Creepy Worlds #7

When a lonely photographer named Donald Short is struck by lightning in his darkroom, he discovers that his chemical-soaked prints come to life—tiny, obedient soldiers he can command to do his bidding. Bitter at feeling neglected and overlooked, Donald hatches a scheme to enlarge his army and use them to settle scores with everyone who's wronged him. But sometimes the smallest gestures of affection can undo even the grandest plans.

In "The Trap!", mind-reading entertainer Julius Keaton finds himself in a deadly game when he overhears spy Roy Henry and his henchmen plotting to steal government secrets during one of his performances. As the trio closes in, Keaton uses his psychic abilities to outwit them, turning the tables in a tense cat-and-mouse chase through the shadows.

In "The Darkroom," amateur photographer Donald Short finds his life upended when a lightning strike alters his developing fluid, granting photographs the power to come alive. When he tests the strange substance on a picture of soldiers, he’s stunned by the results—only to face a sudden, unintended threat when his wife, unaware of the danger, cleans the darkroom and discards the fluid.

Brad French, a Hollywood screenwriter, gets stranded on a remote road with a flat tire—only to be dragged into what he assumes is an elaborate film production set in medieval England, complete with knights and a king on the throne. When the "King Richard" he encounters reveals the shocking truth about his identity and purpose on Earth, Brad finds himself caught between an alien invasion plot and a desperate escape, forced to piece together a bewildering puzzle about time, deception, and the real history he'd been researching all along.

When test pilot Don Hardy pushes his experimental plane beyond the speed of light, he accidentally breaks through the time barrier—but lands not where he expects. Stranded in an unfamiliar era with only his modern gadgets and wits, Don must evade suspicious locals who see him as either a wizard or a threat. His escape sets off a chain of consequences that reaches far beyond his own survival.

Two exploration teams from rival worlds land on an uncharted planet under cover of darkness, each intent on claiming it as their own—but neither realizes the other is already there. When they finally spot each other in the alien night, a tense confrontation erupts into sudden violence, sending both forces scrambling back to their ships in "We Claim This Planet!" a sharp sci-fi tale about mistaken intentions and the fog of first contact.

When a telephone company collector discovers mysterious disappearances occurring in newly installed phone booths, he soon finds himself vanished alongside the missing callers—trapped in a strange dimension where he realizes all the vanished people had been making cruel or harmful calls. Homer Horner and the others must figure out the bizarre rules of this otherworldly place and how to escape, learning a hard lesson about the consequences of their unkind intentions. A clever morality tale wrapped in science-fiction mystery that keeps you guessing until the final reveal.

Old Pop Moss has devoted his entire life to tending the signal at Moss Junction, but when the railroad discontinues the route and the tracks are torn up, he's left pensioned off and adrift. When a devastating spring storm isolates the town and an epidemic breaks out with no way to call for help, Pop remembers the one thing the railroad could always do—answer a danger signal. In this poignant 1962 tale, a man finds unexpected purpose in the very thing he thought was lost forever.

In "The Mystery That Couldn't Be Solved!", scientists are baffled when two rocket launches carrying monkeys return empty, leading them to believe space itself destroys living matter. But the truth is far stranger—aliens captured the monkeys, only to halt their invasion plans upon realizing Earth’s creatures, despite their primitive tech, must possess formidable weapons if they could send monkeys into space.

When flying metal men invade and occupy a state in 1983, the brightest minds in the government struggle to devise a defense against an enemy that seems immune to conventional warfare. A determined young radio operator named Ned Webb, dismissed as a simpleton by the Senate's intellectual elite, becomes convinced he holds the key to stopping the mechanical invaders—if only anyone will listen to him. As the Metal Men advance on the mountain stronghold where humanity's last refugees shelter, Webb's desperation may prove to be his greatest asset.

In "I Am Nobody!", celebrated television actor John Mason seeks refuge from the crushing demands of fame by visiting a mysterious doctor who offers passage to a parallel world where no one will recognize him. What begins as a blissful escape from celebrity becomes a nightmare when Mason witnesses a conversation between foreign agents—and finds himself mistaken for a spy by the FBI, unable to prove his true identity in a world where he doesn't officially exist. Trapped between two worlds with no way to convince anyone of who he really is, Mason must find his way back before it's too late.

Sig Riley survives a catastrophic spaceship explosion and drifts alone through the void until a mysterious crewless vessel picks him up—but its captain harbors a haunting secret that binds him to an eternal curse. In "Forever and Ever," a science fiction tale from *Creepy Worlds* #7 (1962), Riley discovers that the ship and its troubled skipper are doomed to wander the cosmic wastes forever, unable to find port or peace. The captain's revelation about his fate sets the stage for a chilling meditation on destiny and the price of survival.

When a young Kansas farmer named Alex Gordon discovers a stranded Venusian family hiding in his barn—accidentally teleported to Earth instead of their new home—he faces an impossible choice: protect these peaceful refugees or surrender them to his angry neighbors. As tension mounts and violence closes in, Alex must decide what kindness truly means when the whole community stands against him.

Paul Miller, a good-hearted farmer blessed with a generous spirit, finds himself beset by calamity—a barn fire, a locust plague, and a punishing drought that threatens to drive him from his land in despair. When a visiting preacher urges him to pray despite his bitterness, an unexpected answer comes in a form as mysterious as it is miraculous. Paul discovers that faith and fairness may yet restore what hardship has tried to take.