Strange Tales #57

In "You Used to Be Me!", Frank, consumed by envy of his wealthy friend John, uses his scientific ingenuity to build a machine that swaps their minds. When he wakes up in John’s body, he’s shocked to find John confined to a wheelchair—and unwilling to trade places again.

In "Murder on His Mind," Frank is tormented by the voice of his old puppet, Johnny, a presence that grows louder with each passing day. As the whispers drive him to the edge, he finds himself caught in a web of guilt when police arrest him for a robbery he claims he didn’t commit—though the evidence points to a past he can’t quite remember.

In "The Door That Wouldn't Open!", a grieving son named Frankie uncovers his late father Raymond’s secret: a machine capable of transporting anyone across the world, locked behind a door that refuses to yield. Haunted by memories of his father’s strict discipline and driven by desperation, Frankie turns to crime—only to be arrested at the very moment he finally learns the door opens with the tune of his mother’s music box, a melody Raymond once used to quiet him as a child.

In "The Voice of Doom!", Joe becomes obsessed with strange transmissions from space, convinced he’s hearing signals from alien life. His friends, trying to get him to stop, stage a prank by having Carl send a fake message claiming to be an alien in human form—only to watch in surprise when Joe actually believes it. When Joe panics and flees from his radio, Carl takes matters into his own hands, sabotaging the set to silence the voices once and for all.

In "Volcano!", Giovanni, haunted by the loss of his family's fortune in Pompeii’s destruction, builds a time machine to alter history. He travels back to the doomed city, where he must decide between saving his ancestors’ wealth or risking everything to save lives. Returning to his own time, he finds a new purpose in helping others.

In "It Walks in the Night!", an inventor's breakthrough in thought-responsive plastic takes a terrifying turn when a test subject transforms into a gorilla—only to later reveal a quiet act of kindness. The story follows the uneasy aftermath of that transformation, as fear and guilt clash with the unexpected truth behind the creature's actions.