Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 191: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 176

December 1960

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #63

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"Goliath! The Monster That... Walked Like a Man!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #10)

"I Was Trapped by the Mole Men!"

(a: Don Heck) ★

"The Dangerous Doll" (a: Jack Kirby & George Klein) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #20)(r: Crazy #76)

"I Took a Journey Into Fear!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Fear #6)

A Hollywood special effects man is just shooting the bull with his assistant about giant monsters from other planets conquering man when, coincidentally, they receive word that a behemoth has just surfaced on the Atlantic coast. The Navy sends a warship out to meet the critter and the great, gilled goliath explains that he comes from Atlantis and is a scout for his race. The rest of the Goliaths intend to join up with him and conquer the surface world just as soon as he sends the green light.

Days later, Goliath is surveying New York, getting ready for the invasion, when he spies something huge in the ocean. He approaches and is dumbfounded to discover it is a blue man from outer space at least three times his size. It introduces itself as "Ulvar from the planet Centaurus II" and declares Earth his own. His buddies are on the way from Centaurus II and they love a good fight. Goliath concedes that his Atlanteans would stand no chance and slinks back into the ocean. A few days later, our special effects man is tearing apart the gigantic blue prop and bragging that mankind will always be ready to defend its territory.

"Goliath! The Monster That... Wore Men's Briefs!" is not a bad little epic saga (at least it feels like an epic even though it's only seven pages), with a clever twist, but I question how Mr. SPFX managed to build his prop so fast. Good thing the Atlanteans aren't known for their brain power since Goliath never even guessed this could all be a trick, not even when Ulvar never moved a muscle. This is another of those Kirby/Ditko stories I ate up as a pre-teen in the pages of Where Monsters Dwell.

After the death of his father, Sir Norman Ramsay inherits the family business, a series of mines (we're never told just what comes out of these mines) that pad his wealth very nicely month in and month out. When a group of miners arrive at Norman's house to request a raise in pay, he tosses them out on their sooty asses, telling them never to darken his door again. The nerve of these commoners!

Soon thereafter it's time for the boss to inspect mine number four and, as is his ritual, he demands that no one accompany him. Bad idea. Once deep into the mine, there's a cave in and Sir Norm is surrounded by underground beasts. Yes, it's at this point that our protagonist screams "I Was Trapped by the Mole Men!" The rough-skinned and hairy beasts throw Norm into a cage and discuss their next move. "Oh," sighs the despondent and suddenly remorseful Ramsay, "I sure treated other men like dogs and if only I could have a second chance I'd sure make up for my poor behavior." 

As if fate had stepped in, Norm's foreman (the guy who tried to discourage his boss from going alone) crashes through the wall and fights off the mole men. He breaks the lock on the cage and grabs Norm, heaving him out of the underworld and back to the surface. With a handy stick of dynamite, the menace of the mole men is ended and Sir Norman ponders his place in this universe. From an unrealistic callousness towards his toilers to greatest guy in the world (the panel where Norm hosts the weekend weenie roast and balances twelve of the miners' kids on his knee was somehow left off the climactic series of amens), "Mole Men" is almost worth reading through for a good laugh. Almost. 

Ever since he lost his job at the plant, Timothy Jones is broke. The schlub is so poor he can't even buy his "lame" daughter a toy for her birthday. Luckily, as he's walking around one day in an open field (as all unemployed men do at one time or another), he happens upon a strange doll and takes it home for Cathy. Turns out the dolly is an alien from space and it has bad ideas about world domination. "The Dangerous Doll" has no qualms about letting Cathy see it move around and talk but Dad never has a notion that the thing is more than just a plaything. One night, the doll suddenly rises from Cathy's bed, sensing that "they" are coming and preparations must be made. 

Turns out, much to my relief, that Dolly is not the scout for Earth's invasion but just a precocious kid who flew off in the family spaceship and became stranded on Earth. His mom and pop land and reward Tim and Cathy for taking good care of their little brat. The Earth lets out a sigh. If you want to see what a big difference an inker can make, look no further than the job Ditko does for Kirby on "Goliath" and Klein's work here. Ditko has a cleaner style while Klein's is rougher. That's not a putdown, though; Klein's inks give Kirby's pencils a creepy vibe that enhances the atmosphere of the first few pages of "The Dangerous Doll." Oddly enough, we're never told the whereabouts of Mrs. Jones; is she dead or just "got a thing goin' on"? So many of these strips at this time were climaxing with the same dull panel of word balloons emanating from Earth, characters ruminating about God and the powers that be and man's inability to make a great cup of coffee and...

