Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 174: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Fantasy Comics!

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 159

January 1959

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Journey Into Mystery #50

Cover by Joe Sinnott

"Worlds at War!" (a: Jack Davis) ★★

"Three Who Vanished" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

"Uneasy Lies the Head!" (a: Carl Burgos) ★1/2

"Adrift in Space!" (a: Don Heck) ★★

"The Green Fog!" (a: Matt Baker & Vince Colletta) ★1/2

In the year 1983, Martians land in a rural area and touch off a panic. The visitors request a meeting with the heads of government of the two factions on Earth, the Democrats and the Stinkin' Commies, and they are granted their wish, pronto. At the gathering, the Martian leader explains that the rest of outer space is plum tired of Earthling wars and violent antics; at some point, it is feared, humans will bring their aggression to other planets. That's a no-no.

So, informs the leader, Earth has one month to prepare for total annihilation at the hands of an even greater menace: Mars! The news startles all of Earth and the U.N. convenes a meeting, at which every nation agrees to put its differences aside and build a spacecraft to visit Mars and plead our case. In record time, that ship is built and an international crew is assembled. Blast off! When the boys land on Mars, they are in for a big surprise. Rather than armed forces, they are greeted with open arms and a wink and a nod; hey, that war stuff was just talk in order to get Earth to give up their hatreds and unite. C'mon people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together... and all that. Our crew heads back to Earth to give out the good news and peace becomes as common as mediocre Atlas funny books.

If this had been a few years before, in the paradise known as Pre-Code, that corny last panel would have been followed by an Army General excitedly predicting that, since Mars has no weapons, they'll be a pushover if we invade. Alas, no twist ending for "Worlds at War!" Just Hallmark Movie schmaltz and a heaping helping from The Day the Earth Stood Still. It's good to see Jack Davis's classic style around these parts again, even though it's short-lived. He'll have two stories published this month and then disappear again for four years. Jack does some interesting experimenting with the panel borders, enlarging some of the scenes to one-third page. 

Three men vanish at the same time under very odd circumstances. What's up? I'll tell you. Turns out these three men were casing Earth for an invasion from the "Supreme World" and they're back to give their reports to the Supreme Leader. After receiving the intel, the Leader informs the trio that they've done a heck of a job and now it's time to invade. Problem is, one of the men has become quite fond of Earth and doesn't want to see it become a slave planet, so he sabotages the Central Power and zaps himself back on Earth, confident that his new neighbors are safe. The script is nothing to get excited about (though certainly better than the opener), but Steve Ditko's art is dazzling, a teaser for what's to come in the 1960s. As with Jack Davis and "Worlds at War!," there are some detours from the usual panel framework; nothing as startling as Krigstein, but still much more freedom than was the norm. 

In the lifeless "Uneasy Lies the Head!," an assassin attempts to kill the "Leader", the all-knowing, supremely intelligent being who's ruled over Earth since the eradication of such trivial positions as the President of the United States. The thwarted attempt nevertheless raises several questions about the Leader and the "renowned" Dr. Zena aims to get to the bottom of who or what the Leader actually is. Spoiler Alert (for those who've never read an Atlas comic strip): he's a robot!

Billy is the most enthusiastic cadet on the Space Patrol, but Sgt. Devlin can't understand why the kid keeps reading those silly science fiction books. One day, the Sarge grabs Billy and throws him in a space jet and they go to investigate a strange SOS deep in space. It's during that mission that Devlin is glad the kid reads those dopey space opera stories. Don Heck's pencils at this point were still pretty darn good (this was way before he had to pick up the pace and turn in some sloppy superhero work) and the script for "Adrift in Space!" is at least readable, but the final panel, which explains everything that just happened in the previous page's panels, is pure Stan. Gotta make sure these kids don't scratch their heads in confusion and give up on Atlas science fiction.

Last up is "The Green Fog!," which chronicles the return of Dag Thale from the first solo flight in space. The festivities come to a grinding halt when a nasty green fog follows Dag out of his spaceship. The fog drifts and covers the globe, causing mass panic and calls for the head of Dag Thale. A few days later, the mist rises and Earth is much greener. It was a miracle brought to the dying soils of our world. Sigh.-Peter

Tales of Suspense #1

Cover by Don Heck

"The Strangers from Space!" ★★1/2

(a: Al Williamson, Roy Krenkel, & Gray Morrow) 

"I Dared Explore the Unknown Emptiness!" 

(a: Don Heck) ★★1/2

"The Day I Left My Body!" (a: John Buscema) ★

"He Fled in the Night" (a: Uncredited) ★

(r: Kull the Destroyer #13)

"Prisoner of the Satellites!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★

By the year 2000, Earth will have posts on the moon and Mars and the solar system seems to be Earth's play toy. Then a strange ship is spotted near Mars and by the time it lands on Earth, panic has set in. Fearful that the visitors are here to conquer our world, the military readies its mightiest weapons. The door to the ship opens and what appears to be a typical earthling emerges and explains it is here to begin trade negotiations. A heavy sigh is let out and, by the time the ship has rocketed into space, Earth knows it has found a new friend. Inside the ship, an ugly BEM turns off the machine that enabled it to look human and hopes that when it returns in 300 years, earthlings will be less suspicious creatures. 

