Outer Space #24

Charlton's Outer Space #24 delivers a wonderfully busy October 1959 cover that practically bursts with mid-century sci-fi energy — a flying saucer beaming a searing light ray down onto a crumbling, explosive planetoid, a mysterious cloaked spaceman silhouetted against a starfield, and a gleaming robot figure rounding out the cosmic chaos. The cover, penciled by Bill Fraccio, Bill Molno, and Maurice Whitman and inked by Fraccio, Vince Alascia, and Whitman, promises a packed anthology including the featured story "Unwanted World" alongside tales titled "The Machine Men of Mars" and "Fall Guy." As a bonus, a giant contest offering a regulation-size "Buster Crabbe" swimming pool makes this ten-cent Charlton publication one of the more entertainingly jam-packed covers of its era.