March 21, 2010

Unusual Tales - Orgo Serves


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

From Charlton's STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #39 [1958] comes the 5-page "Orgo Serves!".  Odd little story about a scientist who has a robot servant that he uses in his experiments, which involve repetitive experiments with high explosives in order to build a powerful bomb.  And also apparently a lot of typing.  The explosives part doesn't end well, so he probably should have stuck with the typing.  Then there's a bit of an odd twist ending.


Ditko's art is a bit sparse in this period, but I think page three, with the explosion, has some really nice elements.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
ACT 3 now, ACT 4 soon
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
#78 now available
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
CREEPER collection ever 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 explode

 

1 comment:

  1. The art does seem sparse in the sense that it is lacking in places for detail, but I seem to see that where there is detail, the eye is drawn to it. This cannot be accidental.
    The story is wonderfully simple.
    The ending is a clinker.
    When he said "space ship", the reader is cued in to think, as I did, that the professor is either an alien or from the future.
    But a robot himself? Oy vay!
    Either the great man wrote this himself or he was already a student of Stan Lee across the way.

    ReplyDelete

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