It Came From The Long Box! -- Weird Mystery #2

Rummaging through some old back issues this afternoon, I came across a copy of DC’s Weird Mystery #2. It looks just like a back issue should—at least one suited for reading. There are cracks on the spine, some minor staple separation on the saddle stitching, a little tear on the bottom, multiple creases on the cover,  yellowed pages, and it smells of old paper. Absolutely perfect.

Weird Mystery, for those who may not remember the book, ran as two stories per issue (like a lot of comics at the time) and had stories that were in the vein of what DC was producing with The Witching Hour, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Weird War, Sinster House, et al. Each story is short horror, sci-fi, or suspense vignette that often had an O’Henry type ending, or one similar to The Lady and The Tiger, and is usually more than satisfying for the reader. In Weird Mystery the stories are hosted by the character Destiny and savvy fans will recognize this format not just from the DC/National books listed above, but from the Warren Magazines, EC Comics, Charlton Publications, Atlas, and on and on. It was a pretty standard format that we, as modern fans, don’t see that often any more (or at all).

Personally, I love this format. I think it’s a great way to get readers invested without making them feel like they have to spend copious amounts of money to get all of the back story that they need to understand the contents of a particular book. Any one can pick up any issue and enjoy it, if the stories suit them.

Weird Mystery #2 is the September-October issue from 1972. The first story is by Jack Kirby and inked by Mike Royer. The second feature was by Howard Purcell with inks by Jack Abel. (When you read that did you hear Tom Katers’ voice in your head? Because that’s the voice I heard while typing it.)

The first story was my favorite of the two. It’s Jack Kirby doing what he does best and, just as importantly, it has my favorite Kirby inker—Mike Royer. When I think about the list of Kirby inkers, Royer is my absolute favorite but is always in a tough battle with Wally Wood for that position. Sinnot’s amazing too, but Royer and Wood help epitomize Kirby for me.

Kirby’s story, entitled “Toxl, The World Killer”, brings the reader to the ancient past, a time before history as we know it was recorded. To a time where great, noble, barbarian warriors and super science clashed in violent and world changing ways. 

Jack Kirby - Mike Royer inks

By virtue of his prowess and cunning in battle, Toxl is the leader of a barbarian tribe that has been enslaved and exploited by another tribe. A tribe that has a great factory that creates what the reader must assume are horrors unknown in these modern, halcyon, times. They create theses horrors and exploit the land with technology that far surpasses our own appear to be more likely from our future than from our past.

Not content to become the slaves of this cruel, industrial, tribe Toxl leads a band of his warriors on a raid of the evil tribe’s factory/castle. Taking on a nearly unreasonable amount of risk with their invasion, Toxl’s tribe crashes the factory gates seeking to destroy the “Hell-Pit” at the center of the factory. When at last Toxl reaches the “Hell-Pit”, he succeeds in his goal but at a tremendous cost.

As the story ends, the reader is left to “decide” the potential reality of this story. Did cultures with technology superior to our own exist in the ancient past? Or, perhaps, does the world exist in cycles and were these people from our distant future? Or is there another, more plausible, answer? We may never know. I know where I stand, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide where your answer lies…

The second story is “Titanic” and it’s about the Lusitania. … I keed. I keed.

I really liked this story as well. I didn’t think there was much that was particularly stunning about Purcell’s work, but he tells the story very well and hits the right beats.

The story is purportedly true but, I have to confess, that I did not take the time to check the facts. Assuming it is untrue, it’s certainly a nice piece of historical fiction. I did try to check to see if the characters were real, but did not immediately find what I was looking for, and quickly gave up as I thought it unnecessary for my purposes here.

Howard Purcell - Jack Abel inks

The tale revolves around a young boy on the ship, Gary Baldwin, and his parents. As the fabled ship begins to sink, Gary is tragically informed that both his grandfather and great grandfather died at sea. Now that the same fate will be befall his father and possibly him. …But not quite yet. 

Gary is among those rescued and raised by his aunt and lived his life in fear because of his father’s final warning to avoid water at all costs so that he could break the chain and be the first in three generations to not drown or die at sea. 

Despite his irrational fear of the water, Gary nearly drowns a few times in his life—each time someone makes a cryptic comment about how the “angry waves” were “holding” him or some such thing. But eventually Gary’s hydrophobia finally takes control of his adult life. So when he has to travel to England, he elects to fly instead of riding on the Queen Mary.

Of course, Gary’s plane is struck by lightning and crashes into the black, cold, Atlantic. Terrified that what he had feared most would come true, Gary spots an iceberg. And imbedded in it? A life preserver from the R.M.S. Titanic. Coincidence? Luck? Or was the life preserver not just a bit of luck for Gary, but a life preserver sent to him from the other side by a father desperate to save his son?

Like I said, I enjoyed the second story well enough. I didn’t find it as compelling as the Kirby story, but it was good and definitely a great fit for this title. Purcell’s art was solid, but I did find the story telling a bit stiff in places. I think that’s more a product of the subject matter than Purcell’s ability though.

Another really cool feature about this issue is that at the end there is a two page essay on the U.F.O. phenomenon that had begun just a few decades prior. The thrust of the piece is typical insofar as it suggests that there are things that some meteorologists just couldn’t explain, and that there are other “credible” witnesses to U.F.O visitation. These arguments can be appropriately dismantled in another place.

That being said, it was fun article to read and the images that adjoined it make it clear, to me, that it was undoubtedly intended to be a work of fiction and offered up to readers as another mystery for them to ponder, like those of Toxl and Gary Baldwin. The funny part to me was that, although I think it’s obviously intentionally fictitious, it did not read that far off from what I have encountered with other UFOlogists or other credulous sources.

I love these old horror/mystery/sci-fi anthology books and you should too! If you can track this issue down, I definitely recommend it. Especially for fans of the genre. It’s two excellent stories that are definitely indicative of their time, but timeless enough to be well received by modern audiences who may not have a history with this type of comic. If you’re motivated by nothing else, get it for the Kirby-Royer team-up!

Weird Mystery #2

DC Comics/National Publications

SRP: 20¢