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.

Weird Fantasy #21

Credits:
Cover dated September/October 1953
Cover by Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta

"My Home..." - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"Saved" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"Planely Possible" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"The Million Year Picnic" - Art by John Severin & Bill Elder/Ray Bradbury adaption by Al Feldstein




A rare cover collaboration between Williamson and Frazetta starts off this issue of Weird Fantasy.

"My Home..." - A being made up of pure energy is the sole inhabitant of a planet that four astronauts, Steve, Harold, Ken and his wife Helen arrive at. The astronauts plan to mine the planet for uranium, but the alien has different ideas. He inhabits the body of Harold, being able to control him. He then attacks one of the other astronauts until being shot. He then inhabits Ken's body. When Steve brings Harold's body outside to bury it, the alien has the rocket ship take off, stranding him. As the days pass, Helen and Ken grow further apart due to Ken's body decomposing. They stay apart from each other, but the alien/Ken desires to see her one last time. Now a rotting corpse, Helen dies of fright from seeing him and the alien departs his body. It remains in the rocket, which is now its home., This story seems inspired by "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell, which was eventually made into 3 movie versions called "The Thing".

"Saved" - A man named Jargot proclaims that his ship, the Mercury, can transport goods faster than any other ship, guaranteeing that he will break all speed records. While he is successful in doing so, all of his crew dies during the journey except for him. When this happens multiple times, a man named Keston, who works for the Galaxy Bureau of Investigation is assigned to go on the ship and find out what is going on. Because no one will go on the ship, he and Jargot have to knock out several men and bring them onboard while unconscious. Once they are in space, Jargot locks everyone up including Keston. He then takes them away 2 at a time and Keston hear only screams from elsewhere in the ship. When Jargot comes for Keston and the other last remaining man, Sangor, he brings them to the engine room and reveals that the engine uses a catalyst, human blood, to go so quickly. Sangor reveals he is a vampire however and kills Jargot. He tells Keston he saved him, but what he means is he's saving him for another meal later on. A good story for the most part, combining both sci-fi and horror elements, although the pun at the end leaves for a rather lame ending.

"Planely Possible" - A man, Mr. Thurmond and his wife are in a car accident. Thurmond wakes up in a hospital and his wife dies soon afterwards. A technician at the hospital, Warburton, tells Thurmond that he believes that there were 4 divergent possibilities that came from the car accident and that it is possible to send Thurmond to the plane where his wife survived and he died, so he can take his place there as if he hadn't died. Warburton is able to transfer him to another plane, but mistakenly sends him to one where both Thurmond and his wife survived. Thurmond throws his duplicate in the furnace, killing him, and takes his place. He soon wakes up however to find that all of this was a dream, and his wife never died after all. But that night, the version of him from another plane arrives and throws him in the furnace. A new interesting take on the multiple dimensions plot.

"The Million Year Picnic" - A father and mother bring their 3 sons on a boating trip on Mars. While traveling they see a rocket depart to Earth, the last rocket to depart to Earth, as nuclear war ends up destroying the rest of human civilization. The family travels to various abandoned martian cities and eventually decides on one to live in. They expect more people to join them soon and they'll restart human civilization in their own way. The boys are anxious to see Martians, and the father shows them the Martians by having them look in the water at their own reflections. An adaption of a Ray Bradbury story from the end of the Martian Chronicles. Its one of the less interesting ones.

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.

Incredible Science Fiction #30

Credits:
Cover dated July/August 1955
Cover by Jack Davis

"Clean Start" - Art by Wally Wood
"Marbles" - Art by Bernie Krigstein
"Conditioned Reflex" - Art by Joe Orlando
"Barrier" - Art by Jack Davis

All stories are by Jack Oleck

Incredible Science Fiction was a retitling of Weird Science-Fantasy so as to ensure compliance with the Comics Code, which the comic was forced to follow for the entirety of its 4 issue run. The effect of the Comics Code wasn't too apparent in this issue, but would be in later ones. The comic was notable for featuring the only Jack Davis covers and stories for an EC sci-fi comic.

