2016 Comic Challenge 281 Ghostly Tales #147

TITLE-Ghostly Tales #147
PUBLISHER-Charlton

Pretty sure I grabbed this at an auction almost 10 years ago. Grabbed it back then cause I was pretty sure from a quick glance that the cover was by Steve Ditko. And I was right. By this time,cover date March 1981,Ghostly Tales was pretty much all reprints. The cover is from issue 118. And the interior stories seem to be reprinted from issue 116.

We get three stories. Up first  is one written by Joe Gil and Sanho Kim handles the pencils and inks. It is serviceable and that is about it.The middle story has no credited writer,but the pencils and inks are by Steve Ditko. For that alone it is worth buying this comic.The final story has Joe Gil back writing.Then Bill Fraccio doing pencils and inks.

Outside of the Ditko cover and story this isn't anything special. But for those two things alone it is worth grabbing if you find it cheap. Sadly over the past 5 years I have seen the prices on all Charlton comics go up a bit.

Ghostly Tales #147 gets a Buy!

2016 Comic Challenge 179 Baron Weirwulf's Haunted Library #070

TITLE-Baron Weirwulf's Haunted Library #070
PUBLISHER-Charlton Comics Group

I never read much of the Charlton horror anthology comics back when they were coming out. Then in the late 90s my local comic shop got in a huge stack of reader copy condition of them. The shop owner had said how much he wanted an issue but was offering a decent discount if you bought at least 10. So I went thru the stack found 20 that caught my attention and went up to the counter. The shop owner chuckled and said "Yeah I knew when I got them you would go after the one with the Ditko cover."

Now I haven't bothered doing much research for this issue. But under that Ditko cover you get your normal Charlton horror short stories. They never reach the levels of say the greatest stuff from EC or all the 70s DC horror titles or even Creepy and Eerie. But they are almost always worth a read. And usually have some good art.

Seems over the past decade the demand for these titles has went up. And I am seeing more and more shops/con dealers wanting $5 an issue for a beat up copy. Now for me yeah I would pay $5 for a reader copy version of this issue.Mostly cause of the Ditko cover.

Baron Weirwulf's Haunted Library #070 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 114 Curse of the Weird #02

TITLE-Curse of the Weird #02
PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics

Starting in the fall of 1994 and lasting for 4 issues Curse of the Weird was a Marvel mini series that reprinted lots of pre-code horror/weird stories. I have no clue why I skipped this mini when it was coming out. But got lucky back in 2010 and found the complete run cheap at a con.

Like the titles the stories originally appeared in Curse of the Weird is an anthology title.In this issue we get 5 stories. Ghost of Grismore Castle is the first story. Written by Stan Lee,it has pencils by one of my favorite Silver Age artists Steve Ditko.The second story is titled Bat's Tale. Once again Stan Lee is the writer but this story has Russ Heath Jr doing the pencils. Up next is Innocent Bystander.Sadly the name of whoever wrote this story is unknown. And Dick Briefer handles the pencils.The 4th story is The Unsolid Man.Written by Carl Wessler and the legendary Joe Orlando handles the pencils.And the final story is No Sign of Life. Were once again Stan Lee does the writing. And the great Steve Ditko does the pencils.

Not only do you get 5 pretty good weird/horror stories. But also a bit of backstory for each story. With this being only a 4 issue mini I doubt we will ever see a trade of it. So it is nice that the single issues are worth at most cover price. And aren't that hard to find.

Curse of the Weird #02 gets a BUY!

31 days of horror year 3 day 29 comics 04

Curse of the Weird #4

The final issue of this forgotten mini series. We start off pretty good with a great cover by Tenneyson Smith. This moody cover really stands out. The first story is the never reprinted in color and uncensored classic "Zombie". Written by Stan Lee and with Bill Everett on the art chores this a great slice of pre-code horror. It even was spun off into it's own b/w magazine by Marvel in the 70's. The dark moody artwork must have been a shock to the comic reading public back when this was first published. "The End of the World" is a nice slice of Sci fi. But it not for the great Basil Wolverton artwork it would be just your average story. "Worlds at War" has art by Jack Davis. This funny sci fi story has fun artwork from a guy mainly known for his time working on Mad magazine and his stuff at EC."There'll be some changes made" is the finaly story. And it helps end this issue and the series on a high note. We get stunning artwork from Steve Ditko,and a story that isn't completely predictable. I get the feeling that this mini didn't sell too well. Which is sad cause I would have loved more pre-code reprints of stories. But at the time people seemed more interested in buying gimick covered crap. Curse of the Weird #4 gets a A.

