Strange Adventures #35

This August 1953 issue of Strange Adventures presents one of science fiction comics' most arresting visual conceits: a giant hand reaches down to lift a glass dome containing a figure labeled "Mars," while other domes housing beings from Jupiter, Venus, and Earth sit on an enormous chessboard — with Captain Comet himself standing at the board's edge, pistol drawn, looking very much like a chess piece in someone else's game. Murphy Anderson's cover art (both pencils and inks) renders the cosmic scale with crisp, confident linework that makes the premise immediately gripping. "The Cosmic Chessboard!" promises exactly the kind of grand, imaginative SF that made Strange Adventures a standout on the 1953 spinner rack.