2

"The Silent City!" (a: Jim Mooney) ★

"What on Earth?" (a: Bob McCarthy) ★★★★

"The Last Warning!" (a: Vic Carrabotta) ★★

Dr. Domino has a formula that can make years melt away so, naturally, every woman in the country wants it. Experts swear he's a fraud but admit all research on the good Doc proves he's really eighty years old. He's looking pretty good! But Dr. Domino needs time to whip up the potion; time and money. He sells the beverage to the highest bidder, but only he knows the whole thing is a fraud; the mixture is nothing more than water and a bit of Cuervo; the women who have become young in front of his audiences were actresses paid by Domino to put on a show.

Domino will be a rich man after the latest show and, while gloating one night in his lab, he is visited by a sorceress who claims she has the power to do anything but turn back the hands of time. She looks to Domino for the answer, but when he admits he's a phony, the woman exacts a heavy toll on the charlatan. "The Secret Laboratory of Dr. Domino" is more fun than we've had around this place in a long, long time. It's got the feel of a Marvel villain origin story (Domino notes that his appearance is all down to "an accident when working in a laboratory at the age of twenty-one!") with the bonus of dynamite Williamson art. 

"What is Monium?" is a clever little gem about a prospector who stumbles across the rare titular mineral and becomes a magician to make a living. The act is Zorani tossing an object through one hoop and that object materializes through a second hoop somewhere in the same arena. Not a bad way to make a living. A crook discovers the truth behind The Great Zorani's act and steals the Monium hoops to use in jewelry store heists until Zorani uses the ol' noggin to reacquire his props. A charming 1940s-style fantasy with a lot of imagination and some decent Forte art (something we don't see often enough). Rather unlike the usual Atlas character who has stumbled across a gold mine, Zarani seems happy enough pulling off his parlor tricks rather than breaking into Fort Knox. 

Bob Powell's art is the only reason to turn the page on "So This Is Mars!," a witless three-pager about a movie producer and his actor who are working on a film about life on Mars and find themselves teleported to the red planet for no obvious reason. Well, there is a reason, it turns out, but not a good one. In "The Silent City!," Rudwigsburg's clock tower manager Gustave Tarnal discovers a way to stop time and rob his neighbors blind, but clever Gustave, in the end, is not so clever.

Brilliant genius scientist Albert Feldgurt has a wild theory that the other planets in the solar system are barren because they are awaiting a "seeding" and the pods that will reinvigorate those worlds are us humans. Poor Al gets the same kind of reception for his theories that John and Yoko got for Two Virgins; the egghead is cast out of his scientist treehouse and forced to roam the streets penniless. But good things come to those who wait and, years later, Al is hailed as a messiah who reintroduced love to the world. People begin disappearing and their souls travel the galaxy to...

Well, we don't know exactly where those souls end up, since the final panel for "What on Earth?" leaves it all very hazy, which is the ending I'd choose. This could be the first "hippie" comic strip; Dr. Feldgurt's transformation from renowned scientist to bum on the street to Christ reborn is a trippy hoot, unlike much else you'll see in this era. I might be full of blueberry muffins, but I think "What on Earth?" is thought-provoking and spiritual, the kind of story that would fit well with the equally deep stories found in EC's science fiction comics. Easily one of the two or three best post-code tales I've read. This was Bob McCarty/McCarthy's 26th and final appearance in an Atlas genre zine.

Last up, Ham radio operator Don Reide gets a frantic SOS call from a young man trapped in a mining collapse. Coincidentally, Don had been trapped in the very same mine decades before and knows all the ways out. Don successfully helps the kid through the mines before realizing he's talking to the younger version of himself. Don ain't too bright if it took him that long to figure out what was going on, because I knew long before "The Last Warning!"-Peter

World of Fantasy #13 (August)

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Unsolid Man" (a: Joe Orlando) ★

(r: Giant-Size Werewolf #5)

"What Happened on the Mountain!" (a: Richard Bassford) ★★

"The Man in the Cyclotron" (a: uncredited) ★★

"The Chance I Took!" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★★★

"The Mysterious Inheritance" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"When Marty Moves" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #7)

Arnold Benson is a stinkin' Commie; there just ain't no two ways about it. But worse, he's speaking out his filthy thoughts and making the kids in town think beyond their "I Like Ike" buttons. This sort of thing can't be tolerated in a free society like 1958 America, so the cops chase Arnold out of town and into a military research facility.

It's there that Arnie finds the experimental "rocket sled" that supposedly can travel at speeds faster than... well, gosh, really fast! As he hops into the sled, the Commie hunters let off a round and damage the sled. Suddenly, Arnold is propelled forward and his entire life changes in the blink of an eye. Hard to imagine Gaines and Feldstein ever writing this kind of propaganda for EC, but Stan always seemed to be one of those guys who waved the flag if it meant more profits for the company. "The Unsolid Man" reads like something whipped up for a Joe McCarthy tribute.

