Strange Suspense Stories #4

This Charlton anthology from 1968 opens with a cover by Jim Aparo that crackles with paranoid energy — a blonde woman recoils in alarm while a looming shadowy figure threatens to destroy her mind and enslave her will with some sinister device, and in the foreground a rattled man struggles to convince himself that the creeping lizard-like hallucinations surrounding him aren't real. Headlining the issue is "Race Unto Death," written by Steve Skeates and Denny O'Neil, promising the kind of psychological tension that made Charlton's suspense titles so compelling in the late '60s. Aparo handles pencils, inks, and letters throughout, giving the whole package a wonderfully cohesive, unsettling feel.