Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Look into the Future"

One of Charlton Comics' defining traits was...

...using montages of interior art as their covers.

Usually, the cover would utilize several different stories' art, but in this case, they played up the final story in the issue!

A morality play in a sci-fi/fantasy context.

Rod Serling was a master of this concept, as he displayed weekly on the original Twilight Zone.
This never-reprinted story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #27 (1961) illustrated by Steve Ditko (and probably written by Charlton mainstay Joe Gill) follows the concept to a "T", within the limitations established by the Comics Code Authority.
If it had been done pre-Code, Simms would've come to a horrific (and graphic) end...

Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Edge of Fear"

 Will Those Using Artificial Intelligence Do So with Intelligence and Ethics?

This story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #10 (1958) offers one take on the matter!

Writer Joe Gill and artist Steve Ditko told a fascinating tale about AI-augmented human intelligence over a half century ago that seems to be unfolding today...with vastly different results!

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Steve Ditko Archives

Impossible Tales

Volume 4

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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