"Clean Start" - The Solar Federation, consisting of alien beings from throughout the galaxy becomes concerned as the war-obsessed humanity becomes more advanced and nears space travel. A pair of blob-like aliens, Brx and Lth head to Earth, desiring to head to the point in time wheere humanity's desire to kill each other first started. They find as they travel through time however that this aspect of humanity has always existed. So they decide instead to wipe out humanity, saving only one male and one female, so they can teach them to live peacefully and pass such mentality throughout their descendents. They set a device to go off in ten days. Lth, who has transformed herself to look like a human woman searches throughout mankind, but has a hard time choosing and ultimately decides on a random man to save as the device goes off. She returns to her ship but is shocked when the man transforms back into Brx. A strong story to start off the comic, with some good Wood artwork as well.

"Marbles" -  Mankind finally heads to space. As they head there, they make a strange discovery. As they head further into space their destinations become smaller and smaller. The astronauts claim that their planets are small enough to bring into the ship, and they soon fly around, collecting all of the planets of the solar system and bringing them into the ship. In reality, the crew of the ship have gone utterly insane. A rather mediocre story, and at 5 pages one of EC's shortest.

"Conditioned Reflex" - In the story's prologue, a scientist discusses the identification of a methane-based planet discovered by humanity due to the entire planet bursting into flames. The story shows that the planet did have life, which had discovered mankind. Feeling threatened by humanity, the aliens decide to send one of them, Quor to Earth, after having undergone surgery to make him look like a human. Quor heads to Earth and works as a farmhand, getting used to Earth habits, such as smoking a cigarette to relax. He decides to flee when the daughter of the farm owner falls in love with him. Quor quickly is able to infiltrate Earth's government buildings and find out the information he needs. He returns to his planet where he is to present before the leaders of the planet. He lights a cigarette to relax, and the spark causes the entire planet to explode. A strong story with an very interesting twist at the end. Although things are a bit repetive with the second story in the issue featuringn aliens deciding to infiltrate humanity.

"Barrier" - The Eastern and Western Alliances of Earth have been at war with each other for nearly 50 years. Believing the side that lands on the moon will win the war, the Western Alliance sends a rocket into space but it crashes into something and falls back to Earth. The Western Alliance realizes that there is a sort of barrier surrounding the Earth. They decide to team up with the Western Alliance and blow a hole in the barrier so their rocket can get through. As soon as they get through the barrier however, a flying saucer comes after them and forces them back inside. The Western Alliance scientist realizes that alien forces from space have locked humanity in, viewing them as a savage race. The THIRD story in this issue with the theme of aliens fearing humanity. How many ways can the same story be told?

Panic #1

Credits:
Cover dated March 1954
Cover by Al Feldstein

"My Gun is the Jury!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein
"This is Your Strife" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein
"Little Red Riding Hood" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Night Before Christmas" - Art by Bill Elder/Adaption of Charles Clement Moore poem

Today I cover the first issue of Panic, EC's own copy of the very popular Mad. The introduction at the start of the issue jokingly states that Mad was a ripoff of Panic, which sat around unpublished for over a year. In what you wouldn't think to be that offensive a comic, it caused 2 major controversies.

"My Gun is the Jury!" - Mike Hammershlammer, a detective investigates the murder of a man who was shot. Throughout the story he comes across a number of beautiful women whom he shoots, saying that they were criminals involved with other crimes. He is also invited by a woman named Stella to come to her apartment but passes up on it, wanting to continue his investigation. Eventually he comes to see her and realizes she was involved in the crime with the various other women. He shoots her, but then realizes she was a man. Mike removes his cap, revealing that he was a woman. A parody of Micky Spillane stories which was quite an inspiration for Feldstein. This story resulted in a bit of controversy for EC when both EC's business manager, Lyle Stuart, and receptionist, Shirley Norris were arrested over selling "disgusting" literature. The case was thrown out of court rather quickly.

"This is Your Strife" - This story is a parody of the "This is Your Life" show. A man named Melvin Melville is brought to the stage and a number of people from his life are brought before him. each asks if they found his wife, who dissappeared many years ago. It soon becomes very apparant based on these people that Melvin murdered his wife although nobody realizes until the end of the story when her bones are brought out and everyone realizes that he killed her.

