Mighty Samson #29
Published and © by Gold Key (Western), September 1975
Title: “Journey Into the Past”
Synopsis: Samson and company head up the Huz’n in a river boat, visit the Met Cloisters and fight a radioactive unicorn.
Writer: John Warner
Artist: Jack Abel
Review: Gold Key’s Bronze Age output can be a challenge to critique as such reviews often echo similar themes: Stunning painted covers mask bland interiors, leaving the distinct feeling that the readers of that era should have spent their quarters on a title from the Big Two instead. Mighty Samson #29 is typical of the sort. George Wilson’s pulp-inspired cover is quite stunning, but it’s quickly downhill from there. John Warner’s script offers the type of random world-building common of mid-20th-century sci-fi, while Jack Abel’s workmanlike art looks like subpar Wally Wood. Solid but unsensational.
Grade: C
Cool factor: Four words: Lethal, radioactive, mutant unicorn!
Collector’s note: According to the Grand Comics Database, there is also a Whitman edition of this issue.
Character quotable: “Fascinating! A mutant beast resembling a legendary beast!” – Mindor, token science guy
Editor’s note: This review was written Feb. 6, 2024.
