WEIRD FANTASY

WEIRD FANTASY

That’s right, folks, there is nothing wrong with your monitor screen. We are controlling the feed! So this is everybody’s buddy, Oddcube, here to say hi and welcome to the column!

I’m sure you already know how this goes, but to pad the word count a little, I shall explain it anyway. Being the utterly great and wonderful person that I am, I have magnanimously taken it upon myself to research various cool things from yesterday and today, subjects that either used up their fifteen minutes of fame or are just too wacky to get the mainstream notoriety that they deserve. Then, I tell you about it, and why I think it is or isn’t worth your time. It’s a vital public service, I tell ya, and I’m sure I’ll get a commendation for it sooner or later!

This time around I’m going to talk about an anthology comic book called “Weird Fantasy”, which was originally published by EC Comics back in the early Fifties. Now you probably know EC Comics, cuz they’re the guys who gained notoriety and infamy with their horror-themed comics like “Tales From the Crypt”, and are the originators of “MAD Magazine”.

In the beginning, EC stood for “Educational Comics” and was owned by Max Gaines, who wanted to make comics about science, history, and the Bible and market them to schools and churches. I don’t know how well that worked out for him, but eventually he died and the business was inherited by his son, William “Bill” Gaines.

It was Bill Gaines who restructured the business plan, and turned it into Entertaining Comics. Apparently, in this early stage, EC tried to chase various comic trends, transforming books from superheroes, to westerns, to romances, to horror, etc. until they finally found what would become their signature “shock” style. “Weird Fantasy” is a perfect example of this transformation process: it started off as a superhero comic called “Moon Girl”, which eventually was changed into the romance comic “A Moon, A Girl…Romance”, and then changed into “Weird Fantasy”. To confuse matters, and apparently to save on postal costs, they tried to continue the numbering. So, “A Moon, A Girl…Romance” number 12was followed by “Weird Fantasy” number 13. After only a few months, the post office caught on to the scam, and they continued the numbering as though issue 13 had been labeled issue 1. Just to make it tricky for collectors!

Apparently staff artists Harry Harrison (creator of the “Stainless Steel Rat”!) and Wally Wood were both really into science fiction and urged Gaines to try a sci-fi comic. They succeeded, and EC began publishing “Weird Science” and its companion title, “Weird Fantasy”! Well, I haven’t tracked read any “Weird Science”, but I can tell you a little about “Weird Fantasy”.

There seem to be no official credits listed in the comics, but from some half-hearted internet research I’ve learned that Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein were the main writers. They would read all manner of sci-fi stories in search of ideas and concepts that would inspire a story of their own, complete with the EC trademark twist ending.

Persons more well-read than myself could tell you more about what stories by what authors could have inspired the stories in the comic. But I can tell you that this method got them in a little trouble. One story that they published, called “Home To Stay”, was a sort of combination of two different stories by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury somehow found out about it and sent them a letter commending them on their interpretation of his stories and informing them that someone must have forgotten to send him his check. It all turned out for the best, though, because they managed to work out a deal with Bradbury to officially adapt several of his stories in their comics.

There were many recurring themes throughout the run of “Weird Fantasy”. Some of these were a product of the times, like the ever-present fear of atomic warfare and the fear of America or all of Earth becoming a Communist Totalitarian society. Other themes were tried-and-true EC standard from their crime and horror titles, usually somebody wanting to kill their wife so they could run off with their mistress, but in “Weird Fantasy” they needed some weird scientific machine to help establish an alibi (it usually backfired, of course). It’s hard to find an issue that doesn’t have an either an alien or a mutant, and many stories take trips out into space or even to other moons or planets, usually either in Flash Gordon-type rocket ships or some variation of the standard flying saucer.

The only bad thing about it is that after reading an issue or two, you kinda get used to their formula, and can make an educated guess about how the twist ending is going to turn out. Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t guess exactly right every time, and even when I did, it was still entertaining. Plus, the illustrations are really neat, cuz they had a bunch of top-notch artists. Guys like Joe Orlando, Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, and John Severin to name only a few.

Despite all this good stuff, both of EC’s sci-fi titles were constantly loosing money, and were financed by their more lucrative horror titles. To cut back, “Weird Science” and “Weird Fantasy” were combined into the single title: “Weird Science-Fantasy”. This title ran for only seven issues before rules made up by the Comics Code Authority banned words like “Weird” from being used in the titles of comics. The title was then renamed “Incredible Science-Fantasy” and ran for four more issues.

Unfortunately, “Incredible Science-Fantasy” now had to deal with the rules and regulations of the Comics Code Authority. One of the stories for what became the final issue was contested and dropped. So Gaines and Feldstein decided to fill the space by reprinting a story called “Judgment Day”, about racial tolerance but using robots instead of people. The incident resulted in Bill Gaines telling the Comics Code Authority representative to do something to himself that is anatomically impossible and which is totally impossible to slip past my Beloved Editor™, so I won’t be repeating it here. But that’s ok, cuz it’s kinda fun to have to talk my way around it. Anyway, this incident caused Gaines to close down EC Comics and concentrate on “MAD”, which, as a magazine, was not subject to the rules and regs of the CCA.

But the legacy lives on! The complete “Weird Fantasy” was reprinted in 1980 as part of Russ Cochran’s Complete EC Library, and again in the 90’s by Gemstone Publishing, who combined all 22 issues of “Weird Fantasy” in five full-color annuals (these are what I have). Plus, thanks to the success of the “Tales From the Crypt” TV show, HBO made a second show called “Perversions of Science”, inspired by the EC title “Weird Science”. It didn’t catch on, and only ran for ten episodes, but one of those episodes, “Planely Possible”, but based on a story that appeared in “Weird Fantasy”.

So, the stories are fun, but short and consequently not too involved. The pics are nicely done, and I do totally dig the 1950’s vision of the future! Of course, the science is comic book science, when it’s explained at all. All in all, any fan of science-fiction or of EC Comics should totally dig ‘em, too. But I can’t just say that, cuz that’s not how we do things around here. Nosirree-bob! Around here we establish the rating of a subject with the help of percentage dice!

In case you’re new around here, I shall explain that percentage dice are a pair of ten-sided dice used to randomly determine a number between zero-one (which is EVEN WORSE than a world with NO mint-chocolate-chip ice cream!) to double-zero, which actually means one hundred (which is even better than having your cake, eating it, too, and THEN having another piece!). So I give my handy-dandy dice a roll like this…

…and end up with a seventy-one! Seventy-one? ONLY seventy-one? I think one of those notorious EC aliens have sabotaged my dice! Oh well, I think it deserves a higher rating, but that’s just one idiot’s opinion, and you don’t have to take it! Negatory, Pig-Pen, you could form your very own opinions by checking it out yourself! You should be able to find “Weird Fantasy” and other EC titles, in single issues, collections, and archived editions. These should be more-or-less easily found in the usual places, Amazon and eBay, and the ever-popular Other Places, Too! I managed to find all five annuals—the complete run of all 22 issues—on eBay for a really good price. How good? So good that I had to brag about it right here, that’s how good!

Anyway, I guess that pretty much brings us to the end of another Odd Review, so be sure to tune in again next time to see what I’m talking about, cuz it’s gonna be something extra special! …Well, ok, maybe it won’t, but I gotta say some grand teaser line to try and entice you to come back next time! Anyway, see ya next month, folks, be there and be square!

-----Your Buddy, Oddcube



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