One of comics legend Bernie Krigstein's few non-EC art jobs...
...which was probably unused material that Charlton purchased when they bought out Ziff-Davis' inventory.
Note Panel 3 from the last page.
Though there's a ZZZAAAAB! sound effect, and Dr Lexikon slumps over, there's no ray from the gun or impact on his body.
This was not an uncommon edit on material produced before the Comics Code went into effect, but published after companies complied with its' rules.
Though not explicitly-stated in the very generic regulations, one request the Code made to publishers was to not show a gun or bow being fired and the victim of the shot in the same panel.
This was relaxed a couple of years later for ray guns, but not for bows, crossbows, and guns.
The rule of thumb was, if a kid could imitate it using a real-world weapon, don't show it.
From Charlton's Space Adventures #16 (1955), it has the same look as Krigstein's SpaceBusters or Space Patrol material from the early 1950s, not his EC work from this period a couple of years later.
It's also his only work published by Charlton.
Though there's a ZZZAAAAB! sound effect, and Dr Lexikon slumps over, there's no ray from the gun or impact on his body.
This was not an uncommon edit on material produced before the Comics Code went into effect, but published after companies complied with its' rules.
Though not explicitly-stated in the very generic regulations, one request the Code made to publishers was to not show a gun or bow being fired and the victim of the shot in the same panel.
This was relaxed a couple of years later for ray guns, but not for bows, crossbows, and guns.
The rule of thumb was, if a kid could imitate it using a real-world weapon, don't show it.
From Charlton's Space Adventures #16 (1955), it has the same look as Krigstein's SpaceBusters or Space Patrol material from the early 1950s, not his EC work from this period a couple of years later.
It's also his only work published by Charlton.
