EC Classics #7

In a distant colony where newborns are taken from their mothers under the guise of proper upbringing, a growing unrest brews among the women. When the truth finally surfaces—revealing the children are mutants shaped by the planet’s harsh environment—the mothers unite in a desperate bid to reclaim their children. Love, not fear, becomes their only compass.

In "Fish Story," a desperate aquatic civilization on a distant blue planet faces extinction as their sun hurtles toward a cataclysmic nova. When an alien vessel appears, they seize it with a shocking twist—filling it with water and drowning its crew—before piloting it back to Earth, hoping its oceans might offer a new beginning.

In "The Flying Machine," Emperor Yuan's ruthless grip on power is tested when he learns a humble villager has mastered the art of flight—only to react with deadly fear, silencing the inventor to keep the secret from spreading. A tense, quiet story of innovation and tyranny, this EC Classics tale explores the cost of progress through a single, chilling act.

In the scorched aftermath of a nuclear war, a tribe of descendants from the old world stumbles upon spacemen who arrive with beads and blankets, offering to trade for their land. When the cavemen agree to exchange what was once Manhattan Island, the visitors make a chilling promise: they will either destroy the tribe or confine them to reservations once their takeover begins.

In "... For Posterity," two prospectors stumble upon a mysterious flying saucer that suddenly transports them across the stars to a future Earth ruled by beautiful women—descendants of a civilization that survived only because men became infertile from radiation. Though they’re returned to their camp in the present, the men soon find strange roses on their sleeping bags, leaving them to wonder if their journey was real or just a dream.

In "The Teacher From Mars," a Martian educator arrives on Earth to teach his native language, only to face relentless hostility from his students, who mock him for his alien origins. As tensions rise, a revelation about his son’s sacrifice during a battle with space pirates begins to shift the students’ perceptions—though how far that change will go remains uncertain.

In "The Pioneer," Professor Lathem, once a brilliant but reckless inventor, is injured during a space flight experiment gone wrong. After being warned to abandon his work, he retreats to a remote barn to build a revolutionary rocket engine in secret—only to be arrested after killing a suspicious farmer. As he's strapped into a chair, he deludes himself into believing he's being prepared for a final test flight, convinced the government still needs his genius. The story unfolds with chilling precision, blending ambition, madness, and the tragic cost of obsession.

In "Upheaval!" from EC Classics #7 (1986), a captain and his crew land on a strange planet whose surface feels like green felt—only to be swallowed whole and violently expelled from its interior. As the ship lifts off, the crew confronts a chilling realization: their long-held belief in humanity’s evolutionary supremacy has been shattered by the planet itself.