Soon, Chris is on his way to the Arctic Circle:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
Half-hour ago, I was planning to take my girl, Maria, to a dance. Now I’m on my way to Ankook, the end of the world! I should’ve had my head examined when I let Ambers sign me up as a special agent! But having my head examined – letting Ambers know my special mental powers – was what put me here!

Soon Matt arrives in Ankook, where he’s greeted by Laird Colbern, the owner of the only hotel in town. When the innkeeper expresses suspicion about his jet, Brain Boy mentally probes his host. Matt learns:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
Laird Colbern was a curious man, and listened in on his customers’ conversations, learning all he could about the American scientists’ plans and purposes. Then he took the information to Boznians in a room down the hall. They paid well for what he told them – that the Americans were here to check the effects on northern weather or recent Boznian atomic explosions in the atmosphere.

Strangely, Colbern has no notion of whatever happened to the vanished men. Matt asks Colbern for information regarding Professor Watt’s guide, but he claims ignorance. But after Matt checks in and rests, he’s visited by Laird Colbern, who delivers a verbal message in a zombie-like demeanor:

LAIRD COLBERN:
Matt Price. I didn’t trust you before, so I lied about the guide. I DO know who led Professor Watts and the American meteorologists to their forward camp on the glacier. His name is Seul Toonok, an Eskimo who lives at the edge of town. You can find him in a shack on Denton Street.

Later, Chris enters the hotel’s dining room, where he finds the Boznians sitting at a table. He thanks Colbern for his help, but the hotel owner claims to have no memory of their earlier conversation. That night, a concerned Brain Boy goes to check on Laird Colbern, but his mutant mental powers determine that although the man’s body is still living, Colbern’s mind has been completely erased, either due to a stroke or some outside “powerful influence”! Then the supposed anthropology student opens the door of the room occupied by two of the Boznians, Boris and Kavel, Matt’s superior brain immediately discovering a trap inside. Allowing himself to be captured, Matt stalls for time with a lengthy and pointless confession, buying the time to mentally probe his two “captors”. He learns that the Boznians were sent by their government to observe and report on Professor Watts and his meteorological expedition. But when they lost track of the ten vanished men, the Boznians – fearful of reprisal from their superiors – became desperate, attempting to force information from their Inuit guide. Once Matt realizes that they don’t know any more about the missing meteorologists than he doe, Brain Boy mentally levitates the hairy duo, then rams their skulls together like competing rams. Leaving the Boznian spies unconscious, Matt realizes that, just as Chris Ambers had claimed, this really is a hopeless situation. Going back to check on Laird Colbern, he discovers that the hotel owner is gone, with a trail of his footprints leading out into the frozen wasteland. Quickly dressing in warm clothes, Matt heads out to find Colbern, who’s walking through the snow -- in his pajamas! As Matt reaches out to stop him, he suddenly experiences what feels like a tremendous jolt of electricity, one that exerts a tremendous pressure on his brain!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Imposing the self-discipline of a master telepath, Brain Boy squeezed his mind free of all contact with reality…and plunged himself into unconsciousness, thus escaping the pressure on his brain. For a moment, Laird Colbern stood over the unconscious figure. Then his face twisted, his mouth opened, and he bellowed in a strange, chilling inhuman manner…as if he were the voice-mechanism of a prehistoric beast! All throughout the town of Ankook, people heard the terrific bellow…but none came to investigate. For the cry of the beast had been heard before…and men had walked into the wasteland, never to be seen again. So all kept silent for there was a heavy, hanging fear on the people…an ancient prehistoric fear!

Twenty minutes later, Matt recovers, determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. As the weather worsens, he seeks out Seul Toonok, the expedition’s guide, who lives in a shack on the outskirts of town. He finally locates the man, who he finds drunk:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE:
Seul Toonok? I’m glad you’re not asleep…

SEUL TOONOK:
Seul does not sleep anymore…not until the whiskey drugs his brain. Seul does not DARE sleep anymore. But what do you want here? You are a stranger. You should leave this town of disappearing men. Go away and…

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Freezing the guide with a quick, hypnotic command, Brain Boy looked into his mind…and saw a mystery far greater than Chris Ambers or anyone else in the States suspected. Men had been disappearing from Ankook for almost six months…many, many men! And because of a strange fear – mass hysteria of the townpeople (sp.) – no one would talk of the disappearances, not even the relatives of those missing.

As Matt releases his mental hold on the Inuit guide, Seul comments:

SEUL TOONOK:
It was as if I slept. It was as if the walking sleep came for me?

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE:
Walking sleep? Is that what you call whatever it is that makes people wander off into the wasteland here?

SEUL TOONOK:
I have said too much! What is it you wish of Seul?

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE:
Two things. Whatever you know about Professor Watts and his men. And that you should guide me as fare as you did them…to their forward camp on the tundra, I believe.

