Random Happenstance

I came back across these in a box, and tried to remember if I'd blogged Starstream's adaptation of 'Who Goes There?' That was from the first issue, and I'd also blogged the fourth issue. Two to go, then, so best get started! From 1976, Starstream #2. Cover by Ron Miller.

The opener, "Night of the Storm," probably inspired some jokes in Futurama: in a future where humanity has been extinct for centuries, robots have an elaborate, thriving society. But, sometimes they need to unwind a bit, and some opt for a bit of hunting, made sporting by "reducing their faculties," deactivating functions like night-vision and flight. While stunning a deer is exhilerating for one, another finds tracks: human tracks! But were they even real...? (Written by Dean Koontz, adapted by Wallace I. Green, art by Frank Bolle.)

"The Brain Traveler" finds a starving artist, abducted by a tycoon, intent on extracting information from the artist's brother. The artist's dead brother. Slight, but some interestingly odd imagery. (Written by Arnold Drake, art by Al McWilliams. This was maybe one of the few in this series that wasn't an adaptation!)

I've read a bit of Larry Niven, but this was new to me: "The Flight of the Horse," although the original title "Get a Horse" is more accurate: a bumbling future researcher is sent back in time, to recover a horse for some bigwig jerk's kid's birthday party. Surprise, it doesn't go smoothly. (Adapted by Allan Moniz, art by Jose Delbo.)

"Collecting Team" seems ridiculously unsafe, but back in the days of safaris and "bring 'em back alive" that's how they thought spacemen would roll: a crew sent to bring back specimens think they've hit the motherlode, on a planet teeming with creatures. More than could be explained by evolution...and someone keeps sabotaging the ship! Does someone on the crew want to stay, or is there another explanation? (Written by Robert Silverberg, adapted by Steve Skeates, pencils by Giorgio Cambiotti, inks by Mario Pedrazzi.)

Arnold Drake gets another original here, with "The Utopia Tree." Sent from an earth besieged with strikes and shortages, a mineralogist finds a tree that can create seemingly anything?  But what will the people of earth ask of it, after everyone has one? (Spoiler alert: earth is full of selfish dickheads.) Art by Jack Sparling. 

Finally, "The Phoenix Planet" finds more explorers, one of whom plans to mine an energy source from a planet wrecked by wheat blight brought by earlier colonizers. But the planet has dangers--and natives--that they might not expect. (Written by Mary Schaub, adapted by Arnold Drake, art by Jose Delbo.)

I might have to get to the remaining issue sooner rather than later!