Marvel and Fantagraphics Present Stories from the Atlas Comics Library: FCBD 2024 #[nn]

In "The Clock Strikes!", a man grappling with a false diagnosis of terminal illness makes a desperate pact with a killer to end his life by two o’clock the next day—too afraid to take his own life, yet haunted by the consequences. When he learns the grim prognosis was wrong and he could still live, his terror at the looming execution spirals into a fatal panic. Written by an unnamed author and illustrated by an unnamed artist, this chilling 4-page tale turns a moment of desperation into a haunting meditation on fear and fate.

In "Where Monsters Dwell," a scientist’s experiment to exile his enemies backfires when one returns—only to drag the scientist into the very world he sought to banish. With the projector still humming and the portal open, the man stands at a crossroads: activate the beam to save the trapped victims, risking an invasion, or cut it off and leave them to face the horrors beyond. The story ends with him turning to the reader, asking, “What would you do?”

In the relentless downpour of a war-torn battlefield, Duncan clings to consciousness at a machine gun post, his mind fraying under the weight of exhaustion. When distant sounds break the silence, his frayed nerves trigger a desperate burst of fire—luckily, the enemy is real, not one of his own.