Weird Tales of the Future

Stanley Morse was responsible for publishing books under the various mantles Key Publications, Aragon Magazines, Gilmor Magazines, Medal Comics, Media Publications, S.P.M. Publications, Stanmor Publications, Timor Publications, and there may be few more that we don’t know about!

Mr. Morse, needless to say, was not the most scrupulous of publishers, as most of these companies were akin to “shell corporations” and existed in name only, and whose main purpose was to cause confusion for the Taxman, and to be used to delay creditors (material suppliers, printers, distributors) with catching up to him for outstanding moneys-owed. He was either a pioneer or a scumbag, depending on which way you fall, morally.

In September of 1951, at the height of the horror-comic craze, Morse came out with a particularly nasty little book called Mister Mystery. This comic had some of the most sick and distasteful cover images of the pre-code era.

He did publish at least one more horror title (pre-code) that has gained the respect of collectors over the years.This one was called Weird Mysteries, and it bore the brand “Gilmor Publications.” It was maybe a hair-less objectionable than Mister, but there are some pretty gag-inducing images in that book, also.

Maybe taking a cue from EC Comics, Morse decided to dip-a-toe into the science-fiction field, and in March of 1952 came out with Weird Tales Of The Future, and, spinning our magic “which-company-name-will-it-be-this-time” wheel, we find WTOTF landing on S.P.M. Publications - a label that appears to be a collaboration with one Harry Kantor (a pseudonym?), who is named as the editor on all eight of the issues.

What is incredible in light of Stanley Morse’s questionable business practices (he has admitted in interviews that he really didn’t care about what he put out - and has implied that as long as it appealed to the lowest common denominator, he believed that it would sell), is that there is some very fine and enjoyable material that was released through his various imprints; we can only conclude that this was due to the tastes of his editors, as Morse wanted to remain as hands-off as possible.

Weird Tales Of The Future is a fine example of this; whomever was actually responsible for content managed to attract some fine craftsmen to work on this title. As with the horror/suspense books mentioned above, there is some standout artwork by Basil Wolverton here, as well as some more masterful cover-work by Bernard Baily.

Additionally, at closer examination, there is some exceptional work by virtual-unknowns Hy Fleishman and Tony Mortellaro - these guys had skills, and should be more well known in the annals of comic-art fandom.

A criticism of Weird Tales Of the Future could be that, although it was supposed to be a strange book to begin with, it ended up being kind of a confusing book in that you get the sense that it did not know if it wanted to be a horror/monster/suspense book, or if it wanted to be a science fiction book. 

Granted, all good sci-fi contains elements of suspense and horror, but most of the action in the anchor stories in WTOTF takes place in the present, assuming a passive “well, here are the aliens on Earth, and boy are they reeking havoc on us humans…oh well” kind of stance. They could just as easily have replaced the “aliens” with some Earth-born monsters, or even zombies, and have achieved the same effect. This book has, for the most part, taken away the elements of wonderment and anxiousness inherent in futuristic space-exploration that so many of it’s rivals concentrated on in their titles.

Weird Tales Of The Future is a curious affair, and apparently had no traction with the reading public, perhaps due to its lack of focus, and was subsequently gone after issue #8, dated July of 1953.

This is one of those comic books that is attractive to collectors BECAUSE of its true strangeness and obscurity… and it really does LOOK great, too!