"The Strangers from Space!" is yet another variation on the "we have to open our arms and welcome even the ones with tentacles and six eyes" morality tale that had become a staple of the Atlas sf story of the late 1950s. The difference here, obviously, is the detailed graphic work of  Williamson, Krenkel, and Morrow (the latter two  are name-checked in a couple of winks at the readers), which elevates (at least art-wise) this above most of the other pap being shoveled at the reader. It definitely feels like we've transitioned into a new era for Atlas genre titles. Like Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, and Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense would continue pumping out sf yarns until the superhero craze hit in the early 1960s and then ToS would become the home of Iron Man and Captain America until those two got their own titles.

"I Dared Explore the Unknown Emptiness!" adds to my hunch that something has changed. The story, about an Earth space crew searching the galaxy for another livable planet due to our foolish overpopulation, while simple, is definitely aimed a little higher than the usual eight-year-old mentality. In the end, the tale is way too preachy and silly (the ship's captain decides, after visiting several hostile planets, that the people of Earth will "somehow correct" the errors made in the past without positing a way in which to head down that course), but I appreciate the effort and Don Heck's visuals are snazzy.

Wells is serving a long sentence for second-degree murder when he decides he ain't cut out for life in a cell, so he tries to escape (armed with a butter knife) and is shot in the head for his troubles. Well, this is Atlas after all, so the bullet only "creases" him, but the upside is that his spirit leaves his body and is free to roam. So, what should Wells do with this sudden spiritual freedom? Rob another candy store? Get revenge on the jurists who convicted him? No, this convict is a little bit smarter. 

When Wells spies big-shot lawyer Martin Shaw in one of his fellow inmates' cells, he uses his mind to push Shaw into reopening his case and freeing him. Wells's spirit finally reunites with his wounded body and Shaw visits his cell, agreeing to represent him in a new case. Wells finds he still has the power to influence other minds so rather than, say, influence the warden to open the gate for him, he continues to push and push harder for Shaw to win the case in court. But the joke's on Wells; he pushes so hard that Shaw becomes exhausted and muffs the trial. Wells is found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Finally, a happy ending to one of these things! 

In the early 18th century, a simple clerk at a banking firm has daydreams about being so much more. Maybe a caveman fighting a Wooly Mammoth or a knight fighting a dragon. Something more than just these dadburned ledgers. In a fit, our protagonist quits his job and joins the crew of a sailing vessel, still dreaming of a life of adventure. In the end, we discover his name is Robinson Crusoe. Meh. "He Fled in the Night" sinks under its lifeless script and bland artwork.

Mark Coren finds himself a "Prisoner of the Satellites!" when his body is trapped in a constantly moving vortex of meteor fragments. What Mark doesn't know is that his conundrum is the work of outer space villains, preparing an invasion of Earth. Coren begins shrinking fast but, thanks to the brainwork of Earth's scientists, his shrinkage and the alien attack are thwarted at precisely the same time. Earth is safe... for now. Be careful what you wish for, Atlas science fiction fans. Here's a script that might be a little too complicated for a young audience since I had to read it twice to get the gist of what was happening. The text is definitely hard sf (The action of the orbiting fragments has set up a force which moulds the matter of Mark's body into a more solid compact unit!) and Ditko's art gives the piece the cosmic vibe the artist would become famous for during his Doctor Strange run. Mark doesn't use his sudden little person status to rob liquor stores so why should I complain?-Peter

Tales to Astonish #1

Cover by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule

"We Found the Ninth Wonder of the World!" ★★

(a: Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule)

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #4)

"I Know the Secret of the Poltergeist!" (a: Steve Ditko) ★★1/2

(r: Strange Tales Annual #1, Uncanny Tales #6)

"I Was the First Man to Set Foot on... the Mystery Planet!" ★

(a: Carl Burgos)

(r: Weird Wonder Tales #4)

"I Foiled an Enemy Invasion!" (a: Jack Davis) ★1/2

Dr. Parker disappeared in a hidden corner of the world a decade ago and now Professor Briggs and the crew of Captain Kane's ship are out on the waters looking for him. They catch a four foot starfish and a twelve foot lobster and know they're onto something. A giant moving object the size of an island rams their ship and the crew takes to the lifeboats while Briggs and Kane survive by lashing together two oil barrels and floating to a nearby island.

On the island they find that natives have built an enormous wall and tied Parker to a post in front of it. Briggs and Kane soon join Parker, who admits that his serum causes creatures to experience uncontrolled growth. A turtle the size of a building bursts through the wall and the trio manage to free themselves and leave the island by means of a convenient motor boat that Parker kept handy for just such an occasion. On the water, they observe Experiment XYZ, Parker's first subject, which is a turtle the size of a mountain. The men realize that "We Found the Ninth Wonder of the World!"

