Random Happenstance

Pros: This comic has got a great feel. 68-pages, good heft to it. Joe Kubert cover! Cons: This is From Beyond the Unknown #7, a 1970 reprint book of 50's/60's sci-fi tales that probably weren't super-coherent when they were first published, either. The "All-New Spectacular!" story was a retooled Major Matt Mason strip with new names, and it's mainly Glenn getting his mission and beating his second-in-command into shape. The sergeant, Tempest, apparently thought if he mouthed off enough, he could get out of that cotton-picking assignment; how he was going to do that while on route to the moon is anybody's guess.

"The Menace of Saturn's Rings!" reprints a Gardner Fox/Carmine Infantino story from 1958's Strange Adventures #96. Aliens from Saturn, move that planet's rings around earth, melting the polar ice caps...much to the consternation of what appears to be a moose and a yak on the splash page. I think the ice caps are melted in the story, causing untold destruction: untold, because the story instead focuses on American science-men destroying the rings and putting the aliens in their place. Yeah, feel like that's not going to be the last of that theme this issue...

"Next Year--Andromeda!" is a silly one, but makes me sad: a young space cadet on an alien world tries to capture a teleporting animal called a Kyolan, in the hopes of learning its secrets. But, there was only one left, since it's food source had been wiped out in a blight: the way that's explained, the last Kyolan drove away all the others fighting over the last bush of berries, which doesn't seem like a great way to propagate the species. The cadet ingeniously deduces how the Kyolan teleports along magnetic lines and captures it; which leads to the accidental discovery that the Kyolans were maintaining the magnetic balance of the planet: he has to let it go, but at least discovered what would be needed to save the planet. The Kyolan was going to go extinct, though. (Gardner Fox and Sid Greene, from 1963's Mystery in Space #85.)

"Do Not Open Till Doomsday!" features strange orbs and weird trees granting wishes and jewels all over earth, but are they a boon, or a trap? (From 1953's Strange Adventures #36, story by Sid Gerson, art by Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs.) "World at the Edge of the Universe!" follows a young Earth student on a tour of the universe, as part of the recently joined United Worlds; but he feels like an ignorant hillbilly compared to geniuses from other worlds. Luckily, disaster befalls them, and it's up to earth know-how to get them out of it. What a surprise, no way...(From 1955's Strange Adventures #60, story by Otto Binder, art by Sy Barry.)

"The Twice-Told Tale!" is a bit of a downer: a writer finished his historical novel, to great acclaim, then is accused of plagarizing it word-for-word, from a book from 1780. Disgraced, the writer tries to prove his innocence, and finds a tattered and crumbling diary from the supposed original author; who had built a time machine, traveled to the future, took a copy of the author's book as proof he had made the trip, but his time machine exploded after he returned. Daunted at the thought of rebuilding his machine, the time-traveler was reduced to trying to pass the book off as his own, and even that didn't sell. Worse, the diary crumbles with age before the author can show anyone, leaving him to ask the reader if anyone would believe his story. (From 1952's Strange Adventures #27, story by Jack Miller, art by Gil Kane and Joe Giella.)

Lastly, the basis for the cover, "The Giant from Beyond!" From 1959's Strange Adventures #101, written by Gardner Fox, art by Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia. Two kids argue over the merits of fantasy/fairy tales vs. sci-fi, while a giant alien seemingly drops a bean from space, climbs down the giant beanstalk that grows from it, and starts harvesting sap or whatever from it. Of course, a brave army type has to stop that, since the alien's taking valuable American minerals! Lazy sod doesn't even climb the beanstalk, he jumps from a helicopter. Despite having to enter a world where our physical laws didn't work, he still manages to sabotage the aliens, then has the bright idea of suffocating the still-growing beanstalk, by putting a plexiglass shield around it. I...I don't know much about plexiglass fabrication, but that seems more than a little iffy, although I suppose it still gets points for having a solution other than "nuke it," which might've been a standard then.