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.

Shock Illustrated #2

Credits:
Cover dated Winter 1955
Cover by Ruddy Nappi

"The Lipstick Killer" - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Daniel Keyes (credited as A.D. Locke)
"My Brother's Keeper" - Art by George Evans/Story by Jack Oleck
"A Question of Time" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein
"Dead Right" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein (credited as Alfred E Neuman)

Shock Illustrated was one of EC's picto-fiction magazines, which were created after the failure of EC's New Direction line. They featured prose stories, with art from EC's regulars. Unfortunately they were not a commercial success and were soon cancelled. With EC's artists not confined to the small size of a comic book panel for their art, the artwork in these issues is some of the best that EC ever published. In addition, some of the issues featured painted covers, the only such ones done for EC. Rudy Nappi's one for this issue is quite a strong one. In regards to Shock Illustrated in particular, it was the first of the picto-fiction magazines, and began very similar in fashion to the Psychoanalysis comic. Starting with the second issue, it became more like Shock SuspenStories the comic, with the occasional psychiatrist-centric story included, such as the opening story in this issue.

"The Lipstick Killer" - A young man named Lennie has killed a woman in her apartment after she caught him going through his dresser drawers, looking for her makeup and lipstick. Lennie regrets his actions and writes on the mirror in her lipstick. Lennie is caught by the police when he escapes and put on trial, where he is called a sex maniac and is disowned by his parents, who tell him he was adopted. In prison, Lennie meets the prison psychiatrist who goes into his psyche and how he would go through other people's things as a child. He recalls his time at the orphanage, and the nurse who he was very fond of until she caught him in her room and was mean to him afterwards. When Lennie attacks the psychiatrist, he is put into solitary confinement which causes him to go crazy. The psychiatrist meets with him one last time and discovers that the beginning of everything was from when he accidently killed his baby sibling with a pair of scissors, mistakening it for a doll. A sort of holdover from the psychiatrist-themed stories that were prevelant in the first issue. Things drag on for a bit midway through, but the story does have an interesting and surprising ending.

"My Brother's Keeper" - This story features a family that lives on a farm away from town, with two adult sons, Walt and Larry. Larry is large in size, but mentally handicapped, and Walt is fiercely protective of him. When they go into town for groceries, the local kids often make fun of Larry and Walt fights them off. Walt is extremely close to Larry and in addition to bringing him into town every once and a while also plays with him in the local graveyard. The locals from town soon come to talk to Walt and Larry's parents about taking away their son to an institution. This greatly upsets Walt who screams at them and threatens them with a pitch fork. Walt soon realizes that even his parents are on the side of the townfolk and greatly fears what will happen to Larry. Another incident soon happens in the town with Walt and Larry, and they flee to the graveyard. There, Walt realizes that Larry will be taken away for sure this time. He decides it would be best if Larry was saved from this fate through death. Walt bashes Larry's head in with a broken gravestone then buries his body. Upon returning home he finds the townfolk there already and is gleeful that they won't be able to do anything to Larry. But it is Walt himself who is taken away and thrown in the institution. It was always him they were after, due to how violent he would get whenever he felt Larry was threatened. The story ends with Walt screaming maniacally in his padded cell. In my eyes this is arguably the single best EC story of all time. An amazing twist ending and tragic story, with Walt killing the one person who was most important to him. It takes some obvious inspirations from the famous book "Of Mice and Men", and there is an obvious nod to the book with the name of Larry (the name and character inspired by "Lennie" from that book). Apparantely Oleck did other versions of this story that appeared in competitor comics like Black Magic, although I've never been able to come across one of the other tellings. George Evans also turns in some strong artwork.

"A Question of Time" - The local sheriff finds a woman named Lila dead. He goes to see her husband Harry, figuring that he did it. The entire town knew about Lila fooling around with other men, but nobody told him about it. They all assumed he'd find out someday and do something about it. Harry refuses to confess, and the sheriff leaves. Later, Lila, who is still alive comes home, and knowing the truth, he kills her. This story is simply a retelling of the story of the same name from Crime SuspenStories #13. A so-so and confusing at times story, and it would have been good if they could have chosen another story to redo.

