2016 Comic Challenge 066 Worlds Unknown #06

TITLE-Worldss Unknown #06

PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics

I first became aware of the cult made for tv movie Killdozer sometime in the early 80s. Some UHF channel aired it as their Saturday night horror film showcase. I saw it that one time then forgot about it. Until sometime in the early 90s Killdozer was mentioned as a throwaway gag in an episode of Beavis and Butthead. And if became an obsession with me. I had to find the movie.

While doing some research,was mostly trying to find out if it had ever gotten a VHS release,I discovered it was based on a short story. And Marvel had adapted it for their Worlds Unknown title the same year the made for TV film came out.

So now I had three things to track down. The film,which since it had no VHS release I had to hope some channel would rerun it and I could manage to record it.The short story,which at the time was a bit hard to find. And the issue of the Marvel anthology title that adapted the TV film. 

Now I could have just broke down and ordered the comic from Mile High Comics or one of the other comic shops that advertised in the various comic books I read. But sometimes with certain comics I want to find them live. In other words find them myself in a comic shop or at a con. Not just call a place and order it. 

I looked in comic shops,going from Florida all the way to Texas,used bookstores and various conventions. And never found a copy. I even had the owner of my local comic shop asking customers if they had a copy. Nothing turns up.

We skip ahead about 10 years. I have pretty much forgotten about this comic. I had managed to find someone with a vhs copy of the film. So got that in a trade. And it is pretty entertaining. Thanks to a meteor a bulldozer on a small island construction site becomes sentient. And starts killing people. It is a pretty simple story. But the film is fun. In the way that lots of those 70s era made for TV horror and science fiction films are fun.

It is 2010 and I had given up on finding a copy of Worlds Unknown #06 in the wild. And was about to order it from Mycomicshop,when I see on the Comic Geek Speak forums a member made a post about reading the issue. I made a short reply about how I had been looking for the comic for years and thanking the guy for posting the review.

Back then since I was still using dial up I wouldn't be able to get online until after 10pm and then at most a few days each week. I hadn't been online or to the Comic Geek Speak forums for at least a week,when I sign in and see I have 3 PMs at the CGS forums. The person that had written the review of the comic was offering to mail me the comic for free. I thanked him and offered to pay him for the comic and shipping. He tells me "Nah call it comics karma. I got a comic I paid almost nothing for and I am never gonna read it again. You have the same comic you have been looking for for years. So it is yours. All I ask is next time you got some comics you don't want pass them on to someone for free." And since then I have tried to keep the comic karma thing going. Cause I buy decent amounts of random lots of comics online I end up with lots and lots of copies of various comics I don't want. So I end up making 3 stacks out of them. One stack is family friendly,this stack gets divided between my local hospital's children's ward and a local woman's shelter. Another stack is non-family friendly stuff. Which usually ends up being giving to someone or sold in bulk to comic shops. And the last stack is comics that I know others are looking for so I pass them on to keep comic karma going.

So after at least 2 decades I finally got the Killdozer movie and comic book. The day the comic came in I was excited. I opened the package and the guy had been nice enough to also toss in about 5 other comics and a note "From reading your posts at teh CGS forums figured these other comics are stuff you might enjoy. And remember keep the comic karma going." So I filled my favorite cup with some sweet tea. Grabbed a toy for my dog. Then went out to my back porch. Sat in a chair in the sunlight. And read the comic while my dog chased her toy. How was the comic? Well Dick Ayers does the pencils and Ernie Chan handling the inks. So the art is really good. Gerry Conway wrote the comic. And did a good job adapting it into a comic.But unless you are a Killdozer nut like me. Or just really enjoy all those wack 70s Marvel Horror/Sci Fi anthology titles I would say borrow this unless you find it really cheap.

Worlds Unknown #06 gets a borrow.