Unusual Tales - The Men From Hsin-Chiu

"Unusual Tales", a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain.

Charlton's SPACE ADVENTURES #26 [1958] features the odd 5-page "The Men From Hsin-Chiu" drawn by Ditko.  It features a teacher in China telling a story about a doomed planet and their version of Jor-el having slightly more luck in saving some of his people from the destruction of his planet when his predictions aren't believed by the leaders.

Not quite sure what I think of this story, I guess if I was generous I'd say it's a dated product of its time.

Nice art by Ditko, though.  Of interest to those looking for echoes of work a few years in the future, take a close look at the window in the background of the middle panel of page 2.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from
(scans in this series generally adapted to my personal tastes from those copies)

Click images to blow up images like doomed planet.