Weird Science #12 (1952)

Credits:
Cover dated March/April 1952
Cover by Wally Wood

"A Gobl is a Knog's Best Friend" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Last Man!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Android!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Chewed Out!" - Art by Joe OrlandoStory by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"A Gobl is a Knog's Best Friend" - A rocket ship crew heads through space, and the commander gets frustrated with the annoying pet dog that one of his crew members has brought along. Eventually the rocket ship comes across an alien planet and upon landing a bizarre looking humanoid alien drives up in a vehicle. The alien invites them to come along and the men are brought to the alien's city. There they see many other aliens, which can communicate with each other, but not the humans. Later, other creatures that look just like humans come in, and the crew is brought to an area where they are held against their will. They eventually learn the language of these new creatures, who call themselves Gobls. The Gobls claim that the other aliens, the Kongs, keep them as pets. The rocket ship crew is kept on the planet as pets and the Knogs send some Gobls to Earth, thinking it was a friendly exchange of pets. One of the most bizarre EC story names ever, with a rather obvious premise and ending.

"The Last Man!" - A man heads into the atmosphere using a pod attached to a giant balloon, hoping to beat the record of the man who has attained the highest altitude. He is eventually able to rise high enough up to break the record, but while he is up there, nuclear war occurs on Earth and the entire surface of the Earth is destroyed. Eventually the man heads back down to the planet and gets out of the pod. He heads throughout the destroyed landscape searching for any other human being. He eventually comes across a beautiful young woman and thinks they can be the new Adam and Eve, only to discover that she is his sister.

"The Android!" - A man named Ron takes on a new secretary, the beautiful Ellen. He immediately falls in love with Ellen and desires to have an affair with her to get away from his wife Lee. Ellen isn't very accepting of his advances though. One night Ron runs into his friend Cal, who tells him he has been working for the government on creating androids. Ron decides to have Cal create him an Android that looks just like him which he can use to replace himself, that way he can run off with Ellen. The android is created and Ron gives it all of his personal information so it can take his place. When he goes to see Ellen however she reveals that she is an android herself and is only on a trial run, to be soon returned to the factory. When Ron returns home he finds that the android has contacted Cal, convincing him that Ron is the android and must be returned. The android is successful in fooling Cal, who kills Ron. The main character of this story is a bit too overzealous, considering Ellen never shows as much interest in him as he does in her, for obvious reasons.

"Chewed Out!" - A young man named Harold living in Arkansas is able to unintentionally contact an alien civilization that is traveling to Earth on a rocket ship after he buys a ham radio. Harold informs the authorities and the military arrives to manage the situation. Due to the publicity a large crowd gathers around Harold's house as he contacts with the aliens, who are soon to arrive on Earth. The military leader, a pushy General gets frustrated during the event and when it is time for the alien ship to land, it doesn't appear anywhere. The aliens tell Harold that they have landed in a strange lake. The General believes things to be a hoax and has Harold arrested in the radio destroyed. He buys a hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut from one of the local vendors. Biting into something hard in the hot dog, he pulls it out of his mouth and finds the alien's very tiny, destroyed ship. This story's spring board was "Pictures Don't Lie" by Katherine MacLean. The southern locale and bullying army general were inspired by Feldstein's own experiences when he was stationed in the Air Force in Arkansas during World War II. Both Feldstein have a brief cameo in the story.

Two-Fisted Tales #29

Credits:
Cover by Harvey Kurtzman
Cover dated September/October 1952

"Korea!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Red Knight!" - Art by John Severin/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Washington!" - Art by John Severin and Bill Elder/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Fire Mission!" - Art by Dave Berg/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

"Korea!" - This story takes place in Korea. While hiding out behind a jeep, playing dice, American soldiers are shot upon by the Koreans and several are killed. The Koreans steal their jeep, but two of them get in another jeep and head after them. One of the soldiers in particular is obsessed with getting revenge for the death of his friends. They are able to shoot down the jeep and follow the soldiers, killing one and taking the last hostage. They bring their wounded prisoner to the field hospital and he is taken away. One of the soldiers thinks of how easy it is to kill a man in combat and that they should remember how each and every life is important. A rather fast paced story. I was expecting some sort of twist in the end, with perhaps the prisoner turning on the men, but it ended in somewhat different fashion.

"Red Knight!" - This story is about the German World War I ace Baron  Manfred Von Richthofen. At the start of the story, his plane is seen coming down over France. Over the next 5 pages we are shown various victories of him, and how he writes a letter each time requesting acknowledgment of his latest kill. Richthofen eventually records a record 80 kills. As the story ends his plane comes down to the ground and he is found inside, dead. Another of many World War I stories featuring ace plane pilots, this one is slightly more interesting than usual.

"Washington!" - This story features George Washington in one of his earliest battles, in Manhattan in 1776. British ships come up the East River, further than the troops expected. The Militia men quickly get scared and start running away. Seeing this, Washington angrily  tries to get them to stay, ordering them, swearing at them and even trying to shoot at them. He is unsuccessful and left completely alone. An interesting and unique story, showing a side to George Washington that you wouldn't expect to be seen, with him being quite a failure as a commander. It was stories like this that made EC's war comics unique from others, which would be unlikely to show the  first president in such an unflattering light.

"Fire Mission!" - This story features a mortar crew that are stationed within a small trench while their sergeant receives orders from out front. Enemy soldiers push near them and several of the men are killed. One of the men including the sergeant are shot and another runs out, not worrying about what will happen and gets killed as well. One of the soldiers is really scared, but runs out to observe the enemy, and is successful as the mortar crew is able to take the enemy soldiers out. The soldier admits that he headed out to show that he wasn't scared and one of the older soldiers tells him that on the battlefield everyone is scared. Berg's sole art job for EC during the New Trend; he later would become a prolific artist for Mad magazine. His artwork is a bit more cartoonish than the typical EC war comic story, so its easy to see why this was his sole appearance.

