GEORGE LACEY

Real Name: George Lacey

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Farm worker

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Lodu, Ruda

Enemies: Martian police captain

Known Relatives: Mr. and Mrs. Lacey

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unidentified Martian city;
   (originally) a farm somewhere on Earth

First Appearance: Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5 (June, 1956)

Powers/Abilities: George was an ordinary young man with no paranormal abilities; he was skilled at working on a farm, and could ride a horse.

Incorrectly believing that he was living on the planet Mars, George was determined to return to his hereditary home-world of Earth (see comments).

Height: Unrevealed (6'; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (175 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond

History:
(Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5 (fb) - BTS) - "Many years" earlier, Lodu and Ruda, a Martian couple, secretly came to Earth and became farmers.

   Twenty years ago, a spaceship piloted by Mr. Lacey crash-landed on the Martians' farm -- Lacey, his wife, and infant son George were taken in by the Martian couple. But shortly after George's third birthday, his parents died, so Lodu and Ruda adopted the orphaned human boy and raised him as their own son -- they even had no mirrors in their house, so George would never see from his reflection that he looked different from his "parents".

   George grew up working on Lodu and Ruda's farm, where he had a strong work ethic; but he always had the feeling that he was different from his "parents".

(Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5) - One day, after he had reached adulthood, George saw his face's reflection for the first time while he was filling a bucket with water, and his feeling was confirmed when he realized he didn't look at all like Lodu or Ruda. From that moment on, George acted unkindly towards the two people who had brought him up. The change in George's manner worried the Martian couple, for they had always been like real parents to him.

   While rummaging through a bureau drawer, George found a photograph of a man and a woman who resembled him, so he confronted Lodu and Ruda with it and asked them if the two people in the photo were his real parents. Lodu revealed to his adopted son that he and Ruda looked different from him because they were Martians and George was an Earthling; Lodu also explained the circumstances by which he and Ruda came to be George's adoptive parents, but learning this only made George angry, and he insisted that he wanted to return to his own world (...George was under the misapprehension that he and his "parents" were living on Mars; see comments).

   In the days that followed, George behaved coldly to the kindly Martian couple -- he refused to do any farm chores for Lodu, and he wouldn't even eat the bowl of "kibroo" (presumably a Martian delicacy) that Ruda had cooked especially for him.

   The ungrateful and rebellious George was determined to get away from the two "Martian creatures" who (he thought) treated him like a servant, and he wanted to get back to his real home. Late one night, George slipped out of the farmhouse and rode away on one of the horses, but Lodu and Ruda saw him and followed.

   George came upon a spaceport, where a passenger rocket-ship was about to launch, so he sneaked aboard and hid (he wrongly believed it was headed for Earth); Lodu and Ruda also boarded the rocket to look for George, but by then the automatic timer mechanisms launched the rocket into space.

   When the rocket reached its destination, George dashed past his foster parents and went to the nearest police station to report them to the law; but after he saw the police captain, George finally learned the shocking truth -- he had already been on Earth all along, and now he really was on Mars! Lodu and Ruda had known where the rocket was headed, so they tried to stop George from climbing aboard; worse yet, it would be a long time before another rocket came from Earth to take George Lacey back...

Comments: Created by Carl Wessler and Dick Ayers.

This 4-page story--Flight from Mars!--was done with a surprise-ending -- the architecture on Mars looked similar to Earth, and the readers were led to believe that George was already on Mars from the beginning. I guess George was kept socially isolated on the farm, and never saw any other humans.

No particular year was mentioned for when this story took place -- considering that spaceflights from Earth to Mars seemed to be commonplace, it was likely set in an alternate future, but it could just as easily have taken place in an alternate reality where humans had developed space travel years earlier. Other than the Earth rocket-ship, no other examples of advanced human technology were depicted -- George even had to use an old-fashioned horse-drawn plow to work the fields of Lodu and Ruda's farm.

