Outer Space #25

A young stargazer shows off his telescope to a friend, only to have his ambitions hilariously deflated by some unexpected criticism. "Li'l Wise Guy" serves up a quick, clever punchline about the perils of overconfidence and backyard astronomy in this 1959 humor tale.

Jack Clinton is a workaholic freight magnate who has no time for Mary Renault, the girl next door who's quietly loved him since childhood—until a mysterious woman's voice reaches him via ham radio from Venus, claiming to know him and begging him to visit. When Jack rushes to Venus only to find no sign of his mysterious caller, he returns to Earth to discover the truth behind the elaborate hoax, and a second chance at something he'd been too busy to notice.

Two rival Neptunian powers—Doria and Obia—race to conquer Earth in hopes of proving which nation reigns supreme across the solar system. As both civilizations mobilize their fleets toward the uncharted planet, a violent confrontation erupts in Earth's orbit, leaving our world caught between forces it never saw coming.

Drew Farnham, a renowned hunter and adventurer known for his tall tales, claims he's pulled off the impossible: he stole the moon from the sky. When a mysterious flying saucer from a planet near Arcturus offered him a chance to make his wildest adventure real, Farnham accepted a ride and a ray device that could shrink the lunar orb to pocket size—and the world watched in bewilderment as their moon vanished. Now the Adventurers' Club must decide whether to believe him before he vanishes into the Idaho wilderness to rejoin his cosmic companions.