Unusual Tales - The Man From Time

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

Charlton did like their variations on time travel stories in the late 1950s, didn't they?

The 5-page story "The Man From Time" is from THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED #16 [1958].  Behind the Iron Curtain a scientist named Georgi Karenska has managed to secretly perfect a time machine built inside an armchair.  He wants to use it to visit the future and get knowledge to rule the world. Fortunately for the world, he finds the future is waiting for him.

It's a nicely dense little story. The visual of the narrator, Dr. Haunt, in the middle panels of every page, work nicely to add some visual flair.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Busiest year for new Ditko in a while
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
Good reading on all eras of Ditko
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Look for the "Year in Ditko" windup post soon
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.

 

 

Unusual Tales - Such A Strange Case

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

"Such A Strange Case" is a quick little 2-page story from Charlton's STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #40 [1959]. While there's no strong visual hook in the story, and its mostly in the service of a gag ending (a rather clever one), it is a nice look at some of Ditko's character types from the time, within the confines of middle-aged white professionals.


Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Many great things available
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
New issue available now
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Lots of ways to buy Spider-Man
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.

Unusual Tales - His Fate

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

"His Fate" is a 4-page story from Charlton's THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED #12 [1957].  It's a little bit of a goofy story with an overly dramatic story about the star of the ventriloquist act Nip and Tuck, with pretty much the twist ending you'd expect when you're told a story about a ventriloquist has a twist ending.

Lots of interesting Ditko touches.  The design of the characters is nice, from the ventriloquist and his dummy to the beautiful woman who serves as the catalyst for the tragedy, and the images of Dr. Haunt ripping through the page as he tells the story provides some nice visuals.  The first page does read a bit confusing, I'd be interested in how many people read the words on that in the right order the first time they look at it.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Get Ditko straight from the source
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
New issue on 1960s Marvel now available
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Wow, it's been a big year for Ditko reprints
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.

New Ditko - DITKOMANIA #76 available

DITKOMANIA #76 is now available from Rob Imes, with a focus on 1960s Marvel. Ordering details over here.

Rob also has back-issues of the fanzine since he restarted it last year, and second printings of 17 of the 63 issues of the original run published by Bill Hall, perfect for the holiday season.

Unusual Tales - Storm's Warning

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

As I mentioned recently, one of the first recurring features that Ditko drew more than one story for was for the BLACK FURY series from Charlton.  Right around the same time he also did several stories for a very similar series, ROCKY LANE'S BLACK JACK.  Allan "Rocky" Lane was a prolific western actor of the era, including a long series of films where he actually played a character named Rocky Lane.  That must have been a stretch...  The films also launched a long-running comic book, first from Fawcett and then picked up by Charlton.  It must have done well for them, as Charlton launched a spin-off featuring Rocky Lane's horse, Black Jack, in his solo adventures, and Ditko drew several stories for that series, some featuring Black Jack and some generic horse-focused westerns.

ROCKY LANE'S BLACK JACK #25 [1958] includes the 5-page Black Jack story "Storm's Warning", which shows that the horse has some very useful weather forecasting abilities, and keeps quite busy with a young friend when not working with Rocky.  A cute little story, I especially like the lightning storm on the first page.


But before you get to the story, some links to check out:Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Many great comics, catch up now
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
#76 now available
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Creeper creeping closer
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 cowboy size

 

 

Black Magic #47 [v8n2] [1961]

Here's an interesting anomaly. As most people know, following a few scattered stories when he began working in comics, most of Ditko's work in comics from early 1954 to early 1966 was for Charlton and Marvel.  One of the exceptions to this was "The Black Fog", a single 6-page story late in the run of BLACK MAGIC.

Ditko had drawn three stories for the series early in his career. The series continued until #50 in 1961, with several long publication gaps along the way.  I'm almost certain this particular story was drawn well before its publication, but also does not date from the 1953 era of Ditko's previous BLACK MAGIC stories.  From the style I think I'd place it around 1957, which might be a clue to its origin, but I'd be curious what other people think.

Anyway, "The Black Fog" is a story about a man who is plagued by dreams of darkness, death and falling. He gets a pill from his friend that's supposed to keep him awake for 24 hours to stop the dreams, and if that sounds like a bad prescription to you, well, there's a good reason for that.

Whatever the story behind the story, it's a well drawn effort from Ditko, who does a good job with the nightmare sequences, with the smokey blackness enveloping the character and the robed figure of  Death.  There are a few stray panels that seem off, maybe re-drawn by someone else during whatever path saw this story published when it was, but that's a minor thing compared to the strengths of the story.

Unusual Tales - Forever And Ever

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

"Forever And Ever" from Charlton's STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #33 [1957] is a 6-page story by Ditko, and I think anyone even semi-knowledgeable about comic book history will look at the image to the right and think one thing:  Will Eisner.

There are a lot of hints of an Eisner influence in Ditko's early work, but I don't think I've ever seen it more clearly than in the art for this story.  It's perhaps not a coincidence that elements of the plot in this story would also fit in well with Eisner's Spirit stories.  A hobo straight out of Eisner central casting tells the story of a stranger he met on the road, who told an unbelievable story about being 400 years old, as a result of a formula he took as the apprentice of  an Italian alchemist centuries ago which granted immortality, but with a curse.  A very enjoyable story, definitely a notch above the standard for these tales, with very good art by Ditko, very distinctively his work of the era even with the influences showing through.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
News on upcoming releases expected soon
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
Lots of great reading in those back issues, stock up now
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Brand new essay on-line now
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, plus, did you know, there are actually comics done by people other than Ditko?  I know, it surprised me, too!

Click images to enjoy the full-sized sequential art

 

Unusual Tales - The Perfect Forecaster

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

"The Perfect Forecaster" is a 5-page story from Charlton's OUT OF THIS WORLD #10 [1958].  It's one of the less interesting stories from that era, about a man who calls in to a meteorologist with accurate predictions of the weather, claiming the information comes from a "weatherscope".  Apparently he can also predict irrational greedy behaviour from people at the weather bureau.


There's no real strong visual hook to give Ditko's design skills a chance to come through, but the characters look pretty good, especially the young girl Dorothy.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
MR. A. now available
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
New issue out soon
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Pet Avengers, eh?
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.