| The Groping Ghost: When I first saw the wife of one of the twins compared to the wife of the other, I thought this story was going to go a different direction. I couldn’t help but wonder how a sight-challenged, mobility-hindered old guy could get such a young hottie as a wife, but it made for some nice visuals and added to the tension. I was intrigued by the protagonist’s/narrators’s explanation for why the ghost didn’t zero in on his real targets initially. The rationale is clever, but it assumes that human limitations carry over into the supernatural—not something that makes good sense with spectral forms that can appear out of nowhere. Strangely, for a story that had me constantly asking questions, I actually rather enjoyed the way it worked out.
The Mystery of Mu: Instead of the Asian-Pacific land bridge as the connection between Asians and Native Americans, this short feature has an island in place of the land bridge and a tale similar to Atlantis to connect the two races. The feature treats this as a well-known legend, but it was new to me.
Corpse Convention: This is a marvelous story that is perfect for the genre. The cab driver’s summary at the end is perfect. The supernatural portions of the story are rendered with bold lines that makes it easy to see that George Tuska of early Iron Man and Submariner fame did the pencils, but the honeymoon portions of the story seem brightly inked such that I can readily believe that Mike Peppe, known for romance comics as well as horror, may have finished the inks.
The Thing That Came Out of the Sea: One can easily see the work of DC artist Ralph Mayo in this story of haunting and revenge. The adventure elements aren’t a far cry from Johnny Quick of Adventure Comics secondary feature days and the supernatural elements not that dissimilar from later efforts on the House of Mystery title. This yarn goes further than I expected regarding the revenge. I thought it would end shortly after the expected interference with the villain’s anticipated reward. Yet, the revenge goes on in an escalating manner. It’s a simple but effective tale.
The Great Shaman of the Red Man Curses the White Man’s Skies: This text adventure is as full of atmosphere as it is packed with improbability. I loved the phrase comparing the thunder with the devil’s kettledrums and the one describing a monster “awaiting the invocation to hurl itself against the puny creatures traveling the airways, …” The conclusion rings partially true regarding the government’s reaction, as well as the protagonist’s eventual response to his ordeal.
The Strange Cats of Killough Heath: Although this is another supernatural revenge story, it has the feeling of being hurriedly done. In one panel (bottom right of page 29 of the PDF), a couple is seated at a dinner table, but there is only one plate and it is empty. In the middle panel of the next page, a cat is lunging at the woman, but there’s not a scratch on her (as there isn’t at the conclusion of the fight), and, on page 31 of the PDF, the victim has skipped the corpse stage and transformed straight to the skeletal stage. So, this story wasn’t as enjoyable to me as the others.
The Phantom Horseman: Some of the Eastern European costumes in this short two-page adventure are delightful. The title almost spoils the story, but at a short two-pages, it is well worth reading—even if it was probably commissioned to be used as filler. |
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