“Out of the Storm” appeared in Marvel’s Strange Tales #37 (August 1955). The author is not known but the art was done by Dick Ayers. The cover by Sol Brodsky and Carl Burgos suggests a quite different tale.
Old John Oogluma delivers the mail and food to the remote Arctic outpost known as “Trail’s End”. The bells on his sled are known as “The Bells of Life”.
Old John has a letter for the factor, Chester Martin. Chester’s son, Tommy, lives in the world of cities and men. John looks forward to Chester reading him the letter. Tommy’s letter tells how well college is going. John is proud too, because he was Tommy’s first teacher.
A plane arrives with news. John’s deliveries will end. The plane will bring the supplies from now on. John is to receive a small pension. He can’t afford to keep his dog sled team. He sells Three-Toes and the team to some men from new Hampshire. John is very sad.
Years later, John hears his team, including Three-Toes, and the sled have been destroyed in a kennel fire. There is good news with the sad. Tommy is coming to visit after years away. He will arrive with the next plane.
The day that Tommy is to fly in a terrible winter storm comes up. On the radio, the men hear that the plane has been forced down in the mountains. Chester wants to go look for Tommy but knows the storm will kill him. John doesn’t care and runs off into the snow. Chester follows.
The two men come upon Tommy, who has been led to the cabin by an unseen dog team with bells. John knows the spirits of Three-Toes and the other dogs saved Tommy from harm. They truly were “The Bells of Life”.
This five-pager is surprisingly gore and scare free for a Golden Age comic. Without the Comic’s Code, creators were free to explore the excesses of horror. But this comic is a soft-hearted character tale. In the Silver and Bronze Age, stories of this kind were common. “The Heart of Dijibi”, from 1971, is a similar tale of ghostly dogs.