"Dead Right" - An older man named Carl is good friends with a man named Joseph who they knew from when they were in medical school together. Both bachelors, the two frequently keep themselves company and are the beneficiaries in each other's wills. The two argue over what happens at death, with Joseph thinking that a person's senses still work while Carl disagrees. One night Joseph tells Carl that he has had some money troubles and has poisoned him. Carl collapses, dead, but still has all the senses he would as if he was still alive. He lays there, unable to do a thing as Joseph closes his eyes then proceeds to have his body taken away, embalmed and buried. It is at that moment that Joseph opens up the coffin and admits to Carl that it was all a gag; he didn't poison him but gave him something that would temporarily paralyze him so as to get him to consider his theory. But Carl doesn't come back to consciousness, as he had died for real at the moment Joseph told him that he poisoned him. A fairly good story, that is a retelling of a story done in Tales from the Crypt #37. Unlike the previous story, this one was drawn by a different artist, Graham Ingels (Jack Davis had done the original story). The original version of the story had been adapted in the Tales from the Crypt TV series.

Crime SuspenStories #13

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

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

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

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

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

Piracy #1

Credits:
Cover dated November 1954
Cover by Wally Wood

"The Privateer" - Art by Reed Crandall/Writer Unknown
"The Mutineers" - Art by Wally Wood/Writer Unknown
"Harpooned" - Art by Al Williamson & Angelo Torres/Writer Unknown
""Shanghaied" - Art by Jack Davis/Writer Unknown

The final new comic title produced by EC prior to the end of the New Trend, Piracy focused, naturally, on pirates. The comic appeared shortly before the start of the New Direction comics first started getting published by EC and is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a New Direction title (although it was included with the New Direction set in the EC Library). In my mind Piracy has a fairly strong first few issues but isn't as interesting later on, which I suppose isn't that surprising considering later issues had to go through the comics code.

"The Privateeer" - Ballard James, an English Plantation owner becomes a privateer in England's war against Spain. Insistent that he is a privateer, not a Pirate, James insists on directly striking the first Spanish ship they come across rather then feigning friendship at first as a pirate might do. Weeks go by without coming across another ship however, causing James to decide to strike an allied French ship when they come across it. Rather than publicly declare himself a pirate, James attacks ship after ship, regardless of country, reporting only occasionally to England to provide the government the required part of the bounty. Eventually James attacks even a British man-of-war, turning on the very government that commissioned him. His last goal to capture merchant ships such that he can retire, James eventually comes across a trio of them only to be tricked, as all 3 are pirate ships, who defeat his crew and kill him. A decent start to Piracy with a strong art job throughout. Crandall would often do the lead off story for Piracy as well as several covers, and was probably the strongest artist at doing pirate-based stories.

"The Mutineers" - This story features a first mate aboard a ship who frequently finds himself in the middle of the captain and the crew. The captain gets upset with him for not reprimanding a crew member, while the crew wants to mutiny, which he denies them. When the ship hits a big storm, the captain refuses to adjust the sails to help them out of it, thinking it can put off a mutiny. Eventually the mutiny arrives and O'Hara helps the captain in keeping the men from taking over the ship. When the captain sends up a young crew member to climb the top of the ship and he falls to his death, O'Hara has decided he's had enough, and he leads the entire crow on a row boat away from the ship, leaving the captain all by himself. At 8 pages this would typically be the first story of the issue but it has been moved to second here. Overall its a fairly good one, although not as strong as the first and last story.

"Harpooned" - This story takes place on a whaling boat. The first mate of the boat is very upset at the captain, particularly when he comes out with the men on a row boat in an attempt to harpoon a whale. When the whale surfaces the men harpoon it, but the first mate manages to get the rope on the spear tied around the captain's neck, which throws him overboard and causes him to drown when the whale heads below water. The whale later resurfaces however, destroying the boat, and causing the first mate to be impaled on the spear sticking out of the whale. A rather poor story, but some really strong art here by Williamson and Torres. This was one of their rare collaborations in the late days of EC when Torres started doing more credited work for EC. Unfortunately they only did one more for Piracy, in the next issue.

