Mister Mystery #19

In "The Man With the Green Thumb," Dr. Dana’s experimental formula grants him uncanny plant-like abilities, turning him into something neither fully human nor entirely natural. When mobster Tony Drago learns of the transformation, his greed ignites a deadly pursuit that ends in violence—though the true cost of such power remains hidden beneath the surface.

Ernest Barth is a meek bookkeeper tormented by his callous boss John Hackman, who hunts for sport in the cypress swamp where Barth finds solace—until a mysterious elfin girl from the forest offers him a chance to protect the wild creatures Hackman destroys. When the forest spirits press Ernest to act, he agrees to lure Hackman into the woods, setting in motion events far beyond his gentle control. What begins as a quiet man's moment of defiance becomes something far stranger and more primal than anyone could have anticipated.

Warren "Fingers" DeLong swears he'll never face the electric chair—but when he's convicted of murder and sentenced to death, desperation drives him to an audacious gamble: he testifies against a rival criminal to buy himself time, then stages a violent escape during the trial. Now hunted by both the law and the underworld he betrayed, DeLong discovers that beating the chair may have been the easy part.

On the eve of his wedding, Al Craig—a young professor drawn to the study of occult sciences—is lured back to his study by a mysterious door that shouldn't exist, pulling him through to an ancient ritual where his fiancée Joan awaits sacrifice. What begins as Al's desperate attempt to rescue her across a strange astral plane becomes a harrowing journey where time itself proves to be the cruelest enemy, and Mister Mystery reveals how three days of terror can cost thirty years of life.