Free Comics Monday: Myteries of Unexplored Worlds

Today I present two issues of Charlton Comics Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds with art by Steve Ditko.

From wikipedia:

Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1986, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut.

A division of Charlton Publications, which published magazines (most notably song-lyric magazines), puzzle books and, briefly, books (under the Monarch and Gold Star imprints), and had its own distribution company (Capital Distribution), Charlton Comics published a wide variety of genres including crime, science fiction, Western, horror, war, and romance comics, as well as funny animal, and superhero series. The company was known for its low-budget practices, often using unpublished material acquired from defunct companies and paying comics creators among the lowest rates in the industry. Charlton Comics were also the last of the American comics to raise their price from ten cents to 12 cents in mid 1962.

[ Download Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds 05 ]

More from Wikipedia:

By the 1980s, Charlton was in decline. The comic-book industry was in a sales slump, struggling to reinvent a profitable distribution and retail system. Charlton's licensed titles lapsed, its aging press was deteriorating towards uselessness, and the company did not have the resources to replace it. There was yet another attempt at new material, with a comic-book version of Charlton Bullseye serving as a new-talent showcase that actively solicited submissions by comic book fans, and an attempt at new Ditko-produced titles.

A number of 1970s-era titles were also reprinted under the Modern Comics imprint and sold in bagged sets in department stores (in much the same way Gold Key Comics were published under the Whitman Comics branding around the same time). In 1985, a final attempt at a revival was spearheaded by new editor T.C. Ford with a direct-market Charlton Bullseye Special. But in 1986, Charlton Comics went out of business; Charlton Publications followed suit in 1991, and its building and press were demolished in 1999.

[ Download Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds 09 ]

Enjoy!