Weird tales of the future 3/4

[Snowy-migration]

I just received one of my Grails: Weird tales of the future 3 and was not surprised that there was no story relating to the cover.

 

However what did surprise me was that there was a story that is very close to the cover of issue 4. Does anyone know any reasoning behind this. Was there a mix up and the story printed in the wrong issue, maybe they got a lot of feedback on the story and so it influenced the next cover?

 

I dont have 4 yet but its on my wants list.

[*paull*]

The Gilmor family of books (WToTF, Weird Mysteries, Mister Mystery) had covers that rarely coincided with material inside. None of my books do. In fact, of all the Ajax-Farrell pre-code books I have, I can't think of one that had a cover that ties in to an interior story.

 

Yet, I can think of a couple Ajax-Farrell covers that are tied to stories in _other_ Ajax-Farrell books.

 

These things were done on the cheap.... I highly doubt that feedback from fans was ever considered (or even received). This isn't the 60's Marvel letter columns we're talking about here...

[shrunkenhead]

 

These things were done on the cheap.... I highly doubt that feedback from fans was ever considered (or even received). This isn't the 60's Marvel letter columns we're talking about here...

 

Although EC did have a major fan club going in the 50s...

[*paull*]

EC was certainly different than the fly-by-night companies that published a lot of the pre-code horror material. Gilmor even cut up an earlier Wolverton story and rearranged it as a new story for reprint in WToTF #7. THAT's bottom of the barrel, my friends!

 

I'm amazed that they stumbled on Wolverton in the first place... what an amazing talent.

[precodekeith]

Does anyone know any reasoning behind this. Was there a mix up and the story printed in the wrong issue, maybe they got a lot of feedback on the story and so it influenced the next cover?

 

 

There probably was no true reasoning to this. Editor Kantor & publisher Morse were tight wads and probably got an extra piece of work out of Wolverton somehow. I doubt this company was getting any feedback at all, they were very fly by night. A lot of people mistake WTOF 4 as the book with "Brain Bats of Venus", which it is not...

 

I think Wolverton just liked this particular theme .....

[Jayman]

The Gilmor family of books (WToTF, Weird Mysteries, Mister Mystery) had covers that rarely coincided with material inside. None of my books do. In fact, of all the Ajax-Farrell pre-code books I have, I can't think of one that had a cover that ties in to an interior story.

 

Yet, I can think of a couple Ajax-Farrell covers that are tied to stories in _other_ Ajax-Farrell books.

 

These things were done on the cheap.... I highly doubt that feedback from fans was ever considered (or even received). This isn't the 60's Marvel letter columns we're talking about here...

 

Although on the letters page of Weird Mysteries # 5 there is a full page response from the publisher in response to one woman's letter that asks how they can publish such "trash" for kids to read. The response cites that children who are considered juvenile delinquents have much larger troubles affecting them rather than reading horror stories.

 

Slightly OT I know but I was suprised that this letter was printed and even responded to...

[*paull*]

I'll have to read that text piece.... I bet it's amusing. Thanks for the tip.

[verygoodplus]

The cover to WTOTF 4 was piece-mealed together from already published story art. The Wolverton images come directly from the story "Nightmare World," from WTOTF 3 (which Snowy alluded to). Note that the female in distress is not drawn by Wolverton, but was lifted from a different story. After a little creative paste-up work (plus a touch of additional drawing, like in the LLC), voila, a "new," mostly-Wolverton cover.

 

[goldust40]

The cover to WTOTF 4 was piece-mealed together from already published story art. The Wolverton images come directly from the story "Nightmare World," from WTOTF 3 (which Snowy alluded to). Note that the female in distress is not drawn by Wolverton, but was lifted from a different story. After a little creative paste-up work (plus a touch of additional drawing, like in the LLC), voila, a "new," mostly-Wolverton cover.

 

 

Any chance of showing those original pages? I'd be very keen to see them, although I understand if scanning an interior page would be an issue.

[verygoodplus]

I only have a reprint of the story, but here's the relevant page:

 

 

 

 

You can see that the first, second and last panels were used in creating the WTOTF 4 cover. The girl was lifted from a story in Mister Mystery, I believe - definitely not Wolverton.

[shrunkenhead]

Wow! ...what's that reprinted in??

[verygoodplus]

Mr. Monster's Weird Tales of the Future #1 (Eclipse one-shot).

[verygoodplus]

[*paull*]

Hahaha!

[precodekeith]

The cover to WTOTF 4 was piece-mealed together from already published story art. The Wolverton images come directly from the story "Nightmare World," from WTOTF 3 (which Snowy alluded to). Note that the female in distress is not drawn by Wolverton, but was lifted from a different story. After a little creative paste-up work (plus a touch of additional drawing, like in the LLC), voila, a "new," mostly-Wolverton cover.

 

VG+ - Great detective work!

 

I guess it was one of the two tightwads - Kantor or Morse, who were the real fans of this theme!

 

This company did rip-off, cut&paste jobs more than once....

 

In WTOTF # 7 Kantor took the original art to "Brain Bats of Venus" , cut it up, partially redrew it, and repasted it as an ENTIRE story!!! ("The Mind Movers")