Amazing Stories of Suspense #192
In "He Floats Thru the Air," a 1981 issue of Amazing Stories of Suspense, a seemingly ordinary elevator operator becomes the quiet center of a tense standoff when a spy holds a passer-by at gunpoint in a hotel lobby. Written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, with art by Don Heck and lettering by Artie Simek, the story unfolds with eerie calm as the operator calmly vanishes mid-sentence—revealing the building’s 13th floor is a myth, and with it, the bomb’s purpose. The cover, a striking collaboration by Bill Everett and Carl Burgos, captures the moment just before the impossible begins.
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An oddly cheerful elevator operator is held at gunpoint with a passer-by by a spy planning to blow up the hotel. The elevator lets the spy off at the 13th floor, and while the passer-by is terrified, the elevator operator simply fades away, explaining that the bomb will never go off, since there is no 13th floor.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).