Marvel Tales (1949 series) #97

Anton Carnot, a self-described world explorer obsessed with finding the lost continent of Atlantis, encounters a dying Englishman in the northern wastes of Manchuria who warns him of a hidden valley monastery where the secrets of all civilizations are stored — and from which no one is permitted to leave alive. Carnot buries the stranger and presses on alone, reaching the monastery and being received by its aged Oriental master, the Learned One. Granted access to the library's Atlantean texts, Carnot spends years deciphering them, gradually reading the history of Atlantis as if living it firsthand. He learns of Fex Yalorax, the cruel imperial king, and Pir Anthor, the imperial wizard whose secret magic growth elixir — five drops mixed with blood and wine — transforms soldiers into giants seven to eight feet tall, giving Atlantis military supremacy over the known world.

Kalgantor, a common man in love with Pir Anthor's daughter Callia, secretly witnesses the dark rite in which Pir Anthor invokes the Black One and doses the imperial army, then steals the bottle and drinks it in enormous gulps. He grows to thirty feet tall, rallies the enslaved northern peoples in revolt, storms Atlantis itself at 105 feet — and keeps growing. Now ruling the conquered golden city, Kalgantor kills Pir Anthor in rage upon learning there is no antidote and he will never stop growing. When Callia recoils from him in horror, Kalgantor abandons his prize and flees. Growing larger than mountains, he runs into the sea; his colossal weight causes Atlantis to sink beneath the waves, and Kalgantor — now too large for the Earth itself — spins off into space and dies. Back in the monastery's present, the Learned One tells Carnot he has found his answer: Atlantis is gone forever, and Carnot chooses to remain, content to spend his remaining days with the Atlantean records he sought his whole life.

Beyond the Grave

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

In the village of Malago deep in Africa, the witch doctor Moloo holds his tribe in awe with displays of fire and apparent magic, declaring himself all-powerful. Agono, the jealous king of the Malagas, resents the way Moloo commands more loyalty than he does, and publicly denounces him as a fraud. When Moloo appears in blazing flame and threatens Agono, the king strikes him down with a knife. Agono orders Moloo's body buried beneath his totem pole and commands his servant Nogai to care for a powerful gorilla that the tribe has recently captured from the jungle, keeping it caged next to his hut. That night Agono is haunted by a dream in which Moloo's voice warns him that his brain is strong enough to work magic beyond the grave.

Dismissing the dream, Agono releases the gorilla into Moloo's tent that night, intending it to kill the witch doctor's memory by desecrating his belongings. Instead the gorilla kills Moloo's followers and turns on Agono himself — and in the chaotic vortex of the attack, Moloo's voice speaks from the beast, revealing that at the moment of death he projected his mind into the gorilla's body and has returned from beyond the grave. The gorilla-Moloo condemns Agono for his cruelty and sentences him to death. Agono, broken, submits, and the beast kills him. The story closes with Moloo's gorilla ruling as a revered figure among the Malago tribespeople, who glance in derision at the totem pole that now marks Agono's grave.

Danger in the Sun!

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

At an expedition base camp deep in Mexico, a horror-stricken guide named Manuel staggers in to report that a tribe of Incas ambushed the Leary expedition, killed the porters, and kidnapped Professor Leary. The expedition leader wants to summon Mexican troops, but Sun Girl — present to photograph a solar eclipse — insists on investigating first. Ignoring orders, she sets out alone and finds the hidden valley of the Quetzal tribe, descendants of escaped Incas who have killed all outsiders for centuries in the name of the sun god Ra. Sun Girl bluffs her way in as a messenger of Ra, but their leader Rover — educated on the outside — sees through the ruse, and both Sun Girl and Leary are chained to a sacrificial post. When the solar eclipse darkens the valley on cue, Sun Girl proclaims Ra's wrath, and the terrified tribespeople — all except Rover — believe her; they turn on their leader and kill him, freeing the captives. Sun Girl escorts Leary safely back to the expedition base.

The Wooden Horror!

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

In the village of Zagrebe, Hungary, the feared puppeteer Maestro Mikzath performs a dark ritual in his tower workshop, invoking unseen forces to invest a life-sized wooden dummy with true life. The creature stirs and moves, and Mikzath names it Kriska, declaring it the spawn of evil. The following morning Mikzath visits the president of the Zagrebe National Bank, Herr Kalak, to demand a large unsecured loan; Kalak throws him out. That afternoon Mikzath slips Kriska — small enough to pass as a forgotten toy — into the bank, where the puppet shoots the night guard, cracks the teller's cage, and makes off with cash, returning to Mikzath's tower. Meanwhile the village is beset by a wave of robberies and murders that baffles Inspector Koltas and his men. Merchants including Herr Kalak and a man named Peter come to complain to Koltas, who has no clue.

Mikzath has by now animated a second puppet, Kallon, and sends it to murder Herr Kalak. Kalak is strangled beneath his own window that night; neighbors find his body clutching a broken wooden arm. A witness named Draja tells Inspector Koltas he saw the thing heading toward Mikzath's cursed tower, and Koltas leads his constables through the forest in pursuit. They spot Kallon on the path and chase it inside the tower, but Mikzath detonates a charge to destroy the evidence — and when Koltas and Peter pull him from the rubble, they discover Mikzath himself is made entirely of wood: he too is a puppet. The tower explodes a second time, destroying everything. Koltas closes with a chilling postscript from Mikzath's recovered notebook, asking who — or what — created Mikzath, and whether more living puppets may exist in the world.