Dates
- Cover date
- July-August 1955
- Pages
- 36
Editions and covers
- Original editionSource ↗
Creators
Stories
- Clean Start · 8 pages
Two amoeba like aliens (one male and one female) are tasked by the Solar Federation with trying to help humanity from destroying itself. They deduce the best thing to do is take one male and one female, destroy every other being on Earth, and start the species all over again. They take human disguises and go about looking for a human. The female finds one, captures him, and takes him back to the ship. Humanity is then wiped out. She is worried that her mate hasn't returned to the ship with his human yet. But to her horror realizes that the man she abducted was her mate in his human form.
- Marbles · 5 pages
The X-17 is set to become the first manned rocket to be launched from the Earth and the four-man crew was excited to become the first to reach another planet. To them, the distant stars looked like marbles. Then McGraw sends his first report: their target planet, Mars, seems to get smaller as they approach it, and Enkers donned a suit and went out and got it....it was the size of a rubber ball. And the other planets had similar issues like this as well. The General and assistants can't believe what they are hearing and deduce the crew has gone insane.
- Conditioned Reflex · 6 pages
An alien from a world whose atmosphere is comprised of methane is tasked by his superiors to infiltrate Earth and find out about their strengths and weaknesses, so they can conquer the planet. He is modified to look human and told to act just like the humans do as to not arouse suspicion. When on Earth, he picks up the human's habit of lighting and smoking cigarettes. After he returns home, he lights a cigarette by habit and it causes the methane atmosphere to light up and the planet to explode!
- Not Even a Sparrow Shall Fall... · 1 pages
In the 29th century, Earth is about to be evacuated and destroyed by the LORD (Licensed Organization Reducing Deadworlds). This is because the Earth has been stripped of all its ore and is considered a dead planet. Just before the planet is destroyed, a geologist prays to that other Lord (God) for help and is then shocked to discover massive amounts of ore hidden deep in the planet. The Earth is saved!
- Barrier · 7 pages
In the future, both the Western and Eastern Alliances (who are at war with each other), are trying to beat each other to the Moon for global domination. But their ships are constantly crashing into an invisible barrier near the moon. They later discover that the barrier encompasses the entire Earth, and that they are caged. Why? Because evolved aliens believe humans are like violent wild animals and all wild animals need to be caged.
Reprinted in
Strange Planets (1958), Spellbound (1960), Incredible Science Fiction (1982), Incredible Science Fiction (1994), The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (2012), The EC Archives: Incredible Science Fiction (2022), Mystic (1960), The EC Archives: Incredible Science Fiction (2017)