682 – The Creature From Planet X

A panel from Strange Worlds #3, January 1959
A panel from Strange Worlds #3, January 1959

In late 1950s, Atlas Comics had not yet transformed into Marvel Comics, but its fantasy and sci-fi titles started featuring more outlandish covers replete with fantastical creatures in both shape and names. In Strange Worlds #3 (January 1958), we get a nice early example of this with “The Creature from Planet X”. The cover features a giant pink hairy monster, but inside the story the creature has grey fur, reminding me quite strongly of the infamous Hulk mis-coloration a few years later.

The 4-page story is pretty simple: a female journalist in the future is trapped in a zoo that features the creature, the creature escapes its dome and the women panics, fearing for her life. When workers arrive they explain to her that the creature could not live outside its dome, and they were more interested in saving its life than hers.

Strange Worlds, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish were the proto-magazines for the burgeoning Marvel style, blending creative juices from Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko. It’s still a few years away, but I can definitely see the beginnings of it here.