 So for this little anthology that we're about to read, we're going to read a book from the Golden Age of Comics, Mystic No. 6. And the story that we're going to read from this is from Basil Wolverton, and his artwork is absolutely mind-boggling and is absolutely brilliant. His work is definitely sought-after, and if you have a chance, go online and have a look for it. And the story we're going to read is this one, The Eye of Doom. And it's the first story in this, and this series is actually one of the sought-after series from the Golden Age. These are pre-comic book code-approved, basically before censorship hit the comic book industry. And it's a long story and we'll get into it. But basically what happened was mainstream society got freaked out. Some people wrote some articles, actually one person wrote a book and said that comic books stories like this horror and you know, fear-based comic books and stuff like this, they were polluting the children's mind. And what happened was a lot of these types of stories got censored for a few decades soon after this. This book is from 1952, and I haven't read this story yet. I've checked out the artwork and I know Wolverton's work. I just like the craziness of it. It's a very trippy kind of work. And he was controversial at the time. Some people don't like it. Some people loved it. I'm on the love side of the whole thing of what this guy produced. And I do plan on slowly seeking out more of his work and collecting it. And what we're gonna do, we're gonna read this. I chose this one. Now I have a few other books like this. I actually have two copies of this one. They're both in good condition, but we're gonna read this one because this one has tape on it. So it's a little bit more sturdy than this one. And there was a few other books that I thought about reading to you guys from the same sort of genre, which is punch comics, and this is a sought after as well. Here's Mystic number 5. The Wolverton stuff is Mystic number 6. And definitely EC books, sci-fi fantasy EC books. And what we're about to read with Wolton is science fiction horror. But EC books, I have some EC books. These are the annuals, and these guys are amazing stuff. And at some point I'm gonna come back and create a series for EC books. I'm gonna read some EC fantasy and horror books. But right now I decided to read this one because I want to have a read through the story, and I want to start collecting Wolverton's materials. And we're not gonna touch this one because this one is rougher. There's no tape on it, so I don't know. Some people consider tape to be restoration. For me, tape is not restoration. Tape is just keeping the comic book together. It lowers the grade for sure, but I don't consider it to be restoration. And I love this stuff, like the artwork is absolutely magnificent, right? This is Mystic number 5, or Shadow in the Background. What is the terrifying mystery of the face? Fantastic stuff, fantastic stuff. And this beautiful color, I mean, look at this. And this is actually a sought after book as well, Punch number 14 from the same period. I think this is earlier, I think this is 1940s. I can't remember. Pull this out, read through the Eye of Doom. And this is a good, great comic in my book anyway. So I would rate this as a 2. It's appealing. You know, it's got some tape holding it together. The cover is, you know, there's little pieces missing, you could tell. And the tape is here. But it's mostly intact. The pages are intact, the comic is intact, the story is intact, which is super important to me. January 6th, 10th Cents, Atlas. And this was published by Atlas, and Atlas was branched off into a marvel, or was marvel. I looked at the history of this stuff a long time ago, I can't remember. So what we'll do is, here's the advertisements and the fine print. Let's read the fine print. Mystic is published by Classic Syndicate, Incorporated. Office publication, they're based in New York. Second class of New York, active March. So they were incorporated, this company in 1879. Additional entry, published by Monthly Copyright 1951 actually. By Classic Syndicate, Incorporated, Fifth Avenue, New York. Subscription rate was $1.20 for 12 issues. So you got 12 issues for $1.20 and the price tag on this is $0.10, right? So that makes sense. $0.10 for 12 issues. So if you bought a subscription, you bought it for, it was published by Monthly. I'm not sure if this by Monthly means twice a month or once every two months. I think it would be once every two months. But it could be a two-year subscription or one-year subscription. No, it should be a two-year subscription, 12 issues. No similarity between printed in the United States, okay? Let's flip through this, like we've done with the other books, and then come back and read this story. I mean, take a look at the artwork. This is 1951 we're talking about, right? Absolutely brilliant. Color scheme is incredible. So this is a sci-fi horror story. I don't do the faces. Wolverton is known for this type of stuff. Trippy faces. Very trippy. