Weird Mysteries
Entry updated 22 September 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1952-1954). Stanley P Morse. 12 issues. Artists include Bernard Baily, Eugene Hughes, Tony Mortellaro and Basil Wolverton. Script writers include Bruce Hamilton and Basil Wolverton. 36 pages per issue, with 5 long strips and a short text story.
Weird Mysteries was a Horror comic that featured witches, Werewolves, Satan (see Gods and Demons) and other Supernatural Creatures, but about a third of the strips are sf. Though many stories were unremarkable, there are several good ones among them, whilst Basil Wolverton's artwork is as memorable as ever.
#1 includes "The Planet Eaters", where a Spaceship's crew investigate the ruins of a planet's civilization, now overrun by a vegetation – of which a sample is taken; a deserted City's surviving records give the impression that something had come from the sky which they could not overcome (see Disaster). En-route back to Earth, the sample grows and runs rampant: realizing it had soaked up all the other planet's water and being unable to destroy it, they blow up their spaceship (see Suicide) – but were already too close to Earth, as a piece of the plant falls to the surface. In "Spirits From Outer Space" two Space Patrol pilots find a derelict spaceship; one boards it to look around, coming into contact with a purple gas and begins behaving oddly. Frustrated, his pal hits him – which is enough to evict the spirit that had possessed him (see Identity Transfer). It, and others, came from the planet Kyblos – the spirits of its inhabitants prone to leaving their "pain racked bodies ... [to move] into more comfortable shells" (see Parasitism and Symbiosis). #2 has Wolverton's "Robot Woman": Fozzmo is a brilliant Scientist but hideously ugly, so he builds himself a Robot girlfriend programmed to love and obey him (see Women in SF). But she is too clingy: exasperated he punches her into a heating unit, melting her face; she advances, wanting affection; stumbling whilst backing off, he crashes into bottles of acid and is killed. Still infatuated, she stands guard over the corpse. In "Turnabout" a space pilot enjoys tormenting Ants, but when he lands on a planet inhabited by giant ones the roles are reversed. Giant ants also appear in #4's "The Disbeliever" where a subway worker discovers a hole leading to their colony. "Must be some kind of Russian plot," is his initial assumption (see Cold War): it turns out the insects can turn people into giant ants. A violent thief discovers "The Man Who Never Smiled" (by Wolverton) does so to hide his teeth, being a Vampire who has chosen to feed only on animals – but is delighted to make an exception now.
Wolverton "Swamp Monster" in #5 has a condemned prisoner fleeing into a swamp and finding a house. When its dweller offers to change his appearance he agrees – the other bites him and he becomes a Monster. "I simply innoculated [sic] your body with the capacity to conform to the level of your mind – and you have the mind of a fiend" the other explains, then turns into a bat and flies off (see Shapeshifters). The prisoner, pleased with his new strength, decides to attack the sheriff pursuing him, but as he swings through the trees accidentally and ironically hangs himself on a vine. In "Mind Over Matter" an ill-tempered scientist invents a solvent that can dissolve anything. A casual visitor wonders how he will contain it: a crater grows where his laboratory was and continues to expand. In "Still Life" a painter is blinded in a plane crash; when he accidentally kills a kitten he is driven to paint an abstract work that is declared a masterpiece (see Arts). A puppy, then a woman, are his next inspirations, though these are not accidents. "Life Sentence" in #6 has two explorers finding a lost Aztec city were the elixir of life is stored in a chamber which opens once a century: there is only enough left to prolong life for a hundred years and neither wish to share. One ends up dead, with the chamber door closing prematurely: locked within, the other wonders whether to drink or not. "Begin to Live" is set in a Utopian 2053 ("when criminal tendencies were discovered in a child they [the tendencies] were eliminated"). Dr Hollis and assistants are able to resurrect the recently deceased and now use the Technology on a random body that died a century ago. It is a success, but their choice was a gangster: fortunately he believes their lie that the effects are short-lived and in a panic electrocutes himself. "Civilization" is set in 2252, when "the other planets had fallen to man" (see Imperialism), a confirmation of how civilized humanity is (see Satire). After visiting the Space Museum which contains preserved specimens of Life on Other Worlds, two pilots are assigned to visit Planet 2-A in the Fifth Galaxy to see whether the inhabitants are friendly and to bring back one for study. On arrival they see a monster and kill it, though it has not even noticed them; they shoot any others they see. Unseen observers comment on their barbarity, capture them and put them in their Space Museum. A visitor tells its child the Earthmen are members of "the least civilized of any race ever discovered", unlike their species, who we now see are the monsters that were shot: the "only really civilized race in the universe".
