Steve Ditko In Outer Space!

Steve Ditko in Outer Space from the Charlton Neo outfit was put together by Mort Todd, Roger McKenzie and Paul Kupperberg. They essentially gather the Steve Ditko stories from four issues of Charlton's vintage Outer Space series. The four issues involved are eighteen through twenty, the last one Ditko only drew the cover which is also the cover of the collection. Below are the covers of the original issues. 

(Pat Masulli and Rocke Mastroserio)

To read this issue follow this link. 

(Rocke Mastroserio)

To read this issue follow this link. 

(Dick Giordano)

To read this issue follow this link. 

(Steve Ditko)

To read this issue follow this link. 

This is a fun collection, recolored with some bright hues, giving them some added vigor. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Mysterious Traveler #6!

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #6 appeared in September of 1957 and is dated December of that year. You can read this issue at this link. There are five Ditko stories in this issue -- "The Old Fool's Secret", "Mister Evriman", "The Old Fool", "Tomorrow's Punishment", and "Little Girl Lost". All but the last one are Mysterious Traveler tales. Joe Gill likely supplied the scripts. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Mysterious Traveler #5!

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #5 appeared in July of 1957 and is dated November of that year. You can read this issue at this link. There are three Ditko drawn Mysterious Traveler stories in this one -- "Above the Topmost Peak", "The Man Below" and "The Sultan". There are other stories by artists such as Charles Nicholas, Rocke Mastroserio, and Maurice Whitman. Joe Gill most likely wrote all the scripts. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Mysterious Traveler #4!

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #4 appeared in April of 1957 and is dated August of that year. You can read this issue at this link. There are four Mysterious Traveler tales in this issue by S. Ditko -- "Escape", "Test of a Man", "The Desert" and "Operation Blacksnake". The story "Mutiny" is not a Traveler tale and is drawn by Charles Nicholas and Sal Trapani. All stories were most likely written by Joe Gill. There are other small features. 

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Ditko Classic Covers - The Mysterious Traveler #3!

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #3 appeared in January of 1957 and is dated May of that year. You can read this issue at this link. Only one story, "Secret Mission" is by Ditko inside. "The Man Who Came Back" features art by Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin and "The End of the Medium" is drawn by Bill Molno. There are other stories and most likely all were written by Joe Gill. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Tales Of The Mysterious Traveler!

"This is The Mysterious Traveler, inviting you to join me on another journey into the strange and terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip, that it will thrill you a little and chill you a little. So, settle back, get a good grp on your nerves and be comfortable -- if you can!"

So opens The Mysterious Traveler, a radio program created by Robert Arthur and David Kogan which from the 1943 to 1952 inspired not one but two distinctly different comic books. The second became a platform for the great Steve Ditko to deliver his fast-developing talents as a maker of spooky tales. But let's begin with the first, a one-shot. 

The Mysterious Traveler number one from Trans-World Publications debuted in 1948, and was produced by the ubiquitous Bob Powell and his at-the-ready studio. The comic delivers several short stories in the tradition of the radio show though no direct connection can be demonstrated. To get a better look follow this link. 

The second comic book featuring The Mysterious Traveler came from Charlton Comics, and it ran for a lucky thirteen issues between 1956 and 1959. This version featured tales written most likely by Joe Gill and drawn by many of the stalwarts at Charlton such as Dick Giordano, Rocke Mastroserio, Bill Molno and others including Ditko who drew his first story for the comic in the second issue and his first cover (one of his best) with the third. The title was revived as a reprint only book for two more issues in 1985 in the last throes of Charlton as the company disappeared for good. Later still in 1990 Eclipse Comics put out reprint volume featuring the Ditko stories titled Tales of The Mysterious Traveler. 

More on The Mysterious Traveler tomorrow. 

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Steve Ditko - Unexplored Worlds!

The second archives volume of early Ditko comics from Fantagraphics is titled Unexplored Worlds. This is work by Steve Ditko after the advent of the Comics Code of America, and so the work is of a more benign nature than that which had preceded it. These are light stories, often little morality dramas and not unexpectedly upbeat endings. Comics now existed in a world in which the good guy wins or at the very least the bad guy is properly punished. There had been plenty of punishment before, but just as in real life the relative goodness of an individual didn't necessarily preclude bad outcomes. [It should be noted that two of the stories in this volume are from Atlas (not yet Marvel) Comics produced for Stan Lee in a short period when Charlton Comics was out of business due to a devastating flood which destroyed the plant. I'll have more to say about Ditko's Marvel work in this era in later posts.]

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 Atlas (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 Here are the Ditko covers collected in this volume. 

In these covers it easy to see the specific stylings which we all associate with Steve Ditko's work throughout the balance of his long career. 

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