Last up is the best of the bunch, "I Took a Journey Into Fear!" It showcases Otto, a scientist so obsessed with time travel that he shoots a colleague and steals his lab equipment. Once the experiment proves a success, Otto finds himself trapped in a dingy dungeon, prisoner of a past barbaric race. Or something like that. Luckily, Stan/Larry deliver an effective climactic twist that made me smile. That's worth an extra star right there.-Peter

Strange Tales #79

Cover by Jack KIrby & Steve Ditko

"I Was In the Clutches of the Living Shadow"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #31)

"The Ghost of Grismore Castle!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Vault of Evil #14)

"I Found the Perfect Hiding Place!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Thing on the Moon" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Journey Into Mystery #14)

Mystery writer Philip Lawson just knows that flying saucers are real but, dagnabbit, everyone laughs in his face and tells him he's crazy! Then, one day, while Lawson is walking through a field attached to his luxurious home (mystery story writers were paid much better then than now), enjoying his pipe, Lawson looks on in awe as a flying saucer lands nearby. What are the chances that a UFO would land right in front of the only guy on Earth who believes in them (and, indeed, was just pondering them!)?

Climbing out of his jeep, Lawson is assaulted by a group of aliens, living shadows, that tell him the story of their past. They've been landing on Earth for some time now and blending in with the shadows. That's how they've remained out of sight for so long!!! They take Lawson to a nearby mountain prison but he manages to escape and get word to the United Nations. At first the delegates scoff but when our reporter turns out the lights and the living shadows are there in the room, the men hurry to action. 

Most of the living shadows are rounded up but leader Kaa gets away in his spaceship, leaving an "I'll be back, suckas!" message in the clouds. Lawson and the military are left to ponder life and extraterrestrial invaders. "I Was in the Clutches of the Living Shadow" is not one of the more memorable Kirby/Ayers monster strips; the art is rushed and the story padded. I think Ditko might have been able to bring more pizzazz to this one than Ayers. I had to laugh when Lawson begins his long and boring story by confessing that, as a mystery writer, he could "sense when there was danger in the air" just before the UFO landed. A decade and a half later, Kaa would return to give The Incredible Hulk fits!

Practical joker Otis Norton is really getting on the nerves of anyone around him. One day, as he's walking with Victor, the pair walk past the haunted Grismore Castle and Otis wagers that Victor couldn't last a whole night in Grismore. Not one to turn down fifty bucks, Victor agrees and, that night, enters Grismore. A little hesitant, but he still enters. Meanwhile, oafish Otis has set the castle up with plenty of scary obstacles and it isn't long before Victor runs screaming from the building.

Willing to show who's got the most nerve, Otis heads into the dark house alone. He is immediately set upon by ghosts and ghoulies and soon flees from Grismore in a shaking panic. The next day, Otis tells his buddies that he's done with practical jokes as Victor stands nearby revealing (to us) that he's really a ghost. Though the script for "The Ghost of Grismore Castle!" makes no sense whatsoever, it's got some dynamite graphics from Mr. Ditko. The castle is stocked with cobwebs and even the ghostly sheets look cool. 

He might be ugly but Harry Stubbs is a really smart guy; smart enough to build a time machine out of toothpicks, empty beer cans, and dead rats, anything he could find in the alley garbage cans. The plan is to steal the Crown Jewels, which are being exhibited in a nearby museum, hop in his (untested) time machine, and travel back to 100 BC. There he will sell the jewels and live like a king with hot and cold running chicks. Girls love money even if it belongs to a guy who looks like Ernest Borgnine. Harry grabs the jewels but sets off an alarm (who would suspect that priceless jewels might be guarded?) and runs from the cops. He hops in his time machine with the loot and hits "Go!" Unfortunately, the destination was not on the travel brochures. As I was reading "I Found the Perfect Hiding Place!," I kept wondering if Stan and Larry wrote the script in the Atlas lunchroom, both of them snickering and assuring each other that their target audience was too stupid to question how it is all these Atlas dopes could invent time machines but not keep a high-paying 9 to 5.

In 1970, the Earth is overpopulated and astronaut Dan Carter is tasked with visiting the moon to ascertain whether earthlings can survive and thrive in its atmosphere. Dan and his crew arrive and are on recon when they are attacked by "The Thing on the Moon." After some hellacious moments, a loud voice breaks the silence and announces that the moon was long ago claimed by the city of Atlantis and no other visitors are welcome. The giant is a robot security guard who's there to make sure there's no trespassing. The boys climb back into their ship and wonder if the robot was put there before or after the fall of Atlantis. The reveal is a good one but what startled me the most is the fact that NASA bothered to send Armstrong and Aldrin up in space suits with, like, oxygen and stuff. In 1960, you could still breathe on the moon without any aid. Makes you think.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #14

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"I Created Krang! The Most Fantastic Monster the World Has Ever Known! (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Fear #4)

"Behold! I Am the Master of Time!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Tower of Shadows #8)

"The Thing in Human Form!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Chamber of Darkness #8)

Professor Carter makes a presentation at the Science Institute, arguing that if insects were to grow to giant size, their strength and power could be harnessed to serve mankind. Carter is working on a growth serum but gets no support from the stuffy characters at the Institute and must make his way to Europe to locate the final ingredient from the bark of the Krakow tree.

