Thursday, October 07, 2021

These may or may not be legit tourist spots now, consult your local listings!

I am not organized enough this year for a full October of horror comics posts; but we'll have at least a couple, and I think we'll have an 80-pager later as well. But today we'll knock out a quick one: from 1977, Ghosts #52, opening with "Ghosts and the Supernatural" Art by John Calnan, writer unknown.
Get your Wikipedia out for this one, because at least part of "The Thunderhead Phantom" appears to be based on fact! As the remains of Percy Bysshe Shelley are cremated, his friend Edward Trelawney saves Shelley's heart from the fire. That night, Trelawney is seemingly visited by Shelley's ghost, to rehash their last argument: Trelawney considered himself a "soldier of fortune," while Shelley says that's nothing more than a hired killer, and asks him to "either give up wanton killing--or still my heart forever in those flames!" Yeesh, drama much? Trelawney feels that he had to earn a living, and sets sail for Greece; only for Shelley's ghost to seemingly catch his boat aflame during a lightning storm. Trelawney would be captured by the Turks, before he was able to fight them. (Art by E. R. Cruz, writer unknown.)
"Specter in the Shelter" is a pretty standard ghost-in-the-bomb-shelter, scares people to safety story. "The Secret of the Living Corpse" is darker, and perhaps also based on a "true" story: incarcerated at the Arizona state prison and repeatedly, brutally tortured, Edgar C. Fowler develops the ability to project his own spirit. Later, Jack London would write about Fowler, the novel the Star Rover. Still, Fowler seems disappointed to realize he couldn't just make his ghost appear, it only worked when his life was in danger. (Art by Alfredo Alcala.)
The only writing credit available this issue was for the text story, "The Phantom Who Feared Himself," written by Murray Boltinoff. Maybe he ghost-wrote the whole thing? (That should be get booed, as a bad joke, not for ghosts...)

1 comment:

  1. Goddamn how long did that series run to be already in the 50's during the mid-70's?

    Interesting historical tidbit about Fowler. Never heard of him until now.

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