Creepy Worlds #49

When a massive alien spacecraft streaks across Earth's skies, Space Marshal Larkin and the world's defense systems mobilize to stop the incursion—but humanity's conventional weapons prove useless against the invaders' impenetrable hull. As the alien armada descends toward the Arizona desert, a desperate last-ditch plan unfolds: scientists deploy an experimental cold-ray weapon that could freeze anything to absolute zero. The choice to fire will change everything, but what the soldiers discover in the aftermath forces a reckoning about what they've done.

A drifter down on his luck stumbles upon a mysterious machine in the desert and pulls the lever—only to win an impossible fortune that transforms him into a wealthy, glamorous playboy living his wildest dreams. But his newfound riches and the arrogance they breed catch the attention of the gods themselves, who have their own ideas about who deserves such cosmic windfalls. Brad Everson and Bill Walsh spin a cautionary tale about ambition, fortune, and the price of defying fate in "The Celestial Jackpot!"

Arthur Winton of Salem grows obsessed with rooting out witches after being named the town's witch hunter—a role he hopes will prove his worth to the woman he loves—but his zealous pursuit of supernatural evil begins to blur the line between justice and hysteria. As Salem descends into fear and accusation, Arthur finds himself hunting creatures that may not be what they seem, while his own past holds a secret that threatens everything he believes about himself.

A lone survivor of a sunken American freighter washes ashore on a forgotten island, where time bends and he is suddenly young again. Haunted by the memory of his miraculous rebirth, he returns to the world with a desperate mission: to find the island once more—only to discover it has vanished without a trace.

Dr. Mauritius Hood of the Institute of Psychic Phenomena explores the shadowy origins of a centuries-old superstition: the belief that throwing your hat on a bed brings terrible misfortune. Through a series of cautionary tales—from a thief in medieval Baghdad to a prospector in Nevada—Hood traces how this curious rule may have taken root, each story darker than the last. But as the good doctor discovers, superstitions rarely tell the whole truth.

Captain Steve Wyatt has earned a fearless reputation spanning decades—from wrestling a rogue lion as a boy to dominating college football and combat as a decorated Air Force pilot—and now he's been selected to compete against America's finest astronauts for the honor of piloting a deep space rocket. But as training intensifies and the competition narrows, Wyatt begins to discover that courage alone may not be enough when he's measured against rivals who excel in ways his raw bravery cannot match. The project director's stark warnings about the true perils of spaceflight force Wyatt to confront a troubling question: what if the legend of his fearlessness doesn't tell the whole story?

The town hobo Stubby Hoffmeyer has always been known for his tall tales—but this time, he's accidentally fallen asleep inside an unmanned rocket headed for a distant planet, and he's about to experience an adventure stranger than anything he's ever dreamed up. When he wakes aboard the vessel after landing on an alien world, Stubby finds himself face-to-face with creatures and wonders beyond imagination, from winged beasts to cities of two-headed beings. Back home in Tinkle Corners, Iowa, no one believes a word of his story—but this time, he *really* did see it with his own eyes.

An expedition to Spain in search of ancient cave drawings takes an unexpected turn when explorers discover a hidden cavern beneath the first—complete with artwork depicting a mythological centaur. What they find sealed behind the rocks is far stranger still, though proof of their discovery crumbles away the moment it's exposed to air. A tantalizing encounter with something impossible that nobody back home will ever believe.