Monday, October 10, 2016

Manic Monday Bonus--Because It's There?

The Phantom Stranger The Mysterious Traveler looks on as man is finally going to conquer the world's tallest peak:



Oh, there's lots (and lots) of struggle:

Yet finally, our climber makes it!


But...

...wait for it...

What...?


O....K.

As cockeyed conspiracy theories go, this one is kind of odd. After all, this story was published several years after the first successful ascent of Everest. Were we really supposed to believe that it wasn't really a successful ascent, that it was all faked to prevent "men's spirits" from being "crushed" by the "revelation" that there was really another peak "ten times higher" atop Everest?

That's some seriously Capricorn One stuff there, dudes. Next you'll have the Mysterious Traveler telling us that Phileas Phogg didn't really make it around the world in 80 days!

From Tales Of The Mysterious Traveler #5 (1957)

2 comments:

Warren JB said...

Ditko, eh? Did the mountain represent A, or B, or black, or white? Was the mountain too lofty for the grubby masses to mooch off of?

snell said...

In fairness, Ditko was probably not the author of the story (GCD lists the writer as "Joe Gill(?)"