This tale, written and illustrated in 1970-71, embodies two problems...
...the "collector mind-set", and extrapolating future technology based on what currently-exists!
Most of this blog's readers, as well as myself, share (to an extent) Gerson's attitude about collectibles, though perhaps not a willingness to die before giving them up!
Overall, this tale, written and illustrated by Michael (The Shadow) Kaluta, holds up well in a Twilight Zone-esque fashion.
However, the idea that a derelict land-line phone would, after a couple of centuries, still be hooked up to a functioning network defies belief in 2024, since few of our still-standing public phones are still operational!
Add to that the fact nobody in the tale carries some sort of personal communication device, as was common in sci-fi/fantasy tales written since the 1930s and set in the near-future, and what was delightfully-ironic in the 1970s seems quaint and improbable from a 21st Century viewpoint!
Notes: Scream Door, the prozine this tale appeared in, consisted mostly of material meant for the legendary magazine Web of Horror.
When Web was cancelled as of #3, almost all of the already-completed stories for later issues ended up in either this one-shot or the three-issue series I'll Be Damned, by the same publisher.
"Buddy..." also appeared in Marvel's b/w magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #1 (1975).
However, the idea that a derelict land-line phone would, after a couple of centuries, still be hooked up to a functioning network defies belief in 2024, since few of our still-standing public phones are still operational!
Add to that the fact nobody in the tale carries some sort of personal communication device, as was common in sci-fi/fantasy tales written since the 1930s and set in the near-future, and what was delightfully-ironic in the 1970s seems quaint and improbable from a 21st Century viewpoint!
Notes: Scream Door, the prozine this tale appeared in, consisted mostly of material meant for the legendary magazine Web of Horror.
When Web was cancelled as of #3, almost all of the already-completed stories for later issues ended up in either this one-shot or the three-issue series I'll Be Damned, by the same publisher.
"Buddy..." also appeared in Marvel's b/w magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #1 (1975).
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics
Visit Amazon and Buy...
