[Morgus]

The week marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER on TV. (Sept 13 1974!) it was all we talked about at school. Chris Carter says it was a huge influence for THE X FILES. It remains a huge cult show. Fans of A CHRISTMAS STORY always flip to see an earlier role for Darren McGavin, ’The Old Man’.  To mark the occasion two comics that worked that same side of the noir/suspense/eerie street. (One even has the word ‘eerie’ as the title)

EERIE NUMBER 8
The story to see is The Doctor Drew episode. “The Strange Case of the Absent Floor” There is a great forward in the comic book plus intro page as to just who drew it...still under dispute, but you can’t deny the Eisner touch. Yes siree bob, the IW boys lifted the plates from Fiction House’s GHOST COMICS #10. And don’t you just HAVE to go with an I.W. edition? They always make me smile.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=17263

Some fans don’t know that TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER was Steve Ditto’s biggest claim to fame before Spiderman. The series was based on an old radio show that ran for about a decade. Still worth a listen. Charlton ran with it for 3 years. Here’s number 6, an all Ditko issue, including cover.
TALES OF THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER NUMBER 6
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=15492

[Downunder Dan]

Speaking of the fore-fathers of Kolchak, it's worth remembering that Dan Curtis is the weird uncle of the the Night Stalker series, as Curtis was the producer of the original Night Stalker TV movie. Curtis is perhaps best remembered as the creator and producer of supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows - which also spawned a Gold Key comics series in the 70s.

[SuperScrounge]

Eerie #8

Ghost of the Gorgon
They couldn't go around ancient ruins???

Shame the colorist didn't think to color the victims' skin color grey.

I thought Cookie would have snapped a picture of the gorgon just before he died the way he was drawn holding it, but apparently not.


The Ghost of Doctor Renick
Okay.


Halfway to Hades
Eh, I'd have preferred there to have been some connection between Steve & Marty and the weirdness they encountered. As it is it's just 2 people encounter something weird and that's it, no rhyme or reason, no lesson learned.


The Strange Case of the Absent Floor
Very Eisnerian. Oddly fun story.

[The Australian Panther]

Interesting Idea, Morgus!
Hopefully some of us will search our memories and come up with others.
Re Kolchack,
There was an extended dialogue on the Kolchack movies in the 'Watcha Watching' section of the forum.
Can't find it, tho, About 2 years ago.   
I actually have a DVD collection of the movies. Must dig that out.

[Downunder Dan]

The Strange Case of the Absent Floor - Yes it does look like Eisner, but it veers more than a little Ditko in its story. Superstitions about unlucky rooms, floor, railway carriages and so on are common enough, with their absence frequently being a source of disquiet or even horror.

I like this one as it touches on the mystery quite well, not quite explaining it, but also punishing people who fall under the spell of the seven deadly sins (at least greed and lust, to an extent). It is neither too rushed nor does it out stay its welcome, well paced over it small number of pages.

This story is perhaps a little too outré for Kolchak, and probably beyond the show's budget to realise. But something based on this story, with a little more down-to-earth depiction would likely work.

I was reminded of the M R James story, Number 13, in which a historian stays in room 12 of an old hotel. He is disturbed by sounds from next door, room 14, but either the occupant is play an elaborate practical joke or the noise doesn't come from his room. The BBC often produces a ghost story for Christmas, and Number 13 was one such produced. It you have a spare 40 minutes, you might enjoy this slow burn story at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDcTiDT5x28&t=3s. It's something like this story, and yet quite different.

[Morgus]

Glad you brought up the British tradition of ghost stories at Christmas, ‘Dan. Folks here in the colonies frequently forget it. And yet, there it is, in DEAD OF NIGHT, one of the best fright flicks they ever made in the UK.
M R James is like Arthur Machen, always good for a radio remake. The old time radio shows were always dug out for us at Halloween, SUSPENSE and Orson Welles’ usually, but we had access to the British too.

[SuperScrounge]

When reading Ghost of the Gorgon I noticed a panel where the reader sees the Gorgon's bare breasts (okay, Barbie doll nudity, but more than one would expect at that time period) and found myself thinking, "Why would any straight man look at her face when her breasts are on display?"

Gorgon: My eyes are up here!
Man: No, I'm good!

[SuperScrounge]

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler #6

When Old Doc Died
Cute story.


Mister Evriman
Uhhhhh... yeahhhhh... pseudoscience explanation that magically solves itself. Uh, huh.


The Frozen Frigidgartus
Ehh... some serious storytelling, but with a 'solution' that's almost a joke.