"Little Red Riding Hood" - The extremely beautiful Gwendolyn moves to town, but ignores all the guys coming after her, instead focusing on the geeky Melvin. Melvin asks why she is interested in him and she tells her of her childhood, during which she was the real Red Riding Hood. She is told to head to her grandmother's house. There she finds a wolf laying in her grandmother's bed. A woodsman arrives and shoots the wolf. Back in the present, Gwendolyn reveals that the wolf really was her grandmother, and that when they mature her family turns into werewolves. She turns into one and kills Melvin. This story is a Grim Fairy Tale, the sole one to not appear in one of EC's horror comics.

"The Night Before Christmas" - This story is an illustrated parody of the Clement Clarke Moore poem about Santa Claus. Containing very little dialogue, it is a series of comedic panels and sequences done in typical Bill Elder fashion. The story ends showing Bill Gianes as Santa Claus, with all the EC staff coming out of his sack. Surprisingly enough this story caused quite the controversy at the time and Panic was banned in Massachusetts for its offensive portrayal of Santa Claus here (which isn't that offensive).

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.

Weird Science-Fantasy #24

Credits:
Cover dated June 1954
Cover by Al Feldstein

"...For Posterity" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Teacher from Mars" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Otto Binder
"The Pioneer" - Art by Bernie Krigstein/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Upheaval!" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Harlan Ellison

Weird Science-Fantasy was the combination of Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, both of which failed to be popular enough to last past their fourth year. The comic originally started off as a 15 cent quarterly, but soon went back down to the standard 10 cent comic. It changed to a bi-monthly in 1955 and eventually had its title changed to Incredible Science-Fiction. Quality was fairly high in the early issues, with things dipping towards the end of its run.

"...For Posterity" - This story features two prospectors who one night find a flying saucer land nearby. The two men walk up to it and when the door opens, walk inside. The door of the flying saucer suddenly shuts and it blasts off into space. They suddenly pass out and when they awake the door opens. Outside of the saucer they find a civilization made up entirely of women. The leader of the women tells them that they are now in Earth's future. Due to the fallout from nuclear weapons, all males went sterile and eventually died out. The women were able to survive due to a element that allowed them to self-reproduce, but now that element has entirely run out. The women need the two men to help inpregnate then; they will then be returned to the past with no memory of what happened. The men awaken back on Earth and believe it to be just a dream, but discover roses by their sleeping bags revealing that it was true after all. A decent story to start things off, featuring what is probably the ultimate male fantasy.

"The Teacher from Mars" - Martian Professor Mun Zeerohs comes to Earth to become a teacher. Zeerohs finds his student on Earth cruel and intolerant, particularly a boy named Tom Blaine who constantly makes fun of Zeerohs and criticizes both him and the Martian race as a whole. Zeerohs also finds Earth hard getting used to, such as the wasting of water that is such a precious resource on Mars, and his fear of snakes, which are much more dangerous on Mars. Tom Blaine's pranks continue, he wastes water in front of Zeerohs, hides his glasses, pours salt in his food, plants snakes in his bedroom and even starts lynching him and falsely accusing him of murder. Zeerohs decides to return to Mars. The next day a special event is held on the campus and a major in the space patrol announces the heroic act of Zeerohs' son, who saved the life of Tom Blaine's father, being killed in the process. Blaine and the others, now with a newfound respect for Zeerohs start supporting him and he decides to stay on Earth. This story was adapted by one written by Binder and his brother Earl under the name "Eando Binder". An obvious metaphor for racial intolerance, it reminds one of similar such stories told in Shock SuspenStories and is similar in theme to "In Gratitude" from Shock SuspenStories #11 (although with a much happier ending).

"The Pioneer" - A Professor Latham causes a large explosion while testing a type of fuel. After he recovers, he becomes obsessed with furthering his research on the fuel so as to provide man with the ability to travel into space. Latham's students make fun of him for it and he gets so worked up that he ends up quitting when brought before the Board of Trustees. Latham spends his life savings on buying a farm in the countryside where he can work on building a rocket engine without interruption or disturbance. Soon however a neighbor named Jenkins stops by and laughs at his attempts to build a rocket engine just as his students had. Latham eventually gets upset enough that he turns on the engine while Jenkins is standing near it, burning him to a crisp. Latham is soon met by the local state troopers who take him with them. Before a government panel Latham explains the capability of his engine. He is kept in heavily guarded living quarters where his guards relay his directions on his rocket ship, which they tell him is being built. He eventually receives his last meal on Earth and is brought to the rocket where he is strapped aboard He feels electrifying pressure as the rocket blasts off. In actuality, Latham has been sent to jail for Latham's murder, convicted and put in the electric chair, but he deluded himself into believing that he was going into space. A really good story, my favorite of the issue.

