Scary Tales #7 [1976]

"Halloween Scene" is a 7-page Ditko story in this issue. There's an opening scene of a woman waking up in a locked department story on Halloween night, leading to a second page splash where she runs into a demonic beast, which then proceeds to chase her through the store.  Her attempts to get help don't work, as the people on the street just assume she's part of the store's Halloween display.  Then there's a weird twist at the end.

A really good short horror tale, with the leaping demon being a really good Ditko design, especially with a good three-panel zoom into its face in the climactic scene, and the chase through the store using the setting well.

By the way, that mannequin head on the bottom of the splash, displaying the host of the title Countess Von Bludd (I think, maybe "Baroness"?), doesn't really look like Ditko, does it? I'm thinking either drawn by Joe Staton or based on a drawing by him.

This issue also has a 2-page text story, "Moon Murderer", which re-uses some Ditko artwork for "The Last Bite" from GHOSTLY TALES #121 [1976] to make three illustrations for the story.

Trick or Treat

boo

Unusual Tales - Gavin's Stupid Mule

"Unusual Tales" is a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain, starting with those never reprinted.

One of Ditko's few war stories for Charlton was the 5-page "Gavin's Stupid Mule" from FIGHTIN' ARMY #20 [1957].  Set in the Civil War, it features a young soldier named Gavin (or Garvin...) who gets assigned a mule he names Clarence, which unfortunately is also the name of his Captain.  The mule proves to be quite a bit more intelligent than it appears, or is just plain lucky.

It's an attractive story, Ditko does a good job with the characters (including the mule) and the uniforms. Unfortunately there are a few weaknesses in the storytelling, as there are a few instances where the captions describe what's going on that I think the art could have done a better job of showing.  It might have just been a lack of pages, as a few extra panels scattered throughout could have improved it immensely. Still, always good to see a Ditko entry in a more scarce genre (I should count up sometime if he did fewer pages in romance, western or war comics).

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
Over 1000 pages available, more on the way
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
A bi-monthly dose of Ditko talk in your mailbox
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
Creeper hardcover to include "unpublished" story
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from
See the other stories and the original ads with most scans

Click images to big-up.

Upcoming Ditko - CREEPER hardcover update

It appears that they've made a wise choice and updated the plans for the upcoming CREEPER hardcover to include the story that was scheduled for SHOWCASE #106, and later "published" as part of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2.  The story will be in black and white, the rest of the book will be in colour, increasing the page count to 288 pages with no increase in price.

Good news, and this should mean that if/when they do a collection of SHADE they'll include SHADE #9 which is in a similar situation.

Ditko on... Consequences

--Link-- Just go look

Seriously, take a look.

I'll have more in the comments tomorrow

Unusual Tales - The Careless Man

"Unusual Tales", a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain.

"The Careless Man" is a 2-page story from Charlton's OUT OF THIS WORLD #11 [1959]. Apparently Dr. Haunt is putting in some overtime as host of this one, in addition to his regular gig in THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED.

The story is about a failed man named Miller, who has gotten fired from various jobs for being careless. He decides to turn to the mystic realm to satisfy his thirst for vengeance, digging out a book of Egyptian spells he had handy to summon a genie (I think someone was playing mix and match with mythologies there).  The title kind of points the way to why that turns out the way it did...

Simple little story, but a few interesting visuals, like the image of Dr. Haunt on the bottom of the first page, the close-up of the candle and the neat little shading effect on the genie.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
MR. A reprint on the way
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
#75 now available
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
THE CREEPER coming in 2010
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from
(scans in this series generally adapted to my personal tastes from those copies)

Click images to bigize.

Cracked #227 [1987]

Here's a bit of a treat, a very nice page from an issue which doesn't appear on any of the major Ditko checklists. Apparently he did more pages for CRACKED during Mort Todd's stint as editor than was previously known. So now the quest is on for more. If you have any issues of CRACKED from between around 1986 to 1990 (around #216 to #260) let me know if anything looks like Ditko in there.

Anyway, this 2-page story is "The TransInformers Vs The Defecticons".  You see, the concept of this issue is that this is a Russian edition of CRACKED, from those late days of the Cold War, so all the features have that extra parody twist to their usual parody. In this case, one group of ridiculous shape-changing robots is attempting to escape through the Berlin Wall, and the other is determined to stop them.  A very nice little story, drawn in the intricate duo shade style that Ditko used for a lot of his CRACKED work.  A lot of weird little background gags really enhance the story (I like the robot coffee pot), and the last image is a really great image at the Berlin Wall, worth tracking down the issue just to see it.