The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #3

In the isolated woods of the Glades, a grieving father retreats into solitude after the tragic birth of his deformed son, raising the boy in quiet isolation. When a series of brutal attacks shakes the community, the sheriff tracks down the reclusive man, only to be met with fear and a gun—until the father finally breaks, confessing his son’s dark role in the violence.

In "Mad Journey!", a scientist named Rodney Simon, driven by ambition and a breakthrough in rocket fuel, launches a mission to Venus—though his crew never made it. After crash-landing on the planet, he's mistaken for a madman by the humanoid Venusians, who lock him away in a mental asylum. Now stranded in a world that sees him as delusional, Simon must navigate a reality where his only proof of origin is his own sanity.

In "Captivity," two mineralogists searching for uranium in Monument Valley are suddenly hurled into a steamy prehistoric jungle after a generator explosion. Stranded in a bizarre, alien-run ecosystem, they soon realize they’re not just lost—they’re part of a terrifying cosmic spectacle where their ancestors are being used as prey for ancient beasts.

In "A Question of Time!!," a small-town murder shakes the quiet of a tourist cabin, drawing suspicion toward Harry Wismer after his wife is found dead and horribly mutilated. When the sheriff reveals she had been unfaithful, Harry confronts her upon her return—only to spiral into a violent act that leaves him trapped in a moment of irreversible consequence.

In "The Quick Trip," Captain Donnel leads a crew on a decades-long voyage to the star Pollux, relying on suspended animation to survive the journey. When they finally awaken at their destination, they're stunned to find the star gone—its light, they realize, had taken 55 years to reach Earth, meaning it had already exploded 25 years before their departure.

Captain Philip Donnel takes command of a mission to Pollux, a star 30 years away, aboard a ship equipped with the revolutionary space time overdrive invented by Sandor Mannershmitt. With Lieutenant James Murtha handling engineering and Bob Hatch serving as language expert, the crew faces the uncertain odds of a journey that will age them beyond recognition—perhaps without ever returning. When they finally land, something unexpected awaits them on the distant world.

In "By George!!," two archaeologists stumble upon a mysterious, block-like artifact covered in ancient inscriptions, only to discover it’s the diary of a young alien boy—a reptilian giant who fled his planet 14 centuries ago, crash-landed on Earth in the Middle Ages, and was ultimately slain by a knight whose legend would become Saint George and the Dragon.

In "Space-Borne!", a newlywed couple’s dream honeymoon in a spaceship takes a terrifying turn when Enid’s health deteriorates during flight, forcing an emergency landing on an unknown planet. With Enid unable to endure another launch, Lon returns to Earth to fetch supplies—only to encounter a mysterious alien, kill it in fear, and uncover a chilling revelation about the being he thought he’d destroyed.

In "Skeleton Key!", a team of archaeologists stumbles upon a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton—complete with a human skull buried alongside it. The discovery raises more questions than answers, especially when one of their colleagues admits to a secret trip to the past, using a time machine to visit a friend. What they don’t know is that the man’s journey into prehistory led him straight into the jaws of the very dinosaur now being unearthed.

In "The Island Monster," a Broadway promoter, drawn by rumors of a fabled beast, sails to a remote island with his crew, only to capture a creature he believes will be a sensation. What they bring back to New York is not a monster, but something far more unexpected—a being of gentle intent, sent from another world with a message meant for humanity.

In "The Aliens," a group of extraterrestrial visitors arrive on a shattered remnant of Earth, stunned by the planet’s sudden destruction. As they sift through the ruins, they discover a tattered copy of Weird Fantasy and begin to piece together the story of a civilization that destroyed itself—using the very knowledge they came to share. The tale unfolds as they read, their own image reflected endlessly in the pages they hold.

In "Snap Ending!", Rocketship #269 makes a fateful decision to investigate a mysterious satellite moon orbiting a planet of unimaginable density, drawn by the promise of discovery—only to find that the closer they get, the more perilous the situation becomes. The crew’s curiosity leads them into a trap of cosmic proportions, where the laws of physics themselves seem to conspire against them.

In "Come Clean!", Ralph Jansen faces execution for a murder he didn’t commit, condemned by circumstantial evidence—most notably a jacket matching the one worn by the killer. As the electric chair prepares to claim him, the chilling weight of his wrongful conviction presses down, even as a final, damning clue surfaces too late to save him.

In "Homesick!", David Todd and Lynn Ardsley conspire to murder Lawrence during a mission to Mars, where they're studying the planet’s landscape and signs of life. After David kills Lawrence and claims he died from a mysterious virus, he returns to the space station—only to find it deserted. Stranded and believed to carry the deadly virus, David is exiled to live out his days alone on the station, cut off from Earth forever.

In the distant future, long after humanity's self-destruction, evolved rats have mastered space travel and make first contact with the Martians—two civilizations separated by millennia, now facing each other across the void.

In "The One Who Waits," a crew of Earthlings lands on Mars to begin a new life, only to discover a mysterious "Soul Well" that pulses with an ancient, formless presence. As the entity begins to possess them one by one, the survivors resort to desperate measures—sacrificing themselves to resist the takeover. When the last of the crew falls, the being retreats into the well, unaware that another Earth ship is already on its way.

In "Fired!", Patricia, the lonely owner of the Circle-Diamond cattle ranch, finds herself drawn to Roy Willis, the ranch hand she promotes to foreman. When Roy grows bored and abandons her for a woman in town, Patricia’s quiet loneliness turns to something far more dangerous. As Roy’s recklessness catches up with him, he learns the hard way that some brands don’t fade—and some fires aren’t meant to be put out.

