Ghostly Tales #110 (Charlton Comics)
Various (w) & (a)
One of the genres that Charlton were consistent in output with were their range of horror/mystery titles. Ghostly Tales was one of several long running titles that formed the core of their publications. Like all of these anthology comics (as with any publisher) the contents were varied and whether the stories were any good was really up to the reader. In Charlton's case quality was, shall we say variable in terms of art and writing.
As I've often pointed out Charlton were mean with remuneration for their creators but despite this there are some gems to be found. In particular this series has a lot of issues with very high quality covers of which this is one. That it illustrated cats was a bonus, for me anyway!
In fact this vaguely relates to the one good story in this issue, The Man Who Hated Cats written by Joe Gill and drawn by the great Steve Ditko. There's a reason the previous sole inhabitant of this small Island kept the cats and treated them well, so killing them off is not a good idea. The clue should have been in the name, Raton Island!
The other two tales One Night in The Bayou and El Tigre Lives are standard stuff and instantly forgettable, the art on the latter story being somewhat sub-standard in my opinion.
Nevertheless these comics are worth picking up when you find them as there's usually a tale or two worth reading. Much of the earlier stuff appeared in Alan Class titles in the UK.
The first issue was actually #55! Issues #1 to #49 were published as Unusual Tales and #50 to #54 as Blue Beetle, the Dan Garrick version).
The final issue came out in 1984 as Charlton finally gave up publishing comics.
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