Best of Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Night of the Red Snow"

As near-record heat grips most of the good ol' USA...

Art by Steve Ditko

...we re-present a chilly comics tale to take your minds off it, illustrated by the 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" 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.

Join the Summer Fun on RetroBlogs!

This past week you may have missed these RetroBlogs Mini-Marathon entries...

This never=reprinted, John Buscema-illustrated, adaptation at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

This never-reprinted origin story at War: Past, Present & Future and Hero Histories!

Plus the explanation of how this female spy vs Nazis story...

...became this superheroine vs Commies tale at Heroines!

What's Next?

Watch this blog to find out!

Best of Reading Room: STRANGE TALES "When a Planet Dies!"

Hoo Boy! Is it HOT!
We need some cooling off!
But maybe not this much...

This splash page from Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #22 (1973), was actually a reworking of this (literally) cool story from Strange Tales #97 (1962)!

While the art is credited to Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, who wrote the tale is not entirely clear.

A number of people, myself included, think it's scripted by Kirby himself.

Bonus: Here's the cover from a previous issue of Weird Wonder Tales that supplied the Dr Druid figure on the reworked splash page...

Art by Jack Kirby, John Romita (Dr Druid's face) and Joe Sinnott

 ...and here's the original art for the splash page!

The production artist "flipped" a stat of the Dr Druid figure and fit it where the bearded aliens are on the original.
To paraphrase "the World's Most Interesting Man", stay cool, my friends!

Reading Room: SPACE ADVENTURES "Long Patrol"

Here's a never-reprinted Silver Age tale...

...that has a 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 theyve been mind-controlled by aliens, or the crewmen being deliberately-incapacitated by equipment on board we (and proabably they) knew nothing about!

It's an interesting, but unsatisfying, tale...a rarity from Charlton.

How a Spitfire Became a Phantom!

We've begun the summer mini-marathon at our "sister" RetroBlog, Heroines...

... with the explanation of how the tale above was altered/transformed/morphed into this story!

...in a tale of publishing, print production, and paste-ups!

It's a two-for-one deal you won't want to miss!
Click HERE to read it!