Mystery in Space #23

From the December–January 1954 DC anthology comes this wonderfully imaginative issue, its cover by Murphy Anderson depicting a pair of chimpanzees clambering out of a rocket hatch, chattering "Ik! Ik!" as green-skinned Martians in flowing robes look on and proclaim, "Welcome, Earthmen, to the Planet Mars!" The cover teaser — "Who will be the first pioneers to travel from Earth to another planet?" — sets up the featured story, "Monkey-Rocket to Mars!," written by Otto Binder with interior art by Gil Kane and Joe Giella. It's a ten-cent slice of mid-century science-fiction charm that captures the era's wide-eyed fascination with space travel in one perfectly absurd, completely delightful image.