Number 2400: The flesh and blood ghost

Halloween is coming up in a couple of weeks so I looked for a ghost story. The splash panel of “Ghost of an Old Romance” looked promising. However, this is not the ghost of a dead person, but the other kind of ghost...the symbolic type that is alive but haunting. (Good drawing, though.)

Elaine has a good thing going with Paul, but she makes the mistake girls make in love comics: she falls back in love with her original beau, Dud. When I was in a U.S. Army artillery battery, we called a howitzer projectile that did not explode a dud. A person can be a dud, also. This dud, Dud, wants Elaine back. Elaine falls for his smooth words and slick demeanor. In a love comic girls invariably screw up a current relationship for an old one. Think, Elaine! Why did you break up with Dud in the first place? Uh-huh. I thought so. You know deep in your heart that Paul is the guy for you, and Dud will just repeat what he did to make you leave him originally.

Also, Pappy’s rules for love includes an admonition against pencil-thin mustaches. You see a guy with a meticulously trimmed mustache and you know he is trouble.

From Love Letters #11 (1951). Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr gives credit for the artwork to John Forte for pencils, and Bill Ward for inks. We get a lingerie panel in the story, which is a clue Ward worked on it.

Number 2378: Strange neighbors, indeed...

“Our Strange Neighbors,” from Atlas’ Journey Into Unknown Worlds #51 (1956), is a well-meaning story that falls short. In the era when segregation was being dismantled by court orders, many areas of so-called non-segregated America were far from integrated. There was a de facto nationwide segregation policy when it came to housing, especially in the spreading suburbs. Stories in comic books about offensive real-life racist policies were generally avoided, but when they were done, as in this story, surrogates for African-Americans were used to avoid pissing off magazine distributors, politicians, or any Klan members who might take offense. Did it work? It might have escaped notice by being the last story in the comic book, but anyone who read it could have seen right through it.

To add to the obvious, one of the alien characters is called Mr Neeg.

The message of this short 4-pager is diluted. A story about a mob pushing out the otherworldly aliens who only want to be good neighbors, having the unwanted green people as tokens who would have brought great things for the white citizens but being denied by a mob, is weak and an artifact of its time.

Despite what I consider the tale’s failings it is a curiosity of its era, and well drawn by John Forte. No writer is credited.

Number 2103: Blackhawks on the moon

Blackhawk and his band of buddies volunteer to fly to the moon, and set up camp. They will be waiting for a group who will stay on the moon permanently. If that isn’t incredible enough, they appear to be helping a pair who look like V.I. Lenin and Albert Einstein. That is just the kickoff for one of the goofiest Blackhawk stories I have read, presented in Modern Comics #99 (1950). On the moon the Blackhawks meet two hostiles from a non-democratic nation (the word "communist" is not used), Zorak (has a beard) and Telga (beautiful female spy).

Among the plot elements of this goofball tale, the bad guys have a make-up kit with which they disguise themselves as Blackhawk and Chuck (Telga as Chuck).

I assume that this lunar lunacy was “inspired” by the George Pal movie, Destination Moon, which was heavily hyped in early 1950 before its release in August of that year. Life magazine had an article about it in its April 24 issue.

Grand Comics Database is not sure of the artists, but they guess the pencils are by John Forte and the inks are by Chuck Cuidera.

Number 1686: Back door to fame

Mindy loves Dave, but to marry him would mean “hideous boredom” and “the drab life of a middle-class housewife.” And what would be wrong with having ambition, not wanting to be one of the masses? When “Back Door to Fame” was produced in the mid-fifties the popular belief was that all women wanted to be middle-class housewives and moms. Who would blame Mindy for sacrificing her love for Dave to the slimy touch of the oily producer for her chance to dance her way out of such a lifestyle?

Ah, but would it be a fifties love story if Mindy had danced off into the sunset and forsaken her one true love?

Drawn by John Forte and Bill Ward, and published in Love Letters #38 (1955).

Number 1461: Horror without the horrible

Only a few more days until Halloween. Fill up those candy bowls for the visiting trick-or-treaters, but save the best stuff for yourself. Pappy's rule for Halloween: the kids get the cheap stuff.

No cheap stuff for you today. I’m showing all the stories from Atlas Comics’ Marvel Tales #119 (1953). The tales run the gamut from a golddigger/serial killer to mummies from outer space to choosing a new life, to...well, read on.

Unlike most horror comics of the era there aren’t any vampires or werewolves, and the mummies aren’t even Egyptian mummies. All in all it’s a fun issue. There is some variety, even humor to some of the stories. Besides the total silliness of the plot of “When the Mummies Rise,” drawn by Russ Heath, there is a shaggy dog joke ending to “They Gave Him a Grave,” illustrated by Larry Woromay. John Forte’s art is perfect for the serial killer story, “Collector’s Item!” I got a laugh out of the Marilyn Monroe panel in “The New Life!” drawn by Al Eadeh. Mac Pakula wraps up the issue with a story of a killer who escapes earthly justice only to find it in space.

I could not help comparing the cover by an unknown artist to an earlier cover by horrormeister Bernard Baily for Mister Mystery #11.

As a morbid child I used to think of what would be the most terrible way to die. High on my list was being buried up to my chin and set upon by ants. Despite having a higher ratio of skulls to head, the Marvel Tales cover is tepid compared to Baily’s.