Creepy Worlds #178

Young Jimmy discovers a mysterious bottle in an Arabian cave and accidentally releases a genie—a lazy, reluctant wish-granter who'd rather sleep than work. With one wish per day at his command, Jimmy begins testing the limits of his newfound power, from summoning frankfurters to witnessing a baseball game back home, but the cunning genie has plans of his own to escape his servitude. As Jimmy's wishes pile up and the genie grows increasingly desperate, their tenuous arrangement teeters toward an unexpected reckoning.

In "The Weavers of Doom!", a ruthless businessman stumbles upon the ancient Norns—three enigmatic women who spin the threads of fate. As each weaves visions from the past, present, and future, he becomes obsessed with the one who shapes what’s to come, desperate to steal her secrets and dominate the stock market. But when he seizes her unfinished tapestry, he doesn’t realize the final thread she wove was not fortune, but his own ruin—foretold in the image of a train crash.

When a daydreaming student named Henry Axelrod stumbles upon a magic lamp hidden in the rafters of a haunted house, he discovers he's got a genie on his hands—one bound by union rules to grant his wishes during business hours. As Henry tests the limits of his newfound powers with increasingly wild requests, his school's struggling football team faces a crisis: without a winning season, they can't raise the funds for a desperately needed new building. With the town counting on Southside High, Henry must figure out how to use his extraordinary secret to help save the day—all while keeping the lamp's true nature under wraps.

In "The Hunter's Prey!" from *Creepy Worlds #178*, Max Prine—once proud of capturing wild animals for zoos and circuses—finds his life upended when he witnesses his wife Lana being taken by aliens. Trapped and imprisoned with her, he learns the extraterrestrials are gathering creatures from Earth, including them, for transport to their home world. Forced to flee across a rugged hillside, Max must outwit his captors in a desperate bid for freedom.

In "The Fountain," Maxim Grench, a man obsessed with preserving his wealth and status, embarks on a desperate quest for the mythical fountain of youth—only to find his wish tragically fulfilled in the most unexpected way. Suddenly transformed into an infant, he is taken in by a humble, working-class family he once looked down upon, thrust into a life utterly foreign to his former existence.

At the International Rocket Society's Geneva conference, reporter Kevin Roark stumbles upon a secret late-night meeting in the convention hall—and discovers beings claiming to be extraterrestrial visitors conducting diplomatic talks with Earth's delegates. Racing to follow them after they depart, Kevin finds himself chasing what may be the story of a lifetime, though convincing anyone of what he's witnessed proves to be another matter entirely.

A man obsessed with bargain-hunting at auctions, Jethro Bates stumbles upon a miraculous discovery—a diving suit that lets him walk through solid earth to unearth buried treasure. But when he stashes his newfound wealth and returns the suit to the checkroom, a stranger claims it first, vanishing with dreams of riches. Now Jethro and his wife scour auction houses endlessly, hoping against hope that the remarkable suit will surface again—because after all, you never can tell.