Adventures into the Unknown #13

Dr. Howard Thornton and his companion Sylvia Harding travel to the remote Louisiana hamlet of Charville at the urgent request of Dr. Henri Charron, who needs help combating a mysterious wasting disease that has plagued the villagers for generations. As they venture deep into the bayou and uncover strange secrets about their host and the eerie creatures lurking in the swamps, Thornton realizes the situation is far more sinister than a simple medical mystery.

When ace private detective Larry Garner is hired to investigate a conspiracy pushing the world toward nuclear war, his investigation leads him to Hamilton Browne, a charismatic agitator whose speeches seem to hypnotize anyone who hears them. As Garner goes undercover to infiltrate Browne's organization, he uncovers a shocking truth: Browne and his associates are not human at all, but shape-shifting beings from Mars intent on destroying humanity so they can claim Earth as their own. With his fiancée Rita by his side, Garner races to stop the Martian invasion before the Zils can complete their sinister plan.

A census taker ventures into the mysterious cypress swamps near Palmetto to complete his count, only to be rebuffed by locals who warn him away from the nameless scattered houses deep in the marshland. Seeking shelter for the night at a ramshackle home, he finds himself in the grip of mounting dread as his strange hosts direct him to "Black Knoll"—a place the town supervisor swore didn't exist—and an old newspaper dated 1846 suggests far worse than mere isolation. As the night deepens and voices call out through the fog, the census taker begins to suspect he's stumbled into something far more sinister than an uncounted population.

Bruce Godwin, a physicist scarred by atomic radiation years ago, fears his twin sons Bobby and Billy have inherited strange abilities—and now they've vanished into a mirror-world, armed only with a formula and a cryptic poem from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." When Bruce and his friend Marty follow them through the looking glass in 1950, they discover a realm of impossible creatures and one terrifying monster waiting to devour anyone who crosses its path. Can the boys survive the dangers Carroll warned of, or will the monstrous Jabberwock claim them all?

Tom Powers reunites with his old friend George Church at a dingy waterfront café, only to find him a broken shell of the man who left for South America months earlier. George reveals a tragic choice: his wife Mary fell gravely ill with brain fever, and he used an experimental drug to save her life—but the cure came at a devastating cost to her mind and soul. As Tom listens to George's haunted confession, the true horror of what the drug has wrought becomes horrifyingly clear.