Reading Room STRANGE TALES "Mister Black"

Continuing our look at how American comics portrayed the bombing of Hiroshima...

...with a tale featuring a Japanese protagonist!

Was this story from Atlas' Strange Tales #93 (1962) an inventory tale from the 1950s?

Artist Bob Forgione lost his ongoing freelance work at Atlas when the company cut back in late 1956-early 1957 after losing their newsstand distributor.

When this story was finally published, Forgione was working steadily for Dell, ACG, and DC.

It also appears to have been the last original tale by Bob that Atlas/Marvel published.

(All subsequent stories were reprints of earlier material.)

Also, could it have been reworked from an unpublished Witness tale?

Every comic company had a cloaked mysteryman narrating stories about "everyday" people (and occasionally influencing them, as well).

Timely/Atlas' entrant in the Mysterious Traveler/Whistler/Phantom Stranger/Man in Black Called Fate competition was The Witness, who had his own one-shot comic and a number of stories scattered in other titles.

At any rate, an extremely-similar tale appeared only a couple of months later...by one of the now-revived and thriving Atlas/Marvel's hottest artists!

You'll see that tale on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima...tomorrow!