Mystic #45

This March 1956 entry in Atlas Comics' Mystic anthology delivers one of those wonderfully unsettling premises — "When the Ocean Vanished!" — brought to vivid life on a cover penciled and inked by Carl Burgos. A wide-eyed man in a purple sweater staggers through what appears to be a suddenly exposed ocean floor, surrounded by sea creatures, coral, and eerie alien-looking formations glowing in the background, with a city skyline visible behind him in the chaos. Rounding out the package is a second tale teased at the bottom — "Darkness Outside!" — making this a generous helping of mid-1950s mystery and sci-fi strangeness at a dime a copy.