Tales to Astonish #4

Tales to Astonish no. 4 is another anthology of uncredited science fiction and fantasy stories generally featuring dislikeable protagonists who get their comeuppance in "ironic" twist endings. However, the slightly better stories make it a cut above the first few issues.

The first story, 'I Was a Prisioner of the Martians!' tells the story of a dictatorial Hollywood director who stages a science fiction film in the middle of the Mojave desert. When he's kidnapped by Martians, no one intercedes, believing it to be part of the show. Average.

The second story, 'Masquerade' is a little romantic fairy tale about a man who dislikes anything imaginative or fantastic. In a Midsummer Night's Dream like episode, he encounters nursery rhyme characters who change his outlook, thus improving his relationship prospects with his sweetheart, Kitty. Above average.

'The Forbidden Paintings' features a pompous painter who buys a paintbrush said to be magic but cursed, from a bum. It turns out that both claims about the brush are true. Unlike most stories like this, the main character's suffering isn't one that's unending, and he does have the opportunity to turn over a new leaf. Above average.

'I Made Time Stand Still' is about a scientist trying to invent a time machine who instead makes time stop. He uses this to his advantage by robbing people. But things don't go as planned when he re-starts time. Average.

'I Love a Mermaid!' is another romantic fantasy about a man who is drawn to the sea meeting a mermaid. How can they be together? Average.

The final story in the package, 'The Man Who Floats in Space!', was signed by Steve Ditko, though it has a distinct Jack Kirby look-and-feel to it, so Kirby probably wrote and inked the piece. It's interesting in that it features characters that it presumes the reader is familiar with: Captain Racer, The Space Patrol, and Bogane the Martian Space Pirate. All I can figure is that this was either a story that Kirby and Ditko did for Ziff Davis' Space Patrol comic and when it never ran they snuck it in here, or it was intended for a Marvel adaptation of the Space Patrol franchise that never happened, or possibly an unrelated series with the same name, or perhaps just a coincidence given the generic nature of the team's name, though given the popularity of Space Patrol on the radio and in the movies in the 1950s, that seems unlikely. In any case, it would've made a nice Flash Gordon style space opera had Marvel chose to continue it. Above average.