Double-Take Adventures

Recently discovered at 30th Century Comics in Putney, an alternative cover for Archie/Radio Comics’ Adventures of the Fly # 10. A black & white stat came into the shop’s possession as part of the Alan Class Collection. Alan Class produced a line of reprint comic books such as Creepy Worlds and Secrets of the Unknown from 1958 to 1989, reprinting, seemingly randomly, stories from many publishers, including Marvel, Charlton, and the adventure line of Archie Comics. 30th Century is selling Alan Class’ archive on his behalf, including a handful of the original US comics they were printed from, and Alan’s file copy of Adventures of the Fly # 10 came with a cover stat that looks like an unused version, differing substantially from the printed copy.

Here’s the photostat, with the Fly and guest-star the Black Hood fleeing an attack; (Click the pictures to enlarge)

And here’s the printed issue;

No information remains as to why the original cover was discarded – was it not dramatic enough? Did it look a little too much at a glance like the heroes were holding hands, causing concern from the Comics Code Authority? Whatever the reason, it must have been a last-minute decision, as normally the editing process would have eliminated errors before they got to the, then, expensive and laborious stage of having photostats created. Another little piece of comics history out there!