Pre-code horror, the term used to describe horror comics made before the introduction of the Comics Code, is a valuable, highly prized genre because of how lurid and violent the stories could get. Unfortunately, this comic is POST code, meaning the publishers couldn't lean into their readers' morbid desires, so they had to try to be clever instead. Since most comic book publishers are not exactly what you'd call "clever", we often wound up with stories like this, but at least we have some Al Williamson art to class it up!


Uncle Expository lays everything out for our poor overworked hero, and his face half-hidden in chiaroscuro shadow does definitely not suggest anything nefarious on his part, no sirree!


Barrett got rich and famous studying atomic science, which I guess just proves that back in the 1950s there was a lot more money in STEM jobs than there is now.


So he goes to sleep and when he wakes up he finds out he's been shrunk down to Jerry the Mouse size. Man, I dunno, dream or not, if I wake up and I've been shrunk down like that, the last thing I'd be doing is trying to climb out of bed and get to the floor. On the other hand, my cats usually sleep on the bed with me so maybe I would try to get out of there as fast as possible.


Luckily, he passes out and when he wakes up he's normal size again! UNluckily, his doctors assume he must be crazy! Which seems like quite a leap, considering. It's a good thing his relatives are so concerned about him!


Ooohhh I get it now. The doctor has shares in a mental institution and he's on the lookout for new tenants. Always Be Closing, doc!


The same thing happens again, but this time Barrett uses his sexy six pack abs to convince his concerned relatives to give him one more chance before sending him to the loony bin!


Showing true American ingenuity, Barrett decides the only way out of this recurring nightmare is shooting his way out.


THAT'S what makes you question this? Didn't you wonder why your pajamas shrunk with you? (It's because this is a post comics code comic, otherwise Al Williamson absolutely would've drawn him naked)


Suddenly we're out in the woods and Barrett is so disoriented he accepts a ride from a complete stranger who looks like a hobo. The house is gone because, in his visit to the lab earlier that day, the weapon he chose to take to bed with him that night was... a shrinking ray? That seems counterintuitive to me but I guess that's why he earns the big bucks as an atomic scientist.


They've disappeared! Or... they went out somewhere? They have lives outside your neurotic shrinking dreams, BARRETT.


Uncle Expository explains the twist! Barrett's relatives were drugging him and driving him an hour away each night to a gigantic duplicate of his house, then driving him back to his normal sized house in time for him to wake up in his normal sized bed. A watertight plan that couldn't possibly ever go wrong. I wouldn't have bothered building a gigantic version of the entire house, since he was never able to leave his bedroom, but again, I'm no atomic scientist, or even the relative of one.


I dunno what she's so upset about, tiny houses are all the rage right now. They can sell this one for big moolah.


30 seconds later the squirrel eats them.

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