From Beyond the Unknown #23 is an issue of the series From Beyond the Unknown (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1973.
Synopsis for "Secret of the Man-Ape!"
This story is reprinted from Strange Adventures #75.
Aliens on a planet 100,000 light years away view Earth through a telescope and see that the planet is dominated by a gorilla civilization. They realize that what they are seeing is 100,000 years old, but they assume (incorrectly) that gorillas must still rule the world. In order to find out if they can conquer Earth, they transform one of their people into the form of a gorilla and rocket him through hyperspace to present-day Earth to act as a spy.
The alien gorilla lands in Africa where he makes two discoveries. First, he finds out that gorillas are no longer intelligent and the new dominant civilization is human. Luckily, though, he also overhears hunters say that they have been contracted to capture and deliver a gorilla to a scientist who plans to test his invention: a gorilla-to-human converter. So the alien gorilla allows himself to be captured so he can be converted to human form, which will allow him to perform his spy mission.
At the scientist's lab, he sees the scientist hide the plans for his device in three library books and then die in an accident. The books get returned to the library, so the gorilla goes to the library and checks them out. He flees with the books in a stolen car, but since he is unfamiliar with Terran cars, he gets into a terrible accident which kills him and destroys the gorilla-to-human converter.
Appearing in "Secret of the Man-Ape!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Language-Master of Space!"
This story is reprinted from Mystery in Space #67.
Appearing in "Language-Master of Space!"
Featured Characters:
- Gideon Karr (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Klyarans (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
Antagonists:
- Sfarrans (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
- Skrann (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Callistan (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
- Dhu Ghar (Mentioned only)
- Kleevan Kat (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
- Sporrans (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Arcturus-4 (Single appearance)
- Balmorak (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
- Balmorak Spaceport
- Dellagro (Single appearance)
- Gran (Single appearance)
- Klyara (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
- Proganus (Single appearance)
- Slistilyssa (Single appearance)
- Solonar (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
Items:
- Delayogas bomb (Mentioned only)
- Fire Gem (Single appearance)
Synopsis for "World of Doomed Spacemen"
This story is reprinted from Strange Adventures #104.
Appearing in "World of Doomed Spacemen"
Characters:
- Howard Parker (First appearance)
- Tommy (First appearance)
- Tom Miller
- Extar
Locations:
- 25th Century
- Space Museum (First appearance)
- Procyon (unknown year)
Items:
- Contact lens
Vehicles:
- Star-Gazer
Notes
- "Secret of the Man-Ape":
- the alien gorilla does not pull a gun on the librarian as is depicted on the cover. No explanation is given as to why the librarian would let a gorilla check books out of the library.
- Contrary to what one might think, this villain is not Man-Ape, the villain from Captain Comet.
- again, a story that implies that gorillas were once a civilized race thousands of years ago. Strange Adventures Vol 1 69 implies that such events took place 1,500,000 years ago, but that the gorillas' rule over humans ended when the time traveler Edward Smith taught the captives how to overcome their masters. Obviously different timelines.
See Also