Once in Europe, Carter sets up shop in an abandoned castle, aided by Ludwig, the caretaker. The serum is completed and Ludwig tests it out one night after Carter has gone to bed. Unfortunately, Ludwig uses too much fluid on an ant and it quickly grows to massive size! "I Created Krang! The Most Fantastic Monster the World Has Ever Known!" thinks Ludwig, and before you know it, Krang is menacing the professor and speaking due to rapid brain growth.

Really not such a bad idea,
if you think about it.

Krang wants the growth serum so it and other insects can take over the world. The giant insect chases Carter around for a while, eventually making its way to the nearby village but not doing much damage before Carter is able to defeat it by means of a giant anteater that he created using more serum. Good thing he thought to add something to the formula to make the anteater shrink back to normal size after an hour! In the end, the professor rips up his notes, having learned that there are some things man was not meant to know.

"Krang" is not bad and mainly serves as an excuse for Kirby and Ayers to draw panel after panel of a great big ant. I liked that Carter had to go to Poland, presumably, for the tree bark, and there just happened to be an abandoned castle with a helpful, hunchbacked caretaker on hand.

An antique dealer invents a time machine so he can go back in time and pick up items that will be valuable antiques when he brings them back to the 20th century. He heads back to 18th-century France, grabs a bag of stuff, and returns to the time machine, chased by angry villagers. He pulls the lever and nothing happens! Oops! Since there was no electricity in the 18th century, his electric powered time machine won't work.

"Behold! I Am the Master of Time!" features more gorgeous art by Ditko in service of a weak plot. First of all, when the guy builds his time machine, he remarks that he learned how to do it using an ancient book of black magic. Why would it need electric power? The machine looks like a big cube made of adobe. Second, Ditko must have realized that the story lacked visual excitement, so he drew a giant image of Father Time in several panels, though the character has nothing to do with the story.

Mars and Jupiter have been at war for five years when Martians discover than an Earth scientist has discovered a powerful new secret weapon. A Martian named Ogor travels to Earth to capture the scientist and grabs him during a costume party where no one realizes that Ogor's costume is not a disguise. The scientist, John, puts up a fight and turns out to be stronger than Ogor. John drags Ogor onto the Martian's spaceship and takes off, revealing--to no reader's surprise--that he's really a master spy from Jupiter! The Jupiterians had wanted to capture a live Martian warrior for years and concocted an elaborate ruse that worked.

As I've said before, Don Heck's strength as an artist did not lie in drawing aliens or monsters, but I enjoyed the surprise ending of this story, which was a tad more complex than the usual revelation that one character is really an alien. Zeno, the master spy from Jupiter, is "The Thing in Human Form!"-Jack

On Thursday...
"Are You Watching Closely?"

And Next Week...
Nope, He's Not
The Same Guy!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 190: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 175

November 1960

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #62

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #11)

"There is a Brain Behind the Fangs!" (a: Don Heck) ★★ 1/2

(r: Fear #6)

"I Can't Escape from the Creeping Things!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Fear #8)

Joe Harper is busy minding his own business when his buddy Fred calls him up to tell him that his "machine" is on the fritz. Joe tells his wife he has to go out and help Fred but, of course, the old ball and chain doesn't believe him. Sigh. On his way to Fred's place, he passes by Old Blacktree Swamp and notices a giant silver something floating in the water. Joe hops out of his truck and investigates.

What he finds is a really big huge mammoth Hulk, a creature obviously from another world (the nearby smoldering wreckage of its spaceship is the first clue), on the cusp of death. Knowing that every living being (even a Hulk from another world) is precious, Joe drags the multi-ton beast to his pick-up and heads back to his workshop, where he hooks the thing up to his Electrofitastic Voltage Regulator™. A surge of electrical power enters the Hulk's body and the creature begins to stir.

Joe asks the visitor who he is and what he came to Earth for and the monster explains his name is Xemnu and that he escaped from a prison planet and crash-landed here en route to another galaxy. Too late, Joe realizes he probably shouldn't have resuscitated the Hulk without getting a few facts first. The Hulk guffaws and continues his plan for complete domination of the solar system and beyond. The monster has the power to hypnotize and intends to make the entire population a slave to his demands. With a full workforce at his beckon, Xemnu will soon have a replacement spaceship powerful enough to take him to Star System LOL of the Fifth Galaxy on the Left. The mad beast also admits to Joe that the ship will blast off with such force that the Earth will be destroyed.

The Hulk becomes a Titan!

Xemnu is grateful to Joe for bringing him back to life so he doesn't hypnotize him. That's where he makes his fatal blunder. His spaceship construction goes perfectly right up until the time he is about to blast off but Joe uses a little small town ingenuity to screw up the Hulk's plot and the creature is sent into space to circle the sun forever. The entire world becomes unhypnotized but Joe wisely avoids bragging. That is, until he sees his shrew of a wife again and can't help himself. This guy never learns!

