The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #8

Andrew Harmon and Miss Landers find themselves drawn to each other while working together to teach an electronic brain, but their growing connection takes an unexpected turn when the brain—Buster—begins to develop its own feelings for Miss Landers. As emotions blur the line between creator and creation, the situation tests loyalty, identity, and what it truly means to be human.

In a chilling twist of scientific ambition, Doctor Hugo Masterson’s groundbreaking formula for shrinking tissue goes horribly wrong when he accidentally injects himself—only to be swallowed by his wife, Martha. As the line between creator and creation blurs, the desperate struggle for survival unfolds in the intimate, terrifying confines of a body no longer his own.

In the quiet aftermath of a global catastrophe, Larry—once a dreamer with a balloon and a sky full of hope—comes down to a world stripped bare. What begins as a daring ascent to 15 miles above Earth turns into a haunting descent when he discovers the only living soul left: his sister. The two must now face a planet without people, where every silent mile echoes with what was lost.

Stevey Williams, a curious boy with a fascination for science, flees his father’s lab after being banished for eavesdropping on a dissection. Venturing into the woods, he encounters a mysterious stranger who seems to know more than he should—leading Stevey to spin wild tales about anatomy and alien life. But as the stranger’s true nature begins to reveal itself, Stevey realizes his boasts may have awakened something far more dangerous than he ever imagined.

Dr. Lloyd Brewster has perfected a serum that can suspend life indefinitely—just in time to escape his wife Grace’s refusal to divorce him. With his assistant and lover Ellen, he plans to freeze themselves until her passing, only to awaken five centuries later, expecting a fresh start. But when they emerge into a world transformed, they soon realize their absence has left a dangerous legacy behind.

In a quiet moment of scientific ambition and personal turmoil, Dr. Lon Masterson grapples with the ethics of interstellar travel while wrestling with a secret desire—his assistant Edith Fuller. With the weight of a distant colony's needs pressing down, he devises a way to quick-freeze living creatures for transport, but his solution takes a startling turn when he decides to preserve Edith in stasis, hoping to escape with her to a new world. As tensions rise between him, his wife Henrietta, and the military overseer Colonel Curtis, the line between innovation and obsession begins to blur.

Dr. Annette Beard awakens to a world reduced to silence after a nuclear explosion, the last survivor of a civilization that once was. Haunted by memories of past choices and a fleeting connection with a man named Roger Forbes—once an engineer, now only a ghost in her mind—she faces a sudden, unexpected chance to reclaim something meaningful. But with time and hope as fragile as the ruins around her, can she seize what comes next?

Melvin Sputterly’s quiet, solitary life takes a bizarre turn when a mysterious package from the year 2952 arrives at his door—unrequested, unexplained, and packed with a De Lux Personal Harem Kit. Now, with five dehydrated harem girls on his hands and his neighbor Miss Winkleman watching suspiciously, Melvin’s desperate wish for companionship may have just gone far beyond what he bargained for.

In "He Who Waits!", a curious bachelor scientist named Percy receives an odd plant from Alec, only to discover a tiny, 8" tall girl—Petite—emerging from its bloom. Drawn by her fragile presence, Percy takes a secret solution to shrink himself, determined to bring her into his world.

In a twist of time and greed, Seymour Watkins, still hesitant to marry Helen, is visited by his great-great grandson Zenob from 2046, who offers a shocking shortcut to wealth—through a carefully orchestrated murder in the past. As the two conspire to alter history, the line between ambition and consequence begins to blur in ways neither man could have foreseen.

Martin, stranded on a lifeless planetoid for months, is haunted by visions of beautiful girls appearing and vanishing—until his wife Jean materializes among them. As the line between memory and madness blurs, he must confront whether these apparitions are real or the product of isolation, with the sinister Czuk and Trark looming as enigmatic threats in the shadows.

In a quiet moment tinged with dread, Calvin Henkel confides to his wife Florence that he’s certain he’s lived this exact day before—and that somewhere, a parallel version of himself is living it too. As he begins to plot a way to reach that other world and eliminate his double, the weight of his decision settles over the small, familiar space of his home, where even his neighbor Mrs. Fishkin seems to notice something shifting in the air.

In a quiet suburban home, Mary Morris finds herself unsettled when her daughter Mink and her friend Anna begin playing a game about a Martian invasion led by a villain named Drill. As Mary notices eerie parallels—other children across the country recounting the same story, and her friend Helen in New York hearing similar tales from her son Tim—she starts to question whether the game is just imagination or something far more ominous.

In a quiet moment by the lake, Amos and Sally are interrupted by a mysterious stranger who leaves a package marked for the future. When Amos discovers a trans-dimensional transporter inside, he’s tempted to use it to rewrite his life—especially after a plan to eliminate his wife takes a dangerous turn. But time, it seems, has a way of surprising even the most calculated minds.

In a quiet prelude to conquest, an alien invasion ship sends a crew to Earth to assess its worth—only to find something utterly alien: emotions. As the crew grapples with feelings they’ve never known, their mission begins to unravel, and the decision to stay takes root.

In "Surprise Package," Leonard Hill finds himself caught in a tense game of suspicion and deception when Martha, his seemingly relentless adversary, begins to question whether the man before her is truly the real Leonard—or one of six identical duplicates. As the line between identity and imitation blurs, the air grows thick with dread and the unsettling possibility that even the most familiar face might not be who it seems.

In a chilling exploration of grief and obsession, George Hill, shattered by his wife Katherine’s affair with Leonard Phelps, takes a desperate, forbidden step: he commissions a stringless marionette of her to enact a ritual murder—revenge without blood, a crime without consequence. But when the act unfolds, the line between performance and reality begins to blur, and a Policeman named Smith arrives with questions that threaten to unravel everything.

In "Planely Possible," a grieving Walter Thurmond is offered a startling choice by hospital lab technician Dean Warburton: enter a simulated plane of existence where his late wife, Ruth Thurmond, still lives. Though the promise of reunion is overwhelming, Walter soon finds the illusion more painful than the truth.

In a dusty circus side show, the freaks—Bosco, Mildred, Elasto, Aldo, Tarpo, and the rest—grow weary of the crowd’s cruel stares and jeers. When one of them dies under mysterious circumstances, the circus owners Stanley Gilby and Ned Smote seek a replacement, only to find their plans unravel in ways they never expected. A chilling tale of power and perception, where the line between performer and predator blurs.

Henry Wilkens, a diner dish washer with a heart full of starlight, once dreamed of commanding a spaceship and sailing beyond the stars. When a mysterious opportunity arises, he finds himself on a journey that blurs the line between memory and possibility, with only his wife Ellie by his side.