Outer Space #18

This Charlton sci-fi anthology from August 1958 opens with a cover by Pat Masulli and Rocco Mastroserio that crackles with tension: a wide-eyed astronaut marked "713" grips the controls of his spacecraft while a massive fist smashes through the cockpit window amid a burst of lightning-like energy. The speed gauge, the banks of instrument panels, and the pilot's desperate expression all convey a mission gone suddenly, dangerously wrong. With interior work by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko — including the story "First on Mercury" — this is a fine slice of late-1950s space-age adventure at its most gripping.