Strange Suspense Stories #28

Charlton's Strange Suspense Stories #28 delivers the kind of unsettling setup that made mid-1950s anthology comics so irresistible — a sneering, pirate-garbed figure crouches over a treasure chest brimming with gold coins, thrusting something toward a startled modern man while hissing, "I've been waiting 300 years for this moment… choose your weapon!" The cover art by Dick Giordano and Vince Alascia crackles with menace, the contrast between the swashbuckling specter and his very contemporary quarry selling the premise perfectly. If the lead story, "The Man in the Painting," delivers half the eerie atmosphere promised here, readers are in for a genuinely unsettling treat.