It's good to see Kirby's pencils, but this story is a mashup of King Kong and Wild Kingdom. There's no real suspense and little point to the conclusion, where the men see a really big turtle. The closest thing to a sense of danger occurs in Kane's mind when he imagines bringing the big turtle back to civilization but realizes it would wreak havoc in a large city.

A young couple buy a house, not worrying about rumors that it's haunted. Objects start to jump around and they contact an investigator of the supernatural who tells them, "I Know the Secret of the Poltergeist!" He does a thorough check of the house and assures them that everything has a rational explanation, but he buys it from the young couple for further study. After they leave, he removes his mask and reveals that he is a poltergeist!

Ditko is at his peak here and the investigator looks a lot like Dr. Strange, with grey hair at the temples. As is often the case with Atlas stories, not a lot happens and the artist has to try to make things interesting with kooky events in the panels. The final. large panel, where the poltergeist pulls off his mask and is joined by the others who have been haunting the house, is great.

In the year 2095, two men are using robot labor to build an underground city when a mysterious, electric-ridden planet approaches the Earth and causes all the robots to malfunction. Tom, one of the duo, hates robots but is excited to see that the new planet has caused radioactive oil to pour down on Earth. He sets off in a spaceship to visit the new planet and secure the oil rights; when he lands, he can say that "I Was the First Man to Set Foot on... The Mystery Planet!"

He meets kind, tall, bald people who tell him that oil is their staff of life. Insisting on making a deal, Tom excitedly jumps into a pool of oil and oily arms envelop him; one of the creatures rescues him and is consumed by the pool. Another reveals that they're all telepathic robots who know he hates them and they banish him from their planet, sending him back to Earth.

I know Carl Burgos is one of the pioneers of comics, but his art here is nearly as bad as the incoherent story. Tom goes on and on about how much he hates robots, so any reader paying attention and not asleep knows that the folks on the mystery planet have to be robots.

A reporter named Mark Briton is driving around in 2008 when he begins to see billboards popping up everywhere that feature a photo of what appears to be an alien soldier holding a gun and a strange message: "The Ten Uous Are coming!" He soon realizes that they are harbingers of an alien attack and he is able to say, "I Foiled an Enemy Invasion!" after all the billboards are rounded up and the tenuous, two-dimensional soldiers step out of the pictures and surrender.

I can only assume that the page rates were so low that Jack Davis did not put a lot of effort into this story, which is as weak as the rest of the tales in this issue. The first appearance of Tales to Astonish is certainly different from the sludge we've been seeing from Atlas for quite a while now, but it still suffers from poor scripts and hasty art. The Ditko pages are the highlight.-Jack

Next Week...
Despite what Harlan Said, We Discover
This Guy Was a Heck of an Artist!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 161: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 146

May 1957 Part I

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Adventure into Mystery #7

Cover by Bill Everett

"The Invisible Doom!" (a: Gene Colan) ★1/2

"The Watcher!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★★

"One Hour till Doomsday!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"Beware... the Brimm!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★★

"Mission... Murder!" (a: Howard O' Donnell) ★

"Trapped in the Room of Darkness" (a: Syd Shores) ★★1/2

Brilliant scientist Professor Jason has created a formula that will enable its user to become absolutely invisible (except to himself, that is). Jason has had successful attempts on rats and seems assured that humans will follow suit. That's where Jason's grotesque, hunchbacked assistant Phil comes in. Phil sees dollar signs in the act of becoming invisible and forces Jason to give him the juice.

Jason goes out and steals a million dollars from a bank (for some undisclosed reason, everything that Phil touches becomes invisible so he's able to walk out of the bank vault without anyone the wiser) and then comes back to the lab demanding an antidote. Jason is brilliant so he's able to trick the dope into taking a knockout drug. The police arrive shortly thereafter. The Colan work in "The Invisible Doom!" is good but the script is day-old fish. We're never told what it is that this ding-dong Phil does in the lab. Sweep up dead rats? Mix highly-combustible solutions? Run algebraic problems with the boss? 

Andrew Morris, "a rather colorless man," in his own words "a nobody," invents a portal where he can transport part of his body to save his fellow human beings. He scoops passengers out of a crashing auto, grabs a baby who's climbed out on a ledge, and commits various other selfless acts. But suddenly Andrew's portal opens up onto a distant planet and the startled genius realizes that the portal might be two-way and the people on the faraway world are very aggressive. A fun little bit of dopiness starring one of the most unlikely Atlas protagonists: a brilliant genius who uses his invention to save people rather than knock over liquor stores! It's got the cliched climax but otherwise "The Watcher!" is an entertaining distraction.

In the dopey "One Hour till Doomsday!," hardened criminal Biff Malden holds an old couple hostage on their farm until the woman begins cackling about the end of the world and Biff can't take it anymore. He runs out of the house and down the road but suddenly everything turns black! The old woman was right! Well, no, once the cops arrive we discover it's just an eclipse. -Groan-

Australian cowboy Rick Mallory is out searching for lost sheep one day when he comes across a cute little creature hiding in the brush. Not recognizing it from the approximately one million species to be found in the Outback, Rick grabs the thing and heads back to the ranch. There, the natives become restless, claiming the nipper is the fabled Brimm.. an evil being that brings chaos to anyone around it. Rick scoffs but then his bad luck begins. Could this little gremlin really be a miniature demon? "Beware... the Brimm!" is a fabulous little fantasy, so much more entertaining and clever than anything else I tripped over this time out. The Torres art is right on the level (style-wise) of Frazetta and Williamson, and the Brimm has a Wally Wood-ian look to it. 

