Worlds Unknown was a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 published by Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 in the 1970s that adapted classic short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 of that genre, including works by Frederik Pohl

Frederik Pohl

Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...

, Harry Bates, and Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...

.

Publication history

Worlds Unknown ran for eight issues, cover-dated May 1973 to August 1974. The title was one of four launched by Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas

Roy Thomas

Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...

 to form a line of science fiction and horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 anthologies with more thematic cohesiveness than the company's earlier attempts that decade, which had included such series as Chamber of Darkness

Chamber of Darkness

Chamber of Darkness was a horror/fantasy anthology comic book published bi-monthly by Marvel Comics that under this and a subsequent name ran from 1969-1974...

 and Tower of Shadows

Tower of Shadows

Tower of Shadows was a horror/fantasy anthology comic book published by Marvel Comics under this and a subsequent name from 1969-1975. It featured work by such notable creators as writer-artists Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Johnny Craig, and Wally Wood, writer-editor Stan Lee, and artists including...

. Whereas those titles generally presented original stories, these new books would instead adapt genre classics and other works.

With the four titles' debuts set to be staggered over the course of four months, Marvel premiered Journey into Mystery

Journey into Mystery

Journey into Mystery was an American comic book series published by Atlas Comics, and later its successor Marvel Comics. It featured horror, monster, and science fiction stories...

 vol. 2 (Oct. 1972), Chamber of Chills

Chamber of Chills

Chamber of Chills is the name of two anthology horror comic books, one published by Harvey Publications in the early 1950s, the other by Marvel Comics in the 1970s.-Harvey Publications:...

 (Nov. 1972), Supernatural Thrillers

Supernatural Thrillers

Supernatural Thrillers was a horror fiction comic book published by Marvel Comics in the 1970s that adapted classic stories of that genre, including works by Robert Louis Stevenson and H.G. Wells, before becoming a vehicle for a supernatural action series starring an original character, The Living...

 (Dec. 1972), and, with a late start, Worlds Unknown (May 1973). The first issue featured Frederik Pohl's "The Day after the Day the Martians Came", adapted by writer Gerry Conway

Gerry Conway

Gerard F. "Gerry" Conway is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics vigilante The Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man...

 and artist Ralph Reese

Ralph Reese

Ralph Reese is an American artist who has illustrated for books, magazines, trading cards, comic books and comic strips, including a year drawing the Flash Gordon strip for King Features...

, and "He that Hath Wings", adapted by writer-penciler Gil Kane

Gil Kane

Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...

 from a 1934 Edmond Hamilton

Edmond Hamilton

Edmond Moore Hamilton was an American author of science fiction stories and novels during the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania...

 story published in the pulp magazine

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 Popular Fiction. It also included a story from Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics

Atlas Comics (1950s)

Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...

: the three-page "Nightmare at Noon", with art by Angelo Torres

Angelo Torres

Angelo Torres is an American cartoonist and caricaturist whose work has appeared in many comic books, as well as a long-running regular slot in Mad magazine, typically film or television parodies.-Biography:...

, from Astonishing #54 (Oct. 1956).

Subsequent issues included such adaptations as L. Sprague deCamp's 1956 "A Gun for Dinosaur", by writer Thomas and penciler Val Mayerik

Val Mayerik

Val Mayerik is an American comic-book and commercial artist, best known as co-creator of Marvel Comics' satiric character Howard the Duck.-Early life and career:...

 (#2); Harry Bates

Harry Bates (author)

Harry Bates was an American science fiction editor and writer. His 1940 short story "Farewell to the Master" was the basis of the well-known 1951 science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.-Biography:Harry Bates was born Hiram Gilmore Bates III on October 9, 1900 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

' 1940 "Farewell to the Master

Farewell to the Master

"Farewell to the Master" is a science fiction short story written by Harry Bates. It was first published in the October 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It provided the basis of the noted 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still and its 2008 remake...

", with Thomas and penciler Ross Andru

Ross Andru

Ross Andru was an American comic book artist and editor. He is best known for his work on Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Flash and Metal Men....

 adapting the source material of the film classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (#3); Fredric Brown

Fredric Brown

Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....

's 1944 "Arena

Arena (short story)

"Arena" is a science fiction short story by Fredric Brown that was first published in the June 1944 issue of Astounding magazine. It was voted one of the best of its genre by the Science Fiction Writers of America and included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.The Star Trek...

", with Conway and penciler John Buscema

John Buscema

John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...

 on a short story previously adapted for an episode of the TV series Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

 (#4); A. E. van Vogt

A. E. van Vogt

Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....

's first published SF story, "Black Destroyer" (1939), by Thomas and penciler Dan Adkins

Dan Adkins

Dan Adkins is an American illustrator who worked mainly for comic books and science-fiction magazines.-Early life and career:...

 (#5); and Ted Sturgeon's 1944 "Killdozer", by Conway and penciler Dick Ayers

Dick Ayers

Richard "Dick" Ayers is an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on some of the earliest issues of Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four, and as the signature...

 (#6).

The final two issues changed direction and featured an adaptation of the contemporaneous film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is a fantasy film released in 1974 and starring John Phillip Law as Sinbad. It includes a score by composer Miklós Rózsa and is known mostly for the stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen...

 (1974), based on the screenplay by Brian Clemens

Brian Clemens

Brian Horace Clemens OBE is a British screenwriter and television producer, possibly best known for his work on The Avengers and The Professionals...

 and the story by Clemens and Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...

. Titled The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: Land of the Lost, it was by writer Len Wein

Len Wein

Len Wein is an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men...

 and penciler George Tuska

George Tuska

George Tuska , who early in his career used a variety of pen names including Carl Larson, was an American comic book and newspaper comic strip artist best known for his 1940s work on various Captain Marvel titles and the crime fiction series Crime Does Not Pay, for and his 1960s work illustrating...

. Although Marvel had announced plans to follow the Sinbad adaptation with a new, original lead feature titled "Cyborg," it instead cancelled the comic and ran the feature in Astonishing Tales

Astonishing Tales

Astonishing Tales is an American anthology comic book series published by Marvel Comics originally from 1970-1976. Its sister publication was Amazing Adventures vol. 2...

 as "Deathlok

Deathlok

Deathlok is a fictional cyborg published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Astonishing Tales #25 , and was created by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench...

."

Five months after the title's cancellation, Marvel would revisit the idea of science-fiction story adaptations with the black-and-white comics magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction

Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction

Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction was a 1970s black-and-white, science fiction comics magazine published by Marvel Comics' parent company, Magazine Management, under the imprint Curtis Magazines....

, which ran for six issues plus an annual

Annual publication

An annual publication, more often called simply an annual, is a book or a magazine, comic book or comic strip published yearly. For example, a weekly or monthly publication may produce an Annual featuring similar materials to the regular publication....

from 1975 to 1976.

Critical assessment

Critic David A. Roach wrote of the series: "[T]he best issues are those featuring Gil Kane or Ralph Reese.... The first Worlds Unknown manages this with stunning Reese art on Fred Pohl's "The Day After the Day the Martians Came!" (adapted by Gerry Conway) and lyrical Kane drawings for Ed Hamilton's "He That Hath Wings," which the artist also scripted".

External links

• Worlds Unknown at The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators. Archived from the original (requires scrolldown) November 19, 2011.