Out of This World #1

Jeff Marlow, a feature writer hunting for his next story, stumbles upon a reclusive neighbor's sprawling collection and discovers the shocking truth: the so-called miser is actually Xordu, an alien scientist from a distant galaxy using a matter-dematerializing ray to gather specimens of Earth's material objects for study back home. Now that Marlow knows the secret, he must decide whether to expose the alien's presence to the world—or keep quiet to protect a peaceful first contact that humanity isn't ready for.

A scout party of fugitives—hunted across generations for the suffering they spread—nearly forgets the constant vigilance that keeps them alive when temptation distracts them from their eternal flight. In this clever twist on the predator-and-prey dynamic, writer and artist crafted a finale that reveals just what these relentless quarries really are.

A young prospector's encounter with a being from the fourth planet leaves him forever changed—and haunted by knowledge he refuses to share. When two new fortune-seekers arrive in Deep Gulch looking to strike uranium, Larry Ames recounts the harrowing night an alien visitor came with an offer he couldn't refuse and a power he couldn't resist. His tale of cosmic ambition, desperate survival, and a twist of fate sets the stage for a reckoning neither he nor his listeners could have anticipated.

When astronomers John Barr and Charles Farnum discover a planetoid hurtling toward Earth, they launch humanity's first space rocket—piloted by Colonel Logan and armed with a hydrogen bomb—to destroy it before impact. But a stowaway named Krawn hijacks the mission, forcing the crew to parachute while he pilots the rocket back to Earth alone, certain he'll rule the world as its sole survivor. What Krawn doesn't anticipate is the terrible cost of achieving his dream of absolute power.