Reading Room TWILIGHT ZONE "Calling..." & "Journeys into..."

Though the original Twilight Zone comic never adapted any of the TV episodes...

...it did use a stellar lineup of talent to craft some really good new stories as well as science featurettes like this George Evans-illustrated one from Dell's Four Color #1288 (1962)...

...and this Evans-penciled/Reed Crandall-inked piece from Dell's Four Color #1173 (1961).

Besides these talented guys, other artists on the early issues included Frank Frazetta, Mike Sekowsky, Frank Giacoia, Alex Toth, Frank Thorne, Don Heck, and Angelo Torres!

Though neither Dell nor Gold Key followed the Comics Code, they didn't allow the creatives to go back to the relatively-unrestrained horror material most of the artists (especially the EC alumni) had done previously!

Sadly, trademark and licensing constraints have prevented these stories from being reprinted, but you'll be seeing them re-pesented here and at our fellow RetroBlogs!

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Boris Karloff's

Tales of Mystery Archives

Volume 1

(which is available in reprint, and features many of the same artists as the Twilight Zone comic)

Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Carson, a space fighter pilot on station at the edge of the solar system intercepts an alien ship, but before he or the intruder can fire, they are both teleported from their ships to a planetoid, where unarmed, they face each other.
A voice explains to the two combatants that they must fight to the death to decide the conflict, thus avoiding the mass destruction to both sides that a full-scale war would cause.
A force field separates the combatants, but they are told they can utilize the materials at hand to create weapons.
The opponents discover they can't pentrate the force field, but inanimate objects can!
They throw rocks at each other, but rocks alone won't provide a victory for either side...or will they?

This extremely-faithful adaptation of Fredric Brown's short story was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.
Be here tomorrow when we take a look at some less-accurate, but far more famous adaptations!

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From These Ashes

Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown

(Including "Arena")

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Reading Room WORLDS UNKNOWN "Arena" Part 1

It's the sci-fi novella so nice, TV adapted it twice...

...first on Outer Limits, then, two years later, on Classic Star Trek!

Will human ingenuity, cunning, and strength triumph?

Or will the alien win?

Be here THURSDAY for the answer!

This extremely-faithful adaptation was created by writer Gerry Conway, penciler John Buscema, and inker Dick Giordano.

The Fredric Brown-penned short story it's based on first appeared in Street & Smith's Astounding Science Fiction (June, 1944) pulp magazine.

The tale was voted one of the Top 20 Science Fiction Stories before 1965 by the Science Fiction Writers Association and included in the must-have (if you're a serious sci-fi fan) anthology... 

...which is still in print.
(Note: this is the dust jacket/cover of the hardcover 1st edition, one of the coolest and most effective cover designs ever, IMHO of course, and a proud part of my personal collection!)

You can read the taut tale of terror online HERE.
Feel free to compare to the comic.

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From These Ashes

Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown

(Including "Arena")

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Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Conquered Earth"

Ever wonder if Steve Ditko could do Jack Kirby-style epic star-spanning storytelling?

Well, wonder no more, True Believer!

Illustrated by Ditko, written, most likely, by Joe Gill, this tale was tucked in the back of Charlton's Out of This World #4 (1957), which featured three Ditko-rendered stories out of four tales!

Ah, those were the days...

When the story was reprinted in Charlton's Space War #31 (1978), it was finally cover-featured, with the cover for a different (and still never-reprinted) Ditko-illustrated tale...

...which we re-presented a couple of days ago, as shown HERE!

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Unexplored Worlds

Steve Ditko Archives, Vol 2

Reading Room STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES "One Last Chance"

A never-reprinted, Ditko-rendered, Silver Age tale...

...is the sort of thing we delight in presenting to our blog's loyal fans!

I rather like the idea that the protaganists will never know if they succeeded in saving the future...or inadvertently destroyed it!

Charlton's Strange Suspense Stories V3#2 (1968) was written entirely by Steve Skeates, though the stories in the anthology were illustrated by different artists.

Apparently editor Dick Giordano had planned to allow a single writer to carry each issue, with Denny O'Neil penning all the stories in the first issue and Skeates scripting the the tales in the second one.

Giordano's departure to DC scuttled the concept, and from the third issue onward, a variety of writers would fill the pages.

BTW, though the tale was never reprinted, the cover was...

...to represent a different Ditko-illustrated story reprint in Charlton's Space War #31 (1978)!

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Unexplored Worlds

Steve Ditko Archives, Vol 2

Reading Room VENUS COMICS "Little Man Who Wasn't There!"

What is "real" and what is "fiction"?

That's the basis for this story which would have qualified as "metafictional"...if the word had existed in 1951!

The writer for this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Venus Comics #14 (1951) is unknown.

Pity, since it's a clever little tale...though it would've benefited from being given a couple of additional pages to flesh out why the "creator" decided to suddenly alter the character's personality and actions so radically.

Perhaps the "creator"  in the last panel (artist John Tartaglione) was, himself, being manipulated by a creator who was going insane...

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 
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Reading Room WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Engine That Came Though Time!"

Is it ethical to trick someone...
...if a good result occurs because of that trickery?

Read this tale, then decide!

Was Ranu justified in doing what he did in this tale from Key Publications' Weird Tales of the Future #4 (1952), by illustrator Eugene Hughes and an unknown writer?

You tell me...

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics