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Marvel Comic Story from the 70s

droodzilla

droodzilla

pfm Member
A very long shot, but does anyone remember this...

It was a short story that appeared at the back of a Marvel comic in the 1970s. This was the UK version of the comic, so either Mighty World of Marvel, or just Marvel Comic, I guess.

The story doesn't feature any of the usual superheroes (Hulk, Spidey, Thor...). Instead it's about an astronaut who finds himself stranded on an alien world, awaiting rescue. The occupants of that world aren't hostile, but they're kinda ugly (humanoid, but with lumpy or blobby features) and appear quite stupid.

The astronaut runs out of food so his only option is eat some of the alien fruit that grows in abundance. Somehow he knows that eating the fruit will turn him into one of the aliens, so he fights his hunger for as long as he can, hoping a rescue party will come. Finally, however, he has no choice but to eat the fruit...

The twist in the tale is that, having become one of the aliens he feared, he finds that their minds are exquisitely sensitive and attuned to their environment. They are also filled with the most beautiful music he has ever heard. He realises that the aliens live a peaceful life, full of beauty and wonder.

The last frame of the story shows a rescue ship leaving the planet, having failed to find the astronaut. They surmise that he has become one of the ugly aliens and lament his fate.

The annoying thing is I'm sure I managed to google this a few years ago and find some inormation about the story. Now, I'm drawing a blank.

So... any ideas?
 
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Yeap remember it. (Steve Ditko story, at a guess).

It was MWoM (I still got most of them, my daughter has them in her room now!)

What do you want to know?

(Well that's made me feel like a right nerd.....)

Graeme.
 
graemer said:
Yeap remember it. (Steve Ditko story, at a guess).

It was MWoM (I still got most of them, my daughter has them in her room now!)

What do you want to know?

(Well that's made me feel like a right nerd.....)

Graeme.
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Thanks! Good to know I didn't imagine the whole thing! Just the name of the story, the author and maybe the issue in which it appeared should be enough. It will have originally appeared in a US comic so the name and issue number of that would also help, if it's readily available. Anything to enable a google search, though I don't remember finding much on the Web about it last time. I suspect you're right about it being a Ditko story - it just has that vibe!
 
Found it. MWoM #29 (w/e April 21, 1973)

Titled 'I Used To Be... Human!', Story, Sten Lee, Art, Steve Ditko.

The complete story is online (via google - using the title and Steve Ditko), also giving all the info you're looking for.
 
graemer said:
Found it. MWoM #29 (w/e April 21, 1973)

Titled 'I Used To Be... Human!', Story, Sten Lee, Art, Steve Ditko.

The complete story is online (via google - using the title and Steve Ditko), also giving all the info you're looking for.
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Fantastic, thanks!

Here's the link if anyone else is curious:

https://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-used-to-be-human.html

A great fable about dropping out and living the hippy dream. No wonder it made such a strong impression on me.
 
Reminds me of a Flemish film I saw, where an unmarried woman is struggling to cope with her elderly mother. Regretfully she puts her in a home and looks forward to finally having a social life. She discovers that her life is rather dull, meanwhile her mother befriends a young woman with a learning disability and they have a lovely time looking at photos from each other's albums, leaves that the young woman collects, passing butterflies, and so on. It's a similar twist on what you expect.
 
Your post brought back memories of a novel called City by Clifford D Simak which consists of eight linked short stories:

A later tale tells of a research station on the surface of Jupiter. (This story, first published as Desertion in 1944, was one of the first stories about pantropy.) Simak's version of Jupiter is a cold, windswept, and corrosive hell where only advanced technology allows the station to exist at all. A scientist is accompanied by Towser, his tired and flea-bitten old dog. But there is a problem: Men permanently transformed to survive unaided on Jupiter's surface leave the station to gather data and inexplicably fail to return. Finally, the scientist transforms himself and his canine companion into the seal-like beings that can survive the surface. They leave the station in their new form and experience Jupiter as a paradise. Towser's fleas and irritations are gone and he is able to talk telepathically to his former master. Like the previously transformed station personnel, the scientist decides never to return.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_(novel)
 
strangely I saw this weekend an uneven (misogynistic, laugh-out-loud moments, great design) Japanese movie 'Matango' that has echoes of this theme (if you choose to receive it in this way) and apparently based on work by, William Hope Hodgson?
 
synapse said:
strangely I saw this weekend an uneven (misogynistic, laugh-out-loud moments, great design) Japanese movie 'Matango' that has echoes of this theme (if you choose to receive it in this way) and apparently based on work by, William Hope Hodgson?
Click to expand...

Your reference to William Hope Hodgeson reminded me of a book by him – The House on the Borderland, which is a great read if you like Lovecraft and his ilk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_on_the_Borderland
 
stevec67 said:
Reminds me of a Flemish film I saw, where an unmarried woman is struggling to cope with her elderly mother. Regretfully she puts her in a home and looks forward to finally having a social life. She discovers that her life is rather dull, meanwhile her mother befriends a young woman with a learning disability and they have a lovely time looking at photos from each other's albums, leaves that the young woman collects, passing butterflies, and so on. It's a similar twist on what you expect.
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Yes, sounds like a similar theme.

I was (mostly) joking about dropping out and living the hippy dream, but the story did make a big impression on me - something about not judging people based on the superficial aspects of how they come across. That's pretty much how I approach my relationships with others, to this day.
 
davidlf said:
Your post brought back memories of a novel called City by Clifford D Simak which consists of eight linked short stories:

A later tale tells of a research station on the surface of Jupiter. (This story, first published as Desertion in 1944, was one of the first stories about pantropy.) Simak's version of Jupiter is a cold, windswept, and corrosive hell where only advanced technology allows the station to exist at all. A scientist is accompanied by Towser, his tired and flea-bitten old dog. But there is a problem: Men permanently transformed to survive unaided on Jupiter's surface leave the station to gather data and inexplicably fail to return. Finally, the scientist transforms himself and his canine companion into the seal-like beings that can survive the surface. They leave the station in their new form and experience Jupiter as a paradise. Towser's fleas and irritations are gone and he is able to talk telepathically to his former master. Like the previously transformed station personnel, the scientist decides never to return.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_(novel)
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Interesting, thanks. Published in 1952, so it could easily have been the inspiration (conscious or unconscious) for Lee and Ditko's Marvel story, which was first published in 1963.
 
droodzilla said:
Thanks! Good to know I didn't imagine the whole thing! Just the name of the story, the author and maybe the issue in which it appeared should be enough. It will have originally appeared in a US comic so the name and issue number of that would also help, if it's readily available. Anything to enable a google search, though I don't remember finding much on the Web about it last time. I suspect you're right about it being a Ditko story - it just has that vibe!
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It also sounds a lot like a story I've read in a 'Golden Age' SF anthology or mag. I'm trying to recall the name of the author.
 
Hi all, since we have a group of SF followers, I have tried to remember the title of a book written by either I Asimov or A C Clark, not sure of either really.

The story revolves around a space war between races, their weaponry is to launch an attack, a device that disrupts or damages the recipients emotional balance.

To launch an attack, spaceships have to summersault to release whatever the weapon consists of.

Far fetched eh, well its Sci-Fi.

Please, end my misery and remind me of the writer and the story title.

TIA.
 
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