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)
