Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics SPACE ADVENTURES "U.F.O.: Plague"

We Have Already Seen...

Small town newspaper reporter Paul Mann researches a story about how, 100 years earlier, a flying saucer landed and aliens cured a local boy, ending a feud between two families that had gone on for generations.

With saucer sightings recently on the increase, Mann wonders if he'll encounter one...

But can Mann be prepared for the senses-shattering Secret of the Saucer?

Find Out Next Wednesday!

The second part of this book-length tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #60 (1967) was illustrated by artist Pat Boyette, an artist who usually did his own penciling, inking, and lettering, giving his work an immediately-distinctive visual style.
There's a kool tribute page to Boyette HERE.
You'll note the art is much cleaner and sharper than the previous chapter.
That's because it's not from Space Adventures, but the reprint in Charlton's Ghost Manor #77 (1984), which, curiously, left out the previous chapter entirely (but did run the final chapter, making the reprint a two-part, not three-part story)!
Here's Page One from the original printing...

Note the "Chapter Two" subhead was removed in the reprint!

BTW, all three parts of this story (and the sequel) were written by Denny O'Neil using his "Sergius O'Shaughnessy" pseudonom.

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Injection

Volume 1

(which shares a number of plot elements with this story)

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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Injection

Volume 1

(which shares a number of plot elements with this story)

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Unknown Element!"

Here's a never-reprinted tale...

 

...about the perils of exploring Inner (rather than Outer) Space, illustrated by a most unexpected artist!

This short story from Charlton's Space Adventures #12 (1954) was one of the last tales penciled by Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, who ended his comics career doing work for Fawcett and Charlton.

The inker was Spurs Jackson's John Belfi, but the writer is unknown.

BTW, when I said the story was "never-reprinted", I was somewhat incorrect.

(Yeah, it's hard to believe, but true!)

While the tale itself has never been re-presented in print, the splash page was modified and used as the cover for IW's Jet Power #1 (1958), which reprinted material from Magazine Enterprises' Jet and Space Ace comics!

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Reading Room: SPACE ADVENTURES "Creatures of Jarga"

It's summertime!
Let's lighten up a bit with some kool spacemen vs monsters action...

...illustrated by one of the artists who also did Space Western Comics!

So much for a "non-interference directive"...

From Charlton's Space Adventures #5 (1953), this art by John Belfi was done during the same period he was illustrating Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes in Space Western Comics.

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Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Homecoming.."

Space, the final frontier...

...where being a pioneer sometimes means "first to go, last to arrive", as seen in this tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #10 (1954)!

The art is by future Amazing Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, during one of the busiest times of his career (1954-55) as he penciled (and inked) almost 100 stories (plus covers) in little over a year!

Unfortunately, the writer of the story is unknown.

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Steve Ditko Archives Vol 1

Strange Suspense

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES / UNUSUAL TALES "They Say It Really Happened"

Here's a kool one-pager by writer Joe Gill and artist Dick Giordano...

...originally presented in Charlton's Space Adventures #4 (1953) in b/w (it was on the inside cover, which is usually black line/grayscale or two-color)!

But when it was reprinted two years later in Charlton's Unusual Tales #1 (1955), it was in color.

As you can see, the gray tones were left intact, giving the color art a really unique look. 

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Charlton Arrow #4

A tribute to this kool, eccentric, comics company!

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "A Better World than Ours"

A never-reprinted tale with roots in Western (ie European, not Wild West) culture...

...particularly the repressive 18th-19th centuries!

This Joe Gill-scripted and Eccio-rendered tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N8 (1969) has it's roots in exhausted European 18th and 19th Century sailors' obsession with primitive island societies which they considered to be the incarnation of an innocent "paradise"!

Of course, being a Comics Code Authority-approved book, the creators couldn't present what Selig was probably doing besides "fi-shing"...

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Charlton Arrow #4

featuring non-superhero stories from the long-gone and greatly-missed publisher!