George and Ed know Twin Mountain is packed full of delicious uranium and all they have to do is convince the old man who owns the real estate to sell to them. The old man agrees, with one proviso: George and Ed must remain bosom buddies the entire time they own the peaks and, if one of the men becomes greedy and evil, his share will disappear. Well, the contract gets signed, but halfway up the mountain, Ed gets guilt pangs and wants to cut the old man in on the fortune. George snickers and his thought balloon tells the real story: he aims to kill Ed and keep the uranium for himself. Bad mistake. There's nothing remotely original in the plot of "What Happened on the Mountain!," but I dig Richard Bassford's retro art. This looks like it might have been written and shoved into the vault in 1949. Highly unlikely, since Bassford was still just a pup in his early 20s when this hit the stands in 1958. "What Happened..." was the artist's one and only sale to the Atlas sf/f titles.

Joe Ryzik works at the university of a small European (read that as Commie) country, servicing the school's Cyclotron. One day, a mishap leads to Joe entering the Cyclotron and being bombarded by a whole lot of radiation. This changes Joe dramatically, making his brain ten times the size it was pre-accident and enabling him to create weapons that would not be created until 2056! But his wife, Rena, doesn't like the change in her hubby and asks Joe to change back to his old self again. Joe complies and enters the Cyclotron a second time, where he is again bombarded by a whole lot of bad stuff. But I assure you, there's a happy ending. Joe gets his regular forehead back and all those nasty ray guns and nuclear whizbangs head back to the future. "The Man in the Cyclotron" is more cautionary anti-Russkie material from Carl Wessler and contains some interesting scientific factoids I'd not have known otherwise.

Fleming is the president and CEO of the "biggest cereal manufacturer in the world," but he just can't get happy thanks to the daily headlines about juvenile delinquency, bank robbery, and the rising price of milk. Can the man not find peace in all his success? So, he's out walking in the woods when he's approached by a group of strangely dressed men who introduce themselves as ambassadors from the United Galaxy. Their mission is to change the American way of "combativeness, intolerance, and suspicion" to that of a calm, trusting people. If this could be accomplished, then Earth would be allowed to enter the United Galaxy Union. Would Fleming help the aliens reach their goal?

Believing it the right thing to do, Fleming agrees to let the visitors dump a special chemical into the Fleming line of breakfast foods, a potion that will guarantee a more peaceful, gentle race. The chemical does the trick and humanity is reduced to blubbering, cheerful idiots. As the flying saucers show up, Earth smiles as one but Fleming, who never ingested any of the chemical himself, wonders if this is a great new age or if the aliens used him to pave the way for an invasion. And "The Chance I Took" leaves us hanging there, never answering Fleming's fearful, cynical question, to the delight of this old comics fan. Too many of the 1958 Atlas tales close out with a ray of sunshine and hope for a better day, so it's nice to read a tale that makes you pause.

Jack Holten attends the reading of his uncle's will, only to be shocked by the news that Uncle Jim left him nothing. Bewildered by "The Mysterious Inheritance," Jack does what any Atlas Universe citizen might do: he travels the world, researching his ancestors. What he finds will rock his world and help him realize that Uncle Jim left him the greatest inheritance of all. Zzzzz. Last and possibly least is the dreadful "When Marty Moves" about an old maid who accidentally gives life to a plastic doll and finds happiness for the first time in her life. Then her next door neighbor finds out about the doll and takes him for a little ride to a local bank for an unauthorized withdrawal. Maudlin script and dull graphics.-Peter

Strange Tales #65 (October)

Cover by Joe Maneely

"Afraid to Open the Door!" (a: Dan Loprino) ★★1/2

"The House That Cried!" (a: Christopher Rule) ★

"The Ragged Man" (a: Richard Doxsee) ★★

"The Terrible Tree!" (a: John Forte) ★★★

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

"When the Curtain Falls!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★1/2

A crook named Morse bursts into a strange room, looking for enough money to guarantee that he can avoid the cops and a stint in prison. In the room sits a bearded old man, who welcomes the crook and identifies himself as John Hayes. To the crook's surprise, Hayes explains that he's a scientist who invented a room that serves as an entranceway to a frightening world that is inhabited by scary creatures.

Hayes points out that there are two doors in the room--one leads to the normal world and the other to the scary world. The problem is, he doesn't know which is which and he is "Afraid to Open the Door!" because picking the wrong one would be disastrous. Hayes has been trapped in the room for a decade, afraid to make the wrong choice, and now shares his predicament with the crook. I enjoyed this story! The highlight for me is the panel I've reproduced here, where the scientist peers into the other world and sees one of the scary creatures. There's only one problem: if the scientist was able to open the door, see the other world, and run back to safety, why can't he do it again?