In the discardable three-page "Mission... Murder!," foreign agents (read that as stinkin' Commies) are sent in to destroy a mechanical brain that the good guys have invented. It doesn't go well. How to make a three-pager seem like thirty. In the finale, hardened criminal Oliver Deane is given a chance at parole if he'll participate in an experiment that will wipe out crime as we know it: the Jordan Chamber!

Deane enters the chamber and does indeed exit a changed man, with not one bad bone in his body. But that's because, unbeknownst to Deane and anyone else involved in the test, his bad side has exited his body and been given form as an exact clone of Oliver! The twin goes on a rampage of violence, including knocking over candy stores and Hobby Lobbies and smashing parking meters. Only the "real" Oliver Deane can clear up this mess and get back to Barbara, his one true love. There's a Hallmark Movie of the Week schmaltziness to the climax of "Trapped in the Room of Darkness," but there's also a bit of imagination used, so I have to give extra credit where it's due, especially when the scripter is our favorite target, pulpmeister Wessler.-Peter

Astonishing #61

Cover by Bill Everett

"Midnight in the Wax Museum!" (a: Richard Doxsee)

(r: Fear #20) ★★

"Mystery in Mid-Air" (a: John Forte) ★★

"The Frightful Film!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★1/2

"The Floating Man" (a: Joe Orlando) ★★

"The Too Late Show" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★★

"The Creeping Threat!" (a: John Romita) ★★1/2

Tough guy Kenyon accepts a bet to stay the night in the "haunted" wax museum where a criminal named Anders went missing. Everything goes fine until the wax dummy of the bad guy comes to life and threatens bodily harm. As Anders's gun is about to go off, Kenyon awakens to a crowd of cops all laughing at him. Turns out Kenyon had a tussle with nothing but a wax dummy since Anders was arrested the previous night across town. "Midnight in the Wax Museum!" would be completely dismissible were it not for the classy Doxsee art; very Reed Crandall-ish in spots.

The Great Alfredo is in love with two objects: his lovely wife and his marvelous trapeze. One day, while high above the circus floor, waiting for an available swing and wondering why his wife has never said anything about her past in all their years of marriage, Alfredo swears he will put on the show of a lifetime. He shall swing faster than any other trapeze-ster. And that he does! In fact, Alfredo swings so fast he lands in another dimension! Luckily, rather than become Alfredo Sauce, our hero lands safely and is escorted out of the tent by some rather strangely-garbed gentlemen. He's taken to the leader of Trapeze-World and promised that his daughter will make a good wife.

"My wife! She's still waiting for me to land!," exclaims the befuddled performer. With that, he turns tail, runs back into the tent, and climbs to the highest swing. His engine at Mach-10, Alfredo swings right back into our world and into the arms of his mysterious wife, who admits she's that gorgeous chick back in Trapeze-World! No wonder she's never come clean about her early days. She was a swinger. (drum beat) I gotta say that "Mystery in Mid-Air" made me laugh almost as hard as that time Jack swore Bill Shatner was a great actor. None of this four-page delight makes sense, but who cares? Just savor it.

Photographer Eli Payne runs out of plates for his camera box so he digs out some old stock created by his father, also a photographer. Turns out these plates can change a person's face with just a little monkey business on the photo. The proof is when Eli makes himself twenty years younger with some retouching. Eli suddenly realizes he can become the richest man in America if he uses the new process to blackmail vain millionaires. But, as we've seen with so many of these Atlas mad-genius-get-rich-quick schemes, Eli is in for a rude awakening. "The Frightful Film!" is Wessler back to doing what he does best... pumping out sub-par microwaved scripts low on ingenuity and high on groans. Normally, I'd give anything sporting a Gray Morrow art job two stars, but even Morrow looks tired here.

In a stinkin' Commie compound, U.N. prisoners are given little to eat and made to slave for backbreaking hours on end. Danny wants to get home to see his newborn son and the only way out he can see is Rupa Sidi, an Indian prisoner who has perfected the "rope trick." Danny is convinced that Rupa can elevate Danny over the barbed wire and from there he can make his way home to his family. I'm not spoiling anything when I tell you that, by the climax of "The Floating Man," Danny will be changing diapers and his wife will be bitching about the broken air conditioning. I'll say this though (for the 100th time), that Orlando guy sure knew his way around a pencil. 

