The early stories in this volume are light science fantasy, tales of a doughty space hero and his ubiquitous gal sidekick as they confront outer space menaces and always come out on top despite overwhelming odds. They win because they deserve to win. Alongside these are many tales of men who behave badly but just as often as they are punished for that disregard for ethics and the Golden Rule are often forgiven and brought back into society having been chastised. Sometimes greedy bastards get theirs, but usually they learn the error of their ways. These stories are likely written by Joe Gill, the scripting machine who made Charlton Comics operational for decades. I've said before that I assumed as a teenager that Joe Gill was a house name and not a real person, but when I learned differently I bowed before his stunning industry and found his prodigious output humbling.
Now the Steve Ditko who drew these stories is a more mature artist. He is older, wiser and chastened possibly by a brush with death. He contracted tuberculosis at about the time the comics industry contracted and spent a year convalescing at his Pennsylvania family home under the care of his parents. When he was finally strong enough to rejoin the workforce he found Marvel waiting but they did not offer enough quantity of work and so once again he headed for Connecticut and Charlton Comics. This was a Charlton recovering from a flood and despite some likely shenanigans with public funds, they plead poverty and cut their rates making their staff even more eager for work. Men like Gill and Ditko were ready.
As this volume closes we meet the Mysterious Traveler, a ghost host with a radio history. More on him next time as well as one of my favorite Ditko characters, one Dr. Haunt. Here are the Ditko covers collected in this volume.
Rip OFf
Hi Rip some great covers Out of this World 4 one of my favourites but Mysterious of Unexplored Worlds 10 my favourite of all Ditko's covers at that time.
ReplyDeleteI'm featuring Out of the this World #4 tomorrow as it turns out.
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