Monster Menace 1-4

Monster Menace 1-4

This was a kinda companion piece to Marvel's "Curse of the Weird" 4 issue mini. This series focused on the various Marvel pre-Silver age giant monster stories. This is the place were Fin Fang Foom and Groot showed up for the first time. So highlights from the 4 issues are. "I spent Midnight with the Monster on Bald Mountain" written by Stan Lee and art by Steve Ditko is a great moody story that shows both men at their artistic peaks. "The Terror of Tim Boo Ba" again by Lee and Ditko not only has a monster with a great name,but a fun twist ending that had to be mind blowing to the kids that read these stories many years ago. "When the Totem Walks" starts off the second issue with another blast of pure fun from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. They take the stupid idea of a killer monster Totem Pole and make it into something believe able for a comic book. "Save me from the Weed" besides the laughable title,is a fun science fictionish story from Stan Lee with Jack Kirby doing the pencils and Dick Ayers on inks.This is one of the many radiation gone wrong stories that were all through out pop culture during this era. "I can't escape from the Creeping Things" is another mortality tale from Lee and Ditko that has a very early ecological slant to the story.Then wrapping up issue 2 is the highlight of the issue. "I fought Colossus" written by Stan Lee pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Steve Ditko. Another of this era's "The machines are gonna take over " scare tales."I Live again" is the sequel to "The thing from Bald mountain" comic. It has the team of Lee and Ditko again and their talent shines through.Issue 4 starts off with a fun cover by Floyd Hughs. We start off with a sequel to the walking Totem story from a few issues back. "Orrgo the unconquerable" is a amazingly fun tale by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Then we get what I consider the highlight from the entire 4 issue series "Rorgg,King of the Spider Men!!". Written I am pretty sure by Stan Lee this has pencils from Jack Kirby and I think Dick Ayers did the inks. Small town gets invaded by a group of aliens that have 6 arms and look kinda like Spiderman when he grew the extra arms. This story was the best way to end what was a decent mini series. I enjoyed "Curse of the Weird" more,mostly cause the Marvel giant monster comics are not some of my favorite stuff. But judging this on all 4 issues "Monster Menace" gets a B.

Curse of the Weird #2

Curse of the Weird issue 2

Published back in the comic glut of 94,this 4 issue mini series was over looked by most of the comic fans. This is a series that reprinted "weird" tales from Marvel's Atlas era books. You get 5 stories. The first "The Ghost of Grismore Castle" has amazing artwork from the comic genius Steve Ditko. Kinda a normal ghost story,but it is elevated from an average story to a great story by art. Ditko has an energy and aura around his artwork that I can't really describe. Up next is "Bat's Tales' written by Stan Lee and pencils and inks by Russ Heath Jr. Passable vampire story with a predictable ending. "Innocent Bystander" is third,with pencils and inks by Dick Briefer. Never heard of Dick before but his artwork is a little below average for the time period. The story is like a 3rd rate "Crime Suspense Story". "The Unsolid Man" pencils and inks by the great Joe Orlando.Besides the art this one is not worth reading. And it isn't as good as Orlando's great stuff with EC. Wrapping up the comic is "No Sign of Life" written by Stan Lee and pencils and inks by Steve Ditko. Very cute Sci Fi story that doesn't over stay it's welcome. And beside the usual pages of ads,we get a few pages giving us some background on the stories,writers and artists that worked on this issue. I found this issue along with the following 2 at Coast Con last year. Got them outta the cheap bin and just the 2 stories with Ditko artwork are worth 10 times what I paid for them.