Strange Suspense Stories #45

This January 1960 Charlton anthology packs three tales into one dime — "Batu's Treasure," "The Space Creator," and "Oontah's Weapon" — with interiors by writer Joe Gill and artist Steve Ditko. The cover, rendered by an impressive roster including Steve Ditko, Matt Baker, Charles Nicholas, Vince Colletta, and Sal Trapani, splits its visual real estate between a close-up of an intense, shadowed face alongside figures in a dramatic confrontation, and the dominating right-hand image of a towering insectoid creature — the Incredible Monster Moth — looming over what appears to be a crowd of tiny onlookers. It's a satisfyingly eerie snapshot of the kind of sci-fi chills and adventure yarns that made Strange Suspense Stories a reliable showcase for imaginative genre storytelling in 1960.