Tales from the Crypt #30

Credits:
Cover dated June/July 1952
Cover by Jack Davis

"Gas-tly Prospects!" - Art by Jack Davis/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"A Hollywood Ending!" - Art by Joe Orlando/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Auntie, It's Coal Inside!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Mournin', Ambrose..." - Art by Graham Ingels/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

My first issue in about a week or so; this is a slightly better than average issue of Tales from the Crypt.

"Gas-tly Prospects!" - This story is told by an old prospector named Jeff Whittiker, who heads to California to search for gold. Deep in the woods he comes across a stream filled with gold. One day however a man comes by and shoots Jeff, hoping to take over his territory. Jeff hides behind a rock with a shotgun, but the man waits him out and he dies. The man buries Jeff's corpse, but a wild cat comes by and digs him up, then fights with another cat and forgets about him. The man wakes up the next morning to find Jeff's corpse there, so he ties it up and throws it under water. Eventually however the corpse is loosened from its bonds and comes to the surface. The man decides to burn Jeff's corpse, but shotgun shells in his pocket explode, causing the woods around the man, and the man himself to be caught aflame, killing him. This story is told from an interesting perspective, that of a corpse.

"A Hollywood Ending!" - Hugh Howards, a famous Hollywood producer heads to the Arctic, where he meets a beautiful American woman named Terry. Terry tells Hugh that she has lived here for 6 years with a Dr. Wheems who has taken care of her after an accident she was in with her father where he died and she lost her memory. Hugh falls in love with Terry and convinces her to come with him to Hollywood to become a movie star. Dr. Wheems is fiercely against this, but they leave while he is asleep. At first all goes well in Hollywood, and the two are married. However soon the makeup man comes to see Hugh, telling him that Terry's skin is dry and cracking. Terry soon puts on a heavy veil and starts wearing gloves. She starts emitting a strange smell and locks herself up in her room. Dr. Wheems soon arrives and reveals the truth, that Terry died in the accident 6 years ago. Through an experiment he was able to keep her alive, but she had to be kept in cold weather to keep from decomposing. The two head into Terry's room where they find her rotting corpse remains. The strongest story of the issue, despite being a bit too wordy at times (particularly the final page).

"Auntie, It's Coal Inside!" - A seven year old boy named Toby keeps hearing a voice in his head that tells him to do bad things, in particular to take coal out of the coal bin in the basement despite his aunt Agnes telling him not to. Toby is immediately caught by her and she gets upset, telling him his father was a drunkard whose drunk driving killed both him and his Toby's mother. Agnes threatens Toby with going to the orphanage if he isn't good. Agnes decides to have a lock put on the coal-bin door, and the locksmith catches Toby trying to escape from his room, getting him in even bigger trouble. One day when Agnes orders more coal to be delivered she accidently locks herself in the coal bin. She calls out to Toby to let her out, but he thinks it is the voice inside his head and ignores it. When the coal truck arrives and pours the coal into the coal bin, Agnes gets crushed by it. Another kid-themed story by Jack Kamen, this is a fairly good one and one of the better of such stories.

"Mournin', Ambrose..." - A young man named Andrew is invited to his uncle Ambrose's mansion. There he meets Ambrose and his eccentric wife, Elsa. Ambrose tells Andrew that she has been this way since three relatives that had come to visit all mysteriously died. Elsa tells Andrew of a passage from Macbeth then meets him again later on and tells Andrew that Ambrose is a fiend. Andrew is awakened by Ambrose later that night who tells him that Elsa has died. after her funeral, Andrew repeatedly sees Ambrose visiting her body in the mausoleum outside. Thinking of Elsa's references to Macbeth, Andrew grabs it from the mansion's library but instead finds it to be a diary of Elsa's revealing that Ambrose murdered the 3 relatives. Ambrose refuses to consent to an autopsy of Elsa's body and it is soon discovered that he kept visiting her because he is a ghoul and was consuming his corpse. An average story to wrap up the issue.

Frontline Combat #6

Credits:
Cover dated May/June 1952
Cover by Harvey Kurtzman

"A Platoon!" - Art by Bill Elder & John Severin/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"War of 1812!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Ace!" - Art by John Severin/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Bellyrobber!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

Another fairly good issue of Frontline Combat. This issue is notable for me for being the last EC war comic for me to acquire, and my review for this blog is actually the first time I've read the issue. Each story focuses on a particular soldier or character in particular. No real duds here, with Bellyrobber being my personal favorite of the issue.

"A Platoon!" - A story that takes place during the Korean War, it focuses on a soldier named Ed. He is an experienced soldier, but doesn't want any responsibilities, despite there being a shortage of officers. During the oncoming battle, some chaos ensues but Ed keeps a fellow soldier from fleeing and helps direct the fellow soldiers. After the battle is over, the wounded Captain wants to put Ed in for a battlefield commission, but Ed declines, still wanting no responsibilities.

"War of 1812!" - This story focuses on a wounded native american soldier, in the aftermath of a battle during the war of 1812. Flashbacks show a battle taking place in the woods between the Americans, English and native americans. The native americans, made up of a number of different tribes are led by the great chief Tecumsah. But when Tecumsah takes a bullet to the heart and dies, the native american soldiers flee. Our protagonist is soon come across by an American soldier who scalps him.

