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[blackwalnut2001]

The lead story here, "The Strange Tree," ruined my life. Any chance of revisiting the site of my ruination via a scan of this masterpiece?

[Yoc]

Sorry BW, Mystic was an Atlas (Marvel) book and not in the public domain therefore not allowed on GAC.
AFAIK there aren't any scans of that book out there either.

-Yoc

[rez]

dang blackwalnut, with an opening line like 'The lead story here, "The Strange Tree," ruined my life.' please elaborate on what happened.

Cheers

The lead story here, "The Strange Tree," ruined my life. Any chance of revisiting the site of my ruination via a scan of this masterpiece?

[blackwalnut2001]

Wow, that was fast! Sorry to hear that but thanks so much for your reply, Yoc.

[blackwalnut2001]

Hello rez, thanks for the Q. When I was 5 years old my family was on vacation and I got really sick, was laid up for almost a week. Being away from home I had none of my toys or anything else to play with, but I found an old comic my cousins must have left laying around. Turned out to be MYSTIC #1. So  basically, I had nothing to do but read this one over and over. As I remember, "The Strange Tree" went something like this...

This fella, a scientist, I believe, gets to experimenting with "tree serum" of some kind, and being a comic book scientist, injects himself with it. Next thing you know, BARK starts to form on his body. Gradually he starts growing roots, loses the ability to move, turns into a TREE and roots himself in the yard. Naturally, when the "new" tree is noticed (GROANING, no less), the neighbors get freaked out and chop it down (I mean, what would YOU do?), whereupon it SPEWS BLOOD and MOANS and DIES.

Well, I was so young, and had never seen a pre-code comic before, and it warped me good 'n' proper. Also led to an addiction to horror and the grotesque that persists to this day, and an unquenchable desire to seek out websites that post scans of pre-code horror comics.

I would LOVE to see this one again. There's a copy on eBay right now, if you want to look at it. The cover pretty much tells the story, but at $395, it'll be awhile before I see this one again... (sigh)

[rez]

Sir, with a story like that I certainly hope you procure a copy somewhere somehow someway.
Best to you and Good Luck.

Hello rez, thanks for the Q. When I was 5 years old my family was on vacation and I got really sick, was laid up for almost a week. Being away from home I had none of my toys or anything else to play with, but I found an old comic my cousins must have left laying around. Turned out to be MYSTIC #1. So  basically, I had nothing to do but read this one over and over.

[narfstar]

Blackwalnut was warped by comics by his own admission.  That must mean Wertham was right. We must remove all offensive comics from this site immediately so we cause no further harm to anyone else.  Everyone please erase your hard drives of this horrible stuff. I will be coming by your homes to make sure that you have complied.

[John C]

You say "warped" like it's a bad thing.

[narfstar]

Well for us normal purple warped is bad.

[blackwalnut2001]

WARPED GOOOOD, NORMAL PURPLE BAAAAAD!!!