A hobo named Smitty happens on a shack and asks Elvira Lanson, who lives there, for a meal. She's happy for the company, but when he's finished eating, Smitty pulls a gun and demands she hand over all her money. He begins to hear a strange sound and she explains that it's coming from "The House That Cried!" Elvira tells Smitty that she and her husband were dispossessed when he got sick and couldn't make the payments. After that, everyone who moved in discovered that it was impossible to fix up the house, since it would return to its decrepit condition overnight. Smitty listens patiently, but when Elvira tells him that her husband's ghost emerged from a mirror and chased off a gambler, that's just too much. The hobo changes his mind when she walks through a closet door and he realizes she's a ghost! He runs out of the house in terror. I just can't get excited about Christopher Rule's art and this story is a three-page shaggy dog tale that doesn't go anywhere.

Otis Larr is rich, obese, and cruel; he laughs when his ex-partner, John Norwood, requests money to pay for an operation for his wife. Larr relaxes on his yacht, instructing his brother Hubert to swab the deck. Suddenly, Larr's Geiger counter begins to click like crazy and the businessman decides to buy up the rights to a nearby island and the water around it. On the island, he meets "The Ragged Man" who owns it and agrees to pay $1,000,000 for the rights. Larr goes on to buy up rights for all the land nearby, since his Geiger counter keeps going off. Finally, a surveyor breaks the news that there is no uranium anywhere in the area. Hubert reveals that the Geiger counter was set off by a nuclear powered submarine prowling the waters underneath the yacht!

A pretty good twist helps this story end on a satisfying note, as the main character is highly reminiscent of a certain current U.S. president. Doxsee isn't given much to work with but still gives it the old college try.

Every night, Ross Evans sneaks out and cuts a bit more across the vast expanse of a giant redwood named Goliath. Why? One day, it topples over and crushes his house, allowing him to collect a bundle on his home insurance policy. But "The Terrible Tree!" gets its revenge, as Ross soon finds out. A wooden elevator he's in crashes to the bottom of the shaft, the wooden ladder of a fire truck attacks him, 

a wooden picture frame on the wall above him falls off and nearly hits him. Realizing all of the objects must have been fashioned from wood taken from Goliath, Ross buys a motorboat and tries to escape on the water, only to discover that the vessel is also fashioned from redwood.

I don't know what's come over me, but I enjoyed this story, perhaps because of the absurdity of it all. The idea of cutting down a redwood so it will fall on your house and you can collect insurance is goofy enough, but the series of events that subsequently befall Ross made me smile. You'd think the dope would check to see if the boat were made of wood before he bought it! John Forte seems to have been having fun, and the last panel provides no escape for Ross. I like that there was no happy ending!

Bob was thrilled when the gang at the office bought him a special birthday present: an ancient book on wizardry from 1596 that they ordered by mail from England. A paper in the book shows that Bob is descended from a witch who could doom people with her words and he has inherited her power. Bob tried it out and it worked; he told one co-worker to go to blazes, and the man was surrounded with flames; he told the rest to get lost, and they disappeared! Now Bob is "The Perfectly Frightened Man" as he relates his day at work to his wife, Helen. She insists it's all a practical joke and that the book says it was printed in the U.S.A. in 1596, which is impossible. Bob responds, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle," and guess what he turns into!

Robert Sale's art always turns me off, and this weird tale is no exception. I do like the idea of the gang at the office writing to a bookseller in England for a centuries-old book on witchcraft to give Bob as a birthday gift, and I like his sassy wife, but the end, where he's a monkey, is silly. Why does the book say it was printed in the U.S.?

Chief stagehand Otto Groat watches from backstage as Dick, the leading man in a play, romances lovely Carlotta Delys before plunging a dagger into his own heart. When Otto observes the pair's romance becoming real offstage, he substitutes a real dagger for the fake one and Dick nearly kills himself during a performance. Backstage, Otto is trapped in a room when a teapot boils over and extinguishes the flame of a gas jet. Too bad the only thing he has to force open the door is the rubber dagger that should have been onstage!

There's nothing strange about "When the Curtain Falls!," a story that would fit better in a romance comic. I'm a fan of Baily's art but his heart wasn't in this one.-Jack

World of Fantasy #14 (October)

Cover by Joe Maneely

"The Three Dead Flies!" (a: Jim Infantino) ★★

"The Strange Escape" (a: Don Perlin) ★1/2

"Lost in the City That Doesn't Exist!" (a: Howard O'Donnell) ★1/2

"The Mole Mystery!" (a: Jim Mooney) ★1/2

"Deadlock!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"The Yogi's Secret" (a: Dick Giordano) ★★1/2

Chet Harron forces a scientist named John Eager to sign over the rights to his miraculous serum to Chet, ignoring John's pleas that he needs the serum to save his sick son. Years pass, and Harron builds a big, successful drug company. One day, the old man tells his scientists to create a youth serum to make him young again. John Eager turns up, looking not a day over thirty and telling Harron that he has invented the exact youth serum Harron craves.

