Mystery in Space #16

Murphy Anderson's cover for this 1953 DC anthology captures the tension perfectly: two astronauts in yellow pressure suits drift helplessly in open space, tethered by a thin line to a spacecraft just out of reach, while a massive meteor bears down on them from behind. The man's urgent cry — "Tow us in faster! A giant meteor is going to hit us!" — and the woman's look of alarm sell the peril with genuine dramatic flair. Mystery in Space #16 promises exactly what its tagline delivers: strange secrets of other worlds, here wrapped in the breathless, wide-eyed wonder that made early 1950s DC science fiction so endlessly appealing.