See, that's why you use your mom's maiden name as a security answer.

I'm not old enough to have read them the first time around, but I did read a ton of EC Comics reprints in the early nineties. Some of which I've lost since then, so I'm usually game for any I find in the fifty-cent bins, in this case. There is some sort of...splatter on one of these covers. I'm not going to look at it too closely.

So instead, let's take a gander at "Why Papa Left Home," originally from 1952's Weird Science #11 and reprinted in the 1992 Russ Cochran Vault of Horror #5, with credits from the GCD for writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Orlando.

Young Raymond Williams, Jr. has been hard at work at Dr. Hybolt's lab, helping finish his time-machine. But Ray's mother isn't as understanding about his hard work and long hours, since she worries her son will disappear and leave her, just like her husband did almost twenty-three years ago. The next day, Hybolt wants to test the machine by sending Ray back in time twenty-five years...uh-oh. Hybolt can't go himself, since he's got a bad heart, but the machine should bring Ray back after an hour in the past.

Twenty-five years in the past, Ray finds himself in the forest, since Hybolt's lab hadn't been built yet. Killing some time looking around, he sees a group of young people having a picnic, and notices a pretty girl all alone...oh, man, I see where this is going. Ray wishes he had time to meet her, and gets it when the hour runs out and he doesn't return to his own time! Trapped, Ray shouts out, drawing the notice of the picnickers, and meets the girl, Martha Anders. Making the most of things, Ray takes up with her quickly, and uses his mighty future knowledge to present himself as an up-and-coming engineer. Soon enough, he's got a pretty wife, a great job, and a new baby boy...and that's when the time machine pulls him back to his time! Hybolt had had a fatal heart attack after firing up his machine, and while dying whacked the machine and changed the settings to a two-year stay. Ray realizes he left his wife and son, just like his own dad did...oh, no...and runs home, after two years, back to his mom. Ray asks his mom's maiden name, and I think you can guess; but seriously? You didn't want to know, Ray.