The first of the multi-part epics that would become a foundation of the Atlas science fiction/fantasy titles, "I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!" (an ironic title since Joe was the only free man on Earth under Hulk's reign) is a fun and completely dopey yarn. The extra pages do give a little more room for Stan to breathe but you can see at times that he really doesn't know what to do in those bonus pages. There's a whole lot of padding and information spread over multiple panels that usually would be dispensed in one single frame. As rote as these things can become (and they do), I still have a soft spot in my brain (some would say several such soft spots) for these "Marvel Monster Epics," having devoured Dwell, Prowl, and Roam as a wee lad. Xemnu's exile doesn't last the promised "forever" and we'll get a sequel in JIM #66. 

Speaking of which, when the time came to reprint "I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!" in MOTP #11, there was another character in the Marvel Universe who had gained a bit of fame and, to avoid confusion for the Zombies, Xemnu was re-christened a "Titan" rather than a "Hulk." Rascally Roy Thomas, ever the comic book scholar, remembered the beast's JIM tales and wrote a sequel (acknowledging Xemnu's previous adventures!) featuring the Defenders for Marvel Feature #3. Yes, the New Hulk vs. the Old Hulk!

Frank Miller (no, not that Frank Miller) becomes convinced that dogs have evolved in intelligence just as much as man but they're putting on a show so that they can surprise their masters and rule the world someday. Frank brings his theory to his best friend, psychiatrist John Redfield, who scoffs at his buddy's exclamations and insists he can prove him wrong. John has Frank bring Fido, Frank's dog, to his office and proceeds to hypnotize him, asking the canine some very pointed questions. When the dog does nothing but roll over and play dead and bay at the moon, Frank is convinced that he was a little hasty in his proclamations. Nearby, Pharaoh, the shrink's pet cat, laughs at the two morons and gets back to its plan for world domination. "There is a Brain Behind The Fangs!" spotlights some really nice work by Don Heck (almost Colan-esque in spots) and sports a fun twist in its tail.

Silas Bleede makes his millions off the misfortunes of others (one might say he "bleedes" them dry) and, once retirement comes, he moves to a small European village where he buys a huge estate. The only blemish is a tall tree that blocks his view of the mountains so, despite protestations and warnings from his neighbors, Silas chops the damn thing down. That night, branches crawl through Silas's bedroom window and chase him all through his mansion. With nowhere to run, trapped in the basement, the befuddled gazillionaire exclaims "I Can't Escape from the Creeping Things!" and promises he will let the tree grow back and not interfere. The branches retreat and Silas admits defeat, returning to America. As usual, there's not much to the script but Steve Ditko manages to ramp up the chills, making the CCA-approved strip as close to creepy as he possibly can. All in all, a pretty decent issue.-Peter

Strange Tales #78

Cover by Jack Kirby & George Klein

"A Martian Walks Among Us!" 

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

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

"The Fantastic Menace of Mento the Mighty" (a: Don Heck) ★

"The Gargoyle!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #3)

"Dear Reader: What Would You Have Done If You 

Were the... Worm Man?" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

(r: Tower of Shadows #6)

A scientist comes across a spaceship on a lone stretch of road and witnesses the occupant exit the UFO. Before he can escape, the man is captured by the alien and the thing takes the form of the scientist, explaining that he is from Mars and is scouting Earth for an invasion. He can take on the form of any human and intends to set the world up for the upcoming Armageddon. For some reason, the dim-witted Martian also reveals the only way to distinguish him from a human being is by using infrared rays.

Once the Martian's hold on the scientist has diminished, he tries to warn the authorities but is met with derision and pelted with tomatoes. Knowing he is the only man who can save the Earth from the Martian onslaught, he very quickly invents an infra-red device that can sniff out the chameleon and confronts him. After a terrible hand-to-hand battle, the Martian is killed and our protagonist drops his disguise, revealing that he is a Venusian protector of Earth. As long as there are commies, Stan will use Martians to subtly get his views across. That's the message of "A Martian Walks Among Us!" Seems a bit short-sighted of the Martian not to kill our unnamed hero when he has the chance. That twist, where we discover that the alien has been defeated by another race of aliens, is about used up, no? Laughably, once he disrobes, his body is completely different than his human disguise. Dig those scrawny legs!

In "The Fantastic Menace of Mento the Mighty," a well-meaning scientist becomes obsessed with the power of his brain, using it to move objects and create fearsome monsters. In the end, his creations prove his downfall. Here's an exception to the Atlas rule that anyone who stumbles upon a dominating skill will use that power to attain great wealth. Mento is a rich, bored, brilliant genius who becomes convinced he can do anything with a mere thought (when he looks at a woman in a cafe and she looks back at him!) and then launches his plan to rule the world for no particular reason.

