Ghostly Haunts #34 (Charlton)
Various (w) & (a)
As regular readers of this blog will know I have a soft spot for Charlton comics. They have an amazing output of so many different genres. Mafia run or not (that was the rumour) their comics contained some gems and were overlooked by so many due to their poor production values and frankly had poor distribution with so many copies never even leaving the warehouses.
Nevertheless this was one of Charlton's fairly successful run of horror titles, most of which all had the word "ghost" in one form or another on the cover. Ghostly Haunts ran for 39 issues from #20 as the comic was originally called Ghost Manor. No idea whatsoever why they changed the title. Charlton did all sorts of things with their comics so it must have made sense to them.
These were at least all new stories and there are three in this issue which is graced with a cover by the late Steve Ditko. Always a joy to see his work. The comic kicks off with an evil garden and a wicked professor hiding his wares. The Hungry Garden by Joe Gill (w) and Fred Himes (a) isn't the first time this sort of plot has been used but is OK as a starter.
The main course is a tale of sorcery gone awry in The Puppet Master by Joe Gill (w) with art by Warren Satler. An evil puppeteer gets his just deserts. Which neatly brings us to the third course, A Little Witchcraft also written by Joe Gill but also with wonderful art by Steve Ditko. This is almost the classic kind of story Ditko used to deliver in old Marvel mystery comics back in the early days. The moral of this story is: don't rob witches! I think.....
These comics are worth both picking up on a whim or collecting outright. Of course anthology titles are always hit and miss but sometimes it's worth it just for the cover! I'm after a couple more (not those below) which I'll highlight on this blog when I get them!
Meanwhile these are the first and last issue covers!
No comments:
Post a Comment