“King of the Glacier Men” appeared in Marvel’s Journey Into Unknown Worlds #55 (March 1957) and was reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell #38 (October 1975). This short four-pager was written by Carl Wessler, penciled by Al Williamson and inked by Ralph Mayo. The story even got the cover by Bill Everett, though the idea seems to have mutated into something else.
Jaru, the dictator of a small European country, is abandoned in the Arctic wilderness as punishment for his crimes against humanity. He is left a gun and fishing equipment to feed himself. Jaru promises revenge on his enemies.
Jaru lights a fire so he can sleep. In the night the flames melt the ice and free a tribe of frozen cavemen. They worship Jaru as a god. His rifle impresses them as well. He is now King of the Glacier Men.
Taking his new army of cavemen, Jaru walks across the frozen waste to his old country. The apemen attack the capital. The savages are no challenge for modern weapons though and are repulsed. Jaru flees with them deeper into the glacier. There, they all freeze once again, including Jaru. A king should be with his people.
The frozen mammoths inspired the idea that people preserved in the ice could revived. Wessler skips over some very important facts like how do the cavemen communicate with Jaru, and how far away was that European country? Not to mention smaller questions like: where did Jaru get that firewood on a glacier? Because of the glacier, this one reminds me of Bassett Morgan’s “The Wolf-Woman” and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw” as well as several DC stories (one written by Wessler) that came later. The best thing about this comic is the Al Williamson art that always reminds me so much of his friend, Frank Frazetta.