Old penny-pincher Jason Bond buys a cheap television set at a rummage sale and sits in wonder at channels that aren't listed in the TV Guide. You're not going to believe this but everything he watches on the set comes true the next day. Apartment fires. Train crashes. The mini-skirt. So Jason decides he's going to get even richer on this wonderful miracle. He bets on the stock market and makes enough to buy the Empire State Building. That night, he watches in horror on his TV set as he's killed by a falling brick from the building. Jason Bond swears he'll now turn this miracle into a good tool for mankind if given the chance. In heaven, the angels who rigged Bond's TV have a laugh and head for the next penny-pincher on their list. For a three-pager, "The Too Late Show" is not all that bad. It's got a hilarious final shot and some scratchy Winiarski art perfect for the subject. I don't see Win doing cheesecake art.

Leading professor in ant science Dr. Paul Marsden believes he can communicate with the little bugs and that they are even more intelligent than man. So he does what any other brilliant mind would do: he sets up a communicator between himself and a trio of ants he's weeded out of dozens of test subjects. These three are all strictly A (for Ant) students. Soon the ants are requesting human history lectures and studies in science. Marsden spends the better part of a decade reading the little critters every book on science he can find and then the exhausted egghead takes a nap. That's when the ants make their move.

There's nothing particularly original to "The Creeping Threat!" but, like "Mystery in Mid-Air," it generated several out-loud laughs from this jaded comics consumer. Marsden supplies the little buggers with materials they request and darned if the trio doesn't build a mini-laboratory and make plans of world conquest. The climactic panels, where Marsden takes his insect friends out to lunch at a nearby cafe and a well-meaning waitress squishes the bugs is comic book gold. The devastated scientist, unaware how close he came to destroying the world, can only sob and make "dumb waitress" jokes. These are the moments I live for when cracking open Atlas funny books. This was John Romita's 33rd and final appearance in the Atlas SF/Horror titles, but Spider-Man fans know he'll be back in a big way.-Peter

Journey Into Mystery #46

Cover by Carl Burgos

"The Middle of the Night!" (a: John Forte) ★★

"Voodoo!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★1/2

"The Red Doom!" (a: Bernard Baily) ★1/2

"The Desert Rat!" (a: Bernie Krigstein) ★★★

"The Betrayer!" (a: Manny Stallman) ★

"Nightmare!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★★

A mysterious stranger visits Alfred Mott in "The Middle of the Night!" He asks Mott to repair a pocket watch before midnight the next evening and offers to pay twice the going rate. Mott greedily accepts and stays up late working on the watch. Testing it to see if it's fixed, he pushes the hour hand backwards and realizes that he's traveled to the day before! He turns the hands back a week and travels back in time seven days.

Determined to cash in on the handheld time machine, Alfred winds the watch back to the year 1575, where he plans to steal jewels from the King of  France! He scales the castle wall and surprises the king in his bedroom, only to be arrested. To his dismay, Alfred can't find his watch to return to the present because watches haven't been invented yet!

John Forte's art is competent but don't think too much about this story. How in the world does Alfred wind the watch back a week, not to mention almost 400 years? That's a lot of times around the dial! The last panel is funny--Alfred is in his cell yelling about his missing watch and a guard is outside making the "he's crazy" sign with his finger by the side of his head.

Sergeant Lane doesn't believe that Mario really can practice "Voodoo!" and Mario threatens to make a doll of Lane. Mario is using his dolls to blackmail superstitious locals, so Lane gives Mario a few of his own hairs and challenges him to make a doll of the sergeant. Lane's partner, Sergeant Brice, isn't sure what to believe. Lane canvasses the neighborhood and finally finds someone who will testify that Mario has been blackmailing him. Lane and Brice visit Mario to confront him, but Mario shows Lane a new voodoo doll that he's made in Lane's image. Mario drops it out the window, threatening Lane that he'll die, but instead Mario falls out the window to his death. Brice reveals that he switched the hairs on the doll so they were Mario's rather than Lane's.

Stories involving voodoo are always welcome, but Robert Sales's art continues to disappoint me. His characters are just plain ugly and his panel designs are flat.

Jean Lacoste collects the largest jewels in the world. When he's told that he doesn't possess the biggest ruby, known as "The Red Doom!," he vows that he'll have it under glass within a month. Jean flies to India and goes into the jungle, where the locals fear the ruby's evil power. Jean enters a shrine and takes the huge jewel, but when he tries to leave the jungle he finds himself trapped in a large glass cube. His vow came true--he has the ruby under glass!

Cue the "wah-wah" horns for the dopey, cornball ending to this story. Where did the big glass cube come from? What's its purpose? Who knows? Certainly not the writer. Baily's art makes it clear that he didn't think much of this tale.

Why does an old hermit whom the newspapers call "The Desert Rat!" refuse to move out of his condemned shack in the desert to let a road project pass through the property? A reporter named Phil is determined to get the answer. Pretending to be a sick, lost, bewildered traveler, Phil is taken in by Josef Kruge, the hermit, who confesses that he hates the shack in which he lives. Kruge explains that he was once known as Josef the Great, a strongman who performed before crowds. When he began to get weak with age, he sought a way to regain his strength and found Abu Shah, a strongman who traveled with a sheik's caravan.

