Monday Madness MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS "World Where I was King!"

We could call this "The Challenge that Made a Man Out of Bill Jones..."

...since it's a plotline out of the Charles Atlas ads that used to appear on the back covers of comic books, but with a fantasy twist!

This tale of alpha males on other worlds from Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #3 (1957) was illustrated by the legendary Steve Ditko and an unknown writer (who could be Ditko himself or Joe Gill)!

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Art of Ditko

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

Reading Room OUTER SPACE "Planet Which Had Everything--Almost!"

Here's a tale that takes a concept from one of H.G. Wells' novels...

...a concept which was based on real-life events from Earth's history!

Yep, it's the classic ending from War of the Worlds!

Note: The movie version of Wells' First Men in the Moon also incorporates the "germs kill aliens who haven't been exposed to them" concept, but it's not in the original novel!

As to real-life, European settlers inadvertently brought a plague to North America and caused an epidemic that decimated a number of native tribes that had contact with them.

While the writer of this tale from Charlton's Outer Space #1 (1968) is unknown to me, the art is by Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia.

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 OUT OF THIS WORLD "Antique Collectors"

What's "antique" really depends on your point of view...

...as this tiny tale (from 1959) demonstrates!

Cars from 1959 are extremely collectible now, and it's only 62 years later!

Both the writer and artist of this story from Charlton's Out of This World #13 (1959) are, sadly, unknown.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

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 MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS "Forbidden Formula"

Before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #13 (1963)...

...there was 

...The Watcher!

We're talking big bald alien in a cloak, part of a legion of cosmic observers keeping an eye on the doings of other races throughout the universe (and, presumably, the multiverse)!

Here's his first (and only, AFAIK) non-Marvel appearance from Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #18 (1960)

Unlike Marvel's Watchers, Codin and his fellows deliberately interfere directly with others, albeit surreptitiously.

But, I'm compelled to ask...did this story influence either Stan or Jack several years later when they introduced their Watcher?

Guess we'll never know...

Both the writer and artist of this never-reprinted tale are, ironically, unknown.

(Too bad the Watcher can't tell us...)

The Grand Comics Database speculates the illustrator is Bill Fraccio, a long-time Charlton mainstay who did everything from romance to Westerns to war to sci-fi!

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MarvelMasterworks

Fantastic Four

Volume 2

(featuring the first appearance of Marvel's Watcher)

Reading Room SPACE ADVENTURES "Exterminators"

It's summertime and insects are everywhere!

So, here's a story from 1969 that'll bug you...

...with its' outdated stereotypes about both humans and insects!

Illustrated by prolific Argentinan artist "Eccio" aka Enio Legisamon, this lead tale from Charlton's Space Adventures V2N5 (1969) is a time capsule about the way our society viewed professional women during the early days of Womens' Lib.

BTW, the writer is unknown...and I suspect he'd want it kept that way...

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Island of Giant Insects

Volume 2