...and I'd have been wrong! I'm not even positive I've read this before, although one story was definitely familiar. From 1980,
Time Warp #4. Cover by Michael Wm. Kaluta.
"Pen Pals" was surprisingly disturbing: a plain young girl (well, she's described as plain, but definitely Hollywood-plain) on satellite monitor duty strikes up a long-distance relationship with a lonely worker on a botanical satellite. Even though it was against the rules, she continues contacting him, eventually exchanging photos, and sending him a lock of her hair. That's when the nightmares start! The only cure for her might be to finally meet her guy, but she may have been warned off for a reason...(Written by Bob Haney, art by Fred Carrillo.)
"I, the Creature" is definitely a standard horror-comic plot, only set in space this time: two big-game hunters, despite fighting over a girl, intend to bring back the mythical alien Hwarka. There's betrayal, and ironic justice; you've seen this one before. (Written by George Kashdan, art by Michael Netzer.) "The Most Special of Effects" is a fun one, though: an aged FX artist has completed work for his magnum opus, "Trek Wars," and for his trouble is murdered by his producer, who wants all the credit. The FX artist says his friends would avenge him, which the producer scoffs at; but he's still in for a bad night at the Oscars, despite winning two! (Written by Scott Edelman, art by Joel Magpayo.)
"Asteroid Treachery" is, um, what if
the Thing, except two of the humans used to be a couple, and hated and distrusted each other before throwing a shape-shifting monster into the mix? (Written by George Kashdan, pencils by Ernie Patricio.) "The Hole in Reality's Heart" is somewhat more romantic, as a young--and lonely-spacewoman is sucked into another dimension, and has to work with an alien scientist to stop a monster he accidentally created from destroying her universe, even if there was nothing in her universe for her...(Written by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Don Newton, inks by Steve Mitchell.)
"A Stitch in Time" was the only story I remembered; although did I read it here, possibly off the spinner racks as a kid? In a far future, two scientists travel back in time, in the hopes of preventing yet another nuclear war, by killing baby Albert Einstein! Finding him as a young boy, they're too soft-hearted to just murder him, so one has the idea of dumping him further in the past, say, 1782! No way he could develop atomic theory back then...right? (Written by David Allikas, art by Steve Ditko.) "The Uncommon Cold" is another comedy of errors, as in this future, a satellite lands on earth, with a horrible creature within, and the return of the common cold; which the future humans no longer had any resistance to. Their frantic research finds, a human woman had been launched, in suspended animation, but time and the cold had mutated her; so they travel back in time to cure her cold before she leaves. They didn't know why she had been launched, though...or that she knew what she was doing. (Written by George Kashdan, art by Ernie Patricio.)
Finally, in "The Last Megathus," an aged xeno-zoologist takes to space, to save a massive specimen; but ultimately decides human life was more valuable. Enh...I hate this one, since the main part of the dilemma is an accident with a 3-D camera, that apparently runs on poison gas, that can seep even through a spacesuit as well as poison a kaiju-sized creature. Feh! (Written by Arnold Drake, art by Jerry Grandenetti.)
There was a house ad for this very issue within it, as well as a letters page that hailed
Time Warp #1 as getting a lot of mail right away. Which maybe didn't translate into actual sales; #4 was the second-to-last issue; although it's end might have been due to market changes: the larger comics like this one were on their way out.