George Lacey's situation--a human raised by Martians--reminds me of writer Robert Heinlein's science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, wherein the character Valentine Michael Smith was a human who had been raised on Mars by the native inhabitants since he was an infant.

It remains to be explained how so many different races/beings allegedly originated from Mars.

Profile by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
George Lacey should not be confused with:

Lodu, Ruda, and the Martian police captain have no known connections to:

Mr. and Mrs. Lacey

They (first names unrevealed) were the birth-parents of George Lacey.

Twenty years earlier, they took their infant son George with them on a flight to the planet Mars, with Mr. Lacey piloting their spacecraft; but they crash-landed back on Earth, at a farm owned by Lodu and Ruda, a kindly Martian couple who took the three of them in.

Shortly after little George's third birthday, the Laceys died (cause of their deaths unrevealed), but Lodu and Ruda adopted George and raised him as their own.

--Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5

Lodu and Ruda

Like other Martians, they appeared to be much like Caucasian humans, with the exception of having large pointed ears. Many years earlier, they had somehow secretly come to Earth and became farmers.

Twenty years ago, a spacecraft carrying the Lacey family crashed-landed on their farm, so Lodu and Ruda took the three of them in. When Mr. and Mrs. Lacey died, the kindly Martian couple adopted their three-year old son George and raised him as their own. They never had any mirrors in their house because they didn't want George to see his own reflection, and thereby learn that he looked different from his "parents".

As George grew, Lodu taught him how to work on the farm, and Ruda would often cook a pot of "kibroo" (presumably a Martian delicacy), which was George's favorite meal. But George had always felt that he was different from Lodu and Ruda.

Years later, when George had reached adulthood, he happened to see the reflection of his face for the first time while he was filling a bucket of water; after George discovered a photograph of his real parents, Lodu finally told him of his true heritage -- George became rebellious and wanted to get to his real home, because he seemed to think that Lodu and Ruda were just using him as a slave.

Under the misapprehension that he was on the planet Mars, George later ran away and climbed aboard a passenger rocket-ship that he mistakenly thought was bound for Earth; Lodu and Ruda chased after him, but all three were sent into space when the rocket automatically launched.

After the rocket reached its destination, George ran to a police station to turn in his foster parents, but after he saw the face of the Martian police captain, he learned that he had been on Earth all along. Lodu explained that he and Ruda knew the rocket was bound for Mars, so they tried to stop George, because it would be a long time before another rocket was scheduled to come from Earth to take him back.

--Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5

Martian police captain

A law-enforcement officer on the planet Mars, he was in the police station one night when Earthman George Lacey came running in -- Lacey was under the misapprehension that he had just escaped from Mars in a rocket-ship that brought him to Earth, but it was actually the other way around.

When Lacey saw him and realized his mistake, the police captain advised Lacey that he better start looking for work on Mars, because it would be a long time before another rocket came from Earth to take him back.

(Comment: Although he was listed as an enemy, he really didn't have an adversarial relationship to George Lacey, other than informing him that he had actually landed on Mars.)

--Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5

images: (without ads)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p1, pan1 (main image - George Lacey sees his reflection in water while filling bucket)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p2, pan4 (headshot - George Lacey)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p2, pan6 (George Lacey using horse-drawn plow; Lodu [left])
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p3, pan2 (George Lacey riding away on horseback)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p3, pan5 (George Lacey riding on horse towards rocket-ship)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p2, pan2 (George Lacey holding photograph of his real parents)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p2, pan4 (Lodu)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p1, pan3 (Ruda)
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p2, pan1 (Ruda and Lodu; George Lacey [background])
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5, p4, pan6 (Martian police captain)

Appearances:
Strange Stories of Suspense#9/5 (June, 1956) - Carl Wessler (writer), Dick Ayers (pencils/inks), Stan Lee (editor)

First posted: 10/30/2026
Last updated: 10/30/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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