The Mastermen called it a "census," but it was so much more. If its citizens proved worthy, the Earth would join the interstellar confederation and reap the benefits of advanced alien technology, food, medicine, and educational resources the likes of which could scarcely be imagined.

But first, there was the question of race ...

Uncannily perceptive and prescient when it was written in 1953, EC writer Otto Binder's The Unwanted went unsold for more than a decade until he finally gave it to a fanzine publisher who promptly got out of the fanzine business -- and so it languished, unread, in a yellowing file folder for decades.

Never before published and now unearthed, The Unwanted is Binder's response to the 1950s McCarthy era, couched in metaphorical science fiction terms. Fantagraphics Underground Press ushers in this previously unknown mini-masterpiece by the writer of Captain Marvel, Superman, Captain America, and the "human" robot, Adam Link. Illustrated by EC artist Angelo Torres and his international collaborator Stefan Koidl, this edition pays homage to Binder's comics career. The result is a stunning tribute to Binder's lifelong commitment to comics and prose.

An unbelievable journey, unavailable no longer.

Otto Binder (1911-1974) wrote many science-fiction stories for early pulps, with "I, Robot" (Amazing Stories, January 1939) the best known. From 1939, he became hugely prolific in superhero comics, penning over half the total adventures of the Captain Marvel / Shazam extended universe for Fawcett Comics, writing most of the major characters at Timely (later Marvel) and Quality Comics, and co-creating dozens of DC Comics staples including the Legion of Super-Heroes, Supergirl, and Krypto the Super-Dog. His interest in science-fiction was motivated by a passion for space, and in later years he wrote speculatively about UFOs and edited Space World, a magazine about astronomics.