Number 2573: “Hey, Joe...where you go?”

When it comes down to dictators, I think Adolf Hitler gets some sort of recognition for being one who definitely stood out in a crowd. Humanity has put up with a lot of dictators in the past...too many for me to count...but Hitler just steals the thunder from among the rest. Maybe it was that Charlie Chaplin did a splendid satire of Adolf in the movie, The Great Dictator. Hitler was fun to caricature.

This short story from an Atlas horror comic shows a craven Hitler after years in hell. Adolf tries to get some historical figures to vouch for him, telling the devil he was really a good man, so he can get out of hell.

The ending originally puzzled me. He finally calls on someone named “Joe” for help. Who the hell is Joe? I thought perhaps it was Joseph Goebbels, but Goebbels died in 1945 and had probably been stoking the fiery furnaces ever since. Then I hit on Joseph Stalin. That gave me pause. If ever there were true enemies, Stalin and Hitler fit the definition of enemies. I’ll stick with Stalin because it seems right to me, although I am not sure. Stalin died on May 1, 1953, and the date on the comic book is August, 1953. So it was big news that year, and perhaps the writer jumped on the idea. Basically, the last dialogue in the story, for me, that is, seems to point to Joe Stalin. Which only leaves why Hitler would want to implore Stalin to tell the devil that Hitler was a good guy.

The story is from Adventures Into Weird Worlds #21 (1953), with Sam Kweskin's signature for the artwork.

Number 2464: Joe Sinnott could draw horror

Joe Sinnott, comic artist, died this year at age 93. Despite his advanced age, it is still a bit jarring when I see the death notice for someone I admire, no matter how old. I admire Joe Sinnott’s art, and have enjoyed it for over 60 of Joe’s 93 years.

For Halloween I’ve got four stories Sinnott did for Atlas horror comics in the early '50s. The stories are well drawn and effective, especially one of my favorites, “The Witch in the Woods.” It retells the story of Hansel and Gretel as a comeback to enemies of horror comics. We can assume that horror stories have been told to children around the campfire probably as far back as early humans telling their kids tall tales of monsters and ghosts. I have shown these before, some years ago. They're just as fun to read now as they were then.

From Menace #7 (1953):

From Dead of Night #1 (1973); reprinted from Adventures Into Weird Worlds #6 (1952):

From Uncanny Tales #13 (1953):

From Uncanny Tales #16 (1954):

Number 2183: The Dead and the Living and the Dead

As a reader of horror stories I have read many stories of dead people returning from their graves to be among the living. In EC Comics it was usually because the dead had been wronged and were back for revenge. In “The Dead,” from Atlas Comics’ Adventures Into Weird Worlds #26 (1954), deceased relatives come out of their graves for an unknown purpose. Maybe they simply want a family reunion, but since they didn’t bring the potato salad the still-living family members are none too happy to see them. Dick Ayers did the artwork, working around an unwieldy script.  Too many words. A good editor would have cut the verbiage down by at least 50% or even more.

“The Living and the Dead” is a supernatural story about a writer for the very comics carrying the same type of horror stories we are reading today. This story is from Mystic #26, 1954. Writer and artist unknown. I have heard that horror stories often articulate unspoken fears. I had a lot of fears when young: ghosts, monsters in the closet...all the usual scary stuff kids worry about. Little did I know that when we become adults there are a lot more fears to worry about: earning a living, mortgages, car payments, raising children...I was more terrified by them than by any dead people

Number 2040: “Who summons Satan?”

Nick Rico has a great lawyer. Nick keeps getting arrested for his gangland murders, and his lawyer gets him off, every time. Not only does that defy the odds, but Nick has a hot blonde girlfriend — appropriately named Dolly — who is lucky enough to find a bookstore selling a book on necromancy and black magic. She uses it to summon no less than Satan himself! That shop looks like a fun place to browse.

Stan Lee wrote it, and Russ Heath drew it. Heath did his usual excellent work. “Gentlemen of the Jury” was originally published in Adventures Into Weird Worlds #17 (1953), but I scanned it from a reprint in Vault of Evil #9 (1974).

Number 207


Locked Up!


This story is scanned from Crypt Of Shadows #4 (1973). It was reprinted from Atlas Comics' Adventures Into Weird Worlds #9 (1952). Carmine Infantino drew it, Sy Barry probably inked it, Hank Chapman wrote it. The ending to the this story is totally off-the-wall, like a shaggy dog story. Or I should say, it's shaggy, just not a dog.