Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Classics - Strange Adventures #168

The fun thing about looking through old comics is that warm buzz of nostalgia some issues provide.

This copy of Strange Adventures is a good example - I stumbled across it recently and remembered reading it over and over again when I was a kid.

Cover dated September 1964, my imagination was captured by the cover image of a giant hand dragging a giant eraser across the city, wiping out everything in its path.

But these DC science fiction / fantasy comics actually featured three stories in each issue. The first one here is "I Hunted Toki the Terrible," which tells the story of a couple of hunters who discover a strange alien creature running amok in the jungles of South America - and kudos to the mystery artist, who managed to pack four different bizarre aliens in a 9-page story.

The second story is the surprisingly dark story titled "The Twin Dooms," an 8-page tale about a couple of criminals who meet a strange (though just) fate.

The final story is "The Hand That Erased Earth," and it's a fun little twist on the "menace that isn't what it seems" story.

The art on all these stories isn't flashy, but like the stories, it's fun, creative and thoroughly professional.

I have to think that any kid would enjoy this comic just as much as I did when I was a tot. It did something most comics didn't - it made a lasting impression! What more can any art aspire to?

Grade: B+

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