Text stories were often included in comic books in the era of distribution by news stands and mail to qualify for less expensive postal rates. While the prose entries were for the most part no better or worse than the sequential art in the same issues The Terrible Planet credited to Allen Anders stands out. A short two-pager this story has a theme that will appear in such works as The Ship Who Sang, Man-Plus, A Plague of Demons and many, many others. The climax and decision of the protagonist at the end is surprising for the era outside of denser science fiction works.
From Fantastic Worlds #6 (November 1952).
I fear Mr Anders doesn't deserve the credit for much of what you praise about the story. His story is a plagiaristic imitation of Clifford D. Simak's short story "Desertion", which first appeared in 1944 and was included in his collection CITY. In Simak's story the setting is Jupiter, and the Earthman is transformed into a Jovian form instead of being given an artificial form. My regards, Luke Blanchard, Melbourne.
ReplyDeleteThat's why it stands out, written by the master.
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