History:
JOHN ST. STENGEL
Real Name: John St. Stengel Jr.
Identity/Class: Human/Atlantean hybrid (Post-World
War II Era)
Occupation: Publisher of Mansfield Publications
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Lee Hart, Miss Lieber, Martin Mansfield
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: John St. Stengel Sr. (father, deceased), unidentified mother, Marie St. Stengel (wife), unidentified grandfather (deceased), unidentified grandmother
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: New York City, USA
First Appearance: Amazing Mysteries I#32 (May, 1949)
Powers/Abilities: John was an experienced magazine publisher. He proved to be an Atlantean hybrid and at the age of twenty-five assumed his Atlantean form in which his body developed scales, webbed fingers and toes, gills and claws. In this form he could survive indefinitely while underwater.
Height: Unrevealed
(approximately 6')
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 160 lbs.)
Eyes: Black
Hair: Black
History:
(Amazing Mysteries I#32 (fb)) - John's father lived in the seaside village Chugamung Cove. His mother was a human/Atlantean hybrird. When John was still an infant his mother turned twenty-five and transformed into a full Atlantean. She slew John's father then fled into the sea. John was found by the village doctor who took John away from Chugamung Cove to raise him elsewhere, never informing him of what had happened to his parents.
As a grown man, with his business partner Martin Mansfield, John St. Stengel went into publishing magazines under the guise of Mansfield Publications. They found particular success publishing horror magainzes, which John had a "peculiar" fascination with. During a period when they were running a series on "Lost Atlantis," Martin showed John a book he'd found that claimed the lost continent of Atlantis lay off the coast of New England near Chugamung Cove. The book claimed the people of Atlantis gradually adapted to life in the ocean. Martin supposed if this account were true, the people of Atlantis would be "monstrous creatures." Martin suggested John go explore Chugamung Cove with his wife Marie, thinking it would be a "second honeymoon" for them. John was reluctant because he hated the sea but Martin told him that as he was almost 25 he should try to cure his "adolescent" fear of the sea.
In Chugamung Cove, John found the entire village was
deserted and it seemed to rain all the time. John and Marie took up
residence in an old fisherman's cabin and went researching at the
Chugamung Historical Library. He found the library to be full of
spiders, bats and lizards but he among the old books he found an account
of Chugamung Cove's history and legends. Within the book he read an
account of Atlantis and how monstrous creatures had emerged from the sea
near the town but the townsfolk fought them and clubbed the creatures to
death. He read how years later a ship's captain had rescued a woman from
the ocean then married her. His wife later disappeared and the captain
wrecked his craft near Chugamung Cove, holding his infant daughter and
raving about how at the age of twenty-five his wife had become a
sea-thing and fled into the ocean. The captain died before his rescuers
could bring him to shore. The captain's daughter grew up in Chugamung
Cove and married a local man and had a son but on her twenty-fifth
birthday she murdered her husband and fled into the sea, transforming
into an Atlantean. She left behind an infant child, who was raised by
the village doctor.
As the volume John read indicated the location in the village cemetary where the murdered man was buried, John went to investigate it. To his horror he discovered the murdered man was his father, John St. Stengel Sr. John realized he was the infant in the account and therefore he had inherited from his mother the same curse. John returned to the fisherman's shack to find Marie had prepared a celebration of his twenty-fifth birthday. Glancing at his hands, John saw they were beginning to transform into something inhuman. Realizing he was transforming into an Atlantean, John fled to prevent himself from killing Marie.
To fend off the allure of the sea, John shambled to a railroad station, hoping to avoid his transformation by travelling deeper inland. While waiting at the station he saw himself in a mirror and realized his skin had become pasty and white as scales began to grow. For some time John continued to travel inland but as his transformation progressed he found it harder to resist.
John took the diary he had been keeping in Chugamung Cove and mailed it to Martin Mansfield with an accompanying note telling him: "Martin, my hands are- it's horrible! Find Marie! It's all in the diary! Read it, and you'll understand! Good-bye and God bless you!"
Martin went at once to Chugamung Cove and arrived in time to see John -- now fully transformed -- leap into the ocean crying, "The sea! The sea!" as he swam out to Atlantis.
Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and unidentified artist.