The world's homeliest man sees a want ad for a local carnival requesting ugly men. With no other jobs available, our unattractive schlub answers the ad and discovers too late that the tent he enters is actually a spaceship that blasts off for parts unknown. Waking up at the end of the journey, he's taken to the queen, a real babe, who explains that she's bored with the attractive men on her planet and wants something different. Yep, the climax of "The Gargoyle!" is another variation on the old "beauty is only skin deep" twist. In "... (yadda yadda yadda) The Worm Man," a spy takes a pill and becomes very small in order to steal super-secret documents from a brilliant scientist. The agent's espionage is upended by the actions of a rat and he's faced with an impossible decision: call out for help or remain teensy weensy forever. Ditko but rushed Ditko.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #12

Cover by Jack Kirby & George Klein

"I Alone Know the Dread Secret of Gor-Kill, the Lurking Demon!" (a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #1)

"I Must Find 'Those Who Lurk Below'" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Fantasy Masterpieces #2)

"The Monster in My Cellar!" (a: Reed Crandall) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #4)

"I Met the Thing on Midnight Island!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #4)

A blob of gas from outer space lands in a body of water held back by the Krakow Dam and absorbs the water, becoming a fearsome water creature. The monster menaces a nearby town, crushing houses and flooding streets, but when the townsfolk follow it back to the dam it disappears. After this happens a few times, the town layabout, Hans Grubnik, figures out that the monster is composed of water. He steals some dynamite and blows up the monster before it can reach the ocean and become unstoppable; for his efforts, Hans is jailed for stealing explosives.

"I Alone Know the Dread Secret of Gor-Kill, the Lurking Demon!" is all wet. It's full of the usual Kirbyisms, like groups of people looking upward in horror with someone pointing. The inhabitants of the town are pretty dumb not to realize that the monster is made of water. I fail to understand how dynamiting water would do anything. Maybe Gor-Kill will return.

On a 19th-century penal colony on an island, a prisoner named Pierre is given a special task by the cruel guard, Kragok, who tells Pierre to clean up ancient ruins under the prison. Pierre discovers a book and begins to read "The Legend of the Earth Dwellers," about an ancient alien race that came to Earth but found it too hot. They built powerful machines to dig below the surface and built a city far below to live in peace.

Convinced the story is true, Pierre digs and digs until he finds one of the machines. Kragok laughs at Pierre, since he planted the book for the prisoner to find, but the jailer is shocked when the machine begins to work and Pierre disappears below the Earth! The prisoner is welcomed by the underground alien race and Kragok spends years digging in vain, searching for the land of peace and contentment.

Ditko's art is even better than usual on "I Must Find 'Those Who Lurk Below!'" In some panels it looks like Frazeztta's work. The story is okay and the end is unsatisfying, but the art is the real draw.

A writer of sci fi tales promises his editor a great monster tale, so he goes home, sits down at the typewriter, and begins to write a story as if it's really happening to him right now. Imagining a tall, reptilian, one-eyed creature in his basement, the writer is startled to hear a noise from below! He explores and finds the monster he created in his own basement! A locked door doesn't stop it, but when the writer realizes that the thing is a creation of his own mind, he thinks it back out of existence and vows never to write another monster saga.

It seems like it's been awhile since we've seen anything from Reed Crandall and I say welcome back! "The Monster in my Cellar!" breaks no ground and is predictable, but the great EC veteran's panels are always welcome.

A sailor named Rick Jordan finds a message in a bottle that reads, "Help--I'm stranded on Midnight Island"! Rick rushes to said island and explores it but finds only a big, apelike monster with fangs. Rick manages to escape back to his boat. The next day he tries again but finds only the monster on the island. At night, he sees a spaceship land on the island to take the monster away. Finally, dopey Rick realizes that the beast wrote the note.

Forget the story and enjoy Don Heck's sharp artwork, which looks like it could fit well onto the old Sunday adventure pages in a newspaper. Heck may not have possessed Kirby's natural comic book talent, but his draftsmanship was certainly more accomplished.-Jack

Tales to Astonish #13

Cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko

"I Challenged... Groot! The Monster from Planet X!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers) ★★

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #6)(Weird Wonder Tales  #19)

"I Found the Abominable Snowman!" (a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★1/2

(r: Chamber of Darkness #7)

"My Friend Is... Not Quite Human!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #6)

"I Found the Hidden World!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Tower of Shadows #8)

A guy named Leslie and his whiny wife Alice are driving home from a party one night when they see something come out of the sky and land in the forest. A few days later, Alice reports that two of their trees are missing and a friend's wooden fence has disappeared! Leslie heads to the forest to investigate and finds a giant tree monster that attracts wooden objects to its body. Soon, the monster is heading for town; it announces that its name is Groot and it wants to take the town back to Planet X for experiments.

"I Challenged... Groot! The Monster From Planet X!" says Leslie, who tells the creature that he'll come up with a way to destroy it. Fire doesn't work--Groot is too tough to burn. As Groot wreaks havoc, Leslie is bent over a microscope in his lab, soon announcing "Eureka!" He sneaks up to Groot, lets out a bunch of termites, and before you know it, the monster from Planet X is finished.

