Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Perfect Forecaster"

The Last Few Years of Extreme Weather Made Me Wonder Why We Don't Yet Have...

...and this rarely-seen tale from Charlton's Out of this World #10 (1958) provides an amusing solution!

Could Dorothy be...a mutant?

Writer Joe Gill and artist Steve Ditko aren't telling...

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Creativity of Ditko
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Friday Fun FROM HERE TO INSANITY "Inside Mr America"

When I Think Weird, I Think Wolverton!

And, if you didn't before, you'll agree after reading this never-reprinted feature!

The amount of detail he put into this 2-pager from Charlton's From Here to Insanity V3N1 (1957) is astounding, considering...

a) the low (even for comic books) page rates Charlton was paying!

and

b) the usually-poor printing Charlton was infamous for!

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Basil Wolverton Reader

Reading Room SPACE WARS "Strange World"

A never-reprinted short story that could've been produced as an episode of the original Twilight Zone...

...from Charlton's Space War #22 (1963).

Was this a longer tale edited down to only three pages?

It certainly feels like it, since there are many unanswered questions like...

If these people are Tibetan, why are they dressed like the Flintstones...and why do they speak English?
How would they know anything about the Earth-Uranus War?
And why is it we have no idea how only Heffner survived?
Pencils by Dick Giordano, inks by Vince Colletta.
The writer is unknown, but the Grand Comics Database postulates Joe Gill as the most likely candidate.

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Taylor History of Comics: Volume 3
Science Fiction
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Space Hero Saturdays SPURS JACKSON & HIS SPACE VIGILANTES "Sun Masters"

Once more we return to the really weird pages of Space Western Comics...

...where both stagecoaches and spacecraft are accepted forms of transportation!

Written by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and illustrated by Stan Campbell, this tale from Charlton's Space Western Comics #42 (1953) starts out relatively-accurate to the science of the era, but throws it all away at the conclusion!

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Space Western Comics
Cowboys vs Aliens, Commies, Dinosaurs, and Nazis
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Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "The World Awaits"

We know Steve Ditko as the co-creator of The Amazing Spider-Man...

...but he was equally-adept at visualizing insects as well as arachnids!
(Yes, there is a difference!)

This lovely Ditko-rendered story from Charlton's Out of This World #12 (1959) would really have benefited from some Stan Lee-esque scripting rather than Joe Gill's stilted prose, which renders the ending rather...dull.

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Creativity of Ditko
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Easter & April Fool's Day Reading Room SPEED BUGGY COMICS "Magic Easter Candy"

Here's a never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Speed Buggy #3 (1975)...

...a rather appropriate April Fools Day post during the Lent/Easter season!

Scripted by Mike Pellowski and illustrated by Alan James Hanley (not to be confused with the NYC comic book store owner), this was one of numerous one-off text features created to fulfill the second-class (magazine) privilege requirements for subscription copies when they didn't have a letters page or short story based on the specific comic's characters!

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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Monday Mecha Madness WORLD OF FANTASY "Iron Hulk!"

Last Christmas, we presented a tale about a child and her robot...

...who was so emotionally-attached to her, it sacrificed itself to save her!

But, that wasn't the first time that plot was used...

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #19 (1959), scripted by either Stan Lee or Larry Lieber, is extremely similar to the previously-presented 1963 story, minus the "Christmas present" element and making the robot look like a life size toy soldier.

Note the lovely art by Joe Sinnott.

While most of you know Sinnott as one of the best inkers in the business, he was also a competent penciler as well.

Ironically, Joe didn't ink most of his own pencil work, since it was subcontracted by Vince Colletta's prolific studio for use by Charlton, Gold Key, and Dell and inked by Colletta himself!

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Brush Strokes with Greatness

Life and Art of Joe Sinnott
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Friday Fun ABBOTT AND COSTELLO "Soup to Nuts"

From the Late 1930s to the Late 1950s, the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...

...were multi-media stars, appearing in movies, radio, TV, and...comic books!

This feature from St John's Abbott and Costello Comics #7 (1949), illustrated by Lily Renee and Eric Peters, was typical of the sort of stuff you'd see (or hear) in their other media appearances!
The comic ran for 40 issues, from 1948 to 1956, including a 3-D issue!
But that wasn't the end of four-color fun for the pair!
With their old movies and 1950s TV series proving to be popular on syndicated TV, Hanna-Barbera revived the duo as an animated series in 1967 with Bud Abbott providing his own voice.
(Costello had passed away in 1959).
This resulted in a new comic book series from Charlton using the cartoon as a springboard for a 22-issue run from 1968 to 1971!

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Lily Renee, Escape Artist

by

Trina Robbins
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