[Morgus]

Yeah, good one, ‘Crash.
Larson keeps looking better and better as the years go by.
Thing is, the gore in the Ormond movies looks so totally fake you just know it’s ketchup or marinara, and sprayed on with a syringe or turkey baster.
Bon apetite.
By the way, the kids have a lot of fun laying there and pretending to be dead. They’re having the time of their lives. “We’re in a a movie! We’re in a movie!"

[Morgus]

..oh yeah....Jack Chick? Also hates Halloween.

...bonehead...

[The Australian Panther]

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler 6
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=15492
COVER - What's the finger for? Pointing at the stories on the sidebar  to the right, I guess. Not one of Ditko's best. And the 'Traveler' doesn't look too mysterious.  Also, we read top to bottom, which means the stories on the cover are in a different order than they are in the book. Picky, aren't I?
When Old Doc Died
A Registry office? If he couldn't get away from Bureaucracy, he wasn't in heaven.
If I have it right, Ditko, being a Disciple of Rand, wouldn't consider himself a Christian, but this is about as Christian a story as I have ever read in a comic book.

11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”…

 

Are you familiar with objectivism? It has been described as 'the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute'. Ditko held this philosophy as his own, and that's what I see when I read these stories.
When Old Doc Died Good hard work can make hell into heaven. 

That's what Ditko thought he believed, but the character is motivated by love of people and 'Hard Work' is a manifestation of that love. 'With great power comes great responsibility'. When I think about it, that dichotomy permeates all Ditko's work. I don't get that from Ayn Rand.
Huh! Psychoanalyzing Steve Ditko?!!     
MR EVRIMAN
Quiz shows cause enough frustration to set the stage for a Totalitarian dictator. Interesting idea. I wonder if Ditko actually was frustrated by his economic status?
This one could be a 'The Question' story. An essay on 'Objectivism'?
Charlton's editors had a lot of patience with Ditko.
THE OLD FOOL
Preaching again. Dichotomy [' division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups:
a dichotomy between thought and action.] and Idealism. And a craving for an interventionist 'Higher Power'? 
I never read these as an adolescent. I wonder how I would have taken them. They are very 'adult'   
LITTLE GIRL LOST
Parents lock up the life force of their daughter and won't let her out.   
TOMORROW'S PUNISHMENT.
Weakest story here. But the cinematic last page is brilliant. Ditko could have been a great 'story-board' artist for films.
I will never look at a Ditko work the same way again.
Thanks Morgus.

 
 

[The Australian Panther]

I wrote;-

Hopefully some of us will search our memories and come up with others.( examples of the fore-fathers of Kolchak)

It seems, then, that Kolchak was unique. But the 'Mysterious Traveller' template was not.
DC had the Phantom Stranger and the two brothers Cain and Able, Charlton also had Dr Graves.
Gold Key had
Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery.

And Harvey had Powell's 'Man in Black'
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=62543
Man in Black 3
The book only went 3 issues, but they must have been prepared for more issues since there are other stories scattered through Harvey Books.
Something new tomorrow.       

[Morgus]

Always glad to help when I can.
Michael Gilbert collected all 9 of the Dr Drew stories in a great hardcover collection that takes a deep dive into the subject with great transfers.
Dr. Drew got started when Eisner wanted to start a comic book line, and for the life of me, I don’t know why he went with the choices he did. BASEBALL COMICS and the other titles of course flopped, and I only saw a copy of BASEBALL COMICS when Kitchen Sink put it out. He already HAD great titles he totally owned. Dr Drew teaming up with Mr Mystic would have been a natural. Same with Lady Luck.

Yeah, I know, ‘Panther, nobody was DOING it back then. But that’s why they should have given it a shot. The Plastic Man and Spirit combo platter covers were selling...

MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER, as I said, was Ditko’s most famous work until SPIDERMAN and I find it fascinating to see the difference in his material at the end of SPIDERMAN when he went back to horror/suspense with Warren in CREEPY and EERIE for a bunch of stories.
Also worth hunting down.

[The Australian Panther]

He was also doing Horror/Suspense for Atlas under Stan Lee. before Spiderman. 

[paw broon]

Have we mentioned The Cloak:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95996
I suppose David Vincent in The Invaders can be thought of as a predecessor to Kolchak.  Investigating strange (in this case alien) happenings, and, initially, no-one believing him.

[Quirky Quokka]

Hi Morgus and fellow discussionaries - I'm sorry I've been MIA this fortnight. I was away from home for six days at a conference in Sydney, and the associated busyness before and after. Looks like you had a good discussion. Now to get back to more important things -- like reading comic books 

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

You were missed QQ!
Just because the fortnight is over, doesn't mean you can't comment. They are all open, all the time.
Looking forward to yours!

[Downunder Dan]

Have we mentioned The Cloak:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95996

I didn't mention the Cloak, as I first saw a comic with him in it during the course of this discussion! (I scanned two issues of the comic, the second one will be uploaded in the coming weeks.) He fulfills a similar role as the Mysterious Traveller and a lot of other horror comics hosts, and OTR radio hosts. And Rod Serling, of course!