Number 2556: “Feed me, Seymore!”

Artist Tom Sutton might have used Little Shop of Horrors as the springboard for “A Budding Evil,” which he wrote and drew. That is the original version of the movie, and not the remake, which would not be made for ten years from the time of the story’s publication. That aside, the comic book story is a six page horror story from Charlton, only without real horror, unless big scary plants give you the shivers. I would appreciate looking at a ghastly corpse or two. (I am effectively housebound except for trips for groceries, or a walk with Mrs Pappy, and it has turned me into...what? A grumpy old comic book reader who needs the sight of blood to satisfy his homicidal thoughts.)

The indicia says this is from Charlton’s Haunted #35, with additional title added to the cover, Baron Weirwulf’s Haunted Library. It appears that Charlton changed the title of the comic book, but not officially, so it wasn’t necessary to pay the U.S. Postal Service for a new mailing permit. The comic book has no Comics Code badge on the cover, so I was hoping it would have an EC Comics-like scene. The indicia told me this was a reprint of a 1964 original printing, and I guess that printing had the old familiar Code approval.

P.S. “Homicidal thoughts” is just a joke, you know. Ha. Ha. No need to call the police.
 

Number 2468: Into the catacombs you dirty rat!

“A Lovely Night in Paris” is far from lovely. It is a horror story where a woman gets kidnapped by some little red monsters and taken deep into the catacombs of Paris. It is a love story in the making, as a handsome gendarme follows her and her captors underground.

Joe Gill wrote the story, and Tom Sutton drew it. Despite the artwork seeming rushed it is very dynamic: deep shadows, monsters, a beautiful woman and a brave gendarme.

And it has a bondage cover. I am only a bit surprised that the Comics Code let that go by. It had been 20 years since all of the foofaraw over comic books brought on the Code. At some point in the '70s the Code started to lighten up by approving comics they would not have approved in the past. Comic book buyers were getting older, and I have also heard the Code became relaxed because of television, and how much sex, violence and swearing was allowed by TV network censors. By then nobody in the larger outside world cared what happened in comic books.

Back to this comic book. The story is from Ghostly Haunts and was originally published in 1974 by Charlton. This edition was published in 1978 by a promotional company called Modern Comics. I read they were reprinted to be sold three to a bag. In the '70s I bought some Modern Comics one at a time (no bag) from an F.W. Woolworth store. Woolworth is now out of business, as is Modern, but I assume one had nothing to do with the other.

From Ghostly Haunts #41 (1978 reprint of 1974 issue):

Number 2226: Gone, yet still with us

I am saddened each time I read of the death of a favorite actor, musician, writer or artist who had influence on me over my lifetime. The latest is Steve Ditko, who died recently. Before that, Bernie Wrightson, who died last year. What consoles me is knowledge that their work is still with us.

I found scans of Marvel’s Chamber of Darkness #7 (1970) online. (The first page of the lead story has an inscription, “Another fine HACSA/Grundy scan” — so I would like to thank them for making the scans available.)

On reading the comic with Ditko’s death still fresh in my mind, I realized all of the artists represented are deceased: Wrightson, Ditko, Sutton, and Kirby. Over the years I have spent many hours looking at their work, studying it and enjoying it. I was still a child when first encountering Kirby and Ditko, Tom Sutton I did not see until the 1970s, and Bernie Wrightson was my age, part of my generation and of a wave of artists who entered the comics field circa the late '60s-early '70s.

We have lost them, but we will always have something of theirs to remind us of them and their work.

Number 2042: Frankenstein Friday returns for one day: Tom Sutton goes Psycho

In the early days of this blog, I showed a Frankenstein story by Dick Briefer every Friday until I exhausted my personal collection. Oddly, I did not think to include the few stories I had from the Skywald publications of the early '70s. So here, 10 years later, I am showing the first of a short-lived series. Tom Sutton, using the name Sean Todd, was the primary artist, and did the writing for the four episodes he drew in issues #3-#6.

From Psycho #3 (1971). Inking by Dan Adkins. The cover is by Boris Vallejo.