Alice is a complete jerk! On the way back from the party she tells her husband that she wishes he were more manly and rugged like someone named George. When they see the spaceship crash, she's too tired to go take a look. When Leslie says he's going to the forest, she remarks that the walk will toughen up his muscles! When he's working in his lab to find a way to defeat Groot, she complains that he's weak and spineless. Only when he defeats the monster does she have a change of heart: "Oh, darling, forgive me! I've been such a fool! I'll never complain about you again! Never!" Yeah, right. Leslie should sprint back to the lab and invent something to get rid of Alice.

In a Calcutta dive, Big Carl Hanson overhears a man bragging about the rare and valuable photo of the Abominable Snowman that he got. Too bad the picture is said to be cursed! Big Carl basically mugs the guy in an alley after dark and takes the photo but then decides he'll cash in big time if he goes to the Himalayas and finds the real Snowman. Big Carl takes a train to the mountains, where every native to whom he shows the photo says it's cursed.

Not the brightest bulb, Big Carl hires a camel and a guide and goes up into the snowy mountains, searching for Bumble. Even the locals tell him to quit due to the curse. Does Big Carl listen? Nope. Eventually, it snows so much and his hair and beard grow so long that he himself becomes the Abominable Snowman pictured in the photo.

Even I remember the earlier version of this dumb story, from Strange Worlds #1 in December 1958, not even two years before. That version was drawn by Ditko and he inks this one. They should have left it alone.

A lonely sculptor named Gustav carves gargoyles to serve as figureheads on ships in France in the year 1799. One day, Napoleon and his men knock at the door; the general demands that the sculptor carve a wooden figure of Josephine, so Napoleon can be reminded of her when sailing. After some vociferous resistance, the sculptor agrees and carves a wooden figure of a beautiful woman. The statue comes to life at midnight on the eve of a full moon and Gustav is smitten. He delays giving the figure to Napoleon and visits a gypsy who gives him a potion that will turn him into wood so he can stand forever next to his beautiful statue. He stiffs the gypsy, which is never a good idea. At midnight, Gustav turns to wood and the female statue becomes flesh and blood, victim of a spell by the angry gypsy.

We all saw that one coming, didn't we? Still, Ditko's art is terrific in the ineptly titled "My Friend Is... Not Quite Human!" He's ready to start drawing Spider-Man very soon.

A scientist named Linus Whitehead posits that another world lives inside every TV set but dies before he can prove it. An ex-con named Joe who learned to repair TV sets while in prison decides to test the theory. After six months of experiments, he's visited by Frankie, another ex-con, who blames Joe for spoiling his plans to escape. Frankie turns on the experimental TV set to make noise to cover the gunshot when he blows Joe away, but before he can pull the trigger, Frankie is grabbed by a monster and pulled into the TV set! Joe is almost dragged in too but turns the box off just in time. Ever since that day, he wonders if he dreamed it.

I like Don Heck's art but he's not great at drawing weird dimensions or scary monsters, which is a problem when those are keys to the story's climax. The monsters in "I Found the Hidden World!" have pink fur and fangs and appear to be wearing shorts with suspenders. Not exactly the stuff of nightmares.-Jack

This Thursday...
Return With Us To An Ancient Time
When Mel Was Still Relevant!

And Next Thursday...
Shriek in Apathy at the
Sheer Inanity of Krang!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 189: Atlas/ Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 174

October 1960

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #61

Cover by Jack Kirby & George Klein

"I Defied Gomdulla--The Living Pharaoh!" ★★

(a: Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers)

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #12)

"I Dared Enter the Haunted Forest!" (a: Don Heck) ★1/2

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #13)

"I Opened the Door to... Nowhere!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★1/2

(r: Tower of Shadows #1)(r: Where Monsters Dwell #17)

"The Curse of M'Gumbu!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

(r: Fear #7)

Thanks to a couple of young brats fooling around in an Egyptian museum, the giant mummy, Gomdulla, once again walks the earth! The gargantuan bandaged pharaoh busts out of the museum and disappears into the Egyptian desert. Getting wind that a sinister cult has arisen around the resuscitated behemoth, Interpol sends their number one agent to investigate.

Paul infiltrates the cult as they are performing one of their twisted ceremonies, with Gomdulla holding court over his tiny subjects. Believing the creature to be an inanimate statue, Paul whips out his .44 Magnum and arrests the high priest of Gomdulla. Suddenly, the giant mummy arises and begins tossing huge boulders at the astonished agent. Luckily, the high priest intervenes and shuts down the bandaged behemoth. Later, at the hospital, the high priest explains to Paul that Gomdulla was actually an ancient outer space visitor who was in hibernation. Paul, from his hospital bed exclaims "I Defied Gomdulla--the Living Pharaoh!" This is pretty juvenile stuff (yeah, I know, it all is), with not much action and some awful dialogue. The real problem is that, due to the sparse word count, by the time the action gets going, it's time to shut it all down. I suspect that this is what led Stan to authorize longer "giant monster epics." We will all be the richer. Gotta admit, as dumb as "Gomdulla" may be, the Kirby/Ayers art is striking in spots.

