When Venus Attacks P.I.s!!

Look, I know it's tough to come up with multiple stories every month for your private detective comic book.

So sometimes, things get weird:

You got sci-fi in my hard-boiled detective story!!

Well, Ken Shannon has bills to pay, so...

OK, so you're going to humor the crazy guy.

But how you you go about pretending to find hidden Venusians?

OMG, that idea is actually half brilliant!!

I suppose in the pre-internet days, that was actually not a bad way to soak up all of Earth's information. I might mention...a) just to to the library. They probably already subscribe to those magazine, have back issue archives...and it's free! b) Would you really want to subscribe to every periodical published? I mean, how are Playboy or Angling Times going to help you take over the world??

Anyway, it turns out that the list of people who subscribe to every periodical published is surprisingly large!

Oh, Ken, you're not done with this case yet!

Wait!! 5 privates dicks have been killed on this case?!?!

Don't worry, we'll come back to it.

Well, the first two addresses prove to be dead ends. And Shannon comes back to find Dee Dee and Pinchot taken.

Taken by...

Ah, but wait for the M. Night Shyamalan twist!

WHAT THE LIVING HELL?!?!?!?!?!?!?

So, OK...he comes the twist to the twist...

Wait a minute...

I have too many questions:

So, a batch of people escaped from an asylum, and they all have the exact same delusion? 

So, where do escaped asylum inmates get 6 or 7 matching alien costumes?!?

So, where does an asylum escapee get $3,000 in cash?

So, one private investigator was killed, and four went "missing"--and we can probably assume they were killed, too--why the hell weren't the police already all over this case? I mean, I know all 1950s P.I.s are rugged loners and such, but someone has to notice that they're missing, right?

So, this group of escaped lunatics is a bunch of mass murderers...and nobody really seems concerned?

I mean, Arkham and Gotham aren't this bad!!

Anyway...

Man, this story had better be adapted into an episode of Jessica Jones for season 3...

From Ken Shannon #10 (1953)