Kruge discovered that Shah's strength came from a liquid he drank every night, so Kruge grabbed the bag and took a drink. Shah told him that he'd be doomed to live in the desert from then on. Kruge's strength returned and he again performed before adoring crowds, but he was forced to flee to Death Valley and remain there. One night he had reached his hand out of his dressing room tent to see if it was raining and it was, but his hand rusted because he had become a man of iron!

Bernie Krigstein turns in another superb performance on this tale, which creates a mystery and carries the reader along until the final panel, where the secret is revealed. He's able to tell so much more story with his technique of multiple, skinny panels, and at this point his work is the closest thing in Atlas comics to something from the days of EC Comics, even if he was not one of their original stable of great artists.

Igor is a Communist in New York City who can't seem to convince red-blooded Americans of the validity of his cause. "The Betrayer!" keeps being told that the patriots will listen to him when the torch on the Statue of Liberty stops burning. Igor gets the bright idea to blow up the torch, but when he climbs all the way up one night with a satchel of dynamite he suddenly falls over the side to his death. A doctor examines him and concludes that he wasn't killed by the fall but rather from third degree burns, "as if he were burned by a big flame."

It's comforting to see that Atlas Comics were still keeping up their anti-Communist fervor in terrible stories like this one as late as 1957. The rest of the country was emerging from the national nightmare brought on by HUAC, but Stan Lee and co. were determined to show their pre-teen readers that the Red Menace was still alive and well in the U.S. Three pages are wasted here and Manny Stallman's art shows how little he cared about the story.

Just after midnight, an entire town disgorges itself from the Earth and floats off into space! It must be a "Nightmare!" Only three men are awake and aware of what's happening. One is Mayor George Bascombe, who just withdrew the town's welfare fund from the bank and plans to clear out in the morning. Another is Frank Lefferts, the banker, who plans to foreclose on the farm of a sweet young couple tomorrow. The third man is an old farmer, Joseph Brooks, who plans to kill his wife's fiance the next day due to an old family feud. As the city floats off into space, the trio reconsider their cruel plans and suddenly the town reverses courses and settles back down on Earth.

The story is an old one and the conceit of the town flying off into space is bizarre, but Angelo Torres ignored the trite theme and drew some very nice pages, making this a comfortable way to end the issue.-Jack

Next Week...
A Rare Stop in the
Atlas Post-Code Universe
for Dick Giordano!

Journey Into Strange Tales Issue 155: Atlas/Marvel Science Fiction & Horror Comics!

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 140

March 1957 Part II

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Marvel Tales #156

Cover by Bill Everett

"How High is High?" (a: Paul Reinman) ★

"The Door to...?" (a: Gray Morrow) ★

"Which Face is Mine?" (a: Syd Shores) ★1/2

"The Secret Formula!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"Sounds in the Night!" (a: Angelo Torres) ★

"Forbidden... Keep Out!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★★1/2

Famous architect J. R. Alton talks a construction crew into building a two-mile-high skyscraper but one of the builders becomes suspicious when he overhears Alton talking to a mysterious voice from another planet. The voice reveals that the plan is to build several tall skyscrapers to throw the Earth off its axis. Then the invading warriors of planet Kotto will swoop in and take over. But Alton's plans go awry when his fellow Kottoians desert him. "How High is High?" is a meandering mess that requires a massive suspension of disbelief.

In the three-page "The Door to...?," a hypnotist is called in to help a high-level prison beef up its security by fooling its inmates into believing the complex is the promised land. Equally vacuous is "Which Face is Mine?," wherein a thief learns how to change his facial features thanks to an arcane spell. After pulling a heist, the crook flees from the police and changes his face to elude capture, only to inadvertently switch to the guise of a wanted felon. "Shoot on sight!" screams the wanted poster and the cops do. 

Paul finds a book on alchemy and rushes back to the shabby home he shares with his two buddies, Ralph and Chuck, sure he's found the key to Midas's fortune. Luckily, Ralph is a chemist who quickly whips up "The Secret Formula!" that enables the man who drinks it to visit the future. Ralph takes the jump a year into the future and discovers that old man Craig, who lives down the road apiece, is sitting on a worthless piece of farm acreage that hides a huge deposit of oil. 

Ralph returns to his body and tells his buddies they must buy the land pronto and then sell it at a premium, but one more visit to the farm is Ralph's undoing as he falls for Farmer Craig's gorgeous daughter and cannot go through with the deception. Paul and Ralph decide to kill Paul before he can disclose the master plan, but their evil plot backfires. If you paid attention to my star rating up top, there's no secret that "The Secret Formula!" is a stiff, but I almost recommend a reading just to experience the goofiness and complexity of its final panels.

Young Seth Collins panics and deserts his military squad during the War of 1812, then spends the rest of his life hearing the calls of his comrades. Seth grows old and soon his grandson, Roy, enlists. It's at that time that the cries in Seth's head disappear. He's found peace at last now that his grandson has volunteered to sacrifice his own life. Tedious and moronic, "Sounds in the Night!" is comprised mostly of panels of Seth looking depressed and his wife begging him to tell her what's up. The jingoistic climax is 100% pure Wessler (with perhaps a nudge from Stan "Stinkin' Commies!" Lee). The Torres art is nice to look at, but if you put a dress on a pig...

