The Unexpected #134 is an issue of the series The Unexpected (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1972. It was published on February 24, 1972.
Synopsis for "The Restless Dead"
Two grave robbers dig up bodies for the local medical school as a means to earn a living. Sandor and Jan collect the bodies from local cemeteries but Jan becomes increasingly disgusted by the practice and begins to develop reluctancies. In the meantime they are contacted by a Dr Harvasch to collect more corpses for his research. Jan and Sandor visit the doctor and find that the has been creating new beings from the parts of old bodies. The doctor claims that his life forms will be able to free mankind from hard labor especially since his life forms are able to follow instructions so well. They can even create other non-people but they require more body parts which Sandor and Jan are asked to provide. That night, Jan declares that he will no longer participate in the practice. Sandor realizes that he must strike out on his own to meet the demands of his new employer. He loads a fresh batch of bodies into his wagon overnight and arrives at the home of Dr Harvasch. He is then shocked to find that the doctor has been transformed into a non-person. The doctor declares that the Sandor will no longer have any use for money once the process is carried out on him. Sandor cries out for help as he sees that his partner Jan has already been transformed into a non-person. Their greed had done them in unexpectedly.
Appearing in "The Restless Dead"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Dressed to Kill!"
A mysterious man walks into a tailor shop owned by Ed Mercer. It is almost closing time but Mercer notices that the man has arrived in a chauffeured car and assumes he is wealthy. The man states he wants to order a $400 suit but states he cannot stay for the fitting. He tells Mercer that he will return the next night at seven to complete the fitting and pays Mercer a healthy retainer for his trouble. The fitting is completed the next night and the mysterious stranger emphasizes that the suit must be finished and delivered to his home by eight in the morning the next day. Mercer works through the night making sure the suit is finished in time. He arrives at the customer address and delivers the completed suit as promised. He then asks to see that the fit is perfect. He is escorted into a room containing the casket of his client. The mysterious man lies dead in the casket wearing the blue suit he had purchased from Mercer. The man apparently knew that he was going to be killed but was tired or running. His final arrangement had been to purchase a nice suit for his funeral.
Appearing in "Dressed to Kill!"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Fear"
A man by the name of Gault hires a man servant for his estate. The servant Chivvers starts immediately but strange things start to occur immediately. A gas lamp almost suffocates Gault until he is rescued by Chivvers. A black cat then attacks Gault but it turns out that the cat is a stray that had been adopted by Chivvers. At one point Chivvers prepares an omelet dish with mushrooms that cause Gault to experience hallucinations. He hallucinates that he is being chased by owls and bats as they push him to the edge of insanity. One night Gault hears sobs, upon investigating he finds Chivvers comforting his niece Griselda who has been turned away from her lodgings along with the rest of her family due to lack of funds. Gault notices how lovely Griselda is and immediately offers for the family to stay with him. The ghoulish family members then burst through the door and begin destroying property with their wild and unusual behavior. Gault attempts to evict the family but they take Griselda with them much to the his dismay. He then finds himself begging for them to return. In the end Gault finds himself in the role of the servant to Chivvers' family, a slave to Griselda's beauty.
Appearing in "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Fear"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for "The Bravest Man Alive!"
reprinted from House of Mystery Vol 1 18Two stage performers vie for the title of Bravest Man Alive. The two men Carlton and Dubois have similar death- defying acts but they have difficulty booking performing jobs in Marseille. They both meet and agree to a two week test of bravery. They will both try to frighten each other until one of them cracks, the loser will quit the stage at once. That same night, Carlton receives a scare when he falls down an elevator shaft but is caught by a net at the bottom. The next morning Dubois encounters a sea creature at the bottom of a river. The pranks continue until the two finally decide that a duel is the only way to solve their dilemma. The two men meet in a nearby cemetery and fire at each other. Dubois is hit and goes down. Carlton then discovers that Dubois had used blanks in his gun to show he was the bravest. Carlton then has a heart attack and dies along with Dubois. The two men matched their bravery into a double grave but the question lingers who is the bravest now?
Appearing in "The Bravest Man Alive!"
- Appearances not yet listed
Synopsis for "Time Bomb from 1500 A.D."
reprinted from House of Secrets Vol 1 58Dan Summers and Hal Breese discover an old Cryptogram in which the famous renaissance genius recounts the story of one of his deadliest inventions. A king and his castle are under siege and Leonardo agrees to develop a weapon for him to drive off the attacking army. In a sudden turn of events, an approaching army appears and the attackers flee. The siege is lifted and Leonardo dumps his secret weapon into the sea. The two journalists realize that the weapon must still lie off the coast and they are determined to find it. They fly to Rome and search the Italian coast with their equipment. As luck would have it, they discover a capsule containing a statue of a standing javelin thrower. Unbeknownst to the two Journalists, they are secretly being watched by a mysterious figure that is interested in their find. They remove the statue to a secluded area for study and find that it is loaded with chemicals and a primitive propulsion engine. They speculate that the statue is some kind of rocket. They notice that the javelin points straight up in the air but they locate a lever that allows them to adjust the javelin so that it can be aimed at an enemy. At that point the journalists are abducted by a group of gangsters. They steal that statue and load it into a truck. Summers and Breese waist no time in searching for the stolen masterpiece. Using their helicopter, they spot a marble quarry from the air. They find that they have arrived at the site of the castle that Leonardo was defending. They spot the statue but are abducted by the gangsters. They find that the gangsters plant to use the rocket statue to rob a train full of gold bullion. They begin to aim the javelin at the train but the statue suddenly explodes. Summers and Breese are unharmed as they realize that Leonardo had rigged the statue to prevent it from being used as a weapon by modern man. The statue could be fired without exploding as long as the javelin was horizontal. Once the javelin was changed to a horizontal position it exploded because that meant it was being used for evil purposes. Summers inquires as to how Breese knew that the statue was been booby trapped. Breese explains that while they were in the air he noticed a irrigation canal shaped like the statue and it warned that the statue would explode if the position of the javelin was changed horizontally.
Appearing in "Time Bomb from 1500 A.D."
- Appearances not yet listed
See Also