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Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: Apr. 30, 2014
Writer: various
Artist: various
Cover artist: Al Feldstein (from issue #14)
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Dark Horse continues with reprinting classic EC pre-code material, and this is their first volume of Weird Fantasy, a science-fiction series of stories. Originally produced during EC's heyday, they cover a number of subjects, such as alien invasion, robots that become too human, and even some terrorist activity (though not called that). And all in the name of fake science. Every story is self-contained one and they run at less than a dozen page. Also in each issue are all-text stories, as well as some ads and letters. The book starts with an intro by Grant Geissman and a forward by Walt Simonson. Six issues are contained within and the stories are credited as follows:
- Issue #13 - cover by Al Feldstein; stories by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, art by Al Feldstein, Harry Harrison, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, and Harvey Kurtzman
- Issue #14 - cover by Al Feldstein; stories by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Harry Harrison, Gardner Fox, and Harvey Kurtzman; art by Al Feldstein, Harry Harrison, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, and Harvey Kurtzman
- Issue #15 - cover by Al Feldstein; stories by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Gardner Fox, and Wally Wood; art by Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kamen, and Wally Wood
- Issue #16 - cover by Al Feldstein; stories by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman; art by Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kamen, and Wally Wood
- Issue #17 - cover by Al Feldstein; stories by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood; art by Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, and Jack Kamen
- Issue #6 - by Al Feldstein; stories by Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and Wally Wood; art by Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, and Jack Kamen
Issue #14 has the most interesting story in the whole volume, and that's one called “Cosmic Ray Bomb Explosion†by Gaines and Feldstein, and starring them as themselves. The two men are stuck in the offices of EC trying to make a story for deadline the next day. Chain smoking, they come up with an idea for a story about a cosmic ray bomb. The real fun of the story is the two going back and forth with ideas while the ideas play out at the same time. The thing is, the wrong people (foreign bad guys) get a hold of a copy of the comic once it's published and get the idea to blow up Washington D.C. with the very fictitious bomb the two men made up. Art becomes reality and all that, within the confines of the art.
Another good one is in issue #15 called “Henry and His Goon-Child†by Harvey Kurtzman. In it, an grumpy asshole of a radio store owner gets bored and is inspired to create a robot to be his slave. He keeps building on it and building on it, making modifications, making the bucket of bolts work non-stop. The robot eventually learns to talk and make decisions for itself, and then turns the tables on the nerdy little twerp.
Wally Wood has a few tales in these issues, and they all stand out for the difference in art style he had over others, like Feldstein for example, who drew a lot of the stories. Lots of shadow use and high detail really shows his talent at its earlier stages for the fantastic work he had yet to create. The story “Deadlock†in issue #17 isn't the most interesting story ever written, but it sure does look awesome. Same with “Rescueâ€, another tale of his in issue #6. There's a group of space aliens that look like zombies, and exactly like something Bernie Wrightson would draw.
These science-fiction tales don't have the bite that the EC horror stuff tends to have, but they are really fun nonetheless. Pre-code books are always so much of a blast to read, there's only positive things to say about them. These comic creators jammed so much information onto a page that you need to take your time reading them. There's no two-page spreads, or three panels to a page stuff here, no hero shots, no one-liners; just awesome pre-code comic satisfaction.