"Ace!" - This story takes place during World War I. It focuses on an American pilot, Harry Chesterfield, trying to become an ace. The story begins as he gets his third kill, requiring only 2 more to become an Ace. He and his fellow soldiers happily eat at the round table. He soon after gets his fourth kill, and the happy meals continue. Harry finally gets his fifth kill, but it results in him being led into a trap and his plane is shot down, killing him. The meals at the round table continue, but there is a noticable absent with Harry no longer there. One of the earlier World War I plane-based stories, which would become more prevalent once George Evans joined the EC ranks.

"Bellyrobber!" - This story, taking place in the Korean War, features a rather grumpy cook, for whom his fellow soldiers never see smile or in a good mood. One day he comes across a young Korean kid in their tent. Bellyrobber befriends the kid and takes care of him, showing a human side to him. One day he finds that 2 Korean soldiers have come across the tent and while Bellyrobber is able to kill them, it is not before they have killed the child. This causes Bellyrobber to return to his angry, grumpy self.

Crime SuspenStories #13

Credits:
Cover dated October/November 1952
Cover by Johnny Craig

"Hear No Evil!" - Art by Johnny Craig and Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"First Impulse!/Second Chance!" - Art by Sid Check/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"A Question of Time!!" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Forty Whacks!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"Hear No Evil!" - A woman named Rita meets a wealthy man named Fred who is deaf, and communicates by having people write down everything for him. She decides to marry Fred for his money, and often belittles him out loud, knowing that he can't hear her. An amount of time goes by, and Rita starts carrying on an affair with a friend of Fred's named Vance. When Fred gets in a car accident, he comes home and almost catches them together. Rita decides to poison Fred through his coffee, but Fred switches cups with one intended for Vance, and he dies instead. A distraught Rita confesses to the police and is taken away. Fred then turns on some music, revealing that he had recovered his hearing after being in the car accident. A rare team up of Johnny Craig and Jack Kamen in this story, which was there only team up in EC.

"First Impulse!/Second Chance!" - A woman named Helen suspects that her boyfriend is cheating on her with her sister, Joan. She follows them and witnesses them buying a ring. Thinking they are going to get married, she pulls out a gun and when they get home, she shoots them. As they die, she realizes that they were actually buying an engagement ring for her, and her sister was merely helping her boyfriend pick it out. In the second story, things pick off as Helen's boyfriend and Joan are able to explain things, so Helen doesn't shoot them. Joan drives Helen's boyfriend to the station as he is going on a trip, but in actuality they run off together, and Helen's suspicions were revealed to be correct. Another one of EC's "quickies" which appeared most often in Crime SuspenStories. Sid Check makes another rare art appearance.
"A Question of Time!!" - The local sheriff finds a woman named Lila dead. He goes to see her husband Harry, figuring that he did it. The entire town knew about Lila fooling around with other men, but nobody told him about it. They all assumed he'd find out someday and do something about it. Harry refuses to confess, and the sheriff leaves. Later, Lila, who is still alive comes home, and knowing the truth, he kills her. This is a rather confusing story when you read it and isn't the most interesting one either (the vast majority of the story is simply Harry and the sheriff talking). It was later redone in EC's picto-fiction comics.

"Forty Whacks!" - A young woman named Fanny finds an axe in the attic, and enraged with her overbearing parents kills them both with it. When the police take her in, she blames the axe. At the police station, the head detective is greeted by his wife and son. His wife tells her about Lizzie Borden, who infamously murdered her father and step-mother with an axe. His wife tells her that she had moved to this town and had lived in Fanny's house. At that moment, their son looks at the axe, which is revealed to be the axe that Lizzie Borden used, and goes crazy, killing his parents with it. Obviously inspired by the real life incident of Lizzie Borden killing her parents with an axe, which was also featured on the cover of this issue. A rare instance where Graham Ingels did not do the Old Witch's story in Crime SuspenStories.

Weird Science #15 (1952)

Credits:
Cover dated September/October 1952
Cover by Wally Wood

"The Martians!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Captivity" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Miscalculation!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Bum Steer!" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"The Martians!" - A rocket takes the first ever expedition to Mars. Upon arriving there, its inhabitants find a desolate world, with occasional signs that a civilization may have existed here. They eventually come across a building that they work their way through, finding books written in a Martian language. They also find a tube with symbols on it that they realize to be a film of some kind. The film displays what they take to be the humanoid Martians, battling a tentacled creatures that they figure the Martians assumed were Earthlings. Once they are able to translate the film however, they realize that the tentacled creatures were the Martians. Some good Wood artwork, but story-wise a bit weak.

"Captivity" - A pair of geologists near the Grand Canyon are suddenly thrown back in time millions of years. They soon find a Tyranosaurus Rex and flee from it, coming across a cliff that they find completely smooth, as if artificial.Luckily for them another dinosaur comes by which distracts it. They decide to follow the cliff and eventually find a rocket coming down from the skies. A group of bizarre aliens come out and attract the dinosaurs to come by them. Human beings are pulled from the ship and thrown down to the dinosaurs. When one escapes, our protagonists realize that this is how humanity got started on the Earth. A choppy at times art job by Al Williamson, with this being one of his earliest stories for EC.

"Miscalculation!" - Nerdy bachelor Melvin Sputterly one day receives in the mail a mysterious package from 1,000 years in the future. The package promises to create a harem of five beautiful women for him who will fall in love with the first man they see after being created from the dehydrated formula. Unfortunately for Melvin, the units of measurement in the instructions use different terminology than those currently used. The first woman he creates is hideously fat due to him using too much water, and the second is extremely thin when he doesn't use enough. Using a formula contained within the package he is able to cause them to dissolve into a pool of colored water. The next two women he creates are too tiny, then too tall when he messes up with the salt measurement. The last woman he creates comes out in perfect form, but when the superintendant arrives, asking why there is water pouring through the ceiling of his neighbor downstairs, she sees him first and heads away with him, leaving Melvin with nothing. One of a few "create a woman" stories that EC did in Weird Science, this is a fairly good one.

