The following originally appeared in
DITKOMANIA #78 [2010], published and edited by Rob Imes. It has been revised for this posting.
Ditko's work at DC can be divided into three major groups.
First, and most famous, are the stories he did with characters he created, co-created or designed. The Creeper and The Hawk & The Dove in the 1960s, Shade the Changing Man, Stalker and a few returns to The Creeper in the 1970s and Starman in the 1980s.
Then there are his occasional forays into stories with DC super-heroes that he didn't create. Seven stories featuring The Legion of Super-Heroes, three with the Demon Etrigan, individual stories of Man-Bat (with a short appearance by Batman), Black Lightning, the Spectre and the New Gods, a few pages in longer stories starring Green Lantern and Wonder Woman (with no Wonder Woman on the pages Ditko drew) and a single Superman pinup.
The third group is the point of interest here, the stand-alone stories Ditko drew for DC's various anthology books, featuring a variety of fantasy, science fiction, horror and humour work. Ditko was no stranger to these kinds of comics, of course. The bulk of his work for Charlton in both the 1950s and 1970s was of this type, almost 500 stories, as were over 250 stories he drew for Marvel before the super-heroes took up all his time.
As with the Charlton and Marvel shorts, these stories are a mixture of standard genre fare, curiosities and the occasional gem. There are also some points of interest regarding his collaborators.
All but two of the items discussed below were included in THE STEVE DITKO OMNIBUS #1 [2011]
and hopefully all of them will be in THE DC UNIVERSE BY STEVE DITKO OMNIBUS [2025].
"The Valley Where Time Stood Still" 8 pages
Writer: Otto Binder / Inker: Sal Trapani
These first two stories actually belong in a separate group. Not much is know about their background; they're both uncredited, and were published right around the time, or maybe even prior to, Ditko's last 1960s work for Marvel (cover dated July 1966). They really do deserve their own lengthy article. (The credits for both stories are from the Grand Comics Database at
www.comics.org. See note below) Anyway, this entertaining science fiction story features two explorers who enter a hidden misty valley which turns out to contain "a Pandora's Box of historical criminals", including Romans, Egyptians, Persians and others, all recently re-awakened and looking for a fight. Of course, like all good hidden valleys, there's also a dinosaur, which gives them a common enemy to fight while our explorers make good their escape. Like other Ditko/Trapani work of the era (for ACG and Dell), it's pretty good, a bit softer than Ditko's own inks would be, and the subject matter gave them room to include some good historical designs, as well as some frantic action.
Otto Binder is perhaps best known as the writer on some of the most fondly remembered Captain Marvel stories from Fawcett in the Golden Age, and one of the main Silver Age writers of Superman (in particular the SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN title).
STRANGE ADVENTURES #189 [June 1966]
"The Way Out Worlds Of Bertram Tilley" 9 pages
Writer: Dave Wood / Inker: Sal Trapani
The next month saw the same art team with another writer, this time telling the story about a dull office worker named Bertram Tilley who finds some magical discs while fishing which transport him into various heroic scenarios, like a knight in a kingdom of toys fighting a mechanical dragon or a jungle man fighting various weird beasts, all the while increasing his confidence in the real world. It's a fair enough story (with shades of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"), and the scene of Bertram Tilley using a fishing line to swing down from a building to break up an armed robbery definitely looks like something Ditko was born to draw.
Dave Wood was a prolific writer for DC throughout the Silver Age, including a few short-lived but clever and oft-revived concepts like Animal Man and Dial H For Hero.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Brian Franczak notes that in The Comic Reader #202 (June 1982), Mark Evanier wrote in the TCR letters page the following: "(ACG writer and editor) Richard Hughes told me in a letter, long ago, that he wrote every ACG comic published after about 1957 and well over half of those published before. He edited and assembled ACG books far ahead of publication date and, so, had already begun working for DC a year before the last ACG titles appeared. I always suspected that "The Way-Out Worlds Of Bertram Tilley" in STRANGE ADVENTURES #189 was an ACG leftover, even though it wasn't lettered by the ACG house letterer, Ed Hamilton. The story reads like Hughes and was drawn by Ditko and Trapani who teamed in a lot of the later ACG books. Ditko told me that he definitely did no work for DC at this time, so he obviously drew it for someone else." - R. Imes]
[See here for more on the "did no work for DC at this time" comment. DC's reprints concur with the Binder and Wood writing credits]
Ditko would work for DC briefly in 1968/1969, doing BEWARD, THE CREEPER and THE HAWK AND THE DOVE, but no short stories. Then in June 1975, his art would be in the newly launched Stalker, written by Paul Levitz, inked by Wallace Wood and edited by Joe Orlando.
