Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: Scary Tales #18

Here's a weird one. I do not actually own a copy of this, but it always struck me as particularly odd and out of step with the times. I was intrigued and did a little digging. I discovered that this issue contained a story entitled 3-D Disaster of Doom from This Magazine is Haunted #17 (May, 1954). I had a feeling that this cover might have its origins with that story. Thanks to the Internet, I found out that I was correct. The image on this cover is taken from the bottom left quarter of the title page of the reprinted story. If I actually own this issue of Scary Tales, I would have save a lot of time and effort tracking down that info, but where's the fun in that? It's quite the story and I'll likely write a piece on it eventually. Charlton was really king of recycling, and while I'm sure fans at the time thought very little of them for doing it so often, I am glad that they were able to turn such an odd image into a comic book cover.