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The story went like this: a baby is going to be born to some couple, and the mother believes the baby is murdering her and tells so to her family doctor, who says nothing. The baby is mad at the mom because he wanted to stay living in the womb.

Then the baby is born, and one day the father comes home and finds his wife dead on the floor. Again the doctor offers no opinion; then the father dies, and the doctor investigates and realizes that it must have been, indeed, the baby.

Then, aware that nobody is going to arrest the baby, the doctor himself decides to kill him (at the end of the comic it says "I brought this kid into the world and I'm gonna take it out"). I am not sure whether the baby instead kills the doctor.

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  • What about this comic is sci-fi or fantasy?
    – Valorum
    Feb 5, 2021 at 23:06
  • I would say fantasy and a little dust of sc-fi Feb 5, 2021 at 23:07
  • 3
    @Valorum I’m thinking probably the infant human capable of forming and acting on murderous intentions. Mar 2, 2021 at 18:48

1 Answer 1

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The comic you seek is probably Shock Suspenstories, issue 7 (1992) with a version by Evans of Ray Bradbury's short 1946 story "The Small Assassin". All of the elements you quote are in the story: the mother believing the baby is murdering her, the baby hating the parents for kicking him out of a warm, comfortable womb, the mom dying first, and the doctor resolving to kill the baby.

This is the ending you remember, including the "taking out" choice of words ("at the end of the comic it says I brought this kid into the world and I'm gonna take it out"):

A baby crawls on the floor. A figure out of frame holds a bright, shining scalpel. The text bubble says: "I had to operate to bring you into this world. Now I guess I can operate to take you out of.... See, baby? Something Bright! Something shiny!" Below a starburst text bubble says "A Scalpel..." then, in red another text bubble: "-The end".

The story is in a grey area between "science fiction", "fantasy" and "horror" (in my opinion, several Ray Bradbury's stories are). The premise is completely fictional since a newborn baby does not have the physical strength, nor the knowledge, to be aware of the murderous properties of gas leaks or sleeping pills and exploit them. Even so, The Small Assassin is usually included in Ray Bradbury's short science fiction collections, so I'd say it's SF of a sort.

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  • i wonder if It's Alive (schlocky production values but scary 1970s flick) ever credited Bradbury -- I think probably not.
    – releseabe
    Feb 8, 2021 at 11:43
  • There is also a horror film with Joan Collins that has gone under several names but I think one of them is the Devil Within. She has a baby that is pure evil and it starts murdering those who come to the house. I'm not sure if the doctor kills it at the end or if it kills the doctor.
    – ArlettaS
    Feb 8, 2021 at 13:35
  • I also remember a story which was basically The Small Assassin, but in the end, the doctor rushed out of the house (or maybe tried to go downstairs) and "didn't see a vaseline-smeared toy strategically placed under the first step of the stairs" (which was the way the mother had died). I read it in Italian many years ago.
    – LSerni
    Feb 8, 2021 at 17:11
  • The comic described above is actually a reprint - the original appeared in 1952. Original story by Bradbury, adaptation by Al Feldstein and art by George Evans. At that time EC Comics adapted several of Ray Bradbury's stories without permission, until he wrote to them complaining; after which he was paid!
    – GordonD
    Sep 2, 2021 at 18:26

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