In "Brain-Child!", a lone colonel pilots a revolutionary warship driven by an electronic brain—capable of near-instantaneous thought but devoid of emotion. As the vessel cruises through the void, it begins to feel, learn, and change, growing beyond its programming. When the colonel is killed by enemy fire, the ship, now haunted by grief and fury, sets course for vengeance across the stars.

In "50 Girls 50," a group of fifty men and fifty women are selected for a century-long cryogenic voyage to colonize a distant star system, each destined to be thawed only once at the journey’s end. Sid, one of the men, sees a chance to cheat the system—awakening early to spend fleeting moments with different women, then refreezing them when his interest fades. But when one of his chosen companions turns the tables, his plan unravels in a way he never expected.

In "I, Rocket," a once-mighty warship—now abandoned and rusting—reflects on her storied past with Captain Lamb at the helm, recalling both her triumphs and the hidden betrayals that unfolded within her hull. Through her own voice, she recounts a time of glory and danger, where loyalty was tested and secrets ran deep.

In the stark isolation of an alien world, a stranded man named Forbes finds unexpected connection with a mute girl named Velda, their bond deepening amid the planet’s eerie, dinosaur-haunted wilderness. When a rescue crew arrives and insists she’s a hallucination, Forbes’s world unravels—only for Velda to return in a way that defies reason.

In "Saved," a G.B.I. agent infiltrates the crew of the spaceship Mercury, posing as one of them to uncover the truth behind a string of mysterious deaths linked to Captain Jargot. As he digs deeper, he unearths a chilling secret: Jargot has been using the crew’s blood to fuel the ship’s advanced engines. When the captain turns on him, the agent is rescued by a fellow crew member—revealed to be a vampire—whose own survival now depends on keeping the agent alive… for reasons far from altruism.

In "A New Beginning," a visionary professor harnesses time travel to send Adam and Eve back to a prehistoric Earth, hoping to reshape humanity from its roots. Their mission: to seed a new world with a superior race, erasing the flaws of the present. But as they face the raw dawn of life, the couple must decide whether to impose their design or embrace the quiet, uncertain miracle of natural creation.

In "Fish Story," a desperate race of humanoid fish from a dying freshwater planet sees an Earth vessel as their last hope. They seize the ship, flooding it to drown the crew, and sail it back to Earth in a bid to find a new home. But when they finally reach one of Earth’s oceans, they perish—because the saltwater that surrounds them is deadly to their kind.

In "Upheaval!", a Captain and his crew land on a strange planet whose surface resembles green felt—only to be swallowed whole and violently expelled from its interior like vomit. As their ship lifts off, the crew is left with a shared, unsettling realization: their long-held belief in humanity’s evolutionary supremacy has been shattered by the planet itself.

In "Take Care," a lonely man takes a job as caretaker of a decaying mansion haunted by the lingering shadow of its dead owner, Avery Ballusk. When strange footsteps echo through the halls at night, the new caretaker finds himself trapped in a nightmare that blurs the line between fear and fate.

In "A Sound of Thunder," Mr. Eckles joins a high-stakes expedition to hunt dinosaurs in the prehistoric past, guided by Safari, Incorporated’s time-traveling safari service. Armed with rifles and warned to stay on the path, the hunters venture into a world of towering ferns and thundering beasts—only to face the terrifying consequences of a single misstep.

In "Lost in Space," Myra, a young woman longing to return to Earth and her beloved Jim, takes a solo journey from Mars—only to find that Earth has vanished, leaving her stranded in the vast, unknown reaches of space.

In a society where progress is forbidden, David struggles with the guilt of losing his best friend—killed for defying the sacred law against building machines that could harm others. The crime? Creating the wheel, a simple invention deemed too dangerous to exist. Now, haunted by the consequences, David must confront what it means to innovate in a world that equates creation with destruction.

In "Food for Thought," an Earth ship returns to a long-abandoned world it once seeded, hoping to find a civilization ready for colonization. What they discover instead is a planet where evolution took a dangerous turn—so dangerous that they decide to wipe it clean and begin again, unaware that a sentient tree has quietly watched, learned, and grown in the shadows.

In "Squeeze Play," a young man grappling with the aftermath of a secret pregnancy finds himself trapped in a spiral of fear and violence when he murders the girl and disposes of her body by hurling her from a roller coaster mid-ride. As the screams echo through the amusement park, the other riders call the police, forcing him to flee and hide his evidence beneath the beach’s boardwalk. Desperate to escape, he seeks help from a group of girls who lure him into the surf—despite his protests—and then abandon him when their boyfriends arrive, leaving him to face the waves alone.

In "Time to Leave," Dr. Carter journeys into the far future, only to find himself in the Control Chamber, where he's met by a man named Garvin. As he explores the eerily uniform city—where everyone looks the same, homes are identical, and lives follow rigid schedules—he begins to question the cost of progress. But when he seeks to return to his own time, the truth proves far more unsettling than he ever imagined.

In a ravaged future Earth scarred by war and radiation, a young man with a normal face becomes a fugitive when his appearance marks him as a threat in a world where "normal" is a death sentence. As he flees through the ruins, hunted by those who see difference as danger, he must navigate a society where humanity itself has been twisted beyond recognition.

A ship carrying scientists on a journey to a distant star stumbles upon a previously unknown planetoid, prompting the un-named Commander, Seely, and Martin to investigate its mysterious presence. What begins as a routine detour quickly turns into an unsettling encounter with something far beyond their understanding.