Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #6 - Marvel

Frank Brunner contributes the cover to this, the last regular issue of Marvel's other b/w magazine experiment, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction. (I haven't seen it, but apparently Frank's original--already pushing the envelope with the Christ imagery--was changed a bit for printing)

Pat Broderick offers a weird, hippy-dippy frontspiece, and then editor Roy Thomas delivers the bad news that sales just weren't enough to keep the magazine going. I've heard this many times--that sci-fi fans just don't read comics that much, which never made any sense to me until I realize that I read a lot of comics but don't read a lot(er, any) of sci-fi. Hmm.

Anyway, the issue opens with, as it always does, with the "Slow Glass" framing sequence, this time by Thomas and artists Gene Colan and Dan Adkins, who make a nice pair. I've seen a lot of incompatible inkers on Colan, but Adkins smooth lines work out quite nicely.

The first story is "Behold the Man", adapted from the Michael Moorcock story by Doug Moench and Alex Nino, so you know you're in for a head-trippy time. Running twenty-three pages, the story is about a man who thought he was a messiah, and the story travels through various eras and confronts different religions--something in here to offend everybody! Took guts for Marvel even to cover this, and it makes for an effective, memorable tale.

Next is a text article by and about "Slow Glass" author Bob Shaw, complete with diagrams detailing how refracted light works in relation to the "Slow Glass" concept. I think we can see why regular comic readers, more used to the Hulk smashin' stuff, didn't buy this magazine.

Third is "Old Soldier" with story and art by Bruce Jones, a cool story of a man who explores space and what it does to his soul. Effectively told and involving.

Next is "Mind Games" by John Allison, a really out-there story of a solider who dies in WW III, and that's only the beginning of his problems. Like Allison's previous work for the magazine, I think this story works best while you're high and have on a Pink Floyd album in the background.

"Visitation" is by Don Glut and Reuben Yandoc, about some alien visitors who land and find themselves in the middle of a superstitious town about to burn a witch at the stake! You can imagine they don't take too well to that. Very fun morality play, in the classic EC tradition, nicely done by Glut and Yandoc.

It ends with one last "Slow Glass" page; a melancholy moment for both the characters and the readers. UWOSF would be granted one lone special edition after this, which we'll talk about soon. But a moment of silence for a solid, entertaining magazine that brought some of the best sci-fi tales around together with some of comic's top talents.