Mystery In Space
May 10, 2008 by The Fortress Keeper
When Ziff-Davis decided to launch a comic-book division in the 1950s, the publisher attracted some of the best talent of the era.
Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel was hired as editorial director, who commissioned work from such high-profile artists as Wally Wood, Alex Schomburg and Ogden Whitney.
Murphy Anderson, best known for his wonderful pencil and ink work for DC, also contributed to the line. In fact, his work appeared in the publisher’s very first comic - Amazing Adventures #1.
Besides Anderson’s typically beautiful work, the tale - entitled The Asteroid Witch - is notable for featuring one of the least likable male protagonists ever seen in a Golden Age comic. The heroine, on the other hand, is brave and resourceful enough to almost make up for her horrible taste in men.
Although no writer is named, Anderson believed the script was penned by Siegel himself.
Unfortunately, Ziff-Davis’ reliance on top-tier talent and high production values didn’t translate to widespread commercial success. The stories were just a bit too tame for readers thrilling to EC horror and Lev Gleason crime comics.
Many of Ziff-Davis’ titles ended up under the St. John comics umbrella, the maverick publisher that produced one of the first graphic novels - Arnold Drake, Leslie Waller and Matt Baker’s wonderful B-moviesque It Rhymes With Lust.
With our history lesson out of the way, let’s all sit back and enjoy The Asteroid Witch. Thanks, as always, to the Golden Age Comics Downloads site.
“Make mine a Rocketini!” is beautiful. It deserves to become the next big Internet catchphrase.
“Clear out of this universe! Now — Git!!!!” really does sound like pure Jerry Siegel. That and the day being saved by a pistol-packing woman convinces me that Anderson’s identification of him must be correct.
So wait…how could he have been enslaved by the space witch if he hadn’t met her until after Kit-E faked her death? My head hurts.