Mystery in Space #66
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMystery in Space #66 carries a double payload of creative firsts that make it a genuinely important issue within DC's Silver Age science-fiction output. Most significantly, it debuted the Star Rovers — Homer Glint, Karel Sorensen, and Rick Purvis — three competing 22nd-century adventurers whose debut backup story, 'Who Caught the Loborilla?', introduced a Rashomon-style multiple-perspective narrative structure that was strikingly sophisticated for a 1961 DC anthology. That format — the same event recounted from irreconcilable viewpoints, all internally consistent — was a real storytelling experiment for mainstream American superhero comics of the era. The issue also sits at the opening of the run collected in The Adam Strange Archives Vol. 2, marking the midpoint of the celebrated Fox-Infantino-Anderson collaboration on Mystery in Space that would go on to win back-to-back Alley Awards in 1962 and 1963.
In "Space-Island of Peril!", two explorers make a startling discovery aboard a derelict alien vessel: hibernation chambers holding a mysterious woman and a robot that shouldn’t be asleep. As the woman awakens, claiming to be a space policewoman, and the robot insists he’s a prisoner, their strange questions about Earth’s rarest treasures set off quiet alarms. Written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Mike Sekowsky, with inks by Bernard Sachs, this issue features a cover by Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella that captures the eerie allure of the unknown — a 10-cent adventure in 1961 that lingers long after the final page.
In a quiet corner of space, two explorers stumble upon an alien ship frozen in time—inside, a stunning woman and a robot lie in hibernation, defying logic. When she awakens, she claims to be a space policewoman, but her strange questions about Earth’s rarest treasures send subtle alarms through the crew.
In "Who Caught the Loborilla?" from *Mystery in Space* #66 (1961), three legendary adventurers race across a distant planet to capture the elusive loborilla for a $10,000 prize. Each claims victory in their own way—only to find their stories don’t add up, leaving them all questioning what really happened when the creature was caught.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 18 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
Raw / ungraded ▾ $29.99–$198 5 listings
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was edited by Julius Schwartz, whose pairing with writer Gardner Fox had driven the Adam Strange feature since its Showcase tryout in 1958. For the lead Adam Strange story, Carmine Infantino penciled and Murphy Anderson inked — the team that defined the visual identity of the title throughout its Silver Age peak. The Star Rovers backup was the work of writer Gardner Fox and artist Sid Greene, and according to a later editorial note published in DC Super-Stars #8 (1976), the story was originally conceived as a standalone tale rather than the launch of a series; reader demand brought the characters back three issues later in #69, and they were formally named the Star Rovers in #74. Pencil and inks credits for the issue were confirmed from Julius Schwartz's own editorial records, subsequently provided to the Grand Comics Database by DC Comics.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: March 1961; on-sale date: January 17, 1961. Published by DC Comics, 32 pages, edited by Julius Schwartz.
- First appearance of the Star Rovers (Homer Glint, Karel Sorensen, and Rick Purvis) in the backup story 'Who Caught the Loborilla?' — though the group is not named as such in this issue; they do not adopt the 'Star Rovers' label until Mystery in Space #74.
- The Star Rovers were created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Sid Greene; the debut story's narrative structure — four contradictory but internally consistent accounts of the same event — draws direct comparison to Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon.
- Karel Sorensen, one of the three Star Rovers, was notable for early 1960s comics as a strong, intelligent female character depicted on equal footing with the male leads.
- The lead Adam Strange story, 'Space-Island of Peril!', was written by Gardner Fox, penciled by Carmine Infantino, and inked by Murphy Anderson — the creative trio responsible for nearly all Adam Strange issues through #92.
- The cover was penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Giella, with lettering by Ira Schnapp.
- The Adam Strange lead story was later reprinted in The Adam Strange Archives Vol. 2 (DC Archive Editions hardcover collecting Mystery in Space #66–80); the Star Rovers backup 'Who Caught the Loborilla?' was reprinted in Strange Adventures #232 (Sept.–Oct. 1971).
- The Star Rovers feature ran semi-regularly in Mystery in Space through #86, then moved to Strange Adventures, and the characters were later reimagined as main figures in Howard Chaykin and José Luis García-López's Twilight miniseries (1990–1991).
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in All Favourites Comic #25 (1961), Sidéral #40 (1961), Sidéral #45 (1961), Titanes Planetarios #130 (1962), Strange Adventures #232 (1971), All Star Adventure Comic #93 (1975), Big Boss #42 (1979), The Adam Strange Archives #2 (2007), Showcase Presents: Adam Strange #1 (2007), Adam Strange: The Silver Age Omnibus #[nn] (2017)
Key issues in Mystery in Space
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.