“To Meet the Faces You Meet”

Cross-Reference: | “Kittens for Christian” |

16 pgs (or 8+8 pgs). Appeared first time [B&W] in Fever Dreams (1972) [VERS.1]. Reprinted [B&W] in Gasm #5 (1978) [VERS.1], [B&W] in Rump (1980) [VERS.1], [COLOR] in Den[III] #9 to #10 (1989) [VERS.2], and [B&W] in To Meet the Faces You Meet (2020) [VERS.3].
Story: Jan Strnad. Color/Art: Richard Corben (no signature). Lettered by hand.

The most, maybe even all, foreign reprints are [Vers. 1]. (For example, a Dutch version is clearly [Vers. 1], though on first page they added, “© 1972”)
France [FRA]: as “Enfin voir ces visages aperçus” in Actuel [II] #35 (197?), and as “Voir? Vous avez dit voir?” in Ogre (1979).
Germany [GER]: as “Treffe die Gesichter die Du triffst” in U-Comix Sonderband #3 (1974).
Italy [ITA]: as “To Meet the Faces You Meet [ITA]” in Eureka #156.
The Netherlands [NL]: as “De macht der verbeelding [Vers. 1]” in Richard Corben #1 [NL]: Elf Gruwelijke Verhalen (1980), and as “Encounter at War [NL]” in U-Comix Sonderband [NL] #3.
Spain [SPA]: and as “Encontrar las caras que se encuentran” in Star #36 (1978), as “Encontrar las caras que encuentras” in Corben o la ternura del monstruo (1979), and as “Conoce a quien te rodea” in 1984 [SPA] Almanaque 1984 (1983) [Vers. 1] and Richard Corben obras completas #11 (1991).
Sweden [SWE]: as “Asikte mot ansikte” in Pox Special #15 (7/86).

Style: B&W zipatone / Colored with overlays. Genre: SF. Time Span: Future. Nudity: Voluptuous girl.
Keywords: Spaceship. Robot. Illusion. War. Mind ruler. Surviving. Monster. Truth.
Synopsis: Young man rules minds of people with the help of special robot. He steals by puting illusions on minds of enemies. Until he finds real company, a drifting voluptuous girl prisoner.
Comment: Brilliant idea and almost as brilliant story by Jan Strnad. A brilliant example what nuances you can find with zipatone, if you have Corben’s talent. This story suppoused to be in Children of Fire #3 instead of a story “Kittens for Christian”.
Correction: Here was earlier a mention French Actuel [II] version should be only 10 pgs but that was wrong info. It was also a full 16 pg version.
Alternatives, [Vers. 2]: Color version eats all zipatones away. Second page (where you can see all nudity in original version) is almost totally redrawn. There is no capulating, but girl is now laying under the quilt. On fourth page there is a lot of redrawing during erasing zipatone. All the rest, including text, is surprisingly identical with the original. Color version is divided in two; on first page they added “©1972”, in the end of last page “Continued Next Issue.”, and “To Meet the Faces You Meet Part 2” and “copyright 1972 Richard Corben & Jan Strnad” in the beginning of second part.
Alternatives, [Vers. 3]: Restored B&W from the original story. Each frame is reframed with thicker frame border. Frame in betweeners are white but inside frames there is no perfect white space. That gives an impression the story was not scanned from the original art plates but from printed pages. That made screened areas darker than in the original print.
Extras: The Jan Strnad interview (February, March 2001)

The original version was 16 pgs long one story. B&W.

[VERS.2]: The Den [III] #9 and #10 version was in two parts, 8 pgs and 8 pgs. Both in color.