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Unusual Tales", a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain.
"When Old Doc Died" is a 5-page story first published in Charlton's TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER #6 [1957]. Another favourite, this is pretty much the dictionary definition of what would now be called a "Twilight Zone story", but two years before the TV show even began. Very tight and compact story about a small-town Vermont doctor and his near-death experience, Ditko does a great job with it, especially the subtle changes in line weight for the different settings, and some especially good shots of
Rod Serling the Traveler. Looks like there were a few lettering changes made prior to publication, I suspect to edit out the name of Doc's second destination. I'm kind of surprised that they even got away with the explicit mention of the Devil in those early Code days.
This story appears in the Snyder/Ditko publication TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER #16 [2015], so I'm only showing the first page below.
But before the story, some links:
Full length STATIC and MOCKER graphic novels still available
Articles on all facets of Ditko's career
Complete CREEPER hardcover now available
Click to embiggen
Life is indeed...what you make it!
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