Rudy Palais: Ghosts & Playmates

We're heading into the weekend now with a fun Friday Frights tribute post to Rudy Palais, (because why not?), featuring an assortment of 60's Silver Age filler quickies that he produced for a variety of creepy Charlton comic book titles, in this case the May 1967 debut issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #1, as well as the January 1967 issue of Ghostly Tales #59. As everyone can see, Rudy stayed just as uniquely weird (and sweaty!) as ever in relation to his ghastly Golden Age era works, and I'll never stop being aggravated that we never got around to publishing that Palais hardcover artist's edition for IDW, --arghhh! Also included today: a handful of appropriately spooky ads to really make you feel like a kooky lil kid again. I also think we'll just stick with a Charlton mix for the rest of the month, and if anyone has any complaints about that you can take it up with dear 'ol Doctor Graves!

The Night of the Poltergeists

Doctor Graves is back for one more supernaturally creepy, Charlton encounter, and it's another petrifyin' pile-on of poltergeists to boot! From the February 1970 issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #18, with diabolically damned art by Golden Age great, Don Perlin (plus a Ditko cover art assist as well!) Hope everyone enjoyed this mini-fest of Charlton chills 'n thrills, I promise we'll get back into the regular mix of things for the rest of the month-- stay tombed!

The Possessor

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.

A Rampage of Demons!

Ahhh, the life of a comic book artist! It's all fun and games (and rockin' redheads) until your boss spoils it with those darn pesky deadlines! So yeah, today's terror tale from the June 1976 issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #57 would probably have benefitted a bit from a few additional pages of story to really flesh out that panel jumbled story, but it still has a nice twist ending and the ominously groovy art adds a wild, nightmarish, surreal flair as only Charlton could do it...

Satan's Angels

Speaking of black angels, let's take a look at another type of angel, the dirty, vicious, 70's motorcyclin' type monikered after someone who, it seems, is actually not too fond of their particular brand of pointless evil. At all. Yep, a story like this could have only come from a time era such as this, and I was seven years old when it first hit newsstands, I remember reading it and crushing hard on Amy, (the hapless redhead victim of this story.) Cutely drawn as only Tom Sutton could-- and having grown up in a house surrounded by similar chopper buildin', bad ass biker types, I also remember thinking this was just about the coolest comic book story I had ever read at that point in my life, haha... from the November 1974 issue of The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #48.

The Collector

Are the Febru-scary love stories this month ticklin' your lil goose-pimpled fancies so far? If not, here's one that will surely drive you to drink! Ahhh, so how about a toast to true love? May it forever warm the cockles of your blackened, beating libidos. From the September 1974 issue of The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #47, and terrifically atmospheric art by the always awesome, Tom Sutton (cover art by Joe Staton.)