"Bum Steer!" - One night a cowboy encounters a pair of horse-like aliens that take him captive and throw in in a rocket. Inside the rocket the man finds a number of other humans. As the rocket ship takes off, one of the aliens comes out and tells them that they are being brought to their planet, but will be given all the comforts of their own planet. The men are kept well fed throughout the journey, with the cowboy being the only one who is suspicious of the aliens. When they arrive at the alien's home planet, they are brought to a large room in which they are kept locked, but they are continued to be provided with lots of food and many of them get fat. One day a beautiful woman comes in the room and tells the men that there are many other women just like her in the next room. The cowboy suddenly realizes what is going on and tells the men that he believes they are being treated just like cattle, being fattened up, then led by a decoy to the slaughter house. None of the other men believe him, but they are quickly slaughtered just like cattle when they head to the next room. A strong story to end the issue, with some of the most bizarre looking aliens in an EC sci-fi story.

Frontline Combat #9

Credits:
Cover dated November/December 1952
Cover by Harvey Kurtzman

"Abe Lincoln" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"First Shot!" - Art by John Severin & Bill Elder/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Choose Sides!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Bull Run!" - Art by John Severin/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

This issue is the first of what was planned to be a seven issue series dedicated to the Civil War, told in chronological order. Unfortunately only 3 issues in the series were published (the other two being Two Fisted Tales #31 and #35) before the change in format and cancellation of both of EC's war comics forced a premature end. Overall its a fairly strong issue, with the first and the last stories being the best storywise. Art-wise things are good throughout.

"Abe Lincoln" - This story tells various anecdotes from Abraham Lincoln's life, including him hunting a turkey, pulling a prank by walking kids' muddy feet over the ceiling, saving a pig from the mud and other stories. It is framed by an elderly black man telling the stories and hoping that nothing happens to Lincoln in the Civil War.

"First Shot!" - This story takes place at Fort Sumter, where the first shot of the Civil War takes place. The story looks at a few soldiers in particular over a 3 day period. The Union soldiers attempt to defend the fort, but later surrender. After 2 days without anyone being killed, some of the Union's bags of gunpowder explode, killing one of their own soldiers.

"Choose Sides!" - This story takes place in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the few states that has not decided yet whether to secede from the Union or not. The story focuses in particular on an old man who watches as a group of Union soldiers march by. The crowd gets riled up, claiming that the Union soldiers are foreigners. The old man gets so riled up that he pulls out a pistol and shoots at the troops. This causes them to fire upon the crowd and the old man dies.

"Bull Run!" - This story focuses on the battle of Bull Run. It focuses in particular on three Union soldiers who like much of their fellow troops figure the war will be over in 3 months. They agree to all stick together and call themselves the three musketeers. One of them is soon shot and killed and the troops are forced to pull back and leave him there. As they retreat another one is killed. The last one retreats in defeat with the remaining soldiers, being forced to sleep by a doorway along with some other soldiers.

The Haunt of Fear #13

Credits:
Cover dated May/June 1952
Cover by Graham Ingels

"For the Love of Death!" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Fed Up!" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Minor Error!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Wolf Bait!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"For the Love of Death!" - A man named Morton is obsessed with funerals, trying to attend as many as he can. He believes that people are provided with tremendous dignity and respect at their funeral, even if they didn't receive it in life. Morton desires to have such feelings being made towards him, while he's still alive, so he murders the richest man in town then sneaks into his coffin so he can experience what its like to be the deceased during a funeral. He pays someone to dig up the coffin once its buried, but hadn't realized that the man he killed was set to be cremated, and is burned to death when the coffin is put in the crematorium. A rare Ingels lead story that features no supernatural elements to it, is is nonetheless a decent story kicking off an overall good issue.

"Fed Up!" - A woman named Sandra works at a carnival as a sword swallower's assistant. She meets a handsome man named Alec who convinces her to break out on her own with him managing him. Eventually they get married. Money is always tight for the two, particularly after Alec starts spending all of their money on food, growing morbidly obese. When Sandra gets a raise she hides money from Alec for several years in an attempt to buy a special sword that will make her act more famous, but he finds the money and spends it all on food. Fed up with him, she convinces him to practice swallowing a sword himself so he can get into the act, then ties his hands up while its still in his throat and leaves him such that any slight movement will result in his death.A rare Craig story that wasn't written by him, but still written perfectly to suit his style.
"Minor Error!" - A trio of boys notice a new boy named Ezra that has moved into town, but always stays inside. The boy's uncle is a cruel man who tells the boys off when they ask if Ezra can play. Ezra tells them that he isn't allowed to go outside and play with them. The boys follow the uncle and find him kill a man and collect his blood in a container. They become convinced that he is a vampire, so one day they head inside the house and drive a stake in his heart. When they head to the basement however they find Ezra sleeping in a coffin and realize that he was the vampire. Kamen was typically the artist tasked with drawing stories featuring kids as main characters, and this was many of such stories.

