THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER NO. 1

The Mysterious Traveler was a radio show produced by the Mutual Broadcasting Company. Created by writer Robert Arthur, it ran from 1943-1952. Each episode was introduced by a narrator:

"This is the Mysterious Traveler, inviting you to join me on another journey into the strange and terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip, that it will thrill you a little and chill you a little. So settle back, get a good grip on your nerves and be comfortable—if you can!"

The popular character also appeared in his own pulp magazine for five issues and several comic books.

In the first issue of the magazine (November 1951), The Mysterious Traveler provides the introduction:

This is the Mysterious Traveler, inviting you to join me on another journey into the realm of mystery and suspense. This time the trip is to be made in the pages of a magazine, rather than on the air. Thousands of letters have come to me from the many listeners who enjoy my weekly radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting System, urging me to put some of my stories into printed form.

This magazine is the answer. Some of the stories in it will be my own, retold for your enjoyment in fiction form by the finest writers of today. But many of the other stories will be favorites of mine, both new and old, written by the world's greatest craftsmen of the mystery—such men and women as John Dickson Carr, Dorothy L. Sayers, Brett Halliday, Ray Bradbury, Craig Rice, Lawrence Blochman, all of whom you will find in this issue, and dozens of others who will appear in the issues to come.

These stories, both new and old, will be the finest I can collect for your enjoyment. They will have mystery, suspense, inventiveness, color—and above all they will be good reading, just as I try to make The Mysterious Traveler on the air good listening.

I hope you will enjoy this magazine, now in your hands for the first time. I hope also that you will let me know if it satisfies you, what kind of stories you would prefer to see in future issues, the titles of any favorite stories you would like me to bring back into print again, or any other comments you wish to make. Write me at: Studio 4, 105 East 15th St., New York 3, New York. And now I invite you to begin our first trip together in print with one of John Dickson Carr's most unusual and least known short stories, "The Other Hangman," which begins on the opposite page. Good reading!

Yours sincerely,

The Mysterious Traveler

Sample covers from THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER pulp magazine (cover art by Norman Saunders):

The first comic book adaptation of the series was this one-shot, edited by Alfred Kline and published by Trans-World Publications with a cover date of November 1948. The cover art is by Bob Powell. Powell also illustrated two stories in the issue, one of which was from the radio show. Powell would go on to illustrate some of the more startling and gruesome covers during the Pre-Code period.

What makes this comic notable to Pre-Code horror comic fans is an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" under the heading of "Tales of Terror". It is scripted by an unknown writer with art by Rudy Palais (splash page) and Arnold Hicks (pgs. 2-7). However, it was not a new story, but a reprint from YELLOWJACKET COMICS #6 (Charlton, December 1945). It is significant as it is a horror comic story that appeared several years before Avon's EERIE COMICS was published in January 1947.

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