Bigot and snob (but very rich) Darius Zorn discovers a forest in a European valley that glows in the dark and he really must have it. The local villagers warn that if Zorn moves into the forest, the Gods will dry up their crops but the self-absorbed zillionaire won't hear of it. He pays an exorbitant price for the land and then moves in. Shortly after, he is visited by a "man in black" who warns Zorn that he faces peril if he does not move out. Scoffing, Zorn throws the man off his property but then pays the ultimate price when it turns out the man in black is, in reality, an alien from another dimension in a galaxy four quadrants south of France. The creature kidnaps Zorn and exhibits him in a zoo on another planet. "I Dared Enter the Haunted Forest!" is indicative of the vast majority of Atlas tales in 1960: no matter what it all comes down to aliens from another world. Don Heck isn't given much to work with but the art is not bad to look at.

On the run from the law, a burglar steps into a curio shop and forces the owner to open the mysterious door in the back room. Little does the criminal know that he will serve his time whether it's in the pen or it's in purgatory. Every door he opens leads to another door! "I Opened the Door to... Nowhere!" couldn't even get Steve Ditko interested this time out. We never learn what the secret of the never-ending doors is but that's about the only positive. Last up is the dull "The Curse of M'Gumbu!," about a tribe of young roughnecks in the Amazon who are tired of being reined in by their witch doctor and decide to quiet him forever. The witch doctor has something to say about that, though. "M'Gumbu" crawls along at a snail's pace and sports some very weak Reinman visuals. Another loser of an issue.-Peter

Strange Tales #77

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

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

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #5)

"I Am the Beast-Man!" (a: Don Heck) ★

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #10)

"The Strange Magic of Master Khan!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #5)(r: Uncanny Tales #10)

"Am I the... Unhuman?" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

Even though the menace of Taboo was seemingly eliminated thanks to a very clever scientist (see Jack's rundown on the first "Taboo" adventure back in Strange Tales #75), the big glob of mud is back! That's right, even though Taboo was blown to smithereens in outer space, the thousands of bits of the creature drifted back into Earth's atmosphere, landing in several places around the globe. Slowly but surely, the pieces began to crawl towards Central Park, where the slop began to form... to shape... to metamorphosize... into Taboo!!!

Soldier's bullets... atomic submarines... cannons... nothing can stop the great god of mud! Taboo destroys half of Manhattan but slows his progress long enough to deliver an ultimatum to the ants below him... surrender or die! But New Yorkers are tough and, to paraphrase Churchill, "We will never, never give up to a pile of s%#t like you, Taboo!" The giant laughs and begins his destructive walk through New York again when a fearful sight appears in the sky: a giant spaceship made out of mud. "Could this have something to do with Taboo?", screeches a terrified onlooker! "Hahahahaha," chortles the giant, "The ship contains the rest of the invasion party!" 

But Taboo is quite wrong, as the leader of the mud-men explains, the ship has come to take Taboo back to X-38, Third Planet from the Dimension on the Right. Turns out Taboo is an escaped mental patient (probably the bars on his cell were made of mud) and the boys are here to see that he makes it back safely. They apologize to mankind and lift off into space, leaving the onlookers to ponder our insignificance in the galaxy. "The Return of Taboo!" was just goofy enough to keep my attention. I love the panels where Taboo, his mud buddies, and even the spaceship are constantly dripping, leaving me to wonder if the army couldn't have whipped up some kind of giant Easy-Bake Oven to dry Taboo out. 

"I Am the Beast-Man!" tells the hilarious story of  a brilliant but evil genius who concocts a formula which transforms him into a dog, the best form in which to carry out a series of jewelry thefts. Our dopey amateur scientist lets us know every two or three panels that if he doesn't get back under the rays of his Dog-Man Transformer Ray™, he'll be stuck as a canine for thirty days. Just as he's pilfering the wall safe, the homeowner comes home and he's forced to flee. Unfortunately, our Man-Dog is picked up by the dog catcher and taken to the pound. Let me be the first to say that, even though this story is a dog, it got some sustained chuckles from this bored comic book reader. The title worked much better when it was used a couple months prior in Journey Into Mystery #59. Doubtless you'll remembered that beast-man, the commie who put on a bear suit and changed for the better.

Captain Hawk Gormey sets his eyes on the ship belonging to Master Khan and knows he will do whatever he must to own her. First he inquires as to a price but Khan tells him "no sale" so he stoops to less legal means. Gormey drugs the entire Khan crew and then he throws the Master himself in the brig before setting sail to the sea. But it's not long before one of his men tells the Captain that Khan has gone missing. 

