Tomorrow Midnight is a mass-market paperback collection of comic adaptations of eight short science fiction stories by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

, gathered from the pages of the EC Comics

EC Comics

Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...

 comic books of the 1950s. It is one of five EC collections published by Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

 between 1964 and 1966 (the others are Tales from the Crypt

Tales from the Crypt (book)

Tales from the Crypt is a mass-market paperback collection of eight horror comic stories gathered from the pages of the EC Comics comic books of the 1950s. It is one of five such collections published by Ballantine Books between 1964 and 1966...

, The Vault of Horror

The Vault of Horror (book)

The Vault of Horror is a mass-market paperback collection of eight horror comic stories gathered from the pages of the EC Comics comic books of the 1950s. It is one of five such collections published by Ballantine Books between 1964 and 1966...

, Tales of the Incredible

Tales of the Incredible

Tales of the Incredible is a mass-market paperback collection of eight science fiction comic stories gathered from the pages of the EC Comics comic books of the 1950s. It is one of five collections published by Ballantine Books between 1964 and 1966...

and The Autumn People

The Autumn People

The Autumn People is a mass-market paperback collection of comic adaptations of eight short horror and crime stories by Ray Bradbury, gathered from the pages of the EC Comics comic books of the 1950s...

), and one of two made up of comic adaptations of Bradbury's work (the other is The Autumn People). The presentation of the material is problematic at best, since the color comic book pages are represented in black and white and broken into horizontal strips to fit the mass-market paperback format. Still, the collections are historically important. They were the first attempt to resurrect the EC comics, only a decade after public outcry had driven them off the racks. They were the first introduction of those comics to a generation of readers too young to remember them in their first run.

The stories are drawn from the comic books Weird Fantasy

Weird Fantasy

Weird Fantasy is a science fiction anthology comic that was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The companion comic for Weird Fantasy was Weird Science...

and Weird Science. The adaptation was not credited in the original publications but was probably by Al Feldstein

Al Feldstein

Albert B. Feldstein is an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine Mad. Since retiring from Mad, Feldstein has concentrated on American paintings of Western wildlife...

, the editor of the books. The artists were such EC stalwarts as Bill Elder, Jack Kamen

Jack Kamen

Jack Kamen was an illustrator from Brooklyn, New York. His first professional job was as an assistant to a sculptor working for the Texas Centennial. He studied sculpture with Agop Agopoff and was a student of Harvey Dunn, George Brandt Bridgman and William C. McNulty...

, Joe Orlando

Joe Orlando

Joseph Orlando was a prolific illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades...

, John Severin

John Severin

John Powers Severin is an American comic book artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat; for Marvel Comics, primarily on its war and Western comics; and for the satiric magazine Cracked...

, Al Williamson

Al Williamson

Alfonso "Al" Williamson was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy...

 and Wally Wood

Wally Wood

Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...

.

The cover painting by Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media...

, himself an EC alumnus, is original to this collection.

Contents

• Foreword
• "Punishment Without Crime" (Kamen)
• "I, Rocket" (Williamson)
• "King of the Gray Spaces" (Severin & Elder)
• "The One Who Waits" (Williamson)
• "The Long Years" (Orlando)
• "There Will Come Soft Rains
  There Will Come Soft Rains (short story)
  "There Will Come Soft Rains" is a short story by science fiction author Ray Bradbury which was first published in the May 6, 1950 issue of Collier's...
  
  " (Wood)
• "Mars Is Heaven!
  Mars is Heaven!
  "Mars is Heaven!" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury originally published in 1948. "Mars is Heaven!" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one the best science fiction short stories of all time. As such, it was published in The Science...
  
  " (Wood)
• "Outcast of the Stars" (Orlando)