Marvel Tales (1949 series) #100

Eddie Wallas, a fast-talking carnival barker, encounters Abdul Kasha, a sideshow mystic whom he has always dismissed as a fraud. As Eddie needles him one last time before Abdul's act folds, the old man offers him two pills as a parting gift: one will shrink Eddie to the size of a living doll, and the second will restore him to normal size. Skeptical but unwilling to back down, Eddie takes the shrinking pill back at his rooming house, blacking out as his body compresses to a few inches tall. To his amazement it works, and immediately he plots to use his invisibility to the world to rob jewelry shops undetected, slipping through a mail slot and making six loaded trips in a single night before taking the second pill and returning to full size.

Flush with cash after fencing the stolen gems, Eddie quits the carnival and sets his sights on a rare diamond held in a private collector's study. Shrunk again, he enters the mansion, shoots the collector with a tiny gun, grabs the stone, and flees down a drain pipe — but detectives have already traced the stolen jewelry back to him and are waiting in his room with his landlady, Mrs. Hanley. Cornered and unable to grow back without being shot, Eddie tries to slip out a window when the landlady's cat — the same animal that had tormented him in his room days before — recognizes him, seizes him in its jaws, and kills him. The two detectives dismiss what they see as merely a cat catching a mouse, never realizing the truth.

Eyes of Doom

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Astronomers at Mount Wilson Observatory, led by Dr. Sampson and his assistant Tom, spot an unknown star approaching Earth. When the object enters orbit and refuses to move, General Miles convenes the chiefs of staff in Washington and dispatches a jet — under the command of Major Hart — to penetrate the cloud shrouding the alien vessel. Hart's plane vanishes into the radioactive barrier and returns without having made contact, but Hart and his crew subsequently develop a baffling illness: under stress, their eyes change color and their flesh sags and quivers. A second mission led by another pilot fails identically. Dr. Sampson's colleague Doctor Jensen reports the spreading ailment to General Miles, who presses ahead with a third attempt.

This time Captain Grayson commands the flight, with Major Hart listening on radio. Inside the cloud, Grayson discovers that crewmen he recognized have been replaced — the alien Minos are shape-shifting blobs capable of imitating any matter, including human beings; they have been infiltrating Earth's ships and killing pilots to assume their forms. Their plan is to conquer Earth within six months, and the only telltale sign that exposes them is the same symptom Hart's men contracted from exposure: eyes that change color and flesh that quivers under excitement. Grayson fights his way to the radio and transmits the warning to Hart, but is cut off before he can finish. Hart relays the message to General Miles — then notices his own eyes changing color, revealing that he himself has already been replaced by one of the Minos.

Vampire

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Dean Phillips, facing the electric chair at Darwin Penitentiary for the murder of his brother Jeff, walks to his execution insisting that killing Jeff was an act of mercy. In a flashback, Dean and Jeff are on vacation in Transylvania, where the locals warn them of vampires in the nearby caves. Dean, a collector of macabre specimens, dismisses the legends and captures one of the bats, caging it and feeding it blood as a curiosity. Back home, the bat escapes its cage the first night. A woman appears in Dean's room — Dina Dracko, who identifies herself as a vampire and commands Dean, under hypnotic compulsion, to bring her to Jeff, a "full-blooded" man she has sought for centuries. Dean, powerless to resist, leads her to his brother.

The next morning Dean wakes with no memory of the night, finds the cage empty, and rushes to Jeff — who is enthralled by Dina and refuses to believe Dean's warning that she is a vampire. When Jeff storms out, Dean consults a book on vampires, fashions a silver bullet, and stakes out Jeff's summer bungalow under the full moon. He follows Dina as she transforms into a bat and flies to a rocky cave, seals the entrance with stones and a cross, then returns to find Jeff unconscious and bitten. Knowing that a vampire's victim becomes one of the undead, Dean sees only one way to save his brother, and shoots Jeff through the heart with the silver bullet. Walking to his execution, Dean has resolved never to speak the truth, welcoming death as a reunion with Jeff.

The Strange Machine

Synopsis

By J.A.R.V.I.S. 2008
Rating:

Al Macall and Sam Burns, reporters at the New York Post Dispatch, discover that the office news ticker is printing tomorrow's results a day early. Al, always chasing a big score, immediately plots to exploit it: they visit quiz-show contestant Harry Kanter and sell him the name of the mystery tune on the program "Stop the Melody" for an even split of his winnings. The scheme works — netting five thousand dollars — and when the ticker fires again with the next day's sports results, the pair run six consecutive winning bets, amassing thirty thousand dollars. Sam grows uneasy, arguing they are tampering with fate, but Al pushes for one final killing. The ticker reports that the Eastern Flyer train has jumped the track outside Boston with an army payroll of two hundred thousand dollars aboard. The two race for Boston — and are found crushed beneath the payroll car in the wreck.