"Shanghaied" - A ship captain named Walton is approached by a man named Pigott who has brought him some shanghaied men that can act as crew members for him once he's on the open sea. Walton is against shanghaiing and is about to send him away but notices one of the men and has Pigott bring him on board. As Pigott carries the man to Walton's cabin, Walton reveals that the man actually shanghaied him over ten years ago. Walton tells Pigott how he was shanghaied and forced to work on the open sea for several years. This started a quest of his where he searched for the man who shanghaied him, and he eventually rose through the ranks, becoming a sea captain. Pigott thinks that Walton will exert some violence on the man when he awakens, but surprisingly he shakes his hand and thanks him for getting a successful career at sea started for him A good story to wrap up the issue, with a decent surprising ending.

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.

Shock SuspenStories #8

Credits:
Cover dated April/May 1953
Cover by Al Feldstein

"Piecemeal" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Assault!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Arrival" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Seep No More!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

Another strong issue, with no below average stories.

"Piecemeal" - A man named Eric comes to visit his much older brother Sidney and meets his young and very attractive wife, Sally. Once Sidney goes to sleep Sally invites Eric to the pool outside and the two quickly fall in love.  Sidney is a collector of rare marine specimins and the two plot to murder him by getting him to overdose on sleeping pills the night of a big shipment he is expecting. That night the shipment comes but Sally convinces Sidney to go to bed before he can show it to her and Eric. Sally is successful in getting him to overdose on his sleeping pills as planned. She and Eric go outside to the pool to celebrate but Sidney's shipment, a man-eating shark, which he had put in the pool, eats Sally and Eric's arm, killing both of them. This story is a decent start to the issue.

"The Assault!" - Seventeen year old Lucy goes missing for 36 hours then turns up crying, claiming that she has been raped by an old recluse name Hodges who lives in a cabin by the outskirts of town. An angry mob confronts Hodges in his cabin and beats him to death. Days later a man named George shows up at Lucy's home wanting to talk to her about what happened to Hodges and they go to the woods to talk. An extended flashback shows George and Lucy meeting and spending a lot of time together, with her lying to her parents about where she has been. The night she dissappeared she was with George the whole time. George proposed to her, but Lucy claims their entire relationship is just for kicks and she's slept with several other men. She then lied about being raped by Hodges, a good friend of George's to cover up where she had been. George wants to reveal the truth, but she reminds him that she's underage and he'll go to jail if he does so. Knowing how rotten she is, George pulls out a gun and shoots her in the face. As often is the case, the "Shock" suspenstory is the best story of the issue and brought the usual level of controversy a few issues later in the letters column.

"The Arrival" - This story takes place on Mars, where one day the Martians see Earth burst into flames. Thousands of years go by and no life from Earth is seen. One day a light is finally seen departing from Earth. The Martians attempt to communicate with the Earthlings on the rocket ship and are able to through the usage of a translation device. The Earthlings tell the Martians about human history and the fact that there was eventually a nuclear war that occurred that resulted in the destruction of the planet. A few managed to survive and rebuilt the planet, building a greater civilization. The rocket ship lands on Mars and its passengers come out to meet the Martians, revealing themselves to be rats. A fun and entertaining story; my only complaint is that Williamson's artwork seems to falter after the first page.

"Seep No More!" - A man named Mr. Finner is questioned about the dissappearance of a young actress named Irene who lived in the same rooming house as him. Finner had murdered Irene after she spurned his advances and stuffed her body in the attic above his room. One day Finner wakes up to see a large splot of blood on the ceiling. He cleans it up, but it reappears even worse later on, forcing him to paint the entire ceiling to cover it. He is also forced to replace his bed sheets after the blood spills all over it. With the blood dripping from the ceiling he puts down a pail to collect it. All of this odd behavior convinces his landlady to call the cops on him and he confesses to the murder. The cops reveal to him however that he was imagining it all and tip over the pail, revealing it to be empty. A good modern retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's the Tell Tale Heart. EC did another Tell Tale Heart inspired story a few months later in The Haunt of Fear #20.

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.