The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1966: Ghostly Tales #118, November 1975

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

 

 

 

 

Okay, first things first. I chose this comic, amongst the other Charlton horror titles I've pulled, to read today because the character on the front reminds me of Squirrel Girl. Which is appropriate, given that the cover artist helped create her. Many times I'm interested in these old Charlton comics because they feature art from post-Marvel Steve Ditko. That said, his work in this really seems to be phoned in. A mediocre story with some mediocre art, sadly. But there's a silver lining: the issue features the work of Tony Williamsune. Mr. Williamsune is actually Tony Tallarico and Bill Fraccio, an art team who I am absolutely in love with. I illegally posted the story a few years back. I was moving about some books the other night and came across a Lynd Ward-illustrated edition of Frankenstein - I love the aesthetic of a lot of those old wood or lino cut works, and the Williamsune style, as I've said before, reminds me of these kinds of etchings.

I have been finding some of their other work in the collection, though the black and white stuff I've got, mostly in Warren Publishing reprints, isn't quite as enchanting. I don't spend nearly enough time considering the work of a colorist in comics, but I wonder if the reason I like this work so much is because of the choices the colorist made.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1335: Creepy Things #2, 1978

I figured since I only have one other issue of this series in the collection, I should read it.

One thing I don't often comment on with regard to my comics is their actual physical condition. I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to the state of my comics. If I can still read them, they have a place in the collection. Once I get into the habit, I'll be posting pictures of the actual covers to the 40yearsofcomics Instagram. I had meant to point out yesterday that that issue was one of the smelliest comics I've ever come across. It has that mildew-y, old bookstore smell, but far more than any other comic in my collection. I've actually left it sitting open for a bit in the hope that it will air out.

Today's issue is in much worse shape. There's no staples, and where they appear to have been is about a centimeter in from the spine. The pages are cut slightly wrong, so I'm missing the border and some sides of panels on the right hand pages of the comic. It's also definitely seen some wear, though considering it's a stapleless comic, it's in pretty good shape. All the pages are there, for one thing. That aside, it's a pretty good comic. Loads better than yesterday's. The final story, "Slimes, Slogs and Glumps," is excellent, sort of a what if someone brought a young Lovecraftian creature home as a pet. It actually reminds me of the "Dart" story in Stranger Things 2. There's some wonderful art in here, though one or two of the stories still feel like they're missing something. I feel as if the editorial decision was that each story had to be a particular length, and instead of rewriting, they just took pages out and hoped it made sense.

Anyway, that's all the Creepy Things for now. I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled, though maybe for the original Charlton versions. If feel like the reproduction work on these reprints isn't what it could be.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1334: Creepy Things #3, 1977

The most interesting thing about this comic is that my particular issue smells quite strongly of mildew. It was actually a bit overpowering.

Seriously, though, each of the stories (except the one-pager) felt like it was missing a page, especially the first story. All of the art is quite good, and these Charlton horror reprints are getting back the kind of visceral horror that the EC comics did so well, and that Bruce Jones does with aplomb in the early 80s.

Gonna let this one air out a bit before I put it back in the bag.

Actually, one other interesting thing is that these reprints were actually intended for the old comic variety packs you used to be able to get. My first comic box was a kit that came with the box, a variety pack of about 15 comics, and an old, old Overstreet price guide. From what I can tell from the GCD, Modern's output was completely reprints of Charlton titles specifically for these variety packs.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1025: Ghost Manor #20, September 1974

(We'll start Christmas stuff tomorrow?)

There's a cool little booth at my local flea market called "Snobby's." Thankfully, the proprietor is anything but. I bought a large stack of coverless Archie comics from his a few months back and got some really amazing, really old, stuff that I likely wouldn't have had the chance to read otherwise. And the other day I picked up a "15 Comics for $5" pack at his place. Today's comic was one of the random things in there.

There were actually quite a few old Charlton horror comics, and I'm really looking forward to reading them. This one had some interesting stories, and sort of seemed to be a hybrid of horror and romance. The cover story, for example, is about a couple who purposefully get themselves bitten by a vampire to keep the woman, who is dying of...something, alive. And they get married at the end. And then the story about the man and woman who meet in the wake of a UFO crash ends with him, having known her all of about 6 hours, proposing to her. It's actually really odd. But perhaps that was the schtick for this title, that it was going to attempt to bridge the gap between male and female readership by offering something that, supposedly, appealed to both sexes.

I don't know. It was entertaining.

To be continued.

The 40 Years fo Comics Project - Day 258: House of Yang #1, 1978

There's a couple of genres (okay, probably more than a couple) with which I'm unfamiliar for the most part when it comes to comics, and the martial arts genre is definitely one of them. I'm sure that it can, like the western, another of my unfamiliar genres, be done well.

House of Yang does not do it well. I'm not sure if it's the Dell-esque art, where even the most dynamic moments come across as very static and staged, or if it's the choppy and stilted dialogue. It could be that the main villain, Eva Ku, daughter of Chao Ku, ostensibly a Chinese national, looks a little like Betty Cooper. Whatever it is, I did not enjoy this comic. It barely kept my attention.

I think that I will have to find a few examples of the martial arts genre and do a week of posts about them. The same goes for westerns. Both have been popular genres, either recently or in times past, so there must be something to them, and there must be shining examples of them. I'd welcome suggestions, should any of you have any.

Well, I suppose that this comic proves that not all of my random selections are going to be good ones. But I'll continue on tomorrow with a random comic from the collection - maybe even one from the latter part of the alphabet, if I have the strength to move boxes around tomorrow! See you then.