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Polluting children's minds, eh? And that's the end of it. But we'll come back and read this. Get a closer look. I'll Shall Never Die. Little story. Continued after next page. Lectables. So I guess the little right up here is beautiful stuff. This is the story for the written. Continued. I shall never die. But I can read these maybe later. These are destroying gel in terms with Ward's formula. Save your hair. See, this thing was not geared. These books were not geared towards children. A lot of adults were reading these books, and censorship came in, fear, right? Fear took over, media took over, and the industry sort of had a fear. And business decisions. You know, superhero comic books weren't selling as much as these types of books were selling, right? To adults. This was amazing entertainment, right? Brilliant stories, intricate stories. Adult-oriented. And then when censorship kicked in, all of these books, you know, a tremendous amount of stuff was lost. They're staining on this. Anyone can learn to dance, see? The advertisement's not geared towards kids. She won't stay dead. Ah. Seen these in movies, haven't you? A lot of the sci-fi or horror shows, movies that have come out, were inspired by books like this. What's this? No, a little bank. See, this one's an advertisement for kids. A bank. $1.98. Oh my God, you could have bought 20 of these books. And these things are expensive. This book, this book is, if it's in mint condition, it runs a few thousand bucks. In this condition, it's worth somewhere around 100 bucks. A little bit less. Probably in the 70s. Just holding it together and advertisement. No, kid advertisements. Should we have a read through this? Let's have a read through what was in the eye of the... And the first thing I noticed, or the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this was in DC Comics in a series called Legion 89. And there's a character in Legion that is an eye and is super powerful. And as soon as I saw this, when I bought the book, I flipped through it and went away. And as soon as I saw this, I totally reminded me of that. So I'm curious to see what the similarities are. Okay. So, let's have a read through. The eye of deal. A classic suspense and terror from the mystic morgue. That is signed Basil Walburton. What had happened to Hoyt Gilpin and Lon Yulrich, the two men who two months previously who two months previously had taken off for Venus in their experimental spaceship. It was a mystery for at that time no one had attempted to travel beyond the moon. My thoughts kept staying to the possible fate of the Earthman as I sat alone in the weather station outpost and gazed into the darkening sky. Suddenly I noticed a peculiar flash of light against the stars. It must be some kind of ship and it's coming closer. It is a ship. The Gilpin Yulrich spaceship is going to land here. I raced out on into the chill night to meet the descending vehicle and by the time I reached it rocket smoke had cleared away and the outer airlock door was open. Out came a shockingly haggard figure. He stared strangely at me. Equally strange was his first remark. A welcoming committee of one unfortunate for you. You, you're Hoyt Gilpin. Your partner is he. Yulrich is still on Venus. I came back alone. Then you did reach Venus. Here, lean on me and we'll get up to the weather station building. Inside, Gilpin slept into a chair and nervously figured fingered the satchel he had brought from his ship. The whole world is waiting news of you. Do you want me to get you a connection with the new service? No, no. Don't call anyone. The world will soon soon enough know I'm back. Yes, it will be much too soon and I'm going, I'm going to tell you why. Glancing at me occasionally strangely glancing at me, glancing at me occasionally strangely menacing manner. Gilpin began, Gilpin began his story. We made it to Venus, he said, but we had trouble getting through the cloud blanket around the planet. Once we were inside the cloud, shell, we saw terrain similar to Earth but all was buried in a gloomy color. We've made it, this is Venus. The gauges indicate breathable air-hoid. Shall we land? We better, we better re-cointer first. If there are inhabitants, we'd be running a risk of ambush but there are birds here, I don't know. Expecting the peculiar Venetian flora, we saw no sign of any living thing. Then a few miles distance, we spotted something that looked habitable. It looked like a huge building we'll soon find out. It's a city hollowed out on a hill but it's deserted. We sped far over the planet's surface and viewed hundreds of cities with no sign of life in any of them. It's a mystery, it couldn't have been war or disease or deep evidence. It says though it didn't happen, it's just disintegrated. Obviously safe to land then we can have a closer look. We set the ship down by some old habitations and after a check of conditions we ventured outside. The first Earth meant to set food on the warm human surface of Venus. Let's explore that structure. This is like entering a tomb. Hoit, a whole bunch of eyes coming towards them. Those giant eyes, the eyes of doom. At long, urges cry, I wheeled to see several spherical objects floating over a ridge and coming straight for us. What are they, balloons? I don't know what we'd better get inside this building. As we ran into the structure there was