Retro Comics Reprints, thaz a new 'un t'me! But eh, with Gwandanaland books being hard to come by these days maybe Retro is the new go-to as far as PD comic book reprints go. And if this collection is anything to go by maybe we're all in store for a whole lotta good comic reading thah should sate a whole lotta us long time fanz who are still stuck in the Saturday Afternoon Barbershop Kids ideal of heroism, excitement and suspense! Y'know, them things that are in rather short supply these days, or at least they seem to be judging from what I have been coming up against when it comes to modern day comic stories also known as "graphic novels" (yech!).
I gotta say that I am familiar with this long-running title which ran from '67 until Charlton's last croak in the late-eighties. I recall the sole ish I had perused contained a story drawn by the noted Wally Wood copycat Wayne Howard that was surprisingly well-executed as far as what one would have expected from a comic book this late in the game. Not that I ever went out of my way to buy any Charlstons during my rabid comic book reading days lest it was some old BEETLE BAILEY for a dime at the local flea market, but I sure found that particular ish of GRAVES a whole lot more engrossing than what some of the competition was cranking out at this time.
Thus, you can bet that I had more than just a slight interest in eyeballing the first fourteen issues hoping that the earlier ones were even as slightly engaging as that last gasp in the line was.
And they were...or at least most of them were. Yeah, some of the sagas that pop into the mix are whatcha'd call run of the mill with a few of the same old plots tossed out for a readership you think would have demanded more (even though this was Charlton). Really, if you think that the storyline where some timid soul who witnesses a murder is haunted by the ghost of the victim to go to the cops is anything near innovative or original then hey, maybe you've spent the first seventy years of your existence chained up in a closet. But thankfully the hackneyed plots are few 'n far between, and surprise surprise but even the well-overworked ghosts of the murdered sagas are somewhat off-guard catching! I particularly liked the one where the spirit of a devoted butler does his darndest afterlife best to make sure his master doesn't find out that Mr. Bigbux's playboy son was not only looting the wall safe but killed the servant in the process.
Heck some even do come off downright innovative and brain-teasing like the one where this nerdo guy and his knockout gal are in a world where the boyfriend isn't quite sure what is real and which is --- a comic book story (it actually has some interesting intricate plot switcheroos that will surprise ya)! Or better yet, this Steve Ditko-delineated effort with more'n a tad bit of that mystical DOCTOR STRANGE abstract styling which "ends" in an eternal loop with no end I sure can see in sight! Speaking of Ditko, I sure find it rather suspicious-like that Dr. Graves bears somewhat of a resemblance to Marvel's "Master of the Mystic Arts" though not enough that some sorta lawsuit coulda been put into action. Unless the folks at Charlton acted like John Goldwater at Archie woulda and called for more'n a few competitor heads to be placed onna chopping block!
Not bad at all even when a few of 'em don't exactly have endings that only Nostradamus could have predicted and the black and white reproduction does tend to wear on one's eyes. While you still have eyes maybe DOCTOR GRAVES would be a nice respite from the current batch of sadsack pseudointellectualism passing for fun 'n jamz seen in way too many of the current comic quap, or at least the quap I've come across when looking for bigger and better things. And y'know what? I get the feeling that after reading this your peepers, and your inner comic consciousness, will thank you and thank you like plenty!
3 comments:
Chris, is the quality of the reproduction comparable to Gwandanaland's? I looked through RCP's selections and there's a couple of volumes I'd like to purchase. The pricing seems to be a bit more reasonable, but I wish they offered a wider variety like Gwandanaland did--Hopefully, that will improve.
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Them were the days! Tom Sutton, Steve Ditko, Nicola Cuti, etc.
Top Cat --- considering the varied quality of Gwandanaland wares it's kinda hard to judge. I would say, off the top of my thinning scalp, that it's more faded than the lesser G-land ones but eagle eyed people won't mind too much.
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