"Wolf Bait!" - This story takes part in Russia in the midst of winter as 5 people head through the snow on a horse drawn sleigh towards a nearby town. The sleigh's passengers include a mother and her baby, a young officer, an older man and the driver. The sleigh is being pursued by a ferocious pack of wolves. The officer shoots the wolves, which delays them slightly, but runs out of bullets. The old man uses the food he was carrying for his daughter and her family to delay them as well, but the wolves still catch up. With them nearing town, the passengers know there is only one thing they can do to delay the wolves further, to sacrifice one of them. One of the passengers, which is not revealed to the reader, is thrown to the wolves and killed by them, enabling everyone else to make it safely to town. The ending to this story, for which the 'sacrificial lamb' is not revealed made for quite the complaints from some readers in the letter columns in future issues.

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.

The Vault of Horror #26

Credits:
Cover dated August/September 1952
Cover by Johnny Craig

"Two of a Kind!" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Johnny Craig
"Graft in Concrete!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Half-Way Horrible!" - Art by Sid Check/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Hook, Line and Stinker!" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"Two of a Kind!" - A well known stage actress named Willow will only work at night and any attempts to take a photograph of her ends in failure. Willow starts going out with her latest costar, Brad Phillips and they plan to go on a weekend trip to a ski lodge together. Each holds a secret from another; Willow is a vampire and Brad is a ghoul. They plan to make the other their victim during the trip, but realize that they've fallen in love with each other and can't do it. The two are trapped in a cabin due to the severe snowstorm for several days. Rather than attack each other, Willow drinks her own blood and Brad eats his own flesh until the cabin collapses, killing them. A rare example of a romance horror story featuring different types of horror monsters falling in love. Another horror romance story, this time featuring a vampire and werewolf instead of vampire and ghoul appeared in "A Little Stranger" from The Haunt of Fear #14.

"Graft in Concrete!" - Four crooked politicians including the mayor and three members of the town council conspire to build a new road through the property of and using the construction company of one of the council members. Each of the council members appear to have information on at least one of the others, resulting in a lot of blackmail and kickbacks. One of the council members forces the others to run the new road through the cemetary that he owns. Rather than move the bodies, he simply has the headstones moved to save money. The four of them drive on the road the night before it is to be opened by the public, but numerous corpses burst out of the road and come after them, causing their car to crash. The next morning the construction company has a steamroller go over the road to fix it, but ends up crushing all four of them. The ending of this story is a bit questionnable as you wonder how in the world the steamroller driver completely missed the fact that it was running over the four politicians. A painted version of the cover of this issue, which was about this story, was later used as the cover for the Fred von Bernewitz's EC book "Tales of Terror!"

"Halfway Horrible" - A man calls for an undertaker to come to his apartment, where he keeps himself enshrouded in darkness. The mysterious man tells the undertaker his story. The man had a split personality which would do worse and worse things, starting with simply going out and partying, but escalating to criminal activities. When the man murders his psychiatrist while in his other personality, he flees the country to Haiti. There he finds a voodoo priest who he convinces to destroy the bad side of his personality. The priest does this, but it results in half of his body rotting away, which is why he called for the undertaker. Sid Check did 4 stories for EC around this time. He featured a Wally Wood/Joe Orlando-type style. He was an okay artist at EC and did some good stories, including this one, but didn't last that long. This story was later adapted as an episode of Tales from the Crypt.

"Hook, Line and Stinker!" - A woman named Bernice has been going out with a man named Stanley for 15 years but he always hesitates to ask her to marry him no matter how much she begs. Lately Stanley has grown to love fishing, bringing home a mounted fish after every weekend. One weekend Bernice goes for a walk and finds Stanley in a field with another woman, revealing that he made everything up about the fishing trips. The next week he returns with another mounted fish, and Bernice attacks him with a knife, mounting his body up on the wall. The issue wraps up with its weakest story, but overall this is still a fairly strong issue across the board.

Crime SuspenStories #14

Credits:
Cover dated December 1952/January 1953
Cover by Johnny Craig

"Sweet Dreams!" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Johnny Craig
"The Perfect Place!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Electric Chair"/"The Hangman's Noose"/"The Guillotine!" - Art by Fred Peters/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Private Performance" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"Sweet Dreams!" - A man is getting annoyed with his wife, who is obsessed with her inability to sleep. When she gets a new set of sleeping pills from her doctor, the man plans on killing her by pouring too many into her drink. She reveals that she spotted him doing so however, and switched cups, getting him to drink it. In a rage, he smuthers her to death with a pillow. The man wakes up, revealing it to all be a dream, but finds his wife dead next to him. He calls the doctor in, claiming she overdosed from the sleeping pills. The doctor reveals that she was a chronic hypochondriac and was given sugar pills, and reports him for murder. Johnny Craig puts in a usual strong art effort although I wasn't much of a fan of the story.

"The Perfect Place!" - A writer named Ernie plans to murder his wife June after becoming successful and falling in love with another writer. Ernie buys a secluded house from a man named Jess who claims his wife left him a few years ago. Ernie brings June out to the house and murders her. He hides her body by bricking her up behind a wall in the basement. On his way out however the sheriff comes by with Jess, who has admitted to murdering his wife and hiding her in the basement, just like what Ernie did to his wife. As a result, June's body is found and Ernie is found guilty of murder. This story seems to be inspired in part by "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe, which featured a murdered wife being hidden behind a brick wall just like in this story. "The Black Cat" had been adapted by EC earlier in the story "The Wall" from the Haunt of Fear #15 (aka #1).

