Tales of the Unexpected #25

A wonderfully eerie slice of late-1950s DC sci-fi, this May 1958 issue spotlights the featured story "The Martian in the Iron Mask!" — and Lou Cameron's cover delivers the premise with real flair. A hulking, iron-masked figure looms in the foreground while a crowd of colorfully dressed bystanders reacts to a wanted broadcast warning that the escaped criminal's mask must never be removed — or doom follows. It's a ten-cent premise that packs genuine intrigue, pairing Cold War-era anxiety with interplanetary mystery in that irresistible way only DC's anthology titles could pull off in 1958.