Orlando was also editor of DC's humour comic PLOP and various horror/fantasy anthologies (with Levitz as his assistant editor, moving up to full editor when Orlando was promoted to managing editor for DC), so not too surprising that Ditko's art started to show up in those books as well.
"Love Is A Dandy" 6 pages
Writer: Steve Skeates / Inker: Wallace Wood
Both writer and inker had worked frequently with Ditko in the prior decade, of course (Skeates on THE HAWK AND THE DOVE and some Charlton work, Wood on many features, including STALKER contemporaneous with this, and publisher of Ditko's early philosophical work in WITZEND).
This is a strange little story about Hubert, a nerdy young man who has no luck with women so turns his affection towards plants, one day finding a dandelion which returns his affections. The exploration of the complications that ensue from this unusual pairing take up the next few pages (including the rejection of Hubert by Dandy's parents), until disaster inevitably strikes. It's always good to see Ditko stretching fully into the humourous side, which often peeks out in his other work as well. There's some good slapstick and odd expressions in this story that reinforce the humour.
Wood is always an interesting combination with Ditko. Heavy at points, bits of this remind me of some of his own humour work, but for the most part the Ditko pencils come through.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY #236 [October 1975]
"Death Played A Sideshow" 8 pages
Writer: David Vern Reed (as Coram Nobis) / Inker: Mike Royer
Royer is, of course, best known as Jack Kirby's main inker in the 1970s. He also inked Ditko a few times, on this story and the next one, as well as a Creeper story around this time. His work is excellent in this one, close to what I think Ditko's own inks would have looked like. David Vern Reed was a pulp writer who wrote a lot of comics in the early 1950s, mostly Batman, and briefly returned to comics in the 1970s for a short but prolific stint, again with lots of Batman.
In this story, a fake carnival mystic cons a foolish young romantic out of his life savings, ultimately leading to the boy's death. His friends plan to reveal the faker's guilt, but other forces are afoot.
HOUSE OF SECRETS #139 [January 1976]
"The Devil's Daughter" 8 pages
Writer: Jack Oleck / Inker. Mike Royer
The second Royer-inked story among this group, not quite as nice as the previous one, but the story is also a lesser one. This one has a man working in a circus who becomes convinced that his step-daughter is a witch when he hears her talking with animals and the animals talking back. The artwork really only comes alive with the circus animals, which look really nice.
Jack Oleck was one of the most prolific writers for these anthologies in the 1970s, thus the six stories he wrote among the Ditko selection. Previously he had been one of the writers for the Simon & Kirby shop, and one of the writers for the later EC comics (where he wrote a few stories that Joe Orlando drew).
WEIRD WAR TALES #46 |June 1976]
"The Day After Doomsday [1]" 2 pages
Writer: Steve Skeates / Inker: Vincent Colletta
"The Day After Doomsday" was a recurring feature by various creators appearing mostly in WEIRD WAR TALES, usually short untitled vignettes in post-apocalyptic settings with a quick, hopefully clever twist. Ditko did two of them, both with Skeates writing and those inimitable Colletta inks. This first one is about a small group of survivors in a rural area facing a different kind of intrusion from the cities. Nothing too noteworthy in this one.
"The Gnark Is Coming, The Gnark Is Coming" 4 pages
Writer: Steve Skeates / Inker: Wallace Wood
AMAZING WORLD was DC's in-house promotional magazine from 1974-1978 for their current releases with a heavy fanzine feel to the articles, using the insider access to loads of unpublished and behind-the-scenes material. This issue includes a short history of PLOP along with some unused material, including this full short from the Skeates/Ditko/Wood team. It's a cute little fantasy with knights in a tavern who are terrified at the news of the imminent arrival of something called "The Gnark" and leave a squire to deal with it. The artwork at times looks more like Wood's solo fantasy work, but there are some solid flashes of Ditko, and the art looks excellent in black and white.
This story was not included in THE STEVE DITKO OMNIBUS #1 [2011].
