Number 2404: Return from Mars

Such a day motorcycle cop Michael Reardon had. He chased a guy going too fast in an exotic car, and then ended up on Mars. He was also given the news that Mars was about to invade the Earth.

When this was published Mars was a place of the imagination. I am sure that science (without the fiction) knew that Mars was an uninhabited planet totally hostile to humans, but in comic books or pulp magazines it was still a fantasy planet where just about any tale could be told, even one as far out as this story. However, what I found most hard to believe about the tale is that Officer Reardon was allowed to stand in front of a bank of microphones and tell the Earth an invasion was coming from space. To me that is harder to believe than a motorcycle cop traveling to another planet in a Martian car.

For all that, it is well drawn by Russ Heath, and “Return from Mars” originally appeared in Atlas’ Journey Into Unknown Worlds #4 (1951), but is here from an IW reprint published in 1958, Space Mysteries #1 (1958).

Number 2378: Strange neighbors, indeed...

“Our Strange Neighbors,” from Atlas’ Journey Into Unknown Worlds #51 (1956), is a well-meaning story that falls short. In the era when segregation was being dismantled by court orders, many areas of so-called non-segregated America were far from integrated. There was a de facto nationwide segregation policy when it came to housing, especially in the spreading suburbs. Stories in comic books about offensive real-life racist policies were generally avoided, but when they were done, as in this story, surrogates for African-Americans were used to avoid pissing off magazine distributors, politicians, or any Klan members who might take offense. Did it work? It might have escaped notice by being the last story in the comic book, but anyone who read it could have seen right through it.

To add to the obvious, one of the alien characters is called Mr Neeg.

The message of this short 4-pager is diluted. A story about a mob pushing out the otherworldly aliens who only want to be good neighbors, having the unwanted green people as tokens who would have brought great things for the white citizens but being denied by a mob, is weak and an artifact of its time.

Despite what I consider the tale’s failings it is a curiosity of its era, and well drawn by John Forte. No writer is credited.

Number 762


The middle Atlas


Pappy reader John Kaminski gave me the germ of the idea for this post by requesting the story, "The Trap," from Atlas' Mystery Tales #42. It's only four pages and that doesn't seem like much of a post, so I looked around at some of the other Atlas post-Code comics I have. I've always seen these comics as being somewhere toward the late middle of the Timely/Atlas/Marvel progression of the 1940s to early '60s. Until the Atlas implosion of 1957 a lot of the old horror comics artists, who didn't quit comics, got work from Atlas in a severely shrunken market.

These are some examples I've chosen.

"The Trap," drawn by Bob Bean, is from Mystery Tales #42, 1956, as is "The Captive," by Jerry Robinson.

Two stories from World Of Mystery #4, from 1956: "Things In The Window" by Werner Roth, and "The Man With The Yellow Eyes" by Dick Ayers.

Rounding it out, "The Ghost Wore Armor," published in Journey Into Unknown Worlds #55, 1957, drawn by Bob Forgione and Jack Abel.

Number 690

Russ Heath and the Monster of Moog

Here's the 4th installment for Pappy's Science Fiction Week.

Russ Heath, born in 1926, is a comic art great whose career extended for decades. He did Westerns, horror, science fiction and in the '60s many war stories. Like Joe Kubert, who also worked for editor/writer Robert Kanigher at DC, Heath's artwork never faded in quality over a long career.

"Monster of Moog" (a planet, and not a synthesizer), and "The Strange Car" both appeared in Atlas Comics' Journey Into Unknown Worlds #36 (actually #1) in 1950.

A decade later Heath would work with Kanigher on Sea Devils, a comic book I really enjoyed. (Someday I may indulge myself and show you a story featuring the Sea Devils and Pappy the trained seal.) The covers, three of which I've included here, were exceptionally dramatic. Heath did the artwork and DC's chief production man, Jack Adler, did the gray tones, giving the covers a modeled effect.

Some great Russ Heath art from a 1962 DC war comic is here.

Number 555


"That bullet bounced off my bean and bonked a bozo behind me!"


Whatever fed Basil Wolverton's fantasies must've been very potent, because his images are unforgettable. Whether he was drawing humor or horror he was equally facile. That's why today I'm showing you examples of both.

Powerhouse Pepper was an ongoing character whose stories originally appeared in 1940s' Marvel Comics, but black and white reprints popped up for years in pages of Humorama Publications cartoon books. This one is from an issue of Wheely Nuts, an obscure cartoon book from the early '70s, and maybe one of the last of the Humorama line.

Here's a really paranoid story by Daniel Keyes ("Flowers for Algernon"), and drawn by Wolverton originally for Atlas' Journey Into Unknown Worlds #15 in 1953. It's one of those "nobody believes me!" stories where the people who "don't believe" the main character are in on the conspiracy.

Giant crabs. Who'd thunk it? Only Wolverton could pull this one off and he does it in such a creepy and claustrophic way. Hey, I've been there, had that...paranoia, that is...not crabs.

I scanned this sharp black and white version of "They Crawl By Night" from Dark Horse's Basil Wolverton's Gateway to Horror, published in 1988. Karswell has "They Crawl By Night," scanned from the original Atlas comic book, today at The Horrors Of It All. Crawl on over and tell 'im Pappy sent you.