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.

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?

Weird Fantasy #7

Credits:
Cover dated May/June 1951
Cover by Al Feldstein

"7 Year Old Genius!" - Art by Al Feldstein/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Come Into My Parlor" -  Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Across the Sun!" - Art by George Roussos/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Breakdown!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"7 Year Old Genius!" - Seven year old Rufus is not only a genius, but the smartest being on Earth. He has his parents bring him to the White House to meet the President. He is stopped on the way, but is encountered by the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of Defense has Rufus prove him genius to himself and many other people and does a background check, finding that Rufus is this way due to his father being exposed to radiation. Rufus is able to create a cure for cancer and other great things, but is pressured to develop a Hydrogen Bomb. He finds based on his study that such a bomb would destroy the Earth, so he refuses to provide it. He is viewed as a traitor as a result, and eventually relents, but gives falsified data. This results in him being discredited. Discovering some EC comics, he feels that only EC can publish his story and meets Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein, who show up at the end of the story. Meanwhile the government has finished the Hydrogen Bomb and plans to test it shortly. This story is okay, but very remiscent of "The Radioactive Child" from Weird Science #16, published about 6 months prior. It features cameos from Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein (who appeared in many early EC stories). It also features a Secretary of Defense character that was a frequently appearing character in many Feldstein-drawn stories.

"Come Into My Parlor" - A man named Stephen Lamb finishes up a report he has written on spiders. Suddenly there is a flash and a beautiful woman appears. Named Wanta, she claims that she comes from 4,000 years in the future. Wanta claims that there are no men in the future and that she and the other women of the future need to serve man. Stephen heads to the future with her where it is seemingly paradise. He can get as much food and drink as he wants and there are beautiful women everywhere. Eventually he gets drunk and Wanta leads him to a room where there is a spitfire grill. Stephen is tied up and put on the grill, as Wanta's civilization wants to literally cook and serve him. Stephen wakes up, with it all being a dream, but Wanta then appears for real. This story is inspired by Damon Knight's short story "To Serve Man" which later got adapted into a very well known Twilight Zone episode. The dream twist at the end seems tacked on, as if they needed an extra page to add to the story.

"Across the Sun!" - Humanity has sent a rocket to Mars, but it has vanished and never returned. A second rocket is set to head out, but minutes before the rocket is to blast off the original rocket returns. The crew from teh original rocket come down and say to not blast off. They tell their story, of how they were captured by a flying saucer and brought to a world that looked identical to our Earth, except that it has 2 moons. There, they meet the alien race that inhabits it. The aliens tell them that their planet is directly across the sun from the Earth such that it can never be seen. They say that they had gone to war with Earth many years ago and destroyed their civilization, which included the destruction of one of the Earth's moons. They tell the men to return to Earth and not head back into sapce or they'll destroy humanity again. Pacing's a bit poor on this story. Things go by very slow for the first 5 pages, then rush to a swift conclusion on the final page with an absurd amount of text in the last few panels.

"Breakdown!" - A woman named Mary comes to the FBI with her husband Donald, who has gone insane. She tells the men from the FBI of how one night at her farm, her brother Larry was visiting and they saw a strange light in the sky. Soon after a strange man named Mr. Trance showed up asking to use the phone. Mr. Trance stays the night, but Mary soon suspects something is wrong with him. Their dog is very scared of Mr. Trance, then soon falls over dead. Mr. Trance also doesn't cast a reflection in the mirror. Larry heads out to find Mr. Trance's broken down car but doesn't find it, only scorched marks in a field. Donald heads upstairs to see Mr. Trance but when he comes downstairs, he has gone crazy. Mr. Trance comes downstairs and explains that he is an alien being using a hypnotic shield. If his hypnotic shield isn't active, such as when he is asleep, his true form appears so horrific that it will cause a person looking at it to go insane. Larry pulls out a gun to shoot Mr. Trance while Mary and Donald flee. Larry kills Mr. Trance, but goes crazy upon seeing his true form. Back in the present, the men at the FBI reveal themselves to be aliens and remove their hypnotic shields, causing Mary to go insane. A fairly good story to wrap things up, the best in the issue. The aliens are pretty horrific looking, even if it is said in the story that they are merely the artist's renditions since their true form would cause the reader to go crazy as well.

