UNUSUAL TALES

 

PS Artbooks reprints classic and not-so-classic comic books from the 1940s through the 1970s. Regular readers of this blog as well as those of you who follow me on Facebook know I love these books. I have hundreds of volumes of them and they do, indeed, encompass some of the best and some of the worst. Although, If I am being honest. I don’t consider Unusual Tales Vol. 6 to be bad. It’s a reflection of my comics mania when I was younger and a fair representation of my comics mania today.

This volume collects Unusual Tales #26-30, cover dated February 1961 to October 1961. Originally published by Charlton, known for its modest budgets, this is not a title I would’ve purchased at any of the main places a kid could buy comics back in the day. This was a title you read while waiting for your haircut at the local barber shop or acquired as an add-on to a trade for more respected titles by DC or Dell. In my case, I also had this kind of sort of part-time “job” where I swept hair clippings and was paid in comic books.

I swept the hair clippings into holes drilled into the barber shop floor. The holes were strategically placed so the clippings would fall into basement trash cans. It was a job that required the barest accuracy. I was well suited for it.

Charlton’s comics were available at most every neighborhood drug store, grocery or newsstand. The only ones I bought off the rack were Gorgo and Konga, but someone must’ve been buying the other titles because of how often they were seen at barber shops and as trade fodder. I read issues of their war, western and fantasy/science fiction titles. I didn’t even look at their humor, nurse and romance titles until I was in my 20s.

Unusual Tales was a mediocre title, enlivened by the occasional story drawn by Steve Ditko and the much more frequent very odd stories penned by Joe Gill. I knew Ditko was something different but I wouldn’t know who he was until a few years later.

Joe Gill was an incredibly prolific writer who might well have written every single story in this volume. Charlton’s low rates demanded massive production from the writers and artists to earn decent paychecks. Gill was definitely up to the task.

This is speculation on my part, but it seems to me Gill’s method of operation was to just start writing until he got close to the final page of a story and then wrap it up as best he could. I am amazed at how often that worked. Strange people and objects appear. Weird adventures ensue. Stories end with the mysterious people and objects vanishing, leaving the protagonist wondering if it really happened. That basic plot is repeated time and time again in these issues. Of course, the Ditko stories are the real prizes in this volume, even when they follow the pattern of the tales drawn by lesser lights.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AHEAD

Issue #26’s “Speed Crazed” had an Air Force captain who, since he was a kid, had an obsessive need for speed. He breaks record after record until, on one mission, he travels so fast that he disappears. This story gave Ditko many opportunities to create images of speed that are stunning.

“A Look into the Future” (issue #27) is a time paradox tale of a successful businessman whose dreams overlap with reality. Was he really following the advice given to him by a dream version of himself? Again, we get some amazing art from Ditko.

Ditko also appears in issue #29 with “Way Out, Man,” a hilarious tale of beatniks and aliens. It reminds me of the lighthearted stuff Ditko produced before his world-view was corrupted and went dark with Ayn Rand nonsense. If I were editing a collection of Ditko’s best Charlton shorts, this would be included.

I don’t believe I ever read these issues when I was a kid. They were new to me. Some ideas contained in them are clever enough that, were I not so involved in so many original projects of my own, I’d be tempted to rewrite them and flesh out those ideas. Given these comics are in the public domain, maybe I will explore that notion in the future.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back soon with more stuff.

© 2025 Tony Isabella