"Upheaval!" - A rocket ship in search of a lifeform more advanced than man has had no succes thus far. They start thinking about heading back to Earth, with the conclusion that man is the most advanced lifeform in the galaxy, but stop on one last planet. The ground of the planet is quite soft, and once the men step out of the rocket ship it sinks right through the surface of the planet. The men are soon swallowed up by the surface of the planet as well, finding themselves in a sort of protoplasm-like environment. Suddenly both the rocket and the men are expelled from the planet back to the surface. They quickly get back in the rocket and blast off. One of the men comments that they finally have found a lifeform more advanced than man - the planet itself, which was a single organism. He comments on them facing the ultimate insult, having been vomitted up by the planet. This story was written by Harlan Ellison, who wrote the story while in college and submitted it to EC. Ellison went on to become one of the most well known modern science fiction writers. This was his sole story that appeared in an EC comic.

M.D. #1

Credits:
Cover dated April/May 1955
Cover by Johnny Craig

"The Fight for Life" - Art by Graham Ingels
"Janie Some Day" - Art by George Evans
"To Fill the Bill" - Art by Joe Orlando
"The Antidote" - Art by Reed Crandall

The second issue I'll be covering of M.D. is the comic's first. Not much different here than the previous issue I covered (#5) aside from the fact that each story (aside from the first) has a prognosis listed above it. Much like the previous issue I covered, its a rather dull and lifeless issue. The writer for all four stories is unknown.

"The Fight for Life" - Rather than being a traditional fictional story, this story instead provides a brief history of illnesses and attempted cures throughout the ages, starting with cave men, and going through various eras of human history. It shows the various ways in which mankind dealt with illnesses, including some very backwards thinking. It also briefly features Hippocrates and the effect he had on the medical profession. Stories told in this fashion were quite a rarity for EC, particularly for comics not edited by Harvey Kurtzman. It was clearly meant as an introduction to the comic, and a similar approach was taken with Aces High.
"Janie Some Day" - The Janie of the title is an orphan girl with Congenital Osteomyelitis, which forces both of her legs to be in casts. Eventually one of the leg gets better, enabling the removing of the cast, but the other leg gets worse and worse until it has to be amputated. The doctor tells Janie of the new leg she will get to replace her amputated one, but she is horrified when she believes she will be given a wooden leg. The doctor shows her the life-like artificial leg that is ready for her, and she is soon able to walk and play with the other orphans.

"To Fill the Bill" - A man is behind on a number of bills, and whenever he is able to pay some of them always ignores the one from his doctor, despite recommendations from his wife to pay them. One day his son swallows a safety pin and stops breathing. Despite the fact that the man was behind on all his bills, the doctor arrives and is able to save the boy by doing a tracheotomy. The man tells the doctor he will pay all the outstanding bills right away. The protagonist's refusal to pay the doctor bills in this story came off as a bit ridiculous and made it rather obvious what the ending of the story would be.

"The Antidote" - A doctor is about to head to meet with a specialist about something when one of his patients comes, hysteric about his kid. Despite having something to attend to, the doctor goes with him to see the child, who has an appendicitis. The doctor goes ahead and operates on him at the father's pleading, despite his other obligations. Once he is finished, he meets with the specialist, who was examining the doctor's wife. A similar type of story was done in Impact, although with much more tragic results.

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.

Panic #5

Credits:
Cover dated October/November 1954
Cover by Al Feldstein

"Tick Dracy" - Art by Bill Elder/Story by Nick Meglin & Al Feldstein
"Baseball Jargon"/"Golf Match!"/"Football Terms!"/"Basketball!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al
Feldstein
"Spots Before Your Eyes!" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein
"You Too Can Hook a Zillionaire!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein

My first issue of Panic, which EC brought into play to act as a Mad-imitator, just as many other Mad imitators were coming into the market. Unlike Mad, which was edited by Harvey Kurtzman, Panic was edited by Al Feldstein, who edited most of EC's other comics. Overall I wasn't much of a fan of EC's humor comics and that applies here. This is a so-so issue at best and I don't have much thoughts on the individual stories.

