Creepy Worlds #61

When Ed and Kathie Vandine's son Dexter is born with a mental disability, his father consoles him with a bedtime story about the "Gravy Train"—a magnificent four-smokestack locomotive that will come for him one day if he does a brave deed. Years later, after his parents' death, the grown Dexter struggles through a lonely, rejected life until he finds acceptance among hobos near the railroad tracks, clinging to his childhood dream. But when a group of criminals in the hobo camp learn that railroad workers know and trust Dexter, they see an opportunity—and spin him a story of their own.

In "Clem Never Does Anything Big!", a quiet boy from Hog Hollow finds himself at the center of an interstellar test when two alien visitors arrive, convinced Earth is too hostile for their kind. As they subject Clem to a series of increasingly absurd trials—only to be undone by Kentucky Lightning, a swarm of skunks, and a furious hornet attack—the aliens realize some planets are better left uninvaded.

When a massive alien creature—a Rankar from Syrtis IV—crashes to Earth in the Canadian wilderness, hunter and legendary tall-tale teller Pierre Gordin finds himself face-to-face with a beast that makes his wildest stories seem tame. Written by Zev Zimmer and illustrated by Ogden Whitney, "The Sky Beast!" blends frontier adventure with hard science fiction as Pierre must use his wits and hunting skills to help the creature's alien pursuers recapture their escaped prisoner. It's the one story Pierre's friends would never believe—even if he showed them the proof.

On the English Moors at the turn of the century, Owen David recounts to Inspector Blazer how his companion Gordon Barry became obsessed with a mysterious woman in white—the ghost of Celia Crane, who has haunted the moors for twenty-five years searching for the road to London. When Gordon ignores Owen's warnings and seeks out the specter himself, he discovers that some adventures carry a price far steeper than any he's chased across the globe. Kurato Osaki and Pete Costanza craft a haunting tale of romance and obsession that blurs the line between the living and the dead.

A comet hurtles toward the planet Extron, forcing King Jansen and his people to flee into space in search of sanctuary—and in his desperation to finally escape the weight of royal duty, Jansen abandons his crown and lands on Earth as an ordinary man, seeking the freedom he's always craved. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a young woman named Alice has clawed her way out of poverty to become a celebrated film star, her childhood dreams of meeting a prince and becoming a queen seemingly within reach. When these two lost souls' paths collide on a world neither expected to call home, neither realizes the other holds the key to the destiny they've both been running toward.