The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1960



   Dell’s The Time Machine
adapted by Alex Toth
First publication: Mar 1960

The second comic book adaption was drawn by the talented storyteller and artist Alex Toth who closely followed the movie script in Dell’s Four Color 1085. Online sources indicate that this was March of 1960, though that would be several months before the movie.

A black and white reprint appeared in the 2005 Alex Toth Reader (Volume 2).

 The year is 1900. The place is London, England, at an imposing mansion overlooking the river Thames. Impatient dinner guests sit in the library, awaiting an overdue host . . . 




   “I Love Galesburg in the Springtime”
by Jack Finney
First publication: McCall’s, Apr 1960

Reporter Oscar Mannheim has many opportunities in his long life, but never wants to leave the midwest Galesburg that he grew up in—and neither do its many other citizens and artifacts of the past.

 Tomake sure, I walked over to a newsboy and glanced at the stack of papers at his feet. It was The World; and The World had’t been published for years. The lead story said something about President Cleveland. I’ve found that front page since, in the Public Library files, and it was printed June 11, 1894. 




   The Boy and the Pirates
by Bert I. Gordon, Lillie Hayward and Jerry Sackham (Gordon, director)
First release: 13 Apr 1960

Young Jimmy Warren asks a genie to send him from present-day Massachusetts to the time of Blackbeard where in order to avoid becoming a genie himself, Jimmy must trick the pirate into returning to Massachusetts.

 This is a funny lookin’ bottle—yeah, neat. But I bet if I took it home, Pop would say, “It’s just another piece of junk.” Nobody let’s me do anything I want to. I wish I was far away from here; I wish I was on a pirate ship. 


   “Flirgleflip”
by William Tenn
First publication: Of All Possible Worlds, Jun 1960

It’s difficult living in the intermediate era—the first to have an official Temporal Embassy from the future—because the embassy is always bossing people around and canceling promising research, but Thomas Alva Banderling won’ be stopped from sending his Martian archaeologist flirglefliper friend Terton to the past so that Banderling himself can get credit for inventing the time machine.

 Exactly. The Temporal Embassy. How can science live and breathe with such a modifier? It’s a thousand times worse than any of these ancient repressions like the Inquisition, military control, or university trusteeship. You can’t do this—it will be done first a century later; you can’t do that—the sociological impact of such an invention upon your period will be too great for its present capacity; you should do this—nothing may come of it now, but somebody in an allied field a flock of years from now will be able to integrate your errors into a useful theory. 




   Beyond the Time Barrier
by Arthur C. Pierce
First release: July 1960

Major Bill Allison flies the experimental X-80 into the future where a plague has turned most humans into subhuman mutants and the rest (one of whom is a beautiful proto-Betazoid) are mostly mutes who live in an enclave wearing prototype Star Trek uniforms.

 Other nations? Mutants? What kind of talk is this? 




   “The Covenant”
by Anderson, Asimov, Sheckley, Leinster and Bloch
First publication: Fantastic, Jul 1960

Captain Ban, son of the Warden, is told by an oracle that he alone must fly to the island stronghold of those masters of time, the Cloud-People.

 Your world is a slope and you roll down it all the time. Down and down until you wear out and die. 


   “Time Enough”
by Damon Knight
First publication: Amazing, Jul 1960

Through the magic of time travel, young Jimmy has the opportunity to relive a traumatic moment with a group of other young boys at the quarry and change the outcome.

 I’m a little tensed up, I guess, but I can do it. I wasn’t really scared; it was the way it happened, so sudden. They never gave me a chance to get ready. 




   George Pal’s The Time Machine
adapted by David Duncan (George Pal, director)
First release: 17 Aug 1960

The time traveller now has a name—H. George Wells (played by Rod Taylor)—and Weena has the beautiful face of Yvette Mimieux.

 When I speak of time, I’m speaking of the fourth dimension. 


   “The Habit”
by A. Bertram Chandler
First publication: Amazing, Aug 1960

Pilot Tillot (still grieving over the recent loss of Valerie—yes, the car accident was quite likely his fault) and inventor Abbotsford set out to test the first ftl engine, which turns out to not move so quickly in space after all, although it does make some interesting moves in time.

I’ve seen this listed as a retrofitted alternate timeline story in Chandler’s Rim World series, but I haven’t read enough of that series to know where the ftl time machine would fit in. Stay tuned for updates.

 He remembered then that he had been awakened that morning by just such a call. 




   Archie Comics (Superheroes)
created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
First time travel: Adventures of the Fly 8, Sep 1960

Simon and Kirby created The Fly as part of Archie Comics attempt to ride the silver age superhero craze. He flew through time at least five times, with the first episode (in issue 8, no longer Simon and Kirby) being a trip to 3rd century Persia. The Jaguar also trekked at least six times starting in Pep 5 (Oct 1961) and continuing in the Man of Feline’s own comic book, Adventures of the Jaguar as well as Laugh Comics. And the Shield had some time-travel adventures, beginning in The Fly 37 (May 1966) where he met a gladiator from the future.

 My colleagues, clever as they are, would never dream of the angle I’ll use to get rid of the Fly! I’ll destroy him with beauty! 

—the evil Dovi in Adventures of the Fly 22 while bringing




   “Welcome”
by Poul Anderson
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct 1960

Tom Barlow, the world’s first time traveler, receives a welcome from Earth’s rulers 500 years in the future.

Tom departed from the late twentieth century because of its unpleasant political climate, but the description of Barlow’s orginal time reads more as if Anderson got a peek at 2016 Donald Trump.

 Disgust would be the simplest word. 




   Tooter Turtle
First episode: 15 Oct 1960

In each of the 39 short episodes (aired as part of King Leonardo and His Short Subjects), young Tooter would visit Mr. Wizard with the latest passionate idea of what he wanted to be. Mr. Wizard would magically make him into his wish (often back in time), but it would always end up with Tooter learning a lesson.

 Be just vhat you is, not vhat you is not. Folks vhat do zis are ze happiest lot. 




   “Gun for Hire”
by Mack Reynolds
First publication: Analog, Dec 1960

Hit man Joe Prantera is transported to the year 2133 to knock off a bad guy since nobody of that time is capable of doing violence.

 Ya think I’m stupid? I can see that. 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Other Wife” by Jack Finney, The Saturday Evening Post, 30 Jan 1960 [alternate timelines ]
  aka “The Coin Collector”

  Tales of Magic #6: The Well-Wishers by Edward Eager, Mar 1960 [no time travel ]

  “Chronopolis” by J.G. Ballard, New Worlds , Jun 1960 [despite title, no time travel ]

  “Trouble with Time” by Arthur C. Clarke, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jul 1960 [despite title, no time travel ]

 

17 items are in the time-travel list for these search settings.
Thanks for visiting my time-travel page, and thanks to the many sources that provided stories and more (see the Links and Credits in the menu at the top). —Michael (main@colorado.edu)