Eager gives Harron a jar containing three flies whose lives have been prolonged by the serum, and Harron signs over the rights to his company to Eager. After he signs, Harron sees "The Three Dead Flies!" and angrily smashes the vial of serum. Eager explains that the flies just needed another dose and Harron has destroyed the only sample of the youth serum. Later, Eager visits the grave of his father, revealing that he is really the son of the man Harron swindled.

Am I nuts? Are the Atlas stories starting to improve? This was is pretty good. Jim Infantino will never be among my favorite artists, but the tale of Harron and Eager held my interest and had a decent, if predictable, twist ending.

Ivan Krull started a war against the United Countries of the World and lost, so he was sentenced to life in prison. He kept inciting riots in jail, so he was sent to the sub-basement to serve out his time in isolation. After years of solitude, he hears a sound of rushing water and digs down to attempt "The Strange Escape" on an underground river. Emerging into the light, Ivan discovers that he is alone on Earth, since everyone else emigrated to a new planet!

Krull's story is straightforward and over quickly, in a mere three pages. We've seen the bit about everyone leaving Earth before and Perlin's art is as expected, with one panel that looks so much like the work of Jack Davis that it could be a swipe.

Two tycoons named Carl Mason and Earl Borden are flying to Rio de Janeiro, planning a coup that will allow them to take over most of the world's industry. A storm causes the plane to crash in the jungle, where the duo encounter bald giants who take them to a futuristic city made of plastic. The locals reveal that they are mutants who control everything by brain power, so when Mason and Borden hold them at gunpoint and demand that they come back to civilization with them, the mutants wipe every memory of the encounter from the men's brains. The duo find themselves back in the plane, no longer desiring world domination.

A dull story is not enlivened by Howard O'Donnell's art. When I see big, bald heads on mutants, I always think of Curt Swan's big, bald heads from various issues of Superman comics, and O'Donnell's baldies can't compare.

Cook and Moore use a giant drill-car to drill down 1000 miles below the Earth's surface. They find a city of gold, but their greed makes them lie to the professor, who invented the drill-car, and say they found nothing. The professor dies of a broken heart and Cook and Moore buy the drill-car for a cheap price and head back down to the golden city. After loading the car full of gold, they discover that every metal in the area turns to gold. Unfortunately, that means their drill-car is now gold and thus too soft to drill back to the surface. They resolve to wait till the effects wear off, having learned a lesson about greed.

That drill-car looks awfully familiar doesn't it? I wonder if Stan and Jack had "The Mole Mystery!" handy when they created the Mole Man story a few years later in Fantastic Four. The ending is sappy. Also, if they drilled down, wouldn't they have left a big hole that they could return to the surface through?

Fred Palmer invents a machine that can control men's thoughts. He sells it to the rich and powerful Hubert Winslow, who uses the machine to force others to sell their assets to him at a steep discount. Fred falls in love with Winslow's pretty daughter, Joyce, and soon realizes what Hubert is doing, but when the inventor confronts the wealthy man, Winslow uses the machine to control Fred's thoughts so that the inventor lies to Joyce and claims he was trying to extort her father. Joyce visits her Pop and knocks the machine off his desk, smashing it and ending his ability to control men's minds. In the end everyone apologizes, shakes hands, and promises to be better.

Joe Orlando's panels are solid and the story does veer into the realm of fantasy, in that it involves a thought control machine, but the title "Deadlock!" is an odd choice. The introductory caption suggests that Joyce breaks a deadlock between Winslow and Palmer, but that's stretching a point.

An Englishman named Clyde Lipton is kind to a yogi named Yama Nuri who turns up at his door, offering to work for food. Clyde invites the man in, feeds him, and they enjoy playing chess together. The yogi accepts Clyde's offer to stay as long as he likes and promises to teach Clyde how to project an image of himself that is indistinguishable from the real person. One evening, Nuri accompanies Clyde to work at the patent office and they are playing chess when Communist agents steal a valise of secret plans. The agents kidnap Clyde and Yama and fly them to a country behind the iron curtain, but multiple images of Lipton and Nuri exit the airplane and scatter, leaving the agents confused as to where the plans went. Back at home, Clyde knows nothing of the adventure his image shared with the yogi's image.

I enjoyed "The Yogi's Secret." Dick Giordano is one of my favorite inkers of all time and, while his pencils aren't as impressive as his inks, he does a nice job with this story. I like that Clyde has white hair, smokes a pipe, loves chess, and works as a security guard.-Jack

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Could Strange Worlds #1 Be the 
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