Forbidden Worlds #88

When a reporter visits centenarian Gideon Bean for his birthday, he expects a tired old man with tall tales—but Bean claims he witnessed an alien visitation back in 1909 at a county fair. According to his account, visitors from another world arrived bearing a gift they believed would delight humanity, but their offering went terribly wrong when curiosity led the fairgoers to a fun house of distortion mirrors. What Bean reveals about that fateful encounter in "Gift from Beyond!" tests whether the reporter will believe the impossible.

Kurt Holloway, a charming cad with a reputation for jilting fiancées, is exiled by his father to assist Dr. Marley on an archaeological expedition to the forgotten jungle city of Khimor Wat. When the party discovers an ancient stone goddess said to have turned an entire civilization to stone after being denied a bridegroom, Kurt mockingly marries the statue with an old ring—and discovers that some legends are far more real than cynicism can explain.

A scheming student named Fenway Fingle plays a cruel prank on the weak and timid Bruno Burdick, concocting a fake "strength elixir" from stolen cafeteria condiments as a joke—but to everyone's shock, Bruno begins to genuinely transform into a powerhouse, eventually becoming a college football star and professional wrestler. Now Fenway desperately wants the secret formula for himself, setting off a dangerous game of deception and ambition in this tale from Jonathan Burns and Mark Midnight.

When detective Mr. Devlin recounts his most perplexing case to a newspaper, he describes a jewel robbery he couldn't solve—one involving the famous Burton Ruby, worth $250,000, that vanished from a country doctor's home twenty years earlier. The truth behind the theft traces back to young Hank Burton, who claimed a mysterious visitor arrived from the sky seeking help, and whose life would later be shaped by that impossible encounter in ways neither he nor his father could have predicted. As Hank grows into a celebrated test pilot, the threads of that strange childhood memory begin to pull tighter, drawing him toward a destiny he never fully understood.