The 39 Screams # 1

Story 1: "Till Death Do Us Part"

Rachel Devon is very ill, but still hangs on. Her husband Lance is holding a deathbed vigil, not because he is the doting husband, but because he doesn't know where the will is. Lance's lover, Lora Ann, gives the nurse the night off and adjusts Rachel's medicine leading to her death. Predictably, Rachel comes back mad.

Story 2: "The Alcoholic and the Doll"

A drunk feels drawn to purchase a ventriloquist's dummy. He gets drunk that night, gets rolled, and thinks something strange has happened with the doll. The next day he gets fired from his job, and eventually ends up having dinner with his folks. His father is angry and meeting with his own mortality and the drunk can't handle it. The doll pulls him out of the bar at the end of a bender, but in the end the doll can no longer take the depressing life of men.

Story 3: "The Age of Super-Heroes"

Danny is a pimply faced bookworm in high school who wants to be a super-hero. He decides to find the secret and determines that exposure to gamma rays would trigger the change. He sneaks onto a military base just as an explosion is taking place. Alas, for Danny, it is not to be.