The EC Archives: Weird Fantasy #2

In "7 Year Old Genius!", a child prodigy with an IQ of 250 is enlisted by the government to help develop an H-bomb, only to confront the horrifying truth of its consequences. After refusing to continue, he escapes and shares his story with the editors of EC Comics—Rufus Tatum, Mrs. Tatum, Mr. Tatum, Halbert Steinein, Senator MacMillum, Bill Gaines, and Al Feldstein—whose promise to publish his account becomes a quiet act of defiance.

In "Come into My Parlor," entomologist Stephen Lamb is drawn into a strange and seductive future where men no longer exist—only the elegant, alluring Wanta and her world of beautiful women. Taken to a planet where every woman is devoted to serving him, Stephen begins to wonder if his newfound paradise is something far more unsettling. As the line between dream and reality blurs, he starts to question the true nature of his welcome—and whether he’s the guest… or the meal.

In "Across the Sun!", a returning spaceship brings a chilling warning: Earth's long-lost crew has discovered a parallel world called Bamuno, existing on the far side of the sun. Harold Graves and Dirkson return shaken, urging the base to halt all space travel—because the beings of Bamuno remember humanity’s past invasion and intend to destroy Earth again if humans dare to reach them.

In "Breakdown!", Mary Roberts and her husband Donald drive to Washington to warn FBI Chief John T. Moor about an alien invasion, only to find their desperate plea met with disbelief—until the truth of their story begins to unravel in ways no one could have predicted. With the fate of Earth hanging in the balance, the tension builds as the line between reality and the unknown starts to blur.

In "It Didn't Matter," Arnold Burrage finds himself caught in a dangerous web when he falls for Dr. Burtrum Caldwell’s wife, Nina Caldwell. While working as the scientist’s assistant on a secret matter-transporting machine, Arnold becomes entangled in a plan where Nina, driven by greed, intends to kill her husband and frame Arnold—using the machine to teleport her away as an alibi. But on the night of the murder, a thunderstorm disrupts the machine, and when Nina materializes miles away, she’s left horribly altered—leaving Arnold to face the consequences of a plan gone horribly wrong.

In 1839, slave runners Jorkin and Cartwright capture a group of Africans and plan to sell them in America. When a coast guard ship approaches, they brutally cast the chained captives into the ocean to hide their crime. Soon after, alien beings seize the slave ship and take the men into space. When confronted by a cosmic patrol, Jorkin and Cartwright repeat their cruelty—casting the chained men into the void, just as they did before.

In the distant future, a group of colonists led by General Mattson and his son Harvey arrive on a long-sought new world, only to find it already home to the enigmatic Mokos—creatures they soon realize were bred by their own ancestors. As tensions rise between the newcomers and the planet’s inhabitants, the colonists must confront the unsettling truth that their mission may be built on a foundation of deception. John Vorkey, Cora Vorkey, and their son Jimmy find themselves caught in a conflict that challenges everything they thought they knew about their people and their purpose.

In "Spawn of Mars," Jean Belmont makes history as the first woman to set foot on the red planet, her excitement palpable as the crew disembarks. While the men explore, Jean feels an unsettling presence—then one of the doctors vanishes, only to return just before the ship prepares to leave. As the mystery deepens, Jean grapples with a secret known only to her husband, Ken Fairbanks, whose past and the planet’s hidden dangers begin to blur.

In "The Duplicates," two scientists, Leeland Thomas and Robert Crane, find themselves torn over their shared affection for the elegant Dora Macy. When she refuses to choose between them, they turn to a duplicating machine—only to discover that their perfect copies age far too quickly. As the two versions of Dora begin to deteriorate, the men are left grappling with the consequences of their invention, trapped in a situation neither anticipated.

In "The Connection," a middle-aged scientist named Thomas Branch rents the basement from Doris Martin, a young woman whose past holds a mysterious secret: as a child, she once found an old man hiding in the same space. As their lives intertwine and love blossoms, Thomas becomes obsessed with the age gap, attempting to reverse time to become younger—only to find himself aging rapidly as he travels backward. When he emerges from the machine, he’s confronted by a little girl who may be the key to his fate.

