Creepy Worlds #176

A passionate shutterbug and lens designer, Jeff London chases down the mystery of a vanished optical engineer by acquiring his experimental "Minus-Zero Lens"—a creation that reveals something extraordinary when pointed at the world. As Jeff uncovers what this impossible lens can actually do, he and the engineer's daughter Helen find themselves drawn into a discovery that defies everything they thought they knew about light, time, and photography itself.

Explorer Eric Masterson becomes obsessed with the fate of Flora Dunning, a legendary woman adventurer who vanished in Africa's forbidden Maremba District over a century ago, and launches his own expedition to find answers. Armed and determined, he pushes into the taboo territory despite warnings from hostile natives—only to discover that something far stranger than human danger awaits him in the jungle's depths. When beasts attack his party with eerie, coordinated precision, Eric begins to suspect that an intelligence far more sinister than nature itself controls this hidden land.

In "The Old Man of the Sea!" from Creepy Worlds #176 (1978), a desperate Marius Dodd seeks counsel from the charlatan Cosmo Filch, weighed down by a mysterious affliction he believes stems from stealing a sacred diamond from the sea god Ekali. As Filch convinces Dodd that his suffering is merely guilt, the man surrenders the gem—only to find himself suddenly and horrifyingly burdened by the same unseen weight.

Greg Chalmers has just won the Mr. Universe title, and his newfound fame is already going to his head—so much so that he's neglecting his fiancée, Doris Blake, and dismissing her concerns about his swelling ego. When mysterious beings from across the galaxy abduct him and bring him before a Universal Court, he's shocked to learn that Earth had no right to award such a title, and he's forced to defend his claim against champions from every planet in the solar system. As Greg faces one humbling defeat after another, he begins to understand that true strength isn't about physical prowess or accolades.

When a man calling himself Henry Jones is arrested at the Pentagon with a wild tale of being Captain Ennato Entis from the doomed planet Karonia, his court-appointed attorney Mr. Desmond struggles to believe him—but the prisoner's story of a dying world, desperate space exploration, and Earth as a target for colonization proves increasingly difficult to dismiss. As Ennato recounts his mission to gather intelligence on humanity's defenses, Dr. Evan Carlisle at the state asylum becomes convinced the man is either genuinely mad or telling an impossible truth. The fate of Earth hangs on whether anyone will take his warning seriously before his people decide to claim the planet for themselves.

Three geologists prospecting for uranium in a remote canyon fall asleep and experience identical, terrifying dreams—each witnessing the canyon through the eyes of a traveler from the past. When they awake shaken and compare notes, they discover their visions may hold the key to a mystery that's haunted the area for over a century, prompting a search that unearths the truth behind a vanished wagon train.