"Tick Dracy" - This is a parody of the well known comic Dick Tracy. In this story Tick tries to
solve the mystery of why his wife Mess Falseheart keeps getting cuts on her face. Tick chases down
and murders various parodies of Dick Tracy villains, despite the fact that they've all gone clean
and are innocent. At the end of the story it is revealed that Dick Tracy's face (which is always
shown from the side) is razor thin and him kissing her every night is cutting up her face.

"Baseball Jargon"/"Golf Match!"/"Football Terms!"/"Basketball!" - This story shows literal
translations of various baseball terms that we're used to hearing, to comedic effect. The story also
covers golf, football and basketball in similar such fashions. The story is more of individual panel
gags than a traditional story.

"Spots Before Your Eyes" - This story features parodies of 3 newscasters. The first covers a sportscaster, who goes through a long spiel before revealing that there were no sports that day. The second covers a weather caster who spends much of the broadcast doing tic-tac-toe. The third covers a garden expert who shows how to have a fine garden by having to spend massive amounts of money.

"You Too Can Hook a Zillionaire!" - This story features a movie that is created that can show ordinary women how they can find a zillionaire to marry. It features the ordinary woman, played by a Lauren Backache who moves into a fancy apartment building with two roommates played by Marylin Mahrone and Betty Graball. Marylin and Betty end up finding zillionaires to marry through dumb luck, while the man Lauren finds ends up being an unemployed bum, showing that an ordinary woman won't be able to hook a zillionaire after all. This story was a parody of the movie How to Marry a Millionaire.

Weird Science #17

Credits:
Cover dated January/February 1953
Cover by Wally Wood

"Plucked" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Island Monster" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Off Day!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Long Years!" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein (Ray Bradbury adaption)

"Plucked" - Professor Sidney Hunton gets together with his publisher, James Farnsworth for Thanksgiving along with their wives as they do each year. Sidney discusses his research and the fact that every 200 years it appears that the population of certain parts of Earth decline tremendously despite birth and death rates remaining the same. James comes up with a theory that perhaps Earth is being used as a sort of turkey farm for alien creatures, that come to Earth every 200 years, snatch up a large number of people from the most powerful part of human society in order to eat them, and use techniques to both cover their appearance and make it seem as though those who were taken were never missing. While Sidney thinks the theory is ridiculous, the aliens do infact come to Earth and seize numerous people, including both their wives. A strong story to start off the issue, with arguably the scariest looking alien creatures to appear in an EC sci-fi comic.

"The Island Monster" - A group of men head to a remote island in order to capture a monster rumored to live on the island. The men come across the monster, which is of a gigantic size and are able to knock it out with Anesthetic bombs. The creature knocked out; the men bring it to the United States and plan to show it off at Madison Square Garden in New York. The first time they do so however, the crowd and the flash photography taking place scare the creature, which bursts out of its chains and crashes through much of New York City, eventually being killed by many jets following it. Months later, an investigative team discovers a large rocket on the island and a log which reveals that the creature had come to Earth as a peaceful ambassador. This story is pretty much a sci-fi retelling of King Kong, with the alien twist thrown in at the end.

"Off Day!" - Professor Stanley Dingle steps into his lecture hall one day and is shocked to find only one out of the approximate four hundred students in his class. Dingle thinks that the law of averages has broken down, and that this could lead to the destruction of the human race. The student gets up and says he is simply the janitor, and that the professor came in on Sunday. The Professor from this story was used as a letter page host, "Dr. deRange" in the EC comic reprints that came out in the 1990s. Much of the story is the Professor explaining the law of averages (which leads to the short summary here), and as a result this is not the most interesting story, although it is a funny ending.

