Random Happenstance

I had an issue of Creepy--or was it Eerie? with a John Severin story, just waiting to be blogged. Then I set it down and lost it, so we've got Ripley's Believe it or Not #83 from 1983, with a cover by George Wilson. It's all reprints, from 1966's Ripley's #2 and 1967's #6.

There are no writer credits anywhere for this, partially because these were allegedly 'true' ghost stories. Which may or may not imply the existence of the supernatural: although there are some odd happenstances here and there, and some may believe in the involvement of ghosts, it could've just been coincidence, a guilty conscience, or overactive imaginations. Or it could be complete hogwash! Like "Testimony of the Ghost," with art by Joe Certa: Mary Walker's wicked uncle has burned through her inheritance, so he arranges for a miner to 'take care' of her. With Mary's body dumped in an abandoned mine and the murder weapon and the murder's clothes even disposed of, it seems the perfect crime...until Mary's ghost tells a shopkeeper she was murdered, and where her corpse lay, and who did it. (A more likely explanation: the shopkeeper saw the crime, or heard tell of it, and invented the ghost story so he wouldn't have to snitch himself.)

I wasn't able to find any evidence online related to the first story...in the three seconds I took to look; but I did find the "Ship of Doom." (Art by Tom Gill and John Verpoorten.) The SS Great Eastern was a real ship, and the ship's designer Isambard Brunel did die before the ship's first voyage to New York. His death and the other misfortunes of the ship probably weren't due to a riveter and his mate getting sealed in the double hull. Probably.

Likewise, the battle of Marengo was real, but the Wikipedia doesn't mention Napoleon's brave officer Steingel; who leaves his last will with his general the night before, since he had dreamed of "the Dark Rider" that would kill him there. (Art by Joe Certa.) "The Thing with Claws" is almost certainly made-up as hell, but the clawed up walls and corpses do remind me a bit of Hobb's Lane in Quatermass and the Pit, one of my favorite horror movies. (Art by Joe Orlando.)

"Hounds of Death" is at least the third Halloween comic I've blogged with a mean-to-dogs story: a farmer poisons some hounds that keep tear-assing through his property. They proceed to haunt his ass good, eventually driving him to flee across a frozen pond, fall in, and die. The hounds may have just been playing; they didn't bite the guy or anything. (Art by Joe Certa.) Next, in ancient Athens, the philosopher Athenodorus Cananites gets a good deal on renting "The Haunted Villa." (Art by Andre LeBlanc, although possibly without any reference at all!) That one is based on an ancient ghost story.

Lastly, "the Lady in White" with art by Al McWilliams, which involved Queen Sophia of Prussia, who had an alarmingly long Wikipedia page but the word "ghost" wasn't in there anywhere; so I guess you can take that one with a grain of salt.