Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics SPACE ADVENTURES "U.F.O.: Healers from Nowhere"

Here's a two-issue tale of disease and death from...elsewhere...that features a round-robin of artists...
...including one of the greatest of all time and a couple who are almost on his level!
Sooner than you think, Mr Mann...like next Wednesday!
This rather low-key story from Charlton's Space Adventures #60 (1967) was the first chapter of a three-part book-length tale that gets wilder as it goes on.
Not that unusual for comics of the Silver Age...except for three things:
1) It was a full-length story in an anthology title.
Anthology books usually had two or more stand-alone stories.
2) The story produced a three-part sequel, which was published a year later!
3) Most importantly, each chapter of this tale was illustrated by a different artist!
This premiere was rendered by "Melonius Thonk" (a play on then-popular jazz musician Thelonius Monk) a pen-name used to cover an apparent artist jam since every page has different stylistic elements.
As you'll see, the remaining two chapters were rendered by extremely distinctive artists who penciled and inked their own work!
BTW, the entire story from the final issue of this book's first run was written by future Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow scribe Denny O'Neil using his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonom.
Note that the printing on this story is pretty bad.
Unlike other comics publishers who used outside printers, Charlton was famous for pinching pennies by printing their own books using presses that were designed to handle cardboard boxes and other pretty hard materials, not fragile newsprint!
Because the paper was heavier and slicker for covers, the printing on them was cleaner than the insides, but hardly perfect.
But the printing inside Charlton's books could be pretty spotty, as in this case...
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(which shares a number of plot elements with this story)

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Thanx for posting!