HOUSE OF MYSTERY #247 [November 1976]
"The Game Of Death" 10 pages
Writer: Jack Oleck / Inker: Wayne Howard
Wayne Howard was at one time an assistant to Wallace Wood, and is best known for the solo work he did at Charlton in the 1970s. This first of two stories he inked over Ditko definitely shows a similar approach to Ditko's pencils as some of Wood's work.
This story is about a cruel and arrogant hunter traveling in India who brings down a curse on himself when he ignores the advice of the natives during an elephant hunt, destroying their village. A lot of opportunities for the art to shine, from the elephant stampede to some later giant insect action the curse.
WEIRD WAR TALES #49 [December 1976]
"The Day After Doomsday [2]" 2 pages
Writer: Steve Skeates / Inker: Vincent Colletta
Slightly better than the other "Doomsday" story, but still nothing special, this time featuring a short vignette about a lone survivor who encounters a radioactive rock band traveling around spreading music. And death.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY #254 [October 1977]
"Good For Nothing" 7 pages
Writer: Jack Oleck / Inker: Wayne Howard
I didn't like the inks on this one nearly as much as I did Howard's previous job, but they're serviceable. The story is about an old sailor whose ghost hangs around just long enough after his death to save his grandson, and doesn't really give Ditko any memorable images to bring to life.
HOUSE OF SECRETS #148 [November 1977]
"Sorcerer's Apprentice" 8 pages
Writer: Jack Oleck / Inker: Ernie Chan
Ernie Chan drew a lot of scattered things for DC in the 1970s (often credited as "Ernie Chua"), but is probably best known for his work on Conan for Marvel, especially inking John Buscema. He's got that rather lush brush work that is common among the artists who came from the Philippines, which is an odd mix with Ditko, but works pretty well in this fantasy story about an apprentice who schemes to rise to the level of king, with a surprise ending similar to one of the 1960s Warren stories.
SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #9 [January 1978]
"The Man Who Didn't Believe In Ghosts" 5 pages
Writer: Arnold Drake
For the most part Ditko inked his own pencils on these short stories from this point, which is always preferable, though most of the inkers he had in this run did some good work. This is a pretty standard ghost story about a spirit out for revenge against the man who drove him to suicide. Ditko does a great job with the ghost, with a twisted expression on his face.
Arnold Drake was a prolific comic book writer from the 1950s to the 1980s, perhaps best known for his 1960s run on his creation THE DOOM PATROL.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY #258 [June 1978]
"A Demon And His Boy" 6 pages
Writer: Jack C. Harris
A nicely twisted little tale about a second rate demon who tries to improve his status in Hell through some trickery and accidentally brings a bratty young boy into Hell. He turns the situation to his advantage for a while, but finds that it's more than he can handle.
A good showcase for why you should let Ditko ink his own work, with a lot of demons and dimensions echoing some of the classic Doctor Strange and Warren work of the 1960s.
This is the first time Ditko drew a story by Jack C. Harris, who was also the editor on a lot of work Ditko did for DC in this era, and they would collaborate again for several projects later, most notably Star Guider and Substance. Harris would write about their professional relationship in his 2023 book WORKING WITH DITKO.
SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #12 [July 1978]
"Haunted" 3 pages
Writer: Robert Ingersoll
A short little twist on a haunted house story with a couple returning home to find evidence of a disturbance. A bit of a trifle that would have fit in nicely as the 3-pager in those issues of Amazing Adult Fantasy, especially the full page splash of the haunted house on the first page.
Robert Ingersoll has a handful of comic book writing credits but is perhaps best known for his column "The Law is a Ass", looking at the portrayal of legal matters in comic books, which ran in THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE and later
online.
UNEXPECTED, THE #189 [February 1979]
"Dead Man's Eyes" 8 pages
Writer: Jack Oleck
Gangland activity and the mystic mix in this story about a gang boss who loses his sight and gets a fortune telling witch to exchange his body with that of a rival. A clever twist at the end, and Ditko does a good job with both the crime and the magic, though the ending lacks a bit of impact as code-approved horror is obviously toned down a bit.
"[Introduction by Madame Xanadu and Abel]" 1 page
Writer: Mike W. Barr
An unusual bit of Ditko in the inside front cover of this issue. Following the "DC Implosion" several of their horror books were merged into the triple-sized THE UNEXPECTED. The hosts of two of the cancelled books, Madame Xanadu of DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE and Abel of HOUSE OF SECRETS meet on the inside cover of this issue, with Ditko putting some good details in the mystic artifacts in the room.
