Baker Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Bordoni the Great"

Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia's cover introduces a never-reprinted Matt Baker-penciled story...

..and there's not a single Baker-trademark beautiful woman in sight!

Cue The Twilight Zone music...

Writer Joe Gill and inker Vince Colletta join penciler Matt Baker in a simple, but effective story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #16 (1959) that could've worked as a standard-budget TV episode in the 1950s!
The tale reads like a set of storyboards with dramatic camera-angles and lighting effects!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

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Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Man Who Could Paint on Air"

With an intriguing cover like this...

...how could I resist running this rarely-seen tale by writer Joe Gill and artist Steve Ditko!

This story of artistic alien assassins and poisonous pigments appeared in Charlton's Unusual Tales #7 (1957) during one of Steve Ditko's most prolific periods as he freelanced for several companies including Atlas (later Marvel), Charlton, and St John doing a little in every genre...even romance!

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Creativity of Ditko

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 UNUSUAL TALES "Night of the Red Snow"

As near-record cold finally leaves America...

Art by Steve Ditko

...we present a chilly comics tale, illustrated by the creator of Dr Strange and co-creator of Spider-Man, Steve Ditko!

Unfortunately, due to Charlton Comics' legendarily-bad printing, the "red" effect on the canvas is muted almost to uselessness, diminishing the ending's effectiveness!

BTW, did you note the sneaky "red herring" (or was it) on the sides of the moving van on page 3?

Beautifully-rendered by Steve Ditko, this tale from Charlton's Unusual Tales #9 (1957) has no credited writer, but many researchers/historians believe the scripter is the prolific (and underrated) Joe Gill.

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Steve Ditko Archives Vol 1

Strange Suspense

Monday Madness UNUSUAL TALES "Man Who Could See Tomorrow"

When you want a tale that exemplifies "madness" visually...

...it's hard to go wrong with Steve (Doctor Strange) Ditko!

Originally-appearing in Charlton's Unusual Tales #7 (1957), this simple (but effective) story by writer Joe Gill and illustrator Steve Ditko leaves the reader wanting more.

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Steve Ditko Archives Vol 1

Strange Suspense

Baker Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Blotting Threat"

Here's another rarely-seen sci-fi/fantasy tale by Black artest Matt Baker...

...the never-reprinted cover story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #19 (1959), about a disillusioned commercial artist involved with...

This story, penciled by Baker and inked by Vince Colletta, was one of the last tales published before his death later in 1959 of a heart attack at the age of 38.

Note that Matt was so prolific that the inventory of stories he worked on though Colletta's studio for both Charlton and Atlas (later Marvel) wasn't exhausted until a year after his passing!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour