Unusual Tales - Ten Billion B.C.

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

"Ten Billion B.C." is a 7-page story from Charlton's OUTER SPACE #19 [1958].  I guess you could call it a cautionary fable about an ancient civilization on the world Primus, a giant globe that was then the only planet in the universe, and developed an advanced society of people with really high foreheads.  Unfortunately, there's always a hitch, in this case a man named Accra who's not content in paradise.


A very strange little story, as usual it's Ditko's visual flare that brings it to life. The balance of white-space on page 4 is nicely done, and the innovative layout on the final page works really well.

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 big-up.