June 10, 2010

Unusual Tales - Moon-Run


"Unusual Tales" is an on-going presentation of public domain Ditko comics work originally published from 1957 to 1959.  Previously, we've looked at all of the available never-reprinted stories from that era. Until I can find the rest of those, we move on to the reprinted work.  Charlton itself reprinted a lot of this material, mostly from 1978 to 1985 when most of their books were all-reprint.  In fact, thirteen of the stories have never been reprinted since Charlton got out of the comics business a quarter-century ago, so we'll start with those.

"Moon-Run" is a 5-page story first published in SPACE ADVENTURES #24 [1958] from Charlton.  Technically it was reprinted in CAPTAIN ATOM #79 [1966], but that reprint reduced the story down to fill a 3-page slot, so a considerable amount of this artwork hasn't seen print in over 50 years.

A little science fiction parable about a future where robots are commonplace, and some of the issues that arise when there are advancements that can make them into androids indistinguishable from humans.  And as we all know, "even an android can cry".  Wait, that's from something else...  Anyway, nice story with a nice subtle bit in the middle, although I'm not sure about the level of astronomical awareness that has a flight from the earth to the moon can run into meteors which threaten to send it hurtling into the sun.

The linkage:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Look for a new book announcement soon
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
Latest issue on women in Ditko's work
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Full reprint of Ditko's CREEPER now available
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



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