This page was not included in THE STEVE DITKO OMNIBUS #1 [2011], even though Barr mentions it in his introduction to the second book in the series. Jack C. Harris discusses and shows it in his book WORKING WITH DITKO [2023].
GHOSTS #77 [June 1979]
"Ghost, Where Do You Hide?" 10 pages
Writer: Jack C. Harris
A lion tamer in a traveling circus in Europe is cruel to the animals, against the advice of both the circus owner and the gentle animal keeper. After he kills one of the lions, he's convinced he's being haunted by its ghost, and tries to bring it out of hiding. A nice little story by Harris, and Ditko does a very effective job with the animals, both living and dead.
TIME WARP #1 [November 1979]
"Mating Game" 6 pages
Writer: Michael Fleisher
Kind of a twisted little story about aliens who come to Earth to find women to mate with Ditko's art has a few flourishes, including an appropriately creepy alien design, but overall I think this is my least favourite of all of these stories.
Michael Fleisher worked with Ditko before this on SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN and on a Creeper story (FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL #7) and soon after this on a DAREDEVIL issue at Marvel. Among his other work he's probably best known for a short but memorable and controversial run on the Spectre in ADVENTURE COMICS with Jim Aparo and a long run writing JONAH HEX.
TIME WARP #1 [November 1979]
"Forecast" 3 pages
Writer: Jack C. Harris
One of those goofy little variations on a failed alien invasion, highlighted by another in a seemingly endless variation Ditko manages to come up with for bug-eyed monsters.
"The Last Journey" 8 pages
Writer: Paul Levitz
A story with Levitz published just before their year-long collaboration on Starman began, after they'd already worked together on
STALKER and a story in
IMAGINE. Levitz is probably equally best known for his work as an executive at DC and several runs of writing LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, including
one story with Ditko.
This is a smart little science fiction story about a scientist named Harry Prince who meets resistance from android pilots to his new interstellar drive. The resistance escalates to violence, which only strengthens his resolve, until he finds out the truth behind the androids' motive too late. A very well drawn story, with two especially fine images, the explosion of a bomb and the final secret at the end.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY #276 [January 1980]
"Epode" 5 pages
Writer: Len Wein
A short little horror story told in verse, as you might have guessed from the title. A cute little trifle, short enough that it doesn't wear out its welcome, but not terribly impressive.
Len Wein is, of course, best known as the co-creator of many characters including Swamp Thing and Wolverine, as well as an editor on some major modern books, perhaps chief among them WATCHMEN. He also wrote a few Demon stories for Ditko to draw around the same time as this story, and later wrote a few short stories by Ditko at Marvel
"[Cover]" 1 page
A bit of an oddity, this is Ditko's only cover for this group of DC books, and the only cover he did for a DC book without his interior art. It's a beauty, with a terrified man in the middle of one of those classic Ditko visuals of a crowd of giant heads in mocking laughter. It gets odder when you get into the book, and the lead story has the same title, "Limited Engagement", that appears on the cover, but it's drawn by Howard Chaykin and Al Milgrom, with a plot by Robert Kanigher and a script by Marty Pasko. Unusual pair-ups all around. It does have one panel similar to the cover image, but not matching the "Cursed to Perform Before an Audience of Demons" description on the cover. So no real way of knowing if the Ditko cover came before or after the story (it would fit comfortably with a lot of the covers Ditko was doing for Charlton until they stopped buying new material over a year before this), if there's an unpublished Ditko story that goes with this cover or anything else.
"The Dimensions Of Greed" 7 pages
Writer: J. M. DeMatteis
Two criminals plan the perfect heist in a Martian colony by planning to hide out among the old Martian ruins, only to discover what happened to the original Martians. Some great alien design work by Ditko on this one, with an odd sense of geometry, surreal other-dimensional landscapes and aliens that would fit nicely in an old Charlton comic. One of the most visually pleasing of these stories.
DeMatteis' only other story for Ditko was a rather regrettable LSH story, but he makes up for it with this, and a subsequent career that includes a wide variety of entertaining works, my favourites of which are BROOKLYN DREAMS, MOONSHADOW and THE LAST ONE.