John's story was contained entirely in a flashback told by Martin Mansfield, who then claimed he'd made up the whole story-- then said he didn't know what happened to John.
Want to talk about flashbacks within flashbacks? The account of John's family is a flashback, told in John's diary; John's diary is also told in flashback as Martin reads the book; Martin reading the book is yet another flashback, told by Martin to Lee! A triple-decker!
The historical significance of John St. Stengel is that he appeared in the first story of Amazing Mysteries I#32 -- which was Marvel Comics' first horror comic!
Martin Mansfield is clearly named after publisher Martin Goodman, while Lee Hart and Miss Lieber are likely named for editor Stan Lee (Lee Hart might also refer to writer Ernie Hart).
St. Stengel's story is very reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft's 1936 short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," which was also about a writer discovering he's descended from an amphibious race and unable to prevent his transformation into one of them.
The Atlanteans in this story obviously have little in common with Namor's people but there are plenty of aquatic Marvel species who have turned up here and there and certainly the Atlanteans of the 1940s were typically depicted as being very fish-like.
This profile was completed on 01/21/2026 but its publication was delayed, as it was intended for the Appendix's 25th anniversary celebratory event.
Profile by Prime Eternal.
CLARIFICATIONS:
John St. Stengel should not be confused with:
Lee Hart was the managing editor at Mansfield Publications magazines. Lee received what he thought was a terrific science-fiction script and wanted to publish it, despite Martin Mansfield's policy against science fiction. Martin refused to publish the story and explained why by telling Lee the story of what happened to his business partner, John St. Stengel.
--Amazing Mysteries I#32
At Mansfield Publications, Miss Lieber served as Martin Mansfield's secretary. She received a copy of John St. Stengel's diary in the mail.
--Amazing Mysteries I#32 (fb)
Martin Mansfield was the publisher of Mansfield Publications magazines and was headquartered in the 56th floor of the Mansfield Building. Martin founded the business with John St. Stengel. After John's disappearance, Martin refused to ever publish science fiction stories in his magazines. Years later, Martin explained the story of John's disappearance to his managing editor Lee Hart. He tried to claim the entire story was a fabrication he made up to entertain Lee but then admitted John truly had disappeared.
--Amazing Mysteries I#32 (32 (fb), 32
John St. Stengel Sr. was John's father and lived in Cugamung Cove. John St. Stengel Sr. married a woman who was a human/Atlantean hybrid and daughter of a ship's captain. The woman bore him a son but soon after she turned twenty-five and assumed her Atlantean appearance. The woman murdered John St. Stengel Sr. but left their son alive. John Sr. was buried in the Chugamung Cove cemetary.
--Amazing Mysteries I#32 (fb)
Marie St. Stengel was John's wife. She accompanied him to Chugamung Cove and witnessed his research into the Atlantean creatures who were sighted there in the past. When John realized he was descended from the Atlanteans and on his twenty-fifth birthday he would transform and kill those he loved, he feared he would kill Marie. John completed his transformation after his birthday but Marie's fate is unrevealed.
--Amazing Mysteries I#32 (fb)
John's grandfather was a ship's captain who found a woman from Atlantis while at sea. He brought the woman into his cabin and informed his crew he had married her. Six months later, the captain sailed to the Malay coast and sent his crew ashore. The crew stated the wife had never left the cabin. Months later, the captain returned to Chugamung Cove and crashed his ship against the rocks. The captain exited the ship with his daughter and babbled that when his wife turned twenty-five she had assumed her Atlantean form and fled to the sea. After raving to his rescuers, the captain died. His daughter married John St. Stengel Sr.
--Amazing Mysteries I#32 (fb)
images: (without ads)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 2, panel 5 (main)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 2, panel 6 (face)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 11, panel 4 (transformed)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 2, panel 1 (Lee)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 3, panel 3 (Leiber)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 1, panel 3 (Mansfield)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 6, panel 6 (John Sr.)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 3, panel 7 (Marie)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 6, panel 3 (grandfather)
Amazing Mysteries I#32, page 5, panel 4 (grandmother)
Appearances:
Amazing Mysteries I#32 (May, 1949) - unidentified writer, unidentified
artist, Stan Lee (editor)
First posted: 09/25/2026
Last updated:
01/21/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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