Weird Science #15 (1950)

Credits:
Cover dated November/December 1950
Cover by Al Feldstein

"Panic!" - Art by Al Feldstein/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"The Radioactive Child!" - Art by Harvey Kurtzman/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"House in Time!" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"I Created A... Gargantua!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by ???

One of the funniest covers to a non-comedy EC comic starts off this issue.

"Panic!" - A radio broadcast of a story about an alien ship invading the Earth as performed by a man named Carsol Walls causes mass panic when people think it is the real thing. Eventually the police are able to calm everyone down. Years later radio executives in an attempt to think of something to attract an audience decide that they will repeat the famous broadcast. The night comes and news goes across the radio of the alien invasion. In reality, aliens have in fact invaded, but because everyone thinks it is just the Carson Walls radio broadcast, there is practically no resistance and the alien invaders are able to take over the planet and enslave humanity. This story is obviously inspired by the real life incident when Orson Wells broadcast War of the Worlds on the radio, causing mass panic.

"The Radioactive Child!" - A husband and his pregnant wife, upon returning to their home country of Argenta approach the test of a nuclear weapon. The radiation kills the husband but the wife lives and gives birth to a boy named Pedro, who is extremely smart due to the effect of the radiation. She brings Pedro to see the President of Argenta but dies while trying to see him. The President quickly notices Pedro's genius and makes him his prime minister. The President uses Pedro's genius to help build his country's technology and military might while Pedro is given whatever he wants and is unaware what his help to the President is actually causing. The U.N. soon prepares to attack Argenta and the President demands information from Pedro on creating a detonator for a nuclear bomb. When Pedro tells him to wait, the President beats him, which causes him to lose his abilities. Bombs soon hit the capital and everyone is killed except Pedro, who goes to play with the other children. Another decent story suited well for Kurtzman.

"House in Time!" - A husband and wife named Warren and Betty find a house for rent from a man named Professor Koones. They head inside the house which has glass bricks for windows and a back door with the Professor says is never to be opened. Soon Warren and Betty notice some oddities, such as hearing a thunderstorm but finding none when they go outside and buying a radio that works outside but not inside. When they head through the back door they find themselves in the prehistoric era. They return to the house and go outside from the front. By going into the house from the back they find the professor who reveals the truth to them. He has created a time machine that causes them to go back in time 500,000 years when they go inside the house through the front door, and brings them 500,000 years into the future when they head outside through it. Not believing him, they head through the front door, moving them another 500,000 years in the future, stranding them in a bleak, deserted future. This was the only science fiction story that Graham Ingels ever did for EC. Its a fairly strong story, with an excellent ending.

"I Created A... Gargantua!" - A man named John Paulson is extremely small and agrees to be a part of an experiment for Professor Kohlvarb. Kohlvarb has found an ability to stimulate growth on living things by causing a tumor to grow on the pituitary gland. John quickly grows to six feet tall and Kohlvarb applies radiation to the tumor to stop the growth. This fails to stop the growth however and John grows taller and taller. He finds work in a freak show, then helping some logsmen but grows to big for them. He is then put before the public in a stadium in New York. The government eventually decides he is too big and must be destroyed. They send jets after him and he flees thorugh the city, knocking over buildings before eventually being killed in the ocean. An average story, the weakest of the issue.