SEUL TOONOK:
I know nothing about the American scientists. I took them to their camp and left them all well. If you are foolish enough to want to go there, I will take you there for 100 dollars plus equipment and supplies. It will buy much whiskey to help Seul forget.

Returning to his hotel room to pack, Matt decides to phone his boss, Chris Ambers, but discovers that something’s wrong with the telephone lines – and whatever it is, it’s also affected Ankook’s telegraphs and short-wave radios. On top of all that, the increasingly heavy snowy weather has shut down the airport! Cut off from the rest of the world, Brain Boy has to make an effort to shrug off the grip of “cold fear” that he feels closing in on him. Later, when he shows up at Seul’s shack, he’s shocked to discover that Boris and Kavel, the two Boznians insist on accompanying them, having also cut a deal with Seul. (He may be an alcoholic, but he’s also a cagey businessman!) Ten hours later, they arrive at Professor Watts’ deserted forward camp. But while Seul’s busy drinking, Boris and Kavel pull out guns which they aim at Brain Boy, insistent that the meteorologists are still alive and are actually American spies. Despite these recent developments, Brain Boy notices that, as crazy as it seems, it feels much warmer at the campsite, “like a winter evening back home instead of at the North Pole”. Seul confirms this:

SEUL TOONOK:
You are right. Professor Watts said the same thing. He was going to prove that certain atom explosions change the temperature and the balance of nature.

BORIS:
Lies! Dirty capitalistic lies! Our tests were harmless!

As the search party retires to their tents to sleep (after the Boznians threaten to shoot Brain Boy if he pulls another “trick” on them like he did at the hotel), they all hear a blood-curdling howl rise above the fierce arctic wind! Later, while Matt sleeps, exhausted, pajama-clad Laird Colbern comes stalking out of the storm. When he enters the Boznian’s tent, they realize that the blue-skinned man is frozen solid, but when they touch Colbern, they’re blasted by tremendous, mind-shattering jolts of energy that saps their will. Next, they surround Seul:

SEUL TOONOK:
I thought I heard someone call…NO! Seul is only poor Eskimo guide, good for nothing but drinking! PLEASE! I won’t…my head…grows heavy…

Meanwhile, Brain Boy awakens, only to find himself surrounded by his “walking sleeper” expedition-mates. Probing their brains, he discovers:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
No thoughts…no minds…like INFANTS! Yet something is coming from them…some sort of thought energy…a hypnotic force…same as I felt with Laird in town. They seem to be acting as radio receivers for a powerful intelligence. I’ve got to fight it!

To avoid their jolting touch, Matt fakes defeat, acting as “stiff and deathlike” as his captors, following them as they march of into the howling northern night. Hours later, they approach and enter a huge, vagina-dentata-shaped cave in a wall of sheer, ice-covered rock. Matt makes a startling observation:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
The ice never MELTED from that cave entrance! It’s still too cold for that. Those jagged edges prove it was SMASHED…probably from the inside! But what in the world could break the ice at least ten feet thick and over so large a cave entrance? It would have to have the strength of a…a thousand elephants!

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Then FEAR came in a sudden, overwhelming, primeval wave! Instincts unused for thousands of years awakened in Brain Boy, telling him to run, telling him a horrible enemy of mankind was near, telling him that no human could hope to survive this enemy’s attack!

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
That smell! Like a ton of snakes! BUT I’VE GOT TO GO ON!

Matt and the others finally enter an enormous chamber, containing the missing scientists…and a gigantic, living Tyrannosaurus rex! (Y’know, all that suspenseful build-up to this “reveal” is quite good; it’s a shame that this comic book’s cover “telegraphed” its existence, eh?)

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
GOOD HEAVENS! A Tyrannosaur! ALIVE! But…they’ve been extinct almost a million years! It’ll kill us all! Wait…those men are working right near it…But whose (sp.) CONTROLLING these men? Who made them come here? An ANIMAL, no matter how huge, certainly couldn’t. The Tyrannosaur didn’t have the brain-power of a mouse!

Matt tries to communicate with Professor Watts, but he and his men are too busy mindlessly assembling some machinery…like they were living puppets! With one eye on the enormous monster standing quietly among them, Brain Boy followed the lead of his expedition-mates and begins to work:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
I just received a MENTAL COMMAND to chop away the ice from this section of wall. All these men are following mental commands, but who is sending them?

Astounded at the carnivore’s calm demeanor, Brain Boy follows it as it saunters down a passageway that leads to another cave, one in which another team of humans labor to carve away the ice from the body of a flash-frozen Brontosaurus! (Of course, paleontologists now realize that the “brontosaurus” never really existed, having been assembled from the remains of two different dinosaurs.) As the Tyrannosaurus rex begins to feed on the partially-exposed brontosaurus meat, Brain Boy wrestles with the question of who is “running this fantastic operation”:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
No answers to anything, yet. And my stomach is screaming for food. Maybe I can get a piece of Brontosaurus later? But the smell of it…and raw…ugh! Got to stop thinking of food. Wish I had something to read. Maybe I’ll read a few minds. But thee men are all mindless slaves. I’ll try the Tyrannosaur. He might have a few feeble, primitive thoughts.