"The Long Years!" - An old man, Hathaway, lives on Mars with his wife and three grown children, all that remain on the planet after war broke out and everyone else on the planet departed. One night Hathaway spots a rocket in the sky. He lights the nearby New New York on fire as a beacon and the rocket lands nearby. Out come some crewmembers who were familiar with him from 20 years ago including Captain Wilder and Williams, a crewmember. They eat dinner with Hathaway and his family and soon realize that something is odd, as Hathaway's family has not aged at all in the past 20 years. Williams finds a graveyard nearby containing grave markers for all of Hathaway's family, meaning that those living with him are artificial creations. Hathaway soon dies of a heart attack and is buried with the rest of his family. Wilder and Williams find themselves unable to shoot Hathaway's artificial family since they are so much like real people and depart, leaving them there. This story is the first of many authorized Ray Bradbury adaptions that appeared in EC's science-fiction comics. The story came from the Martian Chronicles and as a result was one of many such adaptions that took place on Mars.

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.

M.D. #5

Credits:
Cover dated December 1955/January 1956
Cover by Johnny Craig

"Complete Cure" - Art by Reed Crandall
"Child's Play" - Art by Joe Orlando
"Emergency" - Art by Graham Ingels
"The Right Diagnosis" - Art by George Evans

The writer for all 4 stories is unknown.

This is the first New Direction title I've covered as part of this blog. EC's New Direction comics were brought out after Bill Gaines cancelled all of EC's horror and suspenstory comics due to the horror/crime comic controversy at the time. The New Direction comics tackled various new subjects, some of which hadn't been covered in comics before. M.D. focused in particular on doctors and medical-drama related stories. Essentially a comic book version of E.R., House or other doctor/hospital themed shows. The New Direction comics were commercial failures and were a bit lifeless compared to EC's New Trend horror, crime and sci-fi comics. In addition, starting with the second issue of each the comics were under the Comics Code, resulting in a lot of censorship. Some of the New Direction comics were able to be at least somewhat interesting, even with the censorship, but M.D. was a comic I was never all that into. I can't say the stories are particularly bad, at least in this issue, but its hard to get too much into them or have much to say which is why this will be a rare instance where I won't have individual thoughts on each story. The one big thing that does come across in reading this issue is how different things are today; in "Child's Play", the mother's fear of her son being labeled different due to having a hearing aid, enough so that she doesn't even want him to have it, comes off as particularly ridiculous nowadays. The issue features a lot of extremism from the main characters, not just from that mother, but also central characters from the first and last stories.

"Complete Cure" - A man named Phil is in a car accident in which his legs are severly injured. His wife arrives at the hopsital and agrees to surgery which will save his life, but require the removal of his legs. Phil is extremely negative after waking up, wishing that he had died rather than losing his legs. He is convinced that his life is over and doesn't want to live as a cripple using prosthetics. Eventually he is convinced by his wife to use prosthetics and is able to walk again, but still feels extremely sorry for himself. He decides to leave his wife to spare her the burden of having to support him, but his doctor convinces him to come and see him first at a country club where he introduces him to a well known doctor, who also lost both of his legs. Phil realizes that he can make something of himself despite his handicap.

"Child's Play" - This story features a young boy named Jimmy whose friends stop playing with him and whose grades start suffering. It is soon discovered that Jimmy is going deaf which is the reason for these things. He goes through various tests and the doctor tells his parents that they could operate on him and give him a hearing aid to make things better. His mother is strongly opposed to this, thinking he will be labeled as different. She eventually concedes to having the operation. As it turns out, him having a hearing aid doesn't cause any problems at all; he gets back together with his old friends and they find his hearing aid very interesting.

"Emergency" - This story features a doctor traveling in an ambulance with a man with a broken leg. Due to a large storm, a tree blocks the road and he's forced to carry the injured man on a stretcher with the driver. When they get to the hospital they find that the power is completely out, and the backup generator isn't working either. The doctor, as well as the other doctor there and the various other staff work throughout the night to help out their patients, despite the lack of light or electricity, including successfully conducting surgery. By morning the power is back on and the doctors are finally able to take a break.

"The Right Diagnosis" - A man named George Gordon goes to his doctor complaining of severe abdominal pain. His doctor says nothing appears wrong after doing various tests, but George is convinced that he needs his appendix out. The doctor thinks it is more of a psychological disorder due to George's depression and that he has a self-destructive personality making him want to get surgery despite not needing it. George decides to go to another hospital under a fake name to see if they will operate on him, but they refuse as well. This causes George to want to commit suicide by jumping off the side of the building, but the doctor convinces him to not do so and get help.

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.