The Old Fool
Interesting idea, but not much done with it.


Little Girl Lost
So-so. On the one hand you had a story that could have been a serious drama, but on the other hand it had to have a supernatural element that undercut the drama.


Tomorrow's Punishment
Not bad.

[Quirky Quokka]

Interesting selections, Morgus. It won't surprise you to know that I've never seen an episode of 'Night Stalker'. I was probably watching 'Happy Days', 'Rhoda' and 'Little House on the Prairie' when it came out I've got a busy fortnight, as I'm heading off to a conference in Sydney for a few days, but will try to have a look when I get back. I'm especially interested in the Steve Ditko one. Meanwhile, I'll look forward to people's comments.

Cheers

QQ

[Morgus]

I’ll be honest, Q.Q., I worried KOLCHAK might leave folks scratching their heads. It was only on for one season. Stephen King has good things to say about it DANSE MACABRE, his non fiction look at the topic of horror. ‘Dan, you’ll be interested to know he had mostly good things to say about Dan Curtis and his nearly single handed battles against network standards.
Remember TRILOGY OF TERROR with those little dolls?
But it WAS the 50th, and I could not resist a chance to link it up to Dr. Drew. The good doctor only hung around for 9 stories, and in my book, he could have been a contender. I mean, would it have killed them to do a Spirit/Dr. Drew cross over? Police comics had those covers that promised Plastic Man/ Spirit together, but just meant there was a separate story for each. All three would have been cool.

[The Australian Panther]

I mean, would it have killed them to do a Spirit/Dr. Drew cross over? Police comics had those covers that promised Plastic Man/ Spirit together, but just meant there was a separate story for each.

As Someone has pointed out elsewhere ( in a previous post) team-ups were fairly unknown during the golden age. Stan Lee, I believe, remembered the popularity of the Submariner/Torch team-ups and made team-ups a mainstay of Marvel superhero comics.
The team books, like 'the Justice Society' and 'the All-Winners squad' had the various heroes meet, go on individual adventures and come  together at the end of the narrative to wrap things up. They weren't actually team-ups.

I worried KOLCHAK might leave folks scratching their heads. It was only on for one season.

You worried unnecessarily, there are many of us here in CB+s cohort who have fond memories of Kolchack.
As I've alluded to, there is a series of detailed posts down in 'Watcha Watching'.
What makes Kolchack work is the tension between the fact that he is a believer and everybody else is a scoffer. That and Darren McGavin of course.
For some reason I am reminded of DCs 'Dr Terry Thirteen' who is precisely the opposite. He is a blind skeptic who refuses to believe in the supernatural even in the face of undeniable evidence. 

   

[The Australian Panther]

Eerie 8 [Fiction House's Ghost Comics #10]
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=17263

Great Cover. What, I wonder, is the significance of the colour green in depicting the monstrous?
Is it that green is associated with decay and rottenness, like the mold on food at the back of the refrigerator?
Ever notice that most 'good' superheroes are variations on Blue, Red and Yellow, while green in reserved for villains or characters who could go either way?
Example, Quicksilver started green, then became blue when he 'reformed', The Hulk, Dr Doom, Baron Mordo, The Skrulls. Lex Luthor's armour. Green.
Ghost of the Gorgon.
1/ Why has John Bell, unusually for the Golden Age, chosen to depict her Nude? I suppose with green and scaly skin he could get away with it.
2/ Occurs to me, Medusa must be under a curse. How lonely must she be, completely isolated from everybody because they get turned to stone.
3/ So you can look at a Medusa when she's dead?
4/ Great art.
The Ghost of Dr. Renick
Also great art.
Morgus, both your choices of books are high quality examples of comic book writing and art.
A very different type of story for this type of book. it's a story of redemption and hope. Benulis' art elevates the narrative and makes it sing.
Halfway to Hades
Cliche beginning, (But it works) which is why 'Rocky Horror show' and a number of movies in the 30's and 40's used it. 
Great story, well told - as fiction. But the 'Valentine day massacre' was in a warehouse, not a speakeasy. So that spoiled it for me.
The strange case of the absent floor.

On the other hand Michael Gilbert, who produced the Dr Drew reprint hardback, is adamant that it was entirely Grandenetti's work, quoting the artist saying that he was merely copying Eisner's style. 

'Merely copying?'
Every page, every panel, every face screams Eisner. Including the pacing, the thought processes, the lettering and the fonts. If this is merely a copy it deserves an 'Eisner award' just by itself.
Thanks Morgus, excellent choices.