"The Electric Chair/The Hangman's Noose/The Guillotine!" - This story features three tellings of the same tale, taking place in America, England and France. In each the protagonist comes across his wife in the arms of another man. Based on the variation, he kills either the wife, the lover or both. He is set to be executed for his crimes (either the electric chair in America, via hanging in England or the guillotine in France) but escapes on the day of his execution. By trying to escape via the subway system, the protagonist still ends up dying in similar fashion to his planned execution, either by being electrocuted on the third rail, being strangled by getting his tie stuck in a subway door, or being decapitated by the subway car. This is one of several "EC Quickies" that appeared around this time in either Crime SuspenStories or Weird Fantasy. The EC Quickies was an interesting gimmick that they used for a short enough period such that it didn't come off as overused to me. It was used a total of 7 times, primarily in Crime SuspenStories. Along with "Cutting Cards" from Tales from the Crypt #32, this is the only artwork Fred Peters did for EC during the new trend.

"Private Performance" - A crook breaks into a mansion so as to steal from a safe inside. While doing so he hears an argument amongst the elderly husband and wife who own the house. The husband, in a rage, bashes his wife's head in with a small statuette while arguing about being the 'greatest' and 'tops'. The old man spots the crook and chases him around the house. The crook, finding the front door locked, makes his way to the cellar where he hopes to hide in a chest. The old man soon comes down and locks him in the chest. The crook spots a poster on the wall revealing that the old man was a magician responsible for a human pin cushion illusion and he soon finds himself being struck with swords that the old man plunges into the chest. A pretty good story to end the issue, although I do wonder how the crook wasn't able to overpower a man who was probably more than twice his age.

Tales from the Crypt #32

Credits:
Cover dated October/November 1952
Cover by Jack Davis

"Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Roped In!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Cutting Cards!" - Art by Fred Peters/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Squash... Anyone?" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity!" - A local butcher named Zach Gristle finds his meat in high demand during World War II with the advent of rationing. During the war, red points need to be exchanged for meat, limiting the amount of meat that each customer can buy, as well as Gristle himself. A man named Vandercliff convinces Gristle to sell high quality steaks to him on the black market. This requires Gristle to find substandard meat to sell to his regular customers so as to acquire the red points needed to buy the steak. He descends to horse meat, then stale meat, and finally tainted meat. This makes the townfolks sick and eventually some of them die. Gristle goes to get the money he's saved up so he and his family can go on the run. But when his son dies due to eating the tainted meat at a friend's house, his wife snaps. She kills him, chops his body up then puts it on display at his store. A strong start to what is overall a good issue; this story would end up being used as the title for a recently published book from Fantagraphics publishing various Jack Davis horror stories.

"Roped In" - Donald Morgan, President of a construction company is arrested when concrete at a hospital he was responsible for is found to be substandard, causing many deaths. Morgan is innocent, as his 3 partners were responsible so as to make more money for themselves. Unfortunately for Morgan, they've trapped him in a web of circumstantial evidence by only using substandard material on his jobs. Morgan is found guilty of manslaughter and sent to jail. The other 3 partners go on a plane trip after winning a special job. While flying between two mountains however, they are caught in a gigantic spider web. A giant spider appears which kills the 2 that head outside. The final one locks himself in the plane but goes insane, knowing that he is trapped inside by the spider. An effective story with strong artwork from George Evans. This was Evans' first story for Tales form the Crypt, and one of his earliest stories overall for EC. He was generally given tamer fare, like Jack Kamen, but this story gave him the opportunity to do a monster in the giant spider.

"Cutting Cards!" - Two gamblers, Gus Forney and Lou Crebis hate each other so much that they agree to gamble on each other's lives. They start by drawing a card; he who draws the lowest card dies. They both draw aces and decide to try russian roulette instead, but the bullet is a dud and doesn't go off. They then decide to play chop poker to a finish. The loser of each hand has to lose a limb. They chop each others fingers off as round after round goes by. By the end both are in the hospital, with all their limbs chopped off and are still gambling against each other. Not much of a plot to this story, which is more just a way to show a lot of violence. That said, the story was considered good enough to be adapted into an episode of the Tales from the Crypt TV show. The artist, Fred Peters did only a couple of stories for EC during the new trend (the others appearing around this same time) and was not that good compared to EC's usual artists.

"Squash... Anyone?" - A husband and wife, Milo and Rene, are stars at a circus, using an elephant named Emma which places its foot over Rene during performances. In reality, the two hate each other and Milo is carrying on an affair with a woman named Leeta. Leeta convinces Milo to have Emma step on Rene during a performance, which he does. Emma is considered out of control and is killed. Leeta replaces Rene in the act, with a new elephant. A year passes and the circus comes across the same town. suddenly the decayed corpses of Rene and Emma appear and kill both Milo and Leeta before falling away into a putrid slime. One of EC's better circus-themed stories, with a scary, elephant corpse-filled final page.

Shock SuspenStories #6

Credits:
Cover dated December 1952/January 1953
Cover by Wally Wood

"Dead Right!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Under Cover!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Not So Tough!" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Sugar 'N Spice 'N..." - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

This was my first issue of Shock SuspenStories that I ever read and is one of its stronger issues. Shock SuspenStories for the first half to two thirds of its run was a sort of EC Sampler, featuring a crime story in the lead off spot, a sci-fi story in the third story spot and a horror story in the final story spot. The second story of each issue was entitled a "Shock" SuspenStory and was usually used to tackle subjects such as racism, anti-semitism, corruption and other matters.

"Dead Right!" - A woman named Cathy occasionally meets with a fortune teller who successfully predicts that she will lose her job, then later find another one. The fortune teller predicts that Cathy will marry a man, who will subsequently come into a lot of money and die violently. Cathy is dissappointed to soon find out that the man the fortune teller is speaking of is a morbidly obese man named Charlie Marno who frequently comes to the restaurant she works at. Considering the fortune teller's prediction, Cathy agrees to go out with him, and eventually marry him. After a few months pass, Cathy wins a large sum of money by being the millionth customer at a local restaurant. Thinking that the fortune teller was wrong the entire time, Cathy tries to walk out on Charlie, telling him she never loved him and can't stand him, causing him to murder her. Charlie inherits Cathy's money then dies in the electric chair, fulfilling the fortune teller's prophecy. This is one of the stronger lead stories from Shock SuspenStories and one of my favorites. It also was adapted in a fairly strong episode of the television show, early in the show's run when the episodes were usually very faithful to the original stories.

