Unusual Tales #18

A giant reptilian creature looms over a city skyline on this September 1959 Charlton gem, as three terrified figures — including a wide-eyed woman and a panicked man crying out "My experiment… I left the ray on!!" — scramble in horror below its snapping jaws. Cover pencils by Charles Nicholas and inks by Vince Alascia give the scene a wonderfully tense, pulpy energy that sets the stage perfectly for the featured story, "The Creeping Menace," written by Joe Gill with art by Bill Fraccio. At a dime a copy, Unusual Tales #18 delivers exactly the kind of creature-feature dread that made late-'50s anthology comics such a satisfying thrill.