#7's "More Deadly Than The Male" has Earthmen landing on a planet after travelling for four years: they are here to set up a transporter (see Matter Transmission) enabling travel to Earth in a matter of seconds. The inhabitants are beautiful women living in tents of silk, who explain the lack of men is due to their being sent to another part of the planet when old enough to mate. There is romance between a spaceman and a local: the couple use the transporter to go to Earth and marry. The morning after the honeymoon (see Sex) the man wakes, to discover "I'm tied down" ("Was this another of her strange customs?"). It is a web; she bites his neck, paralysing him, then turns into a giant spider and feeds. It is pointed out Earth has a spider with similar habits – the Black Widow. "Reaching for the Moon!" has a biologist's moving an ironwood tree – 40 foot roots and all – to his nature laboratory, but it starts to die. He rejects a hated rival's offer of their new revitalizing fluid, but they sneak in at night and dose the roots, deliberately using too much: they expect it to grow too fast, destroying the laboratory then dying. Instead the tree becomes mobile, killing people with its tentacular roots, and continuing to grow. Some time later an Alien spacecraft approaches Earth, to discover the planet engulfed by the ironwood tree, its roots now reaching for the Moon.
#8's "Premonition" has Alan Martin, about to visit his parents, dream their town is sundered by earthquakes with red-tailed devils pouring forth and killing the inhabitants. Arriving by train, he sees part of the town has been destroyed, but his parents are at the station and assure him the damage was caused by an explosion – he does not notice they have red tails (see Precognition). In "Bum Ticker" a millionaire with a fatal heart condition goes to an expert who is "not really a doctor", but whose methods seem to work. Sure enough, after an operation, the millionaire seems healthy again – though occasionally he will move too fast or too slow. It turns out he has been given a mechanical, clockwork heart (see Steampunk, Cyborg). "Out of Focus" in #9 has a pair of scientists testing their matter transmission device, which works well on inorganic objects and plants but has problems with animals. One tries it on themself and is driven insane, having to be killed; the other corrects the flaw and, testing it on himself, declares it perfected: "There's nothing to fear ... nothing but human erring ... and negligence," asserting "the receiver panelboard should never again be left ... out of focus!" – and with that the distorted figure leaps from the high window. In "Epitaph" a grief-stricken widower goes to the graveyard at night to mourn, only to see the corpses rise from the ground (see Zombies) to overwrite the platitudes on their gravestones with a true, unflattering summary of their nature: his wife's is a confession of her adultery. #10's "Eternal Death" has an aged professor boasting "I have found a way to transform my body into that of a young man's form and still keep my brain"; this involves a magneto that can "materialize any spirit recalled from the dead!". After choosing a young man who died in a car accident and having a spirit medium materialize him, the magneto does its work and the professor is shaped into his body. Unfortunately that man had a weak heart: the body dies and is buried with the professor's mind still active within. In "A Better Mouse Trap" two astronauts return to Earth after ten years away exploring Jupiter, to discover a nuclear war has wiped out most life – which explains why they have received no radio message for eight years. However, the radiation has created giant Intelligent Rats – which one astronaut in particular resents ("There isn't a rat around who can out-think me") – who trap them by using a beautiful woman as bait; she tries to warn them, but they pay no heed.
#11 has stories which include voodoo; a reincarnated Jack the Ripper as the next groom for a serial-killing bride; life insurance that guarantees to keep you alive (the twist being you can still suffer horrendous injuries) and a carnival Fun House door that – eventually – leads to Hell. #12 consists of reprints from earlier issues, as well as from Mister Mystery and Weird Tales of the Future.
Strips would be frequently be reprinted in other comics; less common, though by no means a rare industry practice, was to refurbish previously used artwork to create new stories – one such was Wolverton's "Robot Woman", which would be reworked in Mister Mystery #11 as "Beauty and the Beast!" with a dress designer rather than a scientist, less misogyny and a better, more grotesque ending. "Begin to Live", discussed above, uses artwork from "The Ghouls Who Ruled the World!" in Weird Tales of the Future #1, the latter tale being longer, with more gangsters brought to life and a different ending. [SP]
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