"On The Day Of His Return" 3 pages
Writer: Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn
A stranded space traveler on a frozen planet finds rescue in an out-of-place cabin, a chubby bearded man in red and his short assistants. Yeah, it's exactly what you think, and not bad for its three pages.
Mishkin and Cohn would continue as a writing team for a while, best known for some enjoyable work on two books they created in the 1980s, BLUE DEVIL and AMETHYST.
TIME WARP #4 [May 1980]
"A Switch In Time" 3 pages
Writer: David Allikas
A very strange time travel story about some scientists in the future who decide the way to prevent the nuclear threat that's already killed much of humanity is to travel back in time and kill Albert Einstein as a boy. Unable to go through with that, they instead kidnap him and leave him 100 years earlier in America, with results that backfire as they always do.
David Allikas I can't find too much about, other than he wrote a few dozen non-series stories for DC around this time, and later some stuff for Warren and Archie.
"Once Upon A Time Machine" 7 pages
Writer: Mike W. Barr
A better time paradox story this time, as future scholar Merrill Lynfield, upset at the rejection of this idea to use a time machine to research the history of fairy tales decides to take matters into his own hands and steal the machine for his research. And really, who among us wouldn't? As you'd expect, he ends up creating the very stories he wants to research, finally fulfilling the destiny inherent in the first syllables of his name.
On a personal note, this is the first of these stories I remember reading back when it was first published, probably among the first dozen or so Ditko stories I read, and it's really a great story to read when you're 10 years old.
Mike Barr wrote many comics in his career, including one later one with Ditko featuring Black Lightning, but most notably some of the best Batman stories of the 1980s and, apropos of this story, CAMELOT 3000.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #114 [December 1980]
"Battle Cry" 4 pages
Writer: Steve Skeates
In the last days of a war that will wipe out civilization an officer and his wife record a message to teach the lesson of love to future civilizations. Fortunately they don't live to see the results of a message of passion devoid of context. A surprisingly affecting little story that stays with you long after you read it, and a great example of the talent of drawing savagery that Ditko so often uses in his independent work.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #115 [January 1981]
"The Planet Of Loathing" 3 pages
Writer: Steven Utley
Aliens promise to bring a golden age to Earth, but first following one of those maddening charters that they often have in science fiction stories have to ask a random human, and of course pick the wrong guy. A good retelling of an old idea, and Ditko does a lot of neat stuff with it in the few pages, especially with the robotic aliens and their really impractical looking ship.
Steven Utley wrote about a half-dozen short stories for DC around this time.
WEIRD WAR TALES #95 [January 1981]
"The 600 Heads Of Death" 7 pages
Writer: Robert Kanigher
A fanciful story about the giant statues on Easter Island and what happens when the island is invaded. A simple enough story with a lot of room for Ditko to show some action.
Robert Kanigher was one of the most prolific writers for DC for 40 years, best known for the war books, where he created most of the long-running features including Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace and The Haunted Tank. His two stories in books group are the only time he worked Ditko.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #116 [February 1981]
"With His Head In The Stars" 4 pages
Writer: Arnold Drake
A scientist is promised a life of luxury and unlimited experimental resources by a dictator if he agrees to develop a drug that will eliminate resistance in the dictator's political foes. The scientist has other ideas on how to use the time he's given to make a decision. A promising start to the story, but the ending is kind of goofy.
"Man's Best Enemy" 5 pages
Writer: George Kashdan
In Germany an army dog gets attacked by guinea pigs in a bombed out lab, and starts to exhibit strange behaviour afterwards, until his keeper has to take care of him permanently. No big surprises in this one, but Ditko gets in a few good images of the vicious dog along the way.
SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #41 [October 1981]
"House At Devil's Tail" 6 pages
Writer: Jack C. Harris
An escaped prisoner and his girlfriend take refuge in an abandoned old house which lives up to its name. Some really good visuals by Ditko on this one, especially the climactic image of the fate of the felon, a definite highlight among these stories. Harris tells an amusing anecdote about this tale (and specifically that tail) in his book WORKING WITH DITKO [2023].
WEIRD WAR TALES #104 [October 1981]
"Raze The Flag" 6 pages
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
We get a few pirates in here, and a fanciful, historically inaccurate origin of the Jolly Roger symbol. Not too notable, but always good to see Ditko taking to the historical seas in his stories.
