Weird Fantasy #13 (1950)

Credits:
Cover dated May/June 1950
Cover by Al Feldstein

"Am I Man or Machine?" - Art by Al Feldstein/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Only Time Will Tell" - Art by Harry Harrison & Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Men of Tomorrow" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by ???
"...Trip Into the Unknown" - Art by Harvey Kurtzman/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

Today I cover the other issue 13 of Weird Fantasy, which is the comic's first issue. Many of EC's comics didn't start with issue 1, but rather an issue much higher than that. This was done in order to save money on second class postage. Rather than create a new comic series, EC would rename existing ones. This was the case for many of EC's comics including all 3 horror comics, both sci-fi comics and Two-Fisted Tales. Sometimes the post office caught them, as they did with Weird Fantasy and the numbering had to go back to the proper order, which is why there are 2 issue 13's for this comic.

"Am I Man or Machine?" - A man named Roger, who is engaged to be married, is in a car accident. While his body dies, a pair of scientists take his brain and work on bringing him back to life. They start by giving him the ability to hear, then the ability to see and speak. Eventually they are able to construct a humanoid body for him. With his fake human body, Roger takes the opportunity to visit his fiance, Diane, now approximately 2 years after his death. Upon hearing that she has since married someone else, Roger realizes he'll never be able to provide her what a real human would and tells her its a fraternity initiation bit. A good, emotional story to start off the issue.

"Only Time Will Tell" - A scientist named Steve works on a time machine. Suddenly a portal appears in his lab and an older man comes out, demanding he help him. Steve goes through the portal with the man into the future and helps him repair his time machine. The older man forces him back to the past, but Steve manages to tear off and take part of the blueprints for the machine with him. Using these blue prints as a guide, Steve works on creating his time machine, which takes him 20 years. Something is wrong with the machine however, and it will explode in a few hours time if he can't fix it. Steve goes back in time and makes his younger self come to the future with him to fix the time machine, just as happened earlier in the story. The first of numerous time travel stories EC did, this story is a bit complicated at first read, but overall is a good one. It is rather tame compared to later time travel stories that EC did (as there's no deaths or anything done with severe consequences to history).

"The Men of Tomorrow" - A trio of scientists search for Kador Valley, within Mongolia, a valley never seen by modern civilization. They come across one of the inhabitants of the valley, and discover that he can read their mind. One of the men stays with him and is able to get him to speak while the others explore. This causes him to lose his ability to read minds, and he becomes more sly and shifty. The scientists eventually make it to the valley where they find a highly technological advanced society. The men are imprisoned, but as the entire civilization starts to learn to speak, they all lose their ability to read minds and become lying and deceitful. This causes two sides to go to war with each other, resulting in poisonous gas being spread in the city. The other side then detonates a nuclear explosion which destroys the city, and everyone within it. A decent plot, but this story is marred by a bit too much text at times, including one panel in which roughly nine tenths of the panel is filled with dialogue and the two characters are barely visible and hunchbacked.

"...Trip Into the Unknown" - A rocket ship heads into space, the first to do so with humans onboard. The rocket heads to a planet known as "Planet X", which is found to be breathable such that space suits aren't necessary. Our heroes make their way around the area, finding the civilization there in ruins. They head to a library where they take a book with them. They are soon attacked by humanoids twice their size, who chase them back to the rocket. The aliens try to knock the rocket over, so they blast off, leaving the planet. While heading through space they are able to translate the book, which reveals that the civilization of that planet ruined themselves through constant conflict, and that their planet was named Earth. Only 3 issues into EC's sci-fi comics and I've already got 2 stories where the twist at the end is that the alien planet is Earth. A very common sci-fi trope, one done better by "The Aliens" from Weird Science #7, covered a little while back.