Easily the Best of the Issue Award goes to "Forbidden... Keep Out!," a simple but effective undersea adventure. Doctor Lane and his gorgeous daughter, Sharon, have come to a remote Pacific island in search of "a race of underwater men" living somewhere near the island. Sharon can't help but blunder into danger after danger until she's rescued by two handsome, virile examples of male machismo, George and Phil, who volunteer to help the Lanes with their research. 

After a couple more mishaps (including a "herd" of attacking sharks!), the doctor throws in the towel and suggests that perhaps there are things man is not supposed to know... or something along those lines. As George and Phil wave goodbye, Dr. Lane wonders how the two men got to an island one thousand miles from civilization without a boat. I loved that last line and, believe it or not, never put two and two together until it was spelled out. An enjoyable little yarn with some swell Mac Pakula cheesecake art saves Marvel Tales #156 from being a total failure.-Peter

Mystery Tales #51

Cover by Bill Everett

"Inside the Mummy's Case" (a: Joe Orlando) ★

(r: Journey Into Mystery #16)

"The Lizard" (a: Al Williamson & Ralph Mayo (?)) ★★1/2

"What World is This?" (a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) ★

(r: Vault of Evil #18)

"The Strange Seeds!" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★1/2

"I'll Get You Later" (a: Dave Berg) ★

"Four Empty Chairs!" (a: Marvin Stein) ★

(r: Uncanny Tales #9)

Museum guard Joe Waters is receiving telepathic messages from within the coffin of a centuries-dead pharaoh, promising endless wealth if Joe will only lift the coffin lid. Just in time, the museum's curator stops Joe from making a terrible mistake and both watch as a deadly booby trap is triggered. Now, together the two men will destroy the evil force "Inside the Mummy's Case"! Dreadfully dull fantasy ends with a cliffhanger, but that's okay... I don't need another page.

The sharp Williamson/Mayo art is pretty much the only reason to wade through "The Lizard," about a scientist who climbs into the Tibetan mountains to work on his "growth accelerator," an invention that will (naturally) benefit mankind. His test subject, a cute little lizard, is splashed with the growth serum during a raging storm and escapes into the mountains, terrorizing the populace before our egghead tracks it down. But, no worries, it was all the obligatory dream and now the big brain must decide whether to push on with the test or heed the warning. This is post-code, so we all know which path he ventured down.

Fleeing from the cops, Cole stumbles into a town of frozen people. "What World is This?" mumbles the moronic thief, not bothering to inspect the still-life figures closer. If he had, he'd notice they're all dummies and he's entered a faux town set up for an atomic bomb testing. Whoops! This plot had been swirling around the Atlas bowl for years and every now and then got plucked for use. The awful Andru/Esposito art certainly doesn't help matters much.

Sentenced by the stinkin' commie Russkies to twenty years' hard labor in Siberia, peacenik Ivan Lenov has little hope for the future until Mars has a terrible space storm and shoots seeds at Earth. "The Strange Seeds!" land right in Ivan's garden and he tends them carefully. A few months later, plant men rise from the soil and inform Ivan that they're forever in his debt and will grant him any wish he speaks. Wanting only to see the downfall of the dictator, Ivan asks his new friends to get rid of the prison guards. That wish granted, the walking foliage return for further instructions. Unfortunately, Ivan learns he aimed too low as the snow falls and the Martians wilt away. New guards are assigned and life in the Russkie wasteland resumes its tiring schedule. But, he realizes, the sun will return some day and so will the plants. This Winiarski-led snoozer culminates in one of the obligatory Atlas freedom speeches of the mid-50s.

Perpetual loser Barney Beale finds a briefcase filled with dough, twenty grand to be exact, on his kitchen table. Inside, a note explains that the case is from five years in the future and Barney can have two thousand bucks if he leaves the rest alone. The future friend will be coming back for the rest. But who is the future friend? If you've read any Atlas SF/fantasy time travel yarns, you know who wrote the note before the first page is turned. Dave Berg usually contributed solid graphic work, but his art on "I'll Get You Later" is primitive and ugly.

A truly awful issue of Mystery Tales comes to a truly awful finish with "Four Empty Chairs!," the story of an old man in a mansion who dines with the titular furniture every night. The town gossips want to know what's going on, so they hire a lip reader to have a look. Do you really need me to go on? Well, the old man and his invisible family are aliens waiting to be struck by lightning bolts so they can go back to their home world. Their dream comes true and the town really has something to talk about. Hey, you wanted me to go on. But now I'm done!-Peter

Mystic #57

Cover by Bill Everett

"Trapped in the Ant Hill!" (a: Syd Shores) ★★

"The Midnight Visitor!" (a: Mac L. Pakula) ★1/2

(r: Chamber of Chills #20)

"The Strange Prison!" (a: Bill Everett) ★★1/2

(r: Where Monsters Dwell #37)

"He'd Rather Die Than Tell" (a: Ed Winiarski) ★

"The Room of Shadows!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

"You Can't Hide from the Eye!" (a: Joe Orlando) ★1/2

A scientist named Perry Moore invents a serum that temporarily shrinks living tissue. He accidentally cuts his arm and some serum enters his bloodstream, causing him to reduce to the size of an ant. Outside, he is frightened of the threatening bugs and crawls into a hole, only to find himself "Trapped in the Ant Hill!" Perry observes ants trying to develop a serum to grow to the size of humans, whom they hate, and when he reverts to normal size he vows to devote himself to finding a new way to kill ants.