This is an early story by Joey Cavalieri, who had an active writing career in comics, including a lot of Huntress and Green Arrow stories, but is better known as an editor at DC and Marvel
WEIRD WAR TALES #105 [November 1981]
"Death's Second Face" 6 pages
Writer: Robert Kanigher
This story about orphan conjoined twin girls in Germany who get separated first surgically and then by adoption, winding up on opposite sides during WWII, feels a bit disjointed, like it was meant to be a few pages longer. As it is, it's a decent story with a few nice turns, but no compelling visual hook.
WEIRD WAR TALES #106 [December 1981]
"Return Engagement" 8 pages
Writer: George Kashdan
A tale of long-held family rivalry among two clans in the Scottish highlands, as a group of Campbells lure the few remaining MacTavishes to the site of a centuries old battle where the Campbells were defeated thanks to some witchcraft that turned the MacTavishes into demons. It would have worked if those Campbells didn't insist on replicating the original battle down to the day. A well drawn story with a lot of witches, demons and of course tartans and kilts.
"Star-Trakker" 8 pages
Writer: Stan Timmons
A nice dense little story about what appears to be an alien creature at loose in the swamps, and the hero named Stone sent to take care of it, but with a few unexpected twists along the way, including a really shocking bit on the last page which, unfortunately, Ditko doesn't quite manage as effectively as you'd think he could. Still, he does a lot of other things right along the way.
This looks to be Stan Timmons first work for DC, he wrote for DC and Archie for a few years, including a story with Ditko in THE FLY #3 [1983].
"Shrieeeeeek" 10 pages
Writer: Sheldon Mayer
Harland Frisby causes the death of a mouse, and is unfazed when he's haunted by the ghost of that mouse, instead seeing it an opportunity to rid himself of his wife and inherit her money. He doesn't reckon with the cunning of ghost mice, unfortunately.
A cute little story, Harland's cynical and scheming ways are really brought to life with Ditko's expressions, and the ghost mouse is a delight.
Sheldon Mayer was the legendary comic book writer, artist and editor most famous for his work on Sugar & Spike and Scribbly, and as the editor of the All American line of comics in the Golden Age (Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, the Justice Society and more). Through the 1970s he was a frequent writer for these anthology books, but this was the only time his path intersected with Ditko. A shame, as the story is one of the highlights among these stories from either man.
"EM the Energy Monster" 9 pages
Writer: Steve Ditko / Inker: Gary Martin
And for this final entry, we get the only one of these stories that Ditko wrote as well as drew. Based on the story codes this was actually drawn a few years prior to publication. It's a great little old-school science-fiction monster story about an alien that crashes on Earth, transferring its essence to various types of matter like mountains, buildings and roads but finding them inadequate. A great visual hook, and one that seems to appeal to Ditko since he's used it a few times (see the
cover to UNUSUAL TALES #15 from 1959, and his story in
MONSTERS ATTACK #1 in 1989). My favourite of these stories, and definitely one that makes me wish Ditko had written more of them, since he clearly knows best what kind of visuals he can best bring to life.
Gary Martin does a very good job with the inking, one of his first jobs with DC, and has become an even more accomplished inker since, even
writing books on the topic.
Quick Checklist of Ditko's DC Odds & Ends
Amazing World of DC Comics # 13
Ghosts # 77, 111
House of Mystery # 236, 247, 254, 258, 276, 277
House of Secrets # 139, 148
Mystery In Space # 111, 114, 115, 116
Plop # 16
Secrets of Haunted House # 9, 12, 41, 45
Strange Adventures # 188, 189
Time Warp # 1, 2, 3, 4
Unexpected, The # 189, 190, 221
Weird War Tales # 46, 49, 95, 99, 104, 105, 106
Bonus Facts:
THE UNEXPECTED #221 promises the next issue would have a Ditko story called "Woro and the Liquid Man." It didn't, of course, as that was the final issue of the series, and DC's other such anthologies didn't last much longer. Certainly if DC still has a copy of the story it would make a great capper to a collection featuring the 224 pages above. [For more info on the unpublished DC mystery tales that Ditko drew, see Nick Caputo's article "Mystery of the Missing Stories" in DM #74. The first page of the unpublished "The Robot and... The Ghost" appears on the back inside cover of DM #78 - R. Imes]. There has also been some evidence of additional stories for WEIRD WAR TALES titled "The Spoils of War" and "Safe Keeping" being associated with Ditko.