a scurry, scurry under our feet and a rat-like creature raced out the door. Propelled by some mysterious force the round objects already were almost overhead. They were sickly white. They were sickly white each with a peculiar black spot that rolled like the pupil of a huge eye. One of them, at least six feet wide, dipped down and pounced on the creature that had fled out the door like a bubble, the thing settled on its victim. Drawing it out, upside through its gelatinous surface and into its interior. It ate it. The other eye-like entities swarmed against the open door and windows. Their black orb directed balefully at us directed balefully at us and making ugly hissing sounds to our horror we could see them shrinking. If they get any smaller they'll get in. Shoot them. The bullets zipped harmlessly through the white photoplasmic parts but when hit in their pupil the eye-beings collapsed and fell to the ground. Soon it was littered with the gelatinous masses. I think that takes care of them. No, others in sight. Let's get out of here before more show up. Oh, we ran for the ship but the moment we were in the open one of the creatures concealed on the roof thudded down on Yulrich. I saw him sucked into the carnivorous interior. I hesitated to fire lest I shoot you. Yulrich, there was nothing I could do but flee. The eye moved after me but I raced inside the ship and seized the controls that closed the airlock doors. I'm safe, but Paul Lawn Lawn is the guy's name. Sick with despair I fired the rockets and recklessly plunged plunged the ship up through the cloud shell without Yulrich I didn't care much whether or not I reached Earth as I turned to make further control adjustments a shocking sight met my eyes. No, no. The eye inside the ship with them there to my horror and dismay was an eye, obviously. Obviously it was slipped obviously had slipped into the ship while we were defending ourselves and having reduced itself to about the size of a basketball went unnoticed by me until now. As I reached for my gun green vapor spewed from the orb and into my face you devil, I'll blast you too. Something in an awful vapor paralyzed me instantly my gun fell to the floor I was helpless before the frightful entity but the eye didn't touch me it just floated there in the control cabin watching me constantly I want to smash the hideous thing but I lacked the strength miserable hours miserable hours passed like years the eye's will was greater than mine somehow it injected into my mind what I wanted what it wanted of me I became its servant feeding and watering it was evident these protoplasmic cannibals had overrun Venetian civilization devouring every human being now that particular one had shrewdly planned to travel to another world to prey upon other beings it wouldn't reach earth we're approaching the moon and I'll crash the ship there the eye must have discerned my purpose for when I tried to find myself powerless to act I can't move by now we're close to the close to earth by now we're close to earth my next plan was to deliberately crack crack up on my native planet I'll aim for an uninhabited area and that will be the end of the nightmare but again but again I was thwarted it was the eye's will to land safely and at the last minute I found myself exerting every effort to make a safe landing so here I am he says it was apparent that Gippon's Gippon's long stay in the ship ship had left his mind unbalanced his story was ridiculous I decided to humor him though until I could contact the proper authorities but the eye where is it now? don't ask that leave now while there's still time before it wills me to I in the bag check this out to open the satchel what the say if this is a gag all the eye is coming out to my horror the object in the satchel rose slowly toward me and began to expand it can't be behind the eye gulpin seemed temporarily free of the eyes eyes powers he seized a pair of shears from my table and rammed them into this clammy creature what happened next was terrible the eye rolled sharply back over gilpin I can't look and an instant later all I saw of him was a protruding hand still expanding it turned on me I was cornered I seized the phone and ripped it loose I would have hurled at the malignant pupil but a green vapor spewed out and I was powerless then I felt the horrible slimy touch of his proplasmic body pressing over me brilliant story absolutely fantastic and this is what was being published as a comic book in 1952 and this is what censorship destroyed in the united states basal wolverton fantastic story what we'll do is we'll leave it there these are I ended up grabbing six anthologies sort of collections of work and we've read six books so far and if this is the first one you're reading there's five other anthologies I've put together and there are three from the golden age one late early silver age late golden age from the 1940s 45 one from 1948 this one was 19 sorry one from 1945 one from this is 1952 one from 1958 and we got two books from 1982 and we got one book from 1990 and we'll read more golden age sci-fi or books but for now those are the readings that we've put together I hope you enjoy and I guess I'll see you guys in the next video bye for now