Weird Fantasy #11

Credits:
Cover dated January/February 1952
Cover by Al Feldstein

"The Two-Century Journey!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Shrinking From Abuse!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The 10th At Noon!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Thing in the Jar" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"The Two-Century Journey!" - Mankind establishes a giant, 2 mile long spaceship in order to transport a group of 750 people to a planet 193 light years away that mankind hopes can be established as a space colony to save the Earth's overpopulation issues. The story shows the life of those that live in the ship and the Earth-like civilization they establish. Aging is greatly slowed down in the ship due to the strong hull of the ship blocking cosmic rays, forcing the elderly to sacrifice their lives so the ship itself won't become overpopulated. Eventually they reach the planet, only to realize that the planet is overpopulated just like Earth and that its inhabitants have done the same thing they have. Quite a wordy story, but overall a very good one.

"Shrinking From Abuse!" - A scientist named Hugo is working on developing a formula that enables him to shrink matter such that he can use it to shrink tumors and cure cancer. He shows this to a colleague of his, but constantly harasses his weakly wife. Hugo accidentally injects himself with the formula when he falls and starts shrinking. He climbs to a spoon so his wife will notice him, but she doesn't notice him and swallows him. Insider her body, he shrinks more and more until he is killed by a white blood cell. This story is similar in theme to "Lost in the Microcosm" from Weird Science #12 (1950).

"The 10th At Noon!" - This story features dueling story lines. In one, the Eastern Alliance threatens an ultimatum that will cause them to detonate a hydrogen bomb if their demands aren't met by December 10th at noon. In the other story, a pair of scientists work on a device that enables them to transmit a camera into the future and take a picture. They send the camera into the future to see the weather on the day of a football game, incidentally, December 10th, shortly after noon and find the ruins of New York city, destroyed by the hydrogen bomb. This story has an interesting splash panel, but otherwise is a rather mediocre one.

"The Thing in the Jar" - A farmer calls a local chemist to stop by his farm, where he shows him a small pond that causes anything that goes into it to be dissolved, as if it were acid. The chemist takes a sample of the water from the pond and brings it to his laboratory where he and his assistant discover that the liquid is actually an alien creature. They are able to get it to talk by connecting equipment to the flask it is kept in. Not trusting the creature, they get it drunk by pouring liquor into it and the creature reveals that the rest of its race will be invading Earth. The chemists burn the remains of the pond, but while they are out the creature fools the cleaning lady into dumping it down the drain, releasing it into the ocean. An interesting plot to this story, featuring a liquid-based alien.