I think we'll stick with Charlton for a few more posts, and that means more sinister Sanho Kim creepiness as well! This is a neat tale of supernatural evil in a haunted house, and Kim does another great job with the atmospheric, clifftop setting, and those spooky characters of his possessing uniquely cramped, intense faces. From the Jan. '73 issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #46... Charlton liked this story so much they reprinted it a few more times, even into the 80's.
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This artist is another interesting oddity!
Again, buildings? Craggy Cliffs? Old houses? All great! Page 3, panel 2, page 6, panel 6, all really nice pieces of art.
But the figures? Their face shapes actually shift from panel to panel! Sometimes they are really stubby in body, it's so strange.
Then there's all the fine thatching, the cool ghost, page 7, panel 5 with the effects, that's all really neat.
Charlton artist, man, they all had unique styles, to say the least.
It's a fun story, but at the end of these, I always wonder: How do you explain that to the cops? I mean, I guess the cops around the house are already primed for it, but still!
Looking forward to more of this. I'm not being picky about the art I really am fascinated with these artists!
Dr. Graves looked a bit like Charlie Chan in a few panels. I think this is one of Sanho Kim's earlier stories as he did improve over time.
Charlton did reprint many of their earlier stories in the 1980's before they ended publication, but at least Charlton was turning out horror comics while the likes of Gold Key and Dell had thrown in the towel.
Charlton was the 'foot in the door' for many comics artists starting out, so Charlton should be recognized for that at least.
If nothing else, Charlton was a grab bag of horror tales, art wise and tale wise. It was Grade B horror, but half a loaf is better than none.
As I'm always saying, I have great trouble recognizing comics artists - even ones I like an awful lot - from one story to another. But Sanho Kim is another exception.
And I'm very sentimental about Charlton in general.
But it would've been nice to have at least one scene of the two girls sharing a room. It would've been right out of THE HAUNTING and some other stories.
A quick look on Wikipedia shows a rundown on Sanho Kim's life and art, and in 2008 he was awarded The Order of Cultural Merit by the South Korean Government. Quite an impressive accomplishment for a comic book artist.
Ah very interesting! Thanks for that info!
There’s more Sanho in the archive as well, dig in if you haven’t already
https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/search?q=Sanho&m=0
I think the idea of trapping a possessing spirit in a terminal host is really interesting, and makes a pretty sneaky strategy here in the story... but why all the mystery? Nobody seemed to understand what was going on at any time. And why did they take so many other people along with them? Besides the obvious--padding the page count--it really watered down the chances of the ghost selecting the victim Dr. Graves had planned for him. I mean check it out, it still took three tries for the evil spirit to finally get it right. Seems like Dr. Graves and Breen might have gone in alone an taken care of this investigation before the bars closed.
I mean, what luck the house didn't choose to possess the guy with the gun, huh?
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