Mysterious Stories
Entry updated 9 September 2024. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1954-1955). 6 issues (numbered #2-#7). Premier Magazines Inc. Artists include Hy Fleishman, Alvin Hollingsworth and George Woodbridge. 36 pages. Four long strips and two one-page text stories per issue.
Mysterious Stories was a largely forgettable magazine of mild Horror leaning towards adventure, Fantasy and Humour. The first five issues had a strip where Grandma Gruesome presents fairy stories told in a modern style and language ("I don't see nothin'") for humorous effect: "Snow Grey and the Seven Drips" in #2 (the first issue) has the seven drips working in a mine for their cruel owner (see Slavery), Snow Grey. As this is the Kingdom of Ugliness, the Queen's mirror tells her Snow Grey is the ugliest in the land, not her: she responds by transforming the other into a beautiful woman, who melodramatically faints in horror. ("You ham!" chides the Queen.)
#2 opens with "The Man Who Wouldn't Die!": here Don Chester is rescued during a Saharan sandstorm and brought to the land of Emiton (see Lost Races), where (as befitting the reversed name) Time does not exist and the locals are all young and healthy. Don discovers this is due to the water, so steals some and returns to civilization, believing himself Immortal – only to discover it is now the year 2000 (see Time Distortion) and that the water only works in Emiton: he has aged accordingly. In "Evil Voices" a women accused of being a witch is to be burnt at the stake; but as she actually is a witch (see Supernatural Creatures), her accuser is turned to stone and she flies off on a broomstick. #5 has "The Last Deluge" which reports "Scientists say if all the ice locked in the polar caps ... were melted, the water would cover the Earth to a depth of two miles." After unexplained incessant rain the US is flooded (see Disasters); survivors use a liner to travel to Europe and are surprised to find this too is submerged – even the Alps – so they make for the Himalayas. Only the tip of Mount Everest is above water, and a passenger takes the British flag flying there. That man wakes in his apartment, relieved it was a dream – but wonders why is there a soaking British flag in his closet? In "Magic" Bruce O'Brien buys a book of Magic spells on a whim and is surprised to find they work: he travels to the world of Faerie and battles a sorcerer, who turns out to be more powerful, so Bruce uses his gun.
#6 includes "Strangers in the Night!", which opens with a betrothed couple about to be abducted by Martians; but this is work-in-progress by comic book writer and artist Dan Wallace. Tired, he pops out to buy some coffee, only to meet the couple – they want him to change the planned unhappy ending and also show him the cemetery where all ill-fated fictional lovers are buried. Though assuming the experience was a delusion, he nonetheless changes the ending: there is some wedding cake put out for him the following morning. whilst the Mysterious Stories editor says they have printed the story Dan handed them. In "From Time to Time!" (#7) historian Edan Lawrence works with a turbaned medium to Time Travel back to the American Civil War, achieved by steeping himself in the period through reading ("The old books state that wherever a man's mind is there also shall be his body"), then gazing on a copy of an 1862 newspaper. It works, but Edan finds himself promptly recruited into the Union Army. His knowledge of events has him condemned as a spy, only evading the firing squad by staring intently at the newspaper again. Finding himself back in the present he assumes it was a dream, not noticing he is still wearing the army uniform. The boy in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" regularly overreacts to the sight of strange dogs, so his assertion that he has seen a flying saucer (see UFOs) is disbelieved. Later the Aliens approach him: they appear to be his own age, are from Mars and speak like cowboys as a result of learning English from our television Communications. He manages to dissuade them from their Invasion. No-one believes his next story about seeing a giant from Jupiter. #7 also has statues coming to life and a story featuring the god Pan (see Gods and Demons). [SP]
further reading
- Mysterious Stories (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2019) [graph: collects issues #2-#7 (all issued): in the publisher's PS Artbooks series: illus/various: hb/Cal Massey]
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