Tuesday, December 17, 2019

The Last Mile of Space in Murray comics


DC Comics' Mystery in Space #17 is cover-dated December 1953-January 1954:


I don't believe this cover by Murphy Anderson was reprinted by K.G. Murray. There was no local edition of Mystery in Space in the 1950's, and the cover does not appear on a later issue of All Star Adventure Comic or Five Score Comic Monthly, the most likely hosts.

The cover story The Last Mile of Space was presented in All Star Adventure Comic #36 c.December 1965:


Here's a scan of the original splash page:


If this is an accurate representation of the original issue, I would happily live without the washed out off-register colour and opt for the clean lines of Anderson in the black and white printing.

This story was reprinted by DC in the early 1970's with a new cover image by Anderson in Strange Adventures #229:


This cover was reprinted, with some alterations, on the cover of All Star Adventure Comic #78:


The splash page includes writer and artist credits as per the reprint in Strange Adventures #229:


The reprint in Strange Adventures #229 has been recoloured and is an improvement on the original:


The final page of the story in Strange Adventures #229 ends with an instalment of Scienti-Fact:


This page is replicated in the All Star Adventure Comic #78 printing:


The original page from Mystery in Space #17 included an advertisement:


For obvious reasons the advertisement was not included in All Star Adventure Comic #36. Instead, as was standard K.G. Murray practise, the panel borders were extended to fill the page:


Two of the panels have extraneous white space, whilst one has extended art. The final panel has inked-in white space. The extended dark sky is tonally suited to the sombre finale. 

Anderson swiped himself when he drew the new cover for Strange Adventures #229. However, he had already paid homage to himself many years earlier on the cover of Justice League of America #19:


This cover was published by K.G. Murray on Mighty Comic #40:


This is a classic cover in its own right, as is The Super-Exiles of Earth! - but we can discuss this issue another time.

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