MR. GARNER

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Martian; see comments) (1950s era)

Occupation: Private detective

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Professor Webb

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Mr. Garner (first name unrevealed)

Base of Operations: His office, in an unidentified American city

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#2/5 (March, 1959)

Powers/Abilities: Possibly reptilian, this humanoid extraterrestrial had scaly red skin; to disguise himself as a human, he apparently used some form of artificial skin that covered his entire body. He had clawed fingers, but it was unrevealed if he had any paranormal physical abilities.

    In his human identity of private investigator Garner, he was a skilled detective; he had the habit of smoking a pipe.

    In his office, he had a hidden transmitter to communicate with Mars.

Height: Unrevealed (6'; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed; (Garner) blond

History:
(Tales to Astonish I#2/5 (fb) - BTS) - At some point in the past, an extraterrestrial came to Earth from the planet Mars. He established the human identity of detective Mr. Garner, and gained a good reputation for his investigation skills. While on Earth, he kept in contact with his fellow Martians, informing them when it was safe to send more flying saucers.

(Tales to Astonish I#2/5) - One morning, the near-hysterical Professor Webb came into Garner's office; he told Garner a wild tale about his close encounter with an unoccupied flying saucer. Fearing that the missing pilot of the saucer was somewhere on Earth and had hostile intentions, Webb hired Garner to find and capture the Martian--Webb offered to pay him in advance, so Garner took the case.

   And so the leg-work began, as Garner checked various leads--including a carnival sideshow (see comments)--and stood for hours on the corners of busy intersections, scanning the faces of the crowds that continually swept by on the sidewalk; he even searched the city's sewer system and the desolate alleyways of "skid row," and became frustrated because he could find nothing unusual.

   After two weeks of what seemed to be a pointless search, the irate Garner telephoned Webb and told him he was closing the case, despite the professor's objections. When Webb later returned to Garner's office, begging him to reconsider, Garner told him that he'd reached his limit with the professor's outlandish claim, and he advised Webb not to tell anyone else about his flying saucer story... otherwise he could end up in a small room with thick, padded walls. Realizing he could do nothing more, the dejected professor left Garner's office.

   Afterward, as he filed his investigation report in his CASE CLOSED drawer, Garner couldn't help feeling sorry for Professor Webb and regretted the way he had treated him, but he had no choice.

   That night, after he took off his human-flesh gloves and held the transmitter in the claws of his scaly red hand (see comments), Garner answered a call from Mars--he informed them that it was now safe to send more saucers to Earth, because the final suspicion had been eliminated.

Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Joe Sinnott.

    Like many other "Martians" claiming to be from Mars, Garner and his fellow beings may not be natives of that planet, and may have just been using it for a base of operations; they may actually come from another world outside Earth's solar system.

    This 5-page story--My Job: Capture a Martian--was told from Garner's perspective--it was done with a surprise ending, and Garner's true nature wasn't revealed until the final story-panel. And I'm guessing he took his gloves off when he used his transmitter because it had some kind of security feature, and would only activate when held by someone with scaly skin (...kind of like fingerprint identification on smartphones).

    Professor Webb mentioned that he came to Garner because of his reputation, which implies that Garner had been on Earth for some time to establish himself as a detective, so he probably wasn't the occupant of that flying saucer Webb saw; of course, it's also possible that the extraterrestrial had recently eliminated the real Garner and just took over his identity.

    Maybe Webb was wrong to assume that these Martians were hostile--rather than conduct an investigation for Webb, it would have been simpler for Garner to just arrange a fatal "accident" for him. Maybe these Martians were basically good-natured tourists visiting Earth, and just wanted to keep their presence a secret.

    While searching for the Martian, Garner went to a carnival sideshow and spoke to its owner (below red arrow)--the owner kind of resembled Joe Krunk, who tried a similar stunt as this man mentioned, until Krunk was captured by Luxurr, another Martian.

    And this story reminded me of Tomb of Dracula I#25, wherein private eye Hannibal King was revealed to be a vampire in the last story-panel.

    This profile was completed 01/04/2025 but it was saved for the March 2025 Mars event.

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Mr. Garner has no known connections to:

Professor Webb has no known connections to:

Professor Webb

His house was in an isolated rural area, and his nearest neighbor was miles away.

One night, a flying saucer landed near his home, so Webb went to investigate. By the time he reached the location, he found the spacecraft empty, and figured the occupant had exited. Shortly afterward, the saucer disappeared in a limited explosion, leaving no trace of itself behind.

Fearing that the saucer's missing occupant had hostile intentions for Earth, Webb told his story to government officials, but they only laughed him off.

Webb then went to the office of detective Mr. Garner, because he knew the private eye had a good reputation for tracking things down. He told his story to Garner, and hired him to find and capture the missing Martian.

But after two weeks of an unsuccessful search, Garner telephoned him and told Webb he was closing the case, because his investigation had found no proof of alien infiltration.

Webb later returned to Garner's office and begged the detective to reconsider; but the irate Garner told him that he'd reached his limit with Webb's claim, and advised him not to tell his "wild and wooly tale" of the flying saucer to anyone else, otherwise Webb could find himself locked in an insane asylum.

Feeling as though he had done everything he could, the despondent Professor Webb left Garner's office.

--Tales to Astonish I#2/5 (#2/5, #2/5 (fb)

flying saucer

An extraterrestrial spaceship, it traveled from Mars to Earth; having only one seat, it carried a single occupant. It also had the capability to self-destruct, with the explosive effect limited only to the saucer itself.

One night, the saucer landed near the rural home of Professor Webb, and the sole occupant apparently exited the spacecraft.

Shortly after Webb reached it, the saucer emitted a strange hissing sound; Webb turned to run and got far enough away when the air shook with a thunderous roar, and the earth quivered underfoot.

When Webb looked back, he saw that the saucer was completely gone, but left no wreckage. Upon further examination, he found no trace of an explosion--not a mark on the ground, every leaf on the trees intact, and not even a broken twig.

--Tales to Astonish I#2/5 (fb)

images: (without ads)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p1, pan1 (main image - Mr. Garner)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p3, pan6 (headshot - Mr. Garner, smoking pipe)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p4, pan6 (Mr. Garner speaks to Professor Webb on telephone)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p5, pan6 (Mr. Garner removes human-flesh hands and uses transmitter to contact Mars)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p4, pan2 (Mr. Garner [foreground] speaks with sideshow owner [below red arrow])
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p1, pan3 (Professor Webb tells Garner about his flying saucer sighting)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p3, pan1 (in flashback, Professor Webb, outside flying saucer)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p3, pan6 (Professor Webb, speaking to Garner)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p2, pan2 (in flashback, flying saucer soars by Professor Webb's house)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p2, pan3 (in flashback, flying saucer lands near Professor Webb's home)
Tales to Astonish I#2/5, p2, pan5 (in flashback, Professor Webb looks through porthole at interior of flying saucer)

Appearances:
Tales to Astonish I#2/5 (March, 1959) - unidentified writer, Joe Sinnott (pencils/inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), Artie Simek (letters), Stan Lee (editor)

First posted: 03/25/2025
Last updated: 03/25/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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