Atlas Comics Library #1
"The Monster Awakes" in Atlas Comics Library #1 (2023) delivers a chilling, self-contained sci-fi horror tale from the legendary Basil Wolverton, whose distinctive art style brings a surreal, nightmarish energy to the story. A scientist’s experimental projector sends his enemies to a hostile other world, but when one returns and kills him, the survivor is left staring into the aperture—facing a desperate choice between saving the trapped or sealing the portal and abandoning them. With a stark, direct question to the reader, the story lingers on the weight of that decision, grounded in a single, unforgettable moment of moral reckoning. The cover by Russ Heath complements the tale’s eerie tone with its dramatic, shadow-laden composition.
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A scientist uses a projector that banishes people he dislikes to another world. A light indicates where the beam connects both worlds and one of the men returns. He shoves the scientist through the aperture where he is killed by the natives. Other victims rush forward hoping to escape but the man switches off the device. The story ends with the man uncertain what to do: turn the beam on and rescue the other victims which might allow the attackers to pour through, or shut it off and condemn them to die. He addresses the reader directly, asking "What would you do?"
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).