Syd Shores does a decent job of depicting tiny Dr. Moore and the big insects he encounters. My favorite sequence is when he discovers the ant laboratory, with diagrams of ants and humans and a very frustrated ant scientist.

Leon Aymler is an author who is hard at work on his book when he's interrupted by "The Midnight Visitor!" The strange man holds a gun on Leon and demands to know how he learned everything in his book. Leon insists it's fiction but the visitor shows him that it's not and that he's the traitor whose story Leon told. Leon begs for time to write a sequel in which the villain is caught and punished and the visitor agrees, certain that it won't come true, but as soon as Leon writes that FBI men entered and captured the traitor, it comes to pass. Leon and the visitor both faint due to the sudden shock.

Though the visitor insists that there's nothing supernatural going on here, the opposite proves to be the case. The uncredited author provides no explanation as to why the words Leon write come true and I had to think, as I was reading, that if I were the traitor, I would not have let Leon take the time to write a brief sequel in which I got caught. Why risk it?

Tad Branton is new to skin diving and passes out the first time he tries it. He awakens in the Underwater World, where he is given the tour by a gorgeous gal named Pisca, who happens to be the daughter of the king. The man who marries her will receive a chest of treasure, so Tad does the usual Atlas thing, marrying her and then swimming to the surface with his treasure. Oddly, his boat is floating right where he left it, but Tad can't breathe air and passes out. This time he wakes up behind the bars of "The Strange Prison!" It seems the king had doctors operate on Tad so he can only breathe water, not air. Now that he's screwed up, he'll spend two years in the underwater slammer before another operation makes him able to breathe air again and he's returned to the surface world. Oh, and the treasure chest? It was full of shells, which are priceless underwater!

Sadly, Bill Everett is only given three pages in which to work in this story, but they allow him to draw mostly underwater panels, which are colored blue and black and hearken back to his days drawing the Sub-Mariner for Timely. It always cracks me up when the underwater babes are wearing bikinis; this one's top is made of two strategically placed seashells.

Why does Andrew Korvak run through Spain, France, and Italy tightly clutching a black box and never letting go? "He'd rather die than tell." Finally falling to his death from a roof, Andrew reveals that the box contains an indestructible crystal ball that shows a picture of his crime--robbing and murdering the gypsy who owned the orb! Ed Winiarski's art is mediocre, as usual, but this story is odd in that there is no dialogue save for two panels on the final page, where Korvak reveals that the crystal ball was indestructible. The story is told in captions and wordless panels, which is not a bad thing. Many Atlas stories could do with fewer words.

After years of searching, Beldick finally locates "The Room of Shadows!" in the Cambodian jungle. All his assistants desert him but he doesn't care, since he knows that, inside the room, he'll be granted three wishes. Beldick pushes past the temple priest, who insists that his wishes will come to naught, and reaches the room. His first wish is to be the wisest man in the world, but Beldick is not happy to inhabit the body of a sick old man. His second wish is to be as rich as Croesus, but when he is given the ancient king's wealth he understands that it holds little value today and is too heavy to move. A match carelessly tossed aside starts a fire and Beldick's last wish is wasted on preserving his life from the flames.

Robert Q. Sale's art isn't getting any better, is it! This story is yet another variation on "The Monkey's Paw," and every reader old enough to read knows full well what's going to happen long before page four arrives.

"You Can't Hide from the Eye!" is the bitter lesson that Floyd Ryder learns after he invents a super high frequency TV camera that can look through walls and see things far away. He makes a deal with a gangster to let the crook use the camera to look into banks and witness safe combinations, but after a series of successful robberies the police arrest Floyd, who did not realize that what he saw on his screen was also being broadcast to every TV set in the city!

An uneven issue of Mystic ends with a dud. Even Joe Orlando can't enliven this snoozer, in which TV is both the source of wealth and the downfall of a greedy inventor.-Jack

Next Week...
Is Our Special No-Content Holiday Issue
But in Two Weeks...
A Shocker From Reed Crandall!

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

 

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 137

February 1957 Part III

by Peter Enfantino

and Jack Seabrook

Strange Stories of Suspense #13

Cover by Bill Everett

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

(r: Monsters on the Prowl #25)

"The Black Beard!" (a: Gray Morrow) ★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strange Tales #55

Cover by Bill Everett

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

"Octopus!" (a: Tony DiPreta) ★★

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

"Earth-Trap!" (a: Robert Q. Sale) ★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strange Tales of the Unusual #8

Cover by Carl Burgos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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