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.

Weird Science #15 (1950)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Weird Fantasy #13 (1950)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weird Science #7

Credits:
Cover dated May/June 1951
Cover by Al Feldstein

"Monster From the Fourth Dimension" - Art by Al Feldstein/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"Something Missing!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"...Gregory Had a Model-T!" - Art by Harvey Kurtzman/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"The Aliens!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines

"Monster From the Fourth Dimension" - A man named Hank encounters a bizarre meat-colored blob that floats in midair, changing shape constantly. The creature kills his cow then dissappears, only to reappear soon afterwards and comes after him. Hank flees from the creature and goes to see his brother Willy, a scientist. Upon seeing the creature, Willy believes it is from a fourth dimension which explains its constantly changing shape and ability to dissappear then reappear. The two of them shoot through the creature with a harpoon and tie it up. Willy then uses a device he was creating to go to the fourth dimension so he can blow it up with dynamite. A few minutes pass and Willy's machine appears back in our dimension, shattered into a bunch of pieces. Willy's dead body appears soon afterwards, a look of sheer horror on his face. The creature stops moving and dies, and Hank buries it. A fairly good story to start off the issue, with some interesting concepts in it. The story was redone in 1954 in the first issue of Three Dimensional EC Classics, drawn by Bernie Krigstein.

"Something Missing!" - A University professor named Roger is married to a nagging shrew of a wife, Hannah. Hannah is constantly complaining over Roger spending too much time on his experiments rather than teaching more and making more money. Roger hires one of his female students Sally, to be his assistant, enraging Hannah even further. Roger and Sally fall in love as they work on a device that can transmit matter and cause any transported creature to turn into what they are thinking about. After further nagging, Roger admits to his wife that he's in love with Sally. One night when Roger and Sally are in the lab, Hannah storms in. Roger puts Sally in the machine and turns it on, causing her to turn into a small statue of herself. Seeing it, Hannah smashes it. Roger picks up the pieces and puts it back in the machine so as to turn Sally back to normal, but misses a large piece, causing Sally to reform with a large part of her body (exactly what, not revealed) missing. The similarly themed Jack Kamen stories continue! This one's a bit similar to "The Trip" which I covered in Weird Fantasy #13, although not as good as that story.

"...Gregory Had a Model-T!" - This story is about an old man named Gregory Gearshift who loves his Model-T car, acting like it was another person. One day Henry passes out, but the car drives him home on its own. Having become very ill, Gregory's sister takes care of him and has to sell his possessions including his Model-T. His Model-T is sold to a young man who treats it as a joke and the Model-T, acting on its own drives after him, scaring him into climbing up a tree. When Gregory dies soon afterwards, the model-T drives itself into a cliff, essentially committing suicide. Kurtzman did a number of stories in the early EC science fiction comics but eventually his work was exclusively in his war comics and Mad. This was actually his final sci-fi story for EC and was probably the weakest of such stories. Kurtzman's sci-fi stories were often a bit more lighthearted, but a number of them were pretty good. Unfortunately this was not one of them.

"The Aliens" - This story features the first rocket ship to head into space. Our protagonists head towards the nearest planet, looking to see if there is intelligent life there. They initially land in the desert and find a cloud off in the distance which they follow, leading them to a group of the planet's inhabitants. It takes a while to converse with them due to the language difference. Suddenly the planet's inhabitants grow angry when the word "peace" is used and they attack. Multiple men are killed and both groups flee. The protagonists return to their rocket, but unbeknownst to them, the planet's inhabitants head to their own rocket ship, as they were visiting the planet as well. As the story ends, it turns out that both groups of people were from other planets, one from Venus and the other from Mars. Both, thinking they were talking with Earthlings plan to launch an attack on Earth. My favorite story of the issue, with an interesting twist ending.

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.