Wednesday, July 14, 2021

COMIC BOOK REVIEW! ALL-NEW GHOSTLY HAUNTS VOLUME 2 NUMBER 54, SEPTEMBER 1977 ISSUE (Charlton Comics)

As anyone who's suffered through a few issues of  THE WITCHING HOUR can tell you, these seventies horror comics can be about as frightening as a kitten playin' with a ball of yarn. And frankly this issue of  ALL-NEW GHOSTLY HAUNTS kinda lives up to the tradition of feh code anti-thrills even though the people involved were trying their durndest to live up to those EC comics that turdburger geeks like you and I were still blabbin' about a good fiftysome years after the fact. Maybe Marvel had a handle on it back in the early-seventies when artists like Jim Steranko were doin' the pencils and Archie Goodwin knew just how to tweak the right nodes even with the CCA breathin' down his neck, but as for the others, ferget it!

Can't blame Charlton fer tryin'. The stories have potential but the resultant moosh just doesn't come through the way you wish it woulda. The first saga has somethin' to do with a guy who falls prey to a gaggle of Satanists and swipes an inverted cross of theirs under circumstances that I still can't seem to fathom. It's all about as cloudy and surreal as the artwork itself can tend to get The second one has to do with an overall failure in life who craves peace and quiet and, after falling to his death ends up on a homey deserted planet all his own. Who does he think he is anyway, a Mormon?

The final saga succeeds perhaps because it was drawn by Steve Ditko in a fashion much looser than his personalist work of the day but loose Ditko is way more preferable to one of those tight Filipino cartoonists that were all the rage back then. Yeah it's the ol'  murder the husband for the loot so the new couple can live easily enough only the dearly departed doesn't seem to be as departed as everyone thought. Or something like that since I don't wanna give the ending away even if you probably could guess after reading the first two pages. 'n altho this ain't classic Ditko the way he was at Marvel in the late-fifties/early-sixties it sure is great seein' this guy's work in any form!

But despite the presence of the venerable SPIDER-MAN co-creator GHOSTLY TALES's just another typical Comics Code dudster that fails to deliver on the kind of throb thrills such a comic would be expected to. However, it would be worth the pittance it might cost you if you just happen across one at the next rummage sale of your choice.

2 comments:

jimbo jeeves said...

carlton conics were bush leeg

e c comic s were the way too goo.

onley a retart wood like carlton comics

p s do you like raw. or maus

get you're header fixed its retarted

Steranko said...

Wasn't Charlton mobbed up, Mr Stigliano?