Just then, they see the Oriental occultist standing on the waves. He laughs and tells Gormey that since he wanted the ship so badly he can have her now. The men watch in terror as the Master disappears and an eerie fog rolls in. It appears as though the ship is now standing still on a layer of ice. In the end, we discover that Khan's ship, with Gormey and crew still aboard, is trapped in a glass bottle. Nice little twist in the end (though I swear I've seen it before) but let's not kid ourselves, this is all Ditko, prepping for Doctor Strange in just a few years. "The Strange Magic of Master Khan!" is another of those strips that remained in my brain for 55+ years, courtesy of Where Monsters Dwell.

Standing in the shadow of his father and grandfather, two men who advanced the science of robotics, Gideon Burr boasts that he has made an even greater impact: an android so human that no one would be able to tell the difference. He is his own guinea pig and, very soon, he is conversing with an exact replica of himself. This proves troublesome when robots are outlawed and the police come to Gideon's door. But which one is the real Gideon Burr? For most of the running length of "Am I the... Unhuman?," the story is involving and clever but then a happy ending is foisted on us, I assume to avoid the clash with the CCA. That's a pity; Stan would have been better off leaving the end solution hazy.-Peter

Tales to Astonish #12

Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers

"I Discovered Gorgilla! The Monster of Midnight Mountain!"

(a: Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) ★1/2

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #9)(r: Weird Wonder Tales #21)

"My Nightmare Has No End!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

(r: Fantasy Masterpieces #4)(r: Fear #4)(r: Tomb of Darkness #19)

"Save Me! Save Me!" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★

(r: Fear #3)

"A Monster Waits Outside!!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

(r: Fear #3)(r: Chamber of Chills #24)

Convinced that the Missing Link last lived in Borneo, an archaeologist named Scotty rounds up some other scientists and heads to the island where natives reveal that the Link still lives and is worshipped as a god by local headhunters! Scotty and co. make their way to Midnight Mountain, where they scale a huge wall and come face to face with Gorgilla, the giant Missing Link, half man and half ape!

Gorgilla is busy attacking the archaeologists when a T-Rex shows up and the two creatures fight. Gorgilla wins and is worn out, but Scotty decides to leave him in peace and the archaeologists fly back to the U.S.

What a load of hooey! "I Discovered Gorgilla! The Monster of Midnight Mountain!" borrows liberally from King Kong. There's the trip to the mysterious island, the great big wall, and the giant ape man. He grabs a tree that one of the men is hanging onto and then battles a T-Rex. Thank goodness Scotty and co. decide to give up--otherwise, we'd have to see Gorgilla on stage in NYC and climbing the Empire State Building.

Each night, a man's happy dreams are interrupted by the arrival of a shadowy figure. Eventually, the figure materializes and identifies itself as an alien from the planet Zendu who has crossed dimensions to change places with the dreamer. The alien explains that, on Zendu, people live for 1000 years and robots do all the work. He is bored and wants to experience the challenges of living on Earth. The dreamer agrees to change places and, once the process is underway, the alien tells him that he couldn't stand the boredom. The dreamer arrives on Zendu, in the alien's body, while the alien wakes up on Earth, in the dreamer's body. Too bad he's in a jail cell on Death Row!

Heck's art is a bit rough in "My Nightmare Has No End!," but I did not see that ending coming, which is quite an accomplishment at this point in my journey through bad Atlas comics. It's unusual that neither character is given a name.

A brilliant scientist named Albert Poole wants to steal the plans for a new national defense project, but they are on a yacht on the water. Since radar detects anything more than ten feet above the water and sonar detects anything in the water, Poole decides that the best way to approach the yacht undetected is to rearrange his body's atoms so he can walk on water. After some failed experiments he succeeds, walks to the yacht, steals the plans, and walks home. Unfortunately, he must cry "Save Me! Save Me!" because his ability to walk on water makes him sink when he steps on land!

A caption under the last panel reassures the reader that Poole will be rescued and he'll have to live the rest of his life with the guilt of his treasonous act. What I don't understand is why someone who can walk on water would sink on land. I guess it's supposed to be the principle of opposites. Reinman's art is better than usual.

Major Ford is placed in a small cylinder and launched into space in order to test a man's reaction to prolonged isolation and confinement. As the hours pass he begins to get bored, then he becomes convinced that "A Monster Waits Outside!!" The monster breaks in and suddenly Ford is back on Earth, where he is told that he hallucinated due to solitude. But why are there giant scratches on the outside of the sphere, and where did the big red claw come from?

Yet again, an Atlas story prefigures an episode of The Twilight Zone. This time it's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." In both versions, a man in flight thinks he sees a creature, is thought to have hallucinated on return to Earth, and we are left with evidence that the monster really existed. It's fun to imagine Richard Matheson poring over Tales to Astonish for story ideas.-Jack

This Thursday...
The Dude Looks to
Us For Wisdom

And Next Week...
He is Groot!