Trees Gone Wild

Key Publications founded by Stanley Morse started cranking out funny books in 1951 with several imprints, one of which was Gillmour Mazazines who's longest running title was Weird Mysteries, an anthology of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. One strange short was titled Reaching For The Moon which got retitled to Out Of Control in some reprints, and the opening narration is by your typical green-skinned ol' witch character who was probably between jobs while hosting this and working for EC Comics, although why the story is being told by a witch is perplexing as its more of a science-fiction tale instead of supernatural. Murray Wacasey is a biologist who has the exotic Ironwood tree from Texas to his laboratory in New Jersey to prove that it's possible to transplant them to a different environment. Wacasey's associate Theron Moore offers his special vitalizing formula, but Wacasey doesn't want to share the glory, so Moore just sneaks into the lab later and gives the Ironwood his plant steroids. Wacasey's tree eventually walks out of the lab and goes on a Godzilla rampage destroying the city with the military weapons having no effect on it. Moore phones the army to let them know that the tree can't survive in salt water, but they instead shoot it into fresh water which makes the overgrown Christmas decoration to branch out literally all over the world. The story then takes a cue from The Simpsons Halloween specials and cuts to a pair of aliens heading for Earth who are shocked to find the entire planet covered in shrubbery with the Ironwood tree growing up to the moon, meaning that the entire galaxy is in danger of becoming one huge interstellar forest. Reaching For The Moon is a good enough title for this tale of vegetation gone wrong even though you don't find that out until the conclusion so you can see why they renamed it Out Of Control to keep the shock ending a surprise.