It had become common practice by 1962 for Sid Greene to have editor Julie Schwartz "appear" in stories that he worked on, usually as a nondescript scientist or bystander. But there was one memorable tale where Julie got to play himself...

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"The Strange Adventure That Really Happened"

Writer: Gardner Fox

Artist: Sid Greene


Our story begins in the offices of National Periodical Publications, circa 1962:
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Fox is stunned as he looks over the blank pages. "Well, what was it about? Surely, you can remember it?" says Julie. But now Gardner is really stumped - he can't remember a thing about it! Editor Schwartz, now getting a little ornery, tells Fox to call up his wife Linda, because she can find the carbon copies of the story at home. [Heh! Anybody here remember carbon paper? That's so 50 years ago!]

Linda is able to find them alright, but it turns out they're blank, too! As Fox struggles to recall what he wrote, Ed Eisenberg, a production manager working at NPP at the time, races in to Julie's office to announce that news on the radio is reporting an alien invasion. Schwartz is now convinced that both he and Fox are trying to pull a prank on him, but as they look out the window, there is the alien craft hovering in the sky! Suddenly, something clicks inside Gardner's mind and he recalls that the spaceship matches the one in his story.

Things get even stranger when artist Sid Greene strolls in...:
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[Love the aside from Greene here - "Why did I ever become a science fiction artist?]

Julie suddenly remembers a recent event that may explain Fox's predicament:
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[A nice touch here as Julie throws a bone to the hardcore fans by referring back to "Flash of Two Worlds", which had appeared about 6 months earlier]

While Schwartz and Fox confer, a nuclear missile is fired at the aliens from the nearby McGuire Air Force base. Sure enough, just as the invaders had boasted, they effortlessly obliterate the oncoming missile. The aliens now give Earth an ultimatum, as Fox looks on aghast:
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The story now flashes back a day earlier, as we listen in on the aliens plotting "We must be certain the earth people have a powerful enough weapon with which to give our own weapons their firing power!" Apparently, the invaders weapons are useless, until they absorb the energy from another weapon. In order to effectively do this, they must hide an "inhali-scope" on Earth, a device which absorbs and transfers this destructive energy. As the aliens scout Earths' defenses via long-range telescope, they spot Gardner Fox writing his story:
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The invaders then use another advanced device to wipe out the story from Fox's mind as he sleeps, taking care to also erase his manuscripts. We now return to the present, as Julie desperately tries to jog Gardner's memory, but to no avail. He decides to call in the authorities, and they soon arrive in his office while Fox continues to strain his memory:
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[The general's name is likely an in-joke reference to France Herron, who was another DC writer at that time.]

They decide to take Gardner to his home in Yonkers, hoping that being back in familiar surroundings will spark him to remember the rest of his story, and the secret behind the alien invasion. Fox types out the beginning of the tale in his den, but once again gets stuck. But Julie chides him, "We can't give up... What do you do when you're stuck for a good solution to a problem?" Gardner replies that he talks out the story, and sometimes his pet mynah bird jabbers back at him. Fox and Schwartz are suddenly both struck with the same idea - the bird! Maybe if Gardner recites some of the story out loud, the bird will be prompted to respond with a word or phrase that will be the key to unraveling the mystery!

This proves to be easier said than done. In the end, a chance coincidence proves to be the difference...:
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The army is quickly dispatched to Carson Woods to destroy the inhali-scope, and the alien invasion is thwarted at last:
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Poor Gardner Fox - some editors are never satisfied, are they?

It's apparent that all parties involved must have had a lot of fun cooking this story up. Even if the resolution is a bit far-fetched, it's a lot of fun reading this one, too.

And it's nice to see that these guys didn't take themselves too seriously back in the day.



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"As for contentment, that is a myth.  Give a man everything he wishes and he will be unhappy, because he didn't wish for more; give him more, and he will die of his worries.  Only a turtle, asleep on a sunny log, knows contentment!"
-Merlin to Prince Valiant

            Hal Foster 3-7-43