   
       

[paw broon]

Tales of the Mysterious Traveler.
Now, whether or not you actually enjoyed the stories, the art is simply excellent. Particularly "Tomorrow's Punishment".
On the very few times I saw a Mysterious Traveller comic or story way, way back, I thought they looked great.
This and the other Ditko stories in the run are so good to look at and sometimes, as with "Tomorrows Punishment" the stories seem just right for the superb art.
I'm not going into the finer points of pencil work as I'm not qualified to go there.  But as a fan/reader who's been enjoying comics for longer than I care to remember, I feel a lot of Ditko's work  is as good as it gets.
As for Kolchak, Moonstone did some adaptations and there's a story in the back of a Phantom Double Shot issue.

[SuperScrounge]

For some reason I am reminded of DCs 'Dr Terry Thirteen' who is precisely the opposite. He is a blind skeptic who refuses to believe in the supernatural even in the face of undeniable evidence.

In his original series Dr. Thirteen was the Rational Man who discovered the truth behind the apparently supernatural (as the supernatural didn't exist in his original stories).

DC shot the character in the foot when they revived him to be a foil against the Phantom Stranger. Then he became the crazy loon who ignored the supernatural despite all evidence to the contrary.

[Downunder Dan]

Tales of the Mysterious Traveller #6

Are you familiar with objectivism? It has been described as 'the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute'. Ditko held this philosophy as his own, and that's what I see when I read these stories.

When Old Doc Died Good hard work can make hell into heaven.

Mister Evriman We all have the potential for greatness, we just don't manifest it.

The Old Fool The good you do is important but goes unnoticed. Don't let that stop you.

Little Girl Lost People who don't understand can get in the way of you doing the task you are meant to do.

Tomorrow's Punishment Denying people their fair share can ruin a good thing for everyone.

Ditko's art is always good, but the writing can get in the way (he sometimes doesn't tell a well-formed story). You can see off-kilter reflections of characters from his other work here (there's a Peter Parkerish young doctor at the end of Old Doc's story, for example). Given some editorial control, I'd prefer to see these stories in different comics from each other, allowing the philosophical tone to not be weakened by repetition. The stories aren't bad, but a little samey in tone to hold me.

As to fore-fathers of Kolchak, the Mysterious Traveller is more of a sibling to the Phantom Stranger (who first appeared in 1952, so pre-dates the Mysterious Traveller) than our boy Carl. Had the Traveller not just narrated the stories, but took part in them in some way, he'd be closer to the Stranger - and to Kolckak, too. Would that be better? I think that'd get a range of answers!

[paw broon]

I'm afraid Dan that that's gone over my head but now that I've read a bit more about it, I don't like the idea.   All I see on the pages are excitingly drawn stories. Ditko was a master of comicbook art.  Sometimes his panels seem to shine. Some panels, and covers, are superb.  To be heretical for a moment, I'd prefer to look at (didn't say read) a Ditko Cap Atom, Question, Mysterious Traveller, Spidey than a Kirby FF. The only version of The Question that beats Ditko, is the Toth one from Bullseye.
Despite my problem with this objectivism, I do enjoy his Mr A, which is an interesting, worrying take on life and  humanity, imo.
Back to TOTMT, this is my favourite of all the narrated comics.

[Morgus]

‘Paw, I always wondered what it would have been like if Ditko had some of DC’s writers instead of Joe Gill all the time during TOTMT. I remember being totally blown away when I first read DEVIL’S DOORWAY as a kid in a 1969 HOUSE OF MYSTERY as drawn by Alex Toth. No one had to tell me I was seeing a master at work. Started a life long appreciation of Toth’s art. And the baseline was that story by Jack Oleck.

He did do a couple of stories each for both HOUSE OF SECRETS and HOUSE OF MYSTERY and stuff like WEIRD WAR, but...

[Downunder Dan]

I'm afraid Dan that that's gone over my head but now that I've read a bit more about it, I don't like the idea.   

I find Ayn Rand, the person who came up with objectivism, pretty revolting. She was a firm believer of laissez faire capitalism and the rights of the individual being paramount and those of the collective. She wouldn't like this site - people providing items without charge to a website that doesn't charge for others to read them. Pure communism, I tell you!

I'm not advocating not reading Ditko in any way. Ditko is more down-to-earth than, as you say, Kirby, and hence probably more meaningful to many readers. I enjoy smaller scale storytelling in general. I just found that the underlying philosophy too easily seen, but not as bad as, say, a Jack Chick religious tract (what is?). A little more subtlety works better for me. Others will make their own judgements.