In "A Mistake in Multiplication," spacemen uncover a derelict vessel filled with alien creatures in suspended animation, only to unleash a terrifying chain reaction when the creatures begin multiplying uncontrollably on Earth. As scientists struggle to contain the rapidly spreading species, two escapees vanish into the wild—setting off a crisis that threatens to overwhelm humanity.

In "The Secret of Saturn's Ring!", Lt. Harold Stinton and Lt. Warren Gentry prepare for a perilous mission to study the mysterious moonlets of Saturn’s rings, guided by Commander Maxwell’s orders. As their rocket ship approaches the swirling, icy debris, the true nature of the ring’s structure begins to reveal secrets that challenge everything they thought they knew.

In "A Timely Shock!", Steven Chadwick’s vacation takes a bizarre turn when a strange crystal reacts to a lightning strike, hurling him into the future. There, he meets Leeta, a captivating woman who swiftly proposes marriage—only to reveal that in this era, women like her have multiple husbands, and Steven is just one of many.

In the quiet aftermath of a forgotten atomic test, a group of parents—Sarah, Mr. Kelly, Howard Gabor, and others—begin to notice something unsettling: their children, born a year after the blast at Eniwetok, are unlike any others. With minds beyond their years and strange, unexplained traits, these children are both marvel and mystery, leaving their families to grapple with the cost of progress.

In the vast silence of deep space, a generation ship carries humanity’s hopes to a new world, but when the crew discovers that time moves differently in the void—slowing aging to a crawl—they face a crisis that stretches across centuries. With Johnson, Captain Harrison, Rawlins, and Captain Jackson navigating the shifting dynamics of a ship that outlives its original mission, and the President of Urd watching from afar, the journey becomes as much about survival as it is about identity.

In "Shrinking from Abuse!", Doctor Hugo Masterson’s experimental formula meant to fight cancer takes a terrifying turn when he accidentally shrinks himself—only to be swallowed whole by his wife, Martha Masterson. As the line between science and survival blurs, the trapped doctor must navigate the intimate, suffocating confines of his wife’s body, while the enigmatic Professor Hardin watches from the outside, unaware of the crisis unfolding within.

Dr. Sanders and Professor Huxton push the limits of science with a time machine designed to capture images from the future—only to find their experiment reveals a chilling glimpse of the world’s end. As the results unfold, the two scientists must confront the terrifying implications of what their machine has shown.

In a quiet town haunted by a mysterious death toll, scientists investigate the source of a deadly anomaly in Mr. Dorsey’s pond—only to uncover a sentient, liquid lifeform that absorbs the knowledge of those it dissolves. As Mike Russel and Donald Forte race to contain the threat, the creature’s intelligence and ambition become terrifyingly clear. But when a careless act by Buddy at the lab sends a fragment of the specimen down the drain, the danger may have already spread beyond the pond.

In the shadow of Earth’s civil war, Luther Morton and Dr. Noah Jansen race against time and chaos to launch a desperate mission to the Moon—where science, not war, might just offer a chance to survive.

When Stevey Williams flees his father’s lab after being caught sneaking a peek at a dissection, he stumbles upon a mysterious stranger in the woods. Eager to impress, Stevey spins wild tales about his father’s experiments—stories he half-believes himself—only to uncover a truth about the man that upends everything he thought he knew.

Commander Stone recounts the night his ship was torn apart by a mysterious force, his crew—Bitron, Jensen, Berghoff, and Kholler—caught in a deadly game of chance. As he writes his report, the line between fate and sabotage begins to blur.

In a future where women run society and men are relegated to domestic roles, Sam Robbins finds himself navigating a world turned upside down—expected to stay home, raise children, and even give birth. As he struggles with his new place in a system where men are now the caregivers, he’s forced to confront what it truly means to be a man in a world that has redefined every role.