Thursday 6 December 2018

Just for the Cover? Ghostly Haunts #53 (Charlton/1976)



Ghostly Haunts #53 (Charlton Comics)

Various (w) & (a)

If there's one thing that attracted me to this it's the cover. I wasn't bothered about the contents (which are good anyway) but I just had to have this. I thought it was quite sweet.

First there are two stories before the cover feature. The Bayou Devil Cat should teach people to leave cats alone. At least were ones. After his friend is attacked by a big cat, a man rushes off to get the local sheriff.

They return and catch two people a man & a woman in the swamps both of whom accuse the other. So the posse decide to wait until the moon's up. Bad idea that doesn't end well!

Dinner time!

Next up is The Happy Medium, about a trickster who plays the wealthy for their sins, or money. On the brink of retirement Sarah Leech (a rather appropriate name given the circumstances) who has just one more client to see, a Mr Kenneth Kirby, a famous "Ghost Breaker".

Preparing to fool Mr Kirby, our Sarah murders a grave thief and steals a valuable ring for her nefarious plan. Trouble is she is so good at faking her spiritualism she gets murdered herself. The reason Kirby is on a crusade to find real spiritualists who might expose the fact he murdered his wife and she vowed to return from the dead to expose him.

In one final twist as sarah dies she triggers her camera to take a picture of her murderer!

Finally the cover story The Creep. Herbie is an ugly boy and doesn't get many breaks from bullying or even mistreatment by his foster parents. After finding his "date" is just a stunt (hence the cover) off he's sent to bed.

Then after encounters with his tormentors Herbie meets a beautiful girl in need of help and gets a real date. Caught out in the rain the happy couple head for shelter where Millie disappears apparently kidnapped. Rushing to her rescue he finds himself in another world.

As an infant Herbie had wandered off now he was back in the world of the Trolls where the men are ugly and the women beautiful but don't mind the men.

A happy ending for a change.

Ghostly Haunts is usually worth picking up and has some great covers including more than a few from the late, great Steve Ditko!

 

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