TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER Volume 2

Courtesy of the Traveler's creator, Steve Ditko, this was the cool outre title of 1957/8. What it may have lacked in big budgets, The Mysterious Traveler made up for with offbeat stories, spear-headed by a brilliant young Ditko at his best, creating two covers and SIXTEEN amazing stories. You can see signs of the Lee/Ditko work to come, but I actually prefer these, with more text, more developed plots, and not as dependent on snap endings. The Traveler is a surreal narrator, moving in and out of each story. This was clear inspiration for Marvel's hugely popular Amazing Adult Fantasy, written for the thinking reader. Additional creators are Maurice Whitman, Bill Molno, Paul Reinman and Charles Nicholas. But after the Ditko work, it's Rocco Mastroserio who turns in the best work here, solid well designed stories like "The Lonely One" in #7 and "The Day of the Angels" in #8. He did the cover of this volume -- I don't know why they didn't pick one of the iconic Ditko covers, but don't judge the book by its cover...it's filled with great stuff inside!!! - Bud