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Looking into the Tyrannosaur’s mind, Brain Boy expected a feeble intelligence, less than a dog’s, cat’s or horse’s. Instead…

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
GOOD LORD! There is no master HUMAN mind behind all this. The Tyrannosaur itself is the super-intelligence! He has a brain to math his bulk…a fantastic, brilliant, powerful brain…and he’s responsible for everything that’s happened. It’s only a matter of time before he senses I’m free of control. I’d better red his mind while he’s eating, and learn all I can.

NARRATIVE CAPTION:
Out of the monster’s great brain came the story of his past. Member of the Tyrannosaur family, it was king of the prehistoric world, killing all other animals and feeding well.* But it was NOT just like a Tyrannosaur…like man, who came later, its mind developed quickly. Unlike man, it became expert at controlling the primitive brains around it. Soon, it ruled wherever it went, by means of its great natural strength and its fantastic mental powers – telepathic powers to read the animal minds around it: hypnotic powers to control those minds…including those of the first, primitive ape-men! For thousands of years these brilliant monsters were kings of the Earth…though modern anthropologists had no clues to show them Tyrannosaurs had been thinking creatures. Then came a great cooling-off period – an ice-age that destroyed vast numbers of the larger animals. Finally, the last-surviving herd of brainy Tyrannosaurs – five males and five females – reached the area of the North Pole, unable to escape the killing cold any longer. Desperately, they sought shelter. Nine of them pushed deep into the caverns beyond the first cave. One, named Trax by the rest, fell exhausted in the first large chamber. A few other animals came to the cave for shelter…but it was the end for all the huge beasts. The cold increased…ice masses called glaciers move over the land…it was a time of death. Frozen alive, all ten Tyrannosaurs ceased to move and breath…yet, through some strange quirk of nature, THEY DID NOT DIE. No portion of their bodies or brains were damaged, as were the other animals. Quick-frozen, they lay in a perfect state of preservation. The ice moved into the caves, sealing each animal into a rock-hard tomb. Then it filled the chambers, and the passageways, and finally the entrance and entire hillside! The ice-age passed, and the world grew green and alive again…except for the North and South Poles. There, the ice-age remained, though the temperature rose from its incredible low. Human beings became the dominant specie instead of Tyrannosaurs. There was no memory of the hypnotic monsters…no record at all. No one knew they had existed. And of all that had roamed and ruled the Earth, only the ten in their icy tomb remained. The others had long since passed to dust…a few of them left bones which were reconstructed in museums. But no one knew of their tremendous intelligence. The ten in the cave would sleep forever, it seemed…until the day the 1945 when a new and terrible force entered the world! World War II ended: the atomic-arms race began. The United States and the U. N. tried to limit testing once the dangers of radiation became known…and once further dangers were suspected, but other nations ignored the U. N., and tested massive bombs. One of the side-effects of these tests was a slight change in weather conditions all over the world…and a more noticeable change in certain isolated spots…among them the area around the northern town of Ankook. The ice formations held, however…exception in one spot – the wall of ice over the cave. There, one day when the sun was highest, a crack appeared and inside, the ground trembled as a huge beast, asleep for millions of years, suddenly breathed again! And then it was out, free and powerful and ready to rule the world again – a world where men now ruled. MEN, who were nothing but food to the awakened Trax and his still-sleeping companions! Men, who Trax soon began gathering to help in his purpose! The mind-slaves were gathered quickly, easily. Trax needed them to help him free the other nine Tyrannosaurs from their tombs further in the cave, where the ice still held. Professor Watts and his men were put to work constructing heating equipment and chemical solvents to melt the ice. The others would use picks.

That’s when this bizarre (and rather memorable) conversation/contest of wills begins between the mutant human and the mutant dinosaur:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
And he had his slaves cut the telephone wires and destroy radio communications so as to seal off Ankook from the outside world. And he trapped as many men as he could, using mind-slaves – that’s why Laird told me about Seul; so I’d come out here and be trapped!]

TRAX (thinking):
Yes, puny chicken! And you ARE trapped! And so will every human being on Earth be trapped, once my companions are alive again! Did you think I didn’t know about you, chicken? You and all humanity are but FOOD for Trax and the master specie – TYRANNOSAURUS MENTALIS! I played with you because your mind was a little better than most human minds. Now I will put your mind to sleep, and let you work with the scientists. And afterward? You will help our specie grow – you and all your kind will make our children fat! SLEEP, little chicken, SLEEP! Your master commands…or I will swallow you whole!