"Under Cover!" - A newspaper reporter named Sam Roberts watches as a group of masked vigilantes whip a woman until she dies. When the leader of the group takes off his mask to check for sure, Sam is able to see his face and identify him. Sam is found by some of the vigilantees and flees, making his way to a hotel. He calls the FBI but the vigilantees quickly enter and start beating him up, demanding to know if he saw the grand master's face, which he refuses to say. Sam passes out. He later wakes up in the hospital with the FBI watching over him. Sam confirms to the agents that he can identify the grand master. At that moment the agents pull out guns and kill him, as it ends up they were the vigilantees, unmasked. This is a fairly good story, but is not as powerful as many of the so called "preachies" that frequently appeared in this slot in Shock SuspenStories. The masked vigilantees theme would return in issue 14's The Whipping.

"Not So Tough!" - This story takes place on a rocket ship heading through space, commanded by a man named Horace Bergman. Bergman is notoriously hard on his men and demotes his lieutenant/navigator , a man named Arden, when he gets them lost in space. The man who replaces Arden is unqualified for the job, but Bergman doesn't want to appear soft to his men by restoring Arden to his former role. The replacement is demoted himself then has a nervous breakdown as the ship starts to run out of oxygen. Bergman refuses to give him oxygen and use up any of their supply, so he dies. Arden starts screaming at him about it and is shot by Bergman as a result. The ship approaches a planet with oxygen, which they descend to in order to resupply their oxygen, however the gravity on the planet is very intense. Bergman becomes 'soft' literally as his body melts upon impact. Another pretty good story; a bit more telegraphed around building up to the ending than the other stories in the issue. I'm sure they thought of the ending first, then built the entire story around it. Shock SuspenStories' sci-fi stories were a mixed bag at times, but this was one of the better ones.

"Sugar 'N Spice 'N..." - A pair of children, Johnny and Margaret (Hansel and Gretel in German) play in front of an old woman's house that they are frightened of. They lose their ball in her yard and Johnny goes into get it and is scared off by her. The two children plan to play some pranks on her come Halloween, but the old woman has plans of her own. Johnny places an empty bottle filled with water in front of her door and rings the bell, hoping she'll open it and the water will spill all over the foyer. The old woman waits inside and ignores it however, doing so through additional tricks that they try in order to get her to open the door. When they're about to leave the old woman screams out as if she needs help. This convinces Johnny and Margaret to come inside, where they discover the entire house is made of candy. The old woman opens up a roaring oven and reveals that she is a witch, feeding the two to the oven. This is one of two takes that EC had on the Hansel & Gretel story, the other appearing in Haunt of Fear #23. That version, which was part of the Grim Fairy Tale was a lot more comedic in nature where this one did come off as a legitimately scary horror story as well as a bit more realistic in the modern setting. The story was narrated throughout by the old woman and she comes off as if she was one of the ghoulunatics at the end of the story.

Frontline Combat #5

Credits:
Cover dated March/April 1952
Cover by Harvey Kurtzman

"442nd Combat Team" - Art by John Severin & Bill Elder/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Stonewall Jackson!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"War Machines!" - Art by John Severin/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Big 'If'!" - Art by Harvey Kurtzman/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

"442nd Combat Team" - This story takes place during World War II in France as an American unit is surrounded by German troops. A German medic comes by and noticing that many of the soldiers are Japanese-American asks them to surrender and join Japan's allies, the Germans. The American troops decline and make an attempt to take down the German soldiers, despite multiple calls from the German medic to surrender and stop being traitors to their ancestors. The American troops are successful in taking out the Germans and one of the soldiers comments on the one thing the medic forgot, that they're Americans. This story is a fairly decent start to the issue, just overshadowed by a couple of stories that come after it.

"Stonewall Jackson" - This story takes place in 1864 during the Civil War. A group of COnfederate soldiers gather by a fire and tell stories about Stonewall Jackson, one soldier in particular. The story tells various anecdotes about Jackson's time as an officer. Towards the end of the story it is told how he died, being shot accidently by his own men in Chancellorville at night. The soldier telling the stories leaves the fire and it is revealed that he is the one who killed Jackson. Some of Kurtzman's stories focused in particular on historical figures such as Jackson, Lincoln, Rommel and others, and this was one such tale. Kurtzman featured Jackson in another story in Two-Fisted Tales #35, "Chancellorville" which focused in particular on his death. That story was also drawn by Davis. This story was one of the few Civil War themed stories that did not appear in the special Civil War issues that Kurtzman did.

"War Machines" - This story focuses on a battle that takes place in the hills of Korea, but in particular on the "war machines" involved. The American forces utilize various methods to try and take out the Koreans occupying caves in the hills. They start with planes, then move on to heavy artillery and tanks, none of which are able to be successful. Then the final war machine, man, heads up the hill and is successful in wiping out the Koreans and taking control of the hill. From time to time Kurzman would do stories focused not on particular characters but rather the weapons or devices used during war and this was one such example.