[paw broon]

I think we're on the same train here Dan.
There have been occasional references to Jack Chick on the site and I had thought at one time that a short piece comparing the Chick trash with the religious comics of the genius, Dudley D Watkins would be interesting.  Didn't work as I couldn't stand reading much of Chick's nastiness, and there is so little of Watkins' work available online. The differences, even at a short exposure, are staggering.
Apologies, I'm  off topic.

[The Australian Panther]

I would describe myself as an active Christian and I have to say that Chick's work - which I had the misfortune to come across many years ago - horrifies me.
Dudley D Watkins sounds like someone whose work I would like to see.

cheers!   

[positronic1]

I think we're on the same train here Dan.
There have been occasional references to Jack Chick on the site and I had thought at one time that a short piece comparing the Chick trash with the religious comics of the genius, Dudley D Watkins would be interesting.  Didn't work as I couldn't stand reading much of Chick's nastiness, and there is so little of Watkins' work available online. The differences, even at a short exposure, are staggering.
Apologies, I'm  off topic.

I've seen a lot of references to Jack Chick's comics, but very few examples. Those few examples I found amusing and possibly worthy of study as an extremist sub-sub-genre of comics history. Is there some place to actually view a decent sampling of those things? I've always had this idea that it would be interesting if someone took Judeo-Christian writings (from the Bible, the Apocrypha, and other sources) and applied a Jack Kirby-like mythological approach, whether with a pro-Christian leaning, or just as a neutral source of story material.

[crashryan]

I've seen a lot of references to Jack Chick's comics, but very few examples.

There's an entire site (authorized) devoted to his rubbish, but I'm damned if I'm going to link to it. For that matter, I suppose that to Chick even saying this would make me damned anyway. If you're really up for it, search for Chick Tracts, which are their official moniker.

[positronic1]

Thanks, crashryan. It's news to me. I just looked it up and the site in question is a well-developed modern site -- less focused on the comics themselves than its "mission". To me I'm imagining Jack Chick comics as some obscure semi-forgotten radical 'underground' (in its own way) self-publishing venture. I couldn't have been more wrong, it's a robust and aggressive modern publishing industry. After viewing only the home page (which shows no examples of the comics themselves) with its confusing array of linking buttons, I don't think I'm going to jump down that particular rabbit-hole.

[Morgus]

Oh, man. Jack Chick.
His bilge was actually banned in Canada for a while as hate literature. True story. Let’s see; he hates Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter, homosexuals, Muslims, rock and roll, Catholics, Mormons, anybody not reading the King James Bible, and, oh yeah, Masons. When I was running our lodge I brought in his tracts and gave them out to the members so they would be able to refute his lies. (He says we’re sneaky Satan worshippers.)
But they are so nutty and out there that they make me laugh and I wound up trading them back and forth with pals for years. Just bonkers.
I know, I know, just as disreputable as collecting old black and white skin magazines from the 60’s.
Except the skin magazines are probably classier.
It REALLY reminded me of movies ol’ Ron Ormond made with Estus Pirkle. Ron USED to make nasty drive in movies just over an hour long, my favourite being MESA OF LOST WOMEN. He survived a plane crash, converted, and made nasty religious moves, just over an hour long. Investors would dress up in Christmas pageant style during the Bible flashbacks, and there was usually a beheading in the movie.
Now when the drive in sleaze would shut down here in Canada from cold weather, I’d write the Ormonds and find out when one of their movies would play in a Pentecostal church nearest me. They are on youtube. Start with IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO?
Lots of blood, kids getting their ears punctured by the rotten Reds for listening to the word of God, it just goes on.
The fun was in NOT laughing during the movie and holding it in for the restaurant after. Usually a great group date night. I’d tell the folks going with me to pay drive in movie rates and dress “Pentecostal”. One girl I took was REALLY tense. She was Jewish and it was her first time in a Pentecostal church. She was scared they would ‘sniff her out’ and demand she leave. I tried to tell her this was a church FUND RAISER  and MEMBERSHIIP DRIVE and they welcomed us with open arms....while hoping we brought our money with us.
So the beheading scene goes down and a child runs crying into her arms and climbs up on her lap sobbing. She softly told him it ‘was all make-believe. Just a story. See that guy? It’s the directors son. He’s very much alive.”
To this day she still phones me up sometimes and growls out one of the punch lines of the movie in a low accent. “Will Jesus give you candy? Fee-dell Ca-stro will give you candy..."

[crashryan]

So the beheading scene goes down and a child runs crying into her arms and climbs up on her lap sobbing. She softly told him it was all make-believe.