How “Forbidden Worlds #01” begins
Every balloon from the first pages, as it is read aloud:
Forbidden worlds
Exploring the supernatural!
Demon of destruction
Here it is, reader… The most amazing story of the age… The hitherto unpublished account of how a dread demon of destruction stalked the earth on his mad, murderous rampage! Bar the doors and turn the lights low… For he may be coming your way!
In the laboratory of don brady, young atomic physicist…
Blast it… My calculations came out wrong again! I… I'm working myself into a nervous breakdown, trying to hit on the single formula that will enable me to perfect my atomic engine… But it always eludes me!
Don, darling… Telegram!
Thanks, mary… Hmm, it's from my granduncle's executor… You know, the mad character who died last month after a lifetime of delving into the supernatural! The wire says he left me his house… Mystic manor!
Oh, that ancient, lonely house you told me about? I think it's the perfect spot for you to take a rest in, don… To get away from your lab for a while!
Ridiculous… What sane man would want to stay in that spooky, broken-down pile of bricks?
But you're working yourself to death on that invention of yours! You need a change, a rest… And after you come back from your vacation at mystic manor, you'll be able to attack your work with redoubled vigor!
All right, dearest… You're right, as usual! I'll head up there and try to forget my atomic engine! But you've got to come along and help look after me!
Sweetheart… !
This is jonesville, nearest town to mystic manor… Think i'll stop off here and hire some servants to open up the place for us!
That ought to be easy… The papers say this part of the state has been badly hit by unemployment! The townspeople will probably be fighting each other for a chance at a job!
Mystic manor? Mister… I wouldn't dare send anyone out to that devil-ridden place!
You must be crazy! But if you won't help me, i'll find someone who will if i have to go to every house in town!
But everywhere in town, the same strange terror!
I'd starve before i'd work in that house of demons! Satan himself is master there!
Has the whole town gone mad?… Come on, mary… Let's look up the local doctor! Maybe a man of science will tell us what this supernatural poppycock is all about!
Mystic manor? Well, sir, as a physician i hate to admit it… But the townspeople have good reason to be terrified of that place! An aura of fiendish evil hovers over the house, almost like some presence from out of the vast unknown… A grisly something in the air that works its evil way into your very soul and fills you with ancient, clammy dread!
That's ridiculous, doctor… How can you believe such superstitious nonsense?