"Big 'If'" - A wounded soldier named Paul Maynard sits before some ancient Korean devil posts, thinking of how if only things would have been different. Maynard flashes back to how he got into this situation. His unit had been traveling and he volunteered to stay with a tank while his fellow soldiers seperated from him. When he gets fired upon Maynard flees from the tank and spots some planes flying by. He eats his lunch then passes by the devil posts, bending down to tie his shoe. At that moment he gets hit by a shell. After thinking of if he just changed one minor thing, all would be okay, Maynard collapses, dead. The final war story that Kurzman drew for EC, this is probably his second most well known after "Corpse on the Imjin" from Two-Fisted Tales #25. It is a simple, but powerful premise, that in war someone can die for no reason, for simply being in a certain place at a certain time. The story had a 6 page article written by Greg Potter (who wrote stories for Warren Publishing's horror magazines in the 1970s) dedicated to it in The Comics Journal Library for Harvey Kurtzman.

Weird Fantasy #13 (1952)

Credits:
Cover dated May/June 1952
Cover by Al Feldstein

"The End" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Trip!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Home to Stay!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Don't Count Your Chickens..." - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

Our first entry covers my personal favorite issue of Weird Fantasy, which is also one of the more historically significant single issues that the company produced.

"The End" - The story begins with a massive comet approaching Earth but it miraculously burns up shortly before reaching the point of return. While humanity is saved, it is soon discovered that all mammals on Earth have become sterile due to the radiation from the comet. The second half of the story focuses in particular on Adam Akly, the last man ever born. As Adam grows older he focuses on trying to save humanity by creating a massive time machine which he plans to use to bring people from the past so as to repopulate the Earth in the present. The massive time machine is constructed in Grand Central Station due to its population density and placed in a location where it can draw people from the past and transport them directly to the future. A problem soon arises as only men are being transported from the past. Switching the years from which it draws them makes no difference, so Adam makes a last ditch attempt to solve things by going back in time himself to discover whats going on. Once he arrives he realizes that he's made a major mistake; the time machine's been placed in the men's bathroom. This story's origins can be traced to Miriam de al Ford's "The Last Generation" which inspired the sterilization part of the storyline and Damon Knight's "Not With a Bang", which inspired the ending. A very strong story to start off the issue.

"The Trip" - A scientist, Lon, falls in love with his beautiful assistant Edith. Since his wife won't give him a divorce, he plans to run away to a space colony with Edith. Lon is given the
opportunity to head to one of the space colonies to try out a quick-freeze system that he has developed that can instantly freeze animals for transport, and permit for their immediate thawing later on.  Because Edith is forbidden from heading to the colony with him, Lon has her quick frozen then stores her away in the ship. After his arrival Lon sets up his quick-thaw equipment and plans to thaw her that night while everyone is asleep. While carrying her to the quick-thaw equipment however, he trips over a loose wire and drops her, resulting in her body smashing into a million pieces. While this story contains many elements that appear in countless Jack Kamen stories, it's terrific ending makes up for it, making it one of the more memorable Jack Kamen science-fiction stories in my eyes.

"Home to Stay" - This story is about a rocket ship pilot, Dan Fawcett who repeatedly has to leave his wife and young son, Jimmy to head off to space, often several years at a time. Each time he
returns he strongly thinks about retiring so he can stay home with his family, but the urge to return to space overtakes him and he heads back time and time again, missing much of his son's
childhood. Dan finally promises that his latest trip into space will be his last. Returning to Earth however his ship explodes. While Dan is able to get into his spacesuit in time, he is caught in
Earth's gravity and starts burning up as he heads into the atmosphere. His wife and son spot him from the ground below, and thinking its a shooting star, Jimmy wishes upon it for his father to come home to stay. This story was an unauthorized adaption of 2 Ray Bradbury stories, "Rocket Man" from which much of the story comes from, and "Kaleidoscope" which inspired the ending". Upon reading the story, Bradbury sent a letter to EC pointing out that they had "forgotten" to pay him royalties for the 2 stories and asking if they'd be interested in future collaborations. This resulted in numerous future Bradbury adaptions which appeared in particular in the science-fiction comics. Incidently enough EC had swiped multiple stories from Bradbury before (Haunt of Fear #6's "A Strange Undertaking, which was based on "The Handler", and Vault of Horror #22's "What the Dog Dragged In", which was based on "The Emissary" are just a couple of examples), and also drew inspiration from his story "The Earth Men" in the next issue's story titled "Mad Journey". Bill Gaines claimed in a panel at the 1972 EC Convention that Bradbury thought "Home to Stay" ended up better than original stories and I would consider it one of the best stories that EC published.

"Don't Count Your Chickens..." - A young boy finds many eggs on Easter and his favorite is a bizarrely colored egg which his parents don't recall painting. That night, the boy hears the egg calling out to him, and the he follows the egg's directions to bring it to a cave. When he returns the next day, he finds that the egg has hatched, revealing a strange, but small alien creature. The creature used a sort of mind-control on the boy, convincing him to find it meat to eat. This starts with the boy removing food from his plate at dinner but graduates to much larger sources as the creature grows. Eventually, fearing for his health, the boy's parents send him away to summer camp. The creature, now quite large, makes it way out of the cave and starts attacking cows and various other animals to satisfy its hunger. Eventually the military is able to destroy it by burning it with flame throwers. The next Easter however, numerous boys and girls find very similar looking eggs while going on their Easter egg hunt in the areas that the creature had traveled through. Joe Orlando was usually drawn upon to do stories with bizarre looking aliens and this story featured one of the strangest looking ones an EC comic ever had.

The letter column for this issue contains a letter from Arline Grandon Phelan which heavily criticized the content of EC's comics and was discussed in the letter columns for multiple issues afterwards. Bill Gaines would later reveal in an interview that the letter was fake.