Expert: Chris Brown - 3/25/2010

Question
Hi,
I'm looking for a series of comics I read as a child. They may have been anthology comics, like the Journey into Mystery series. The reason I think this, is that some of the images are still very vivid in my mind, and they are Kirby-like.
The 2 stories in particular I am thinking of, were :
1) The Metal Eaters. A scientist creates a time machine, but it can't transmit organic matter or something, so he builds a robot which uses it to travel into the future. In the future, the world has been destroyed by these star-fish shaped little creates called Metal Eaters. The robot tries to find out how it all happened, but has to return home without knowing. Neither he nor the scientist realises a metal eater has been transported back on the foot of the robot.
2) The trapeze artist. This guy appears to be wandering through a fog, and has no memory. He meets a stranger, who manages to jog his memory. Gradually, the man remembers he was a trapeze artist, and that he died by saving anothers life on the trapeze. The man tells him he's in Purgatory or Limbo or something, and that he's come to take him to Heaven.
The stories were black and white, and I read them while in the UK. For some reason, (and I could be completely wrong here) I got the impression that some of these stories were from the 50's or something, because some of the rocket ship designs were very primitive, like Hollywood designs in the 1950's.

If you could point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

Answer
Hi John

Unfortunately, I can't identify the specific stories you are referring to.  The first one sounds a lot like a swipe of the story from such classic Basil Wolverton horror stories as "Brain Bats of Venus" and "The Eye of Doom," but in these stories it is a human astronaut who brings back the alien species.  The second story also sounds like a fantasy story from the mid to late 50s at Atlas comics, as they were fond of featuring circus characters.  I can think of a few but this particular story doesn't ring a bell.

However, it sounds from your description like you were reading the Alan Class reprints in the UK.  There were several issues that published reprints of American horror and fantasy comics from the 50s.  Here are two websites with some pictures and more info:

http://vaultofevil.suddenlaunch3.com/index.cgi?board=tomb&action=print&num=11864...

http://themagicrobot.wordpress.com/category/alan-class-comics/

This website provides a list of comics he published and may give you the ability to sort out what comic you are remembering:

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/a/alanclass.htm

Good luck!

Chris