From Beyond the Unknown #8

From Beyond the Unknown #8 (On Sale: October 8, 1970) has a  cover by the unusual team of Gray Morrow and Neal Adams.

We begin this mostly reprint book with our cover-story, "Station Mars on the Air" by John Broome and Sy Barry and reprinted from Mystery in Space #25 (1955). when Martian scientists aim powerful telescopes toward Earth they see our vibrant population and decide to build a ship and visit us. On their way to Earth they pas through an ionic storm and when they reach us, everyone on Earth is dead from some unknown blight. they return to Mars but when they look at Earth again, everyone is still alive. They theorize that the ionic storm passed them through a time warp and to the future and they return to Earth to warn us of our impending disaster. They are successful when our scientists destroy a new chemical compound they were working on that the Martians pinpointed as the cause of our destruction.

Next is "Riddle of the Counterfeit Earthmen" by Otto Binder, Gil Kane and Bernard Sachs and reprinted from Mystery in Space #54 (1959). Two astronauts reach Titan for the first time only the aliens that live there do not believe they are actually from Earth as they do not look like the Titanians have deduced they should. When two other "Earthmen" show up and look as the Titanians think they should, they are accepted, but they threaten to destroy Titan. Tee real Earthmen are able to expose the frauds and save Earth from a retaliation attack from Titan. 

That is followed by "Across the Ages" by John Broome, Jerry Grandenetti and Joe Giella and reprinted from Strange Adventures #60 (1955). While transporting Cleopatra, Napoleon and Columbus from the past to the future the National Historical Society's Time Conductor's time machine breaks down in the 20th century. Sad to say that not much of real interest happens before they are returned to their proper times.

Next we have "The Dreams of Doom" by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs and reprinted from Strange Adventures #132 (1961). An alien arrives to conquer the Earth with the weapons he dreams while sleeping. This one is so bad I can't even repeat the details to you. Just a dreadful story.

We reach  the one piece of new material in this book: "Earth Shall Not Die Part II" and continued from last issue. his story is by Denny O'Neil and Murphy Anderson. Last issue we learned that Commander Glenn Merritt believes that aliens are attacking the space program and convinces Congress to set up a base on the moon for him to investigate his theories. This issue, Merritt and his crewman, Sgt. Tempest are attacked by alien ships and are only able to survive when another alien ship comes to their rescue. During the resulting fight, the rescue ship is damaged and crashes on the moon. Merritt and Tempest land and are attacked by an alien, which they are able to subdue and tie up in their ship.

When he awakens the alien, K-way-zzer, explains that he comes from a war-like people who were going to attack Earth. He demanded peace instead and was forced to fee his world, being chased by the ship he just help disable. When the other aliens show up to kill the Earthmen and K-way-zzer, Merritt and Tempest are saved when K-way-zzer uses Merritt's gun to kill the attackers. K-way-zzer joins forces with Merritt and Tempest to defeat his fellow aliens. It ends with, "Is this the Beginning?"

It wasn't, but two things to mention here. First, Murphy Anderson's artwork is just terrific and this would have been an interesting strip to watch. Second, this strip was not to star Commander Glenn Merritt, but rather Major Matt Mason. Yes, DC was going to do a book on the popular Mattel toy, but it fell though at some point and Mason's name was changed to Merritt.

Our next tale is "The Incredible Eyes of Arthur Gail" by Edmond Hamilton, Sid Greene and Joe Giella and reprinted from Strange Adventures #77 (1957). An accident causes Arthur Gail to lose the ability to see anything that is not organic which allows him to clear himself when charged with stealing his companies secret formula

We end with "Meet Your Masters -- the Ants" by Manny Rubin, Bob Oksner and John Giunta and reprinted from Strange Adventures #23 (1952). In the past giant ants are destroyed by humans but they send their eggs into space to return 10,000 years later.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.