Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Secret of Capt X"

Here's an "out of this world" tale illustrated by Steve Ditko...

...that, for the life of me, I still don't understand, even after re-reading it several times!

What the hell just happened?

This lovely Ditko-rendered story from Charlton's Out of This World #8 (1958) makes no sense!
Why couldn't the Korellans simply leave?
Why were they kidnapping and forcing others to adapt to their planet?
Since they can be moved to another planet with no ill effects, why remain on Korella?
Most experts blame Charlton mainstay Joe Gill for this silly story, but could someone else be responsible?
We'll never know...

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Creativity of Ditko

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "It's a Small World"

Behind this kool Jim Aparo cover...

...is an equally-kool Steve Ditko-illustrated tale!

BTW, neither has seen the light of day since their intitial publication in Charlton's Space Adventures V2N8 (1969).

Now that's a weird, out-of-left field, ending in a wild tale probably written by Charlton mainstay Joe Gill.

BONUS: the original art for the cover...

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Art of Ditko

...which reprints many Ditko short stories...but not this one!

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Long Patrol"

Here's a never-reprinted Silver Age tale...

...that has a definite Golden Age "look" and "feel" to it!

Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Charles Nicholas, and inked by Vince Colletta, this story from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N6 (1969) feels like it's been edited down from a longer version.

Things happen almost arbitrarily, like the astronauts' home base knowing they've been mind-controlled by aliens, or the crewmen being deliberately-incapacitated by equipment on board we (and probably they) knew nothing about!

It's an interesting, but unsatisfying, tale...a rarity from Charlton.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Reading Room SPACE WARS "Strange World"

A never-reprinted short story that could've been produced as an episode of the original Twilight Zone...

...from Charlton's Space War #22 (1963).

Was this a longer tale edited down to only three pages?

It certainly feels like it, since there are many unanswered questions like...

If these people are Tibetan, why are they dressed like the Flintstones...and why do they speak English?
How would they know anything about the Earth-Uranus War?
And why is it we have no idea how only Heffner survived?
Pencils by Dick Giordano, inks by Vince Colletta.
The writer is unknown, but the Grand Comics Database postulates Joe Gill as the most likely candidate.

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Taylor History of Comics: Volume 3
Science Fiction Comics

Monday Mars Madness UNUSUAL TALES "Way Out, Man"

You'd think Dr Strange's creator Steve Ditko would be a bit more sympathetic to the counter-culture...

...but when you consider he was already 34 in 1961 when he drew this story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #29, you might wonder which side of the Generation Gap he really was on!

Remember that, when Ditko was doing the Dr Strange series in Strange Tales, he was turning 40!

This article from England's The Telegraph delves into the fascinating dichotomy between the artist and what his work portrayed.

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Art of Ditko

...which reprints this tale and many other Ditko short stories!

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Magnet of Magneto"

Nope, it's not the mutant villain/anti-hero/hero of X-Men fame, but an entire planet...

...hell-bent on conquering the universe!

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko, this tale of menace and magnetism from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N5 (1969) is scientifically-inaccurate, but fun.

and isn't that what comics are all about?

You may recognize the splash panel as the cover for this issue...

...which we ran when we presented the other cover-featured story two days ago.

Charlton had a tendency to re-use/recompose interior art for covers, especially with their anthologies.

Whether it was for budget or deadline reasons has been lost to the mists of history.

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Steve Ditko Archives Volume 5

Dripping with Fear

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Horrible Enemy"

I was going to run the cover-featured Steve Ditko story about the "Menace of Magneto"...

...but then I saw the tale plugged by the vignette at the bottom of the cover!

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N5 (1969) looks like manga, but it's not!

It's "manhwa"...Korean comics!

The art for this cliched Joe Gill-scripted story is by noted Korean artist Sanho Kim, in his second story for Charlton.

Sanho Kim (or Kim San-ho) was already an acclaimed writer/artist in South Korea before coming to the US in 1964.

Illustrating a wide variety of genres including romance, horror, war, and martial arts, Sanho worked primarily for Charlton, with occasional work for Warren (where he also wrote the tales he illustrated), Marvel, and Skywald, totaling several hundred stories.

Sanho returned to South Korea in 1996 and continues to write and illustrate at the age of 75.

He received the Order of Cultural Merit (much like the Kennedy Center Honors in America) in 2008.

You can read a gothic romance tale he illustrated in the 1970s for Charlton HERE.

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Immortal Record

by Sanho Kim