Think Things Through Before You Time Travel!

 

cover art by Steve Ditko

"Trapped in Yesterday" (published in Tales of Suspense #2--March 1959) is a very simple story with a climatic twist that the majority of readers will probably see coming from almost the first page. It's not a great story at all, but I like it regardless. I think its very simplicity makes it a sort of "comfort food" tale.

This is one of those cases, by the way, where no one is completely certain who the writer and artist were. The plot is tentatively attributed to Stan Lee and the actual script to Larry Lieber. The art is tentatively credited to Carl Burgos and, to me, it does look like his work. 

Anyway, the story itself is about a bitter janitor, unhappy with his life and his perception that everyone looks down on him, overhearing a scientist proclaim he's invented a time machine.

So the janitor comes up with what he considers a brilliant plan. He'll notices the time machine controls are clearly marked, so it's easy for anyone to use it. He plans to steal the machine and go back to Camelot in the 6th Century, bringing some modern equipment with him. He'll convince King Arthur he's a powerful wizard and live like a king! He'll set dynamite to blow up the lab after he leaves, so no one can come get him and spoil his plans. What can possilbly go wrong?

What can go wrong is that the janitor is a dope. There's no nice way to phrase it. He's an idiot.  He claims to have powerful magic, but there's no outlet in which to plug in the TV he brought. There's no radio stations to for his portable radio to pick up. And there's no place to develop the pictures he takes with his camera.

Yes, he's simply a dope. Unimpressed with his failed magic, the knights give him a beating and then give him a job...  as the castle janitor.

"Trapped in Yesterday" is indeed a simple and very predictable story. It's like eating a bag of potato chips--not as good as a steak-and-lobster dinner, but still something that hits the spot when you are in the mood for chips.

Next week, I believe we'll travel back even further in time and visit with Conan the Barbarian.