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
I couldn’t fight you when I thought you had no mind…but now! DOWN, TRAX! Down, you lizard! Men have come a long way from the half-apes you ate. They will never be food for lizards!

TRAX (thinking):
I have played with you long enough! Now scream your life away between my teeth!

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
You cannot close your jaws, lizard. YOU CANNOT CLOSE YOUR JAWS! You are turning to solid ice. Your heart is slowing. Fell the breath die in your lungs. Fell the ice enter your veins!

TRAX (thinking):
Human…you are too powerful! Wait! I will serve you! I will make you master of all the world! You will command Trax! You will command TEN like Trax!

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (thinking):
No deals, lizard. You would destroy us as soon as you could! It’s a law of nature, I suppose. You had your day on Earth…NOW GO BACK TO YOUR FROZEN DEATH!

TRAX (thinking):
I…die. But you die under me, terrible chicken! I crush you with…my…body!

With that, exhausted Brain Boy summons the strength to levitate himself into the air, avoiding being turned into a human crepe by Trex’s colossal dead weight. And with the monster’s evil influence gone, his human mind-slaves are slaves no longer. Led by Brain Boy and Suel, they begin the long march back to Ankook, where they receive medical aid. Back home, a week later, Matt receives a phone call from his boss:

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE:
I don’t care what you have to say, Chris! I’m taking my girl Maria to a dance, and any new assignments can wait until morning!

CHRIS AMBERS:
No assignments, kid. Just wanted to tell you I got word from Ankook hospital. The professor, his men and all the others – including our Boznian “friends” – will recover. Well, have yourself a hot time at the dance, kid!

MATT (BRAIN BOY) PRICE (to Maria):
The last time he said I’d have a COOL time I ended up at the North Pole. Now he says have a HOT time…is he getting ready to send me to Africa?

Also included in this issue of BRAIN BOY are the stories and features:

• “Dream Of Hate”, a black-and-white inside-front-cover one-page story drawn by Frank Springer. – This tells the story of Keeler, a college student who has a vivid dream of himself as a shabby, coffin-bearing soldier in a funeral procession, surrounded by a crowd who wants to kill him. Five years later, during World War II, after enlisting in the US Army Air Corps, Keeler and the rest of his bomber crew are shot down over Nazi Germany. Captured and taken into town, Keeler and his buddies are forced to carry the coffin of a German civilian who’d been recently killed – exactly replicating his earlier dream.

• “The Mystic Murder Case”, a one-page text-story.

• “The Strange Mr. Ozimandias”, a back-up story written by Herb Kastle and drawn by Frank Springer. – Having heard of “the master yoga, the man who knows the thousand psychic mysteries of the Orient”, a beautiful blonde woman named Rose Vran seeks help from Mr. Michael Ozimandias. She explains how her husband, Walter, is obsessed with regaining his youth, spending a fortune (not to mention risking his life) while tracking down various magical “ingredients” that will lead to the secret he desires. Ozimandias explains that if Walter can kill an evil man and add his heart of a formula consisting of the Book Of Hindu, a vial of the blood of the Holy Mountain yak and the Egyptian scroll of the black mummy, “he’ll be able to reverse the flow of time in his life…and that will not give him youth, but destroy him!” They rush to the club of gambler Rock Harris, a “rotten, evil” dealer in narcotics “and other illegal things”, hoping to stop Walter, but he’s already gotten past Harris’ bodyguard. Unfortunately, they’re too late – Rock Harris is already dead! Desperate, they head for the Vran home in the suburbs, where they find Walter performing the dreaded “black mass of youth”! Unable to penetrate the patio’s locked, shatterproof doors and windows, they can only watch helplessly as Walter Vran drinks a magic potion, which immediately begins to transform him younger and younger…until he disappears altogether! According to the strange Mr. Ozimandias, “He paid for his murder and his obsession. There’s no tampering with time!”

• “Black Magic”, a black-and-white inside-back-cover one-page story drawn by Frank Springer. – This shows how, in many primitive places on Earth, black magic is still in use. It explores witch doctors from the bush areas of Africa, the leopard men of Gaboon, India’s ritual murderers known as “thugees”, New Guinea “soul-buriers” and Haitian voodoo practitioners.

• “Deadly Taboo”, a back-cover one-page story drawn by Frank Springer. – This tells the story of a tribal chief who was forbidden to eat bananas. But when the chief learns that he ate food that was prepared in a pot that held mashed bananas the day before, he experiences stomach pains, which lead to convulsions -- and death! “Taboo – being told not to do some single, harmless thing – had killed again!” * Please note that this and other prehistoric images in this story are artistic “swipes” from 1950s dinosaur specialist Rudolph Zallinger’s illustrations from the Time-Life nature book, THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.