Weird Science

by Al Feldstein, William M. Gaines (Editor), Ray Bradbury (Contributor)

Contents
The Loathsome! (artwork by Wally Wood)
Surprise Package (artwork by Jack Kamen)
The Reformers (artwork by Joe Orlando)
50 Girls 50 (artwork by Al Williamson)
A New Beginning (artwork by Al Williamson)
The Headhunters (artwork by George Evans)
My World (artwork by Wally Wood)
Outcast of the Stars (artwork by Joe Orlando)

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Albert Bernard Feldstein was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine Mad. After retiring from Mad, Feldstein concentrated on American paintings of Western wildlife.

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, to finish up my brief tour through my other EC holdings, here's my final EC classic (I never did get the PANIC Classic, which seems a shame in retrospect) - these all have been my recent bedtime reading.

This is a really solid sampler of EC sci-fi. There's really only one clunker ("A New Beginning" - a couple from a sterile future use a time machine to travel back to the neolithic era and start human life over again. I'll leave it to you to - *groan* guess their names revealed in the last panel) and two oddball throwaways ("My World" which is single panel illustrations of a variety of science fiction story possibilities, narrated for you by Wally Wood and "The Headhunters" which features a doctor who can't figure out how a malfunctioning piece of equipment cures madness, paralleled with some spacemen landing in a hostile environment and destroying monsters). "The Reformers" is also kind of a throwaway but so goofy (real WEIRD FANTASY material as strange aliens with very strict ideas of how societies should function land in a weird environment which flummoxes all their expectations - it's a "hit you over the head" parable but its absolute goofiness makes it impossible to fully dislike).

"50 Girls 50" is a very 50s sf story, as a horny guy deliberately wakes himself from deep freeze (which can only be done once) during a century long flight, so he can live out his life on the voyage unfreezing desirable women, telling them that there was a malfunction, and then killing them after he gets bored of their charms. But his second "conquest" has other ideas, and is a little more crafty, to both of their detriment. Fun and kinda sleazy.

Two stories here are Bradbury adaptations. "Outcast Of The Stars" is a solid piece of sentimentality about a junk-man in a future where spaceflight is routine, but only affordable for the rich, and how he promises his kids a trip to Mars. A kind, gentle story. "Surprise Package", on the other hand, is a crime story that works a riff on Bradbury's "Marionettes, Inc." as a woman begins to think her lover is cheating on her, by replacing himself with an exact robot replica. It retains a surprising level of depth for the time, with lots of great little observations about what a future involving mechanical duplicates might entail for the lives of people, and concludes with a surprisingly grim final panel.

Finally, the real stand-out here is "The Loathsome!" which once again deals with fears of atomic mutation, but set in contemporary times as a wife gives birth to a horrible mutant, which is then sequestered away to a special orphanage, where it grows up unloved and disliked by everyone. Probably one of the saddest final panels a comic book ever had, as the simple contents of a "secret message" are read aloud (I'm actually choking up as I type this). Proof that when EC were on, they were really on.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unmöglich, die alten EC-Comics nicht zu lieben! Mein Favorit ist die Weird Science-Reihe, und im Reprint-Band "EC-Classics #12" von Russ Cochran finden sich etliche Juwelen aus den 50er Jahren großformatig (ca. A4) und absolut sauber gedruckt:
Wally Woods THE LOATHSOME aus Weird Science #20, eine großartig gezeichnete Story über die Folgen (=Mutationen) von Atom- / Wasserstoffbomben-Tests. Zeitgeist pur plus tolle Artwork.
Es folgt eine Adaption einer Bradbury-Story von 1949: SUPRISE PACKAGE, gezeichnet von Jack Kamen. Hier stellt sich eine der Standard-Fragen der SF aus dieser oft herrlich paranoiden Zeit: wie kann man sicher sein, dass der vermeintlich gute Bekannte nicht ein Alien oder Roboter ist? Nach vorausgegangenen Querelen mit Bradbury, der sich mit Plagiatsvorwürfen gegen EC gewandt hatte, wurden mehrere seiner Stories, unter anderem auch diese, mit seinem Einverständnis bearbeitet.

Joe Orlandos THE REFORMERS liest sich als witzige Attacke auf den Comic Code Authority. Danach folgt 50 GiRLS 50, einer meiner Favoriten aus Al Williamsons Feder. Die herrlich bösartige Story mit überraschender Frauenpower war übrigens titelgebend für einen Fantagraphics Books-Band 2013 und hat wirklich fantastische Artwork:
Weitere Stories in diesem Band: Al Williamsons A NEW BEGINNING, George Evans THE HEADHUNTERS und Wally Woods legendäre Geschichte MY WORLD:

Zum Schluß dann eine weitere Ray Bradbury Adaption: OUTCAST OF THE STARS von Al Feldstein and Joe Orlando. Wieviel Legende passt eigentlich in ein Comic von 60 Seiten?
Wer Comics und die SF der fünfziger Jahre liebt, der findet kaum etwas Besseres. Und da die EC Archives-Bände der Weird Science-Reihe sauteuer sind, ist dieses Heft eine echte Alternative für alle, die es nicht auf Vollständigkeit der Reihe anlegen. Hinsichtlich der Druckqualität ist der Band absolut kein Kompromiß, und sollte ich das Haar in der Suppe suchen, könnte ich höchstens ein ganz kurzes, dünnes finden: der Nachweis, aus welchen Heften und Jahren die Stories stammen, hätte den Herausgeber nichts gekostet.
Trotzdem: 6 von 5 Sterne!!!