Ditko At Charlton - 1975! Ghostly Tales - Ditko at Charlton: 1975 gives us more Ditko stories, but his long partnership with Joe Gill gets interrupted many times as new names offer up scripts for Ditko's pen. This volume gets the page count up again at around two hundred and seventy-five pages, but there are fewer covers. That is the case despite there being more Charlton ghost host books this year. Added to Ghostly Haunts, Ghostly Tales, Haunted, The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves and Ghost Manor would be Beyond the Grave, Creepy Things, Monster Hunters, Scary Tales and Midnight Tales. (The latter had been around, but Ditko hadn't contributed until issue twelve.) (This drawing by Tom Sutton of the classic ghost hosts is not in this volume.) New ghost hosts in addition to Winnie the Witch, Mr. Bones, Dr. Graves, and Mr. Dedd are Dee Munn, Mort Tishin, Baron Weirwulf, Baroness R. H. Von Bludd, as well as Professor Coffin and Arachne. The truth is we see little of the hosts in this volume as the stories have more of a generic flavor, at least the ones by Ditko. In addition to Joe Gill, we are treated to scripts by Joe Molloy, Gary Petras, Michael Pellowski, Britton Bloom, Brock J. Hanke, and Nick Cuti. One cute touch is that Gill signed one of his stories as "Hiram Walker". (Surprisingly this cover by Ditko is not included in this tome.) In addition to the ghost stories, we get a two-part Captain Atom story which had been mostly prepared but never published before the CPLGang did so in Charlton Bullseye #1 and #2. This one had been plotted but it was up to Roger Stern to provide a script and John Byrne to provide inks. Also from Charlton Bullseye is an u Gill-Ditko effort called "Moonshot". It was in this year that Charlton began to use painted covers quite a lot in place of the classic look. This is most likely why we get so few Ditko gems. Here they are. And that wraps up my Halloween special look at SD Publications Famous Comics collections. I would anticipate that we will see at least one more for 1976 and personally I'd love to see one for Gill and Ditko's late 60's work as well. Some of those stories can be found in the two Yoe Books collections The Art of Steve Ditko and The Creativity of Steve Ditko. Happy Halloween! The Dojo is not done with Ditko yet. Next time we get into the hard stuff. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/ditko-at-charlton-1975.html #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Wayne Howard's Midnight Tales! Wayne Howard is one of those eccentric talents who tapped into something special. An acolyte of Wally Wood, there's no denying Howard's debt to the work of Wood. He was an assistant to the great man himself for a time. But then he went and took that "Woodesque" approach and carved out his own niche. At Charlton he found a place he could thrive. His earliest work has a really full-bodied character to it. In later years his work became a bit flatter in its way, losing some of the vitality of the early days. But he never lost the charm that infused his characters. They always had distinct qualities that enlivened them. Howard found some small success as an inker for the Big Two, but his work is mostly found at Charlton where he even created his own title, the reasonably successful Midnight Tales. For eighteen glorious issues he oversaw a ghostly book like few others. Talents like Joe Staton and Don Newton contributed regularly and along with Howard gave this book its own distinctive flavor. But what set this book apart were the tremendous gags used for the detailed covers. They are one-offs and not necessarily connected to any particular story inside the book. Here the beautiful niece of Professor Coffin, the lovely Arachne. She was the eye-catching hostess of Midnight Tales alongside her academic uncle Professor Cyrus Coffin, the Midnight Philosopher. This tempting double-spread poster was included in the fifth issue of Wayne Howard's Charlton tour de force. I found it here. Wayne Howard passed away in 2007, too young. He'd left comics behind and avoided talking about them. But those of us who are his fans will never forget them. Here's what Mark Evanier had to say about this talent. Here's a link to a site where you can read some of those great stories. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/wayne-howards-midnight-tales.html #waynehoward #midnighttales #wallywood #charlton #midnightphilosopher #coffin #professorcoffin #cyruscoffin #bigtwo #donnewton #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

The Many Ghosts Of Joe Staton! Joe Staton has always been one of my favorite artists in comics. His work was always vivid and lively and attractive. He knows how to tell stories, and now he has done so for decades working for DC primarily, yet also working on his own here and there. He was for quite a time the artist on the comic strip Dick Tracy, bringing a great look to a strip which has languished artistically for too long. He announced his retirement a few years back. I first became a fan of Staton's when he was a workhorse for Charlton Comics, doing E-Man, Space 1999, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, and other projects. He created many an inviting and evocative cover for the company too, some of them gracing the ghost books. Here's a gallery of his creepy covers. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/joe-statons-many-ghosts.html #joestaton #dicktracy #chopperbunch #comics #charltoncomics #space #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Scooby Doo...Where Are You? Scooby-Doo (in its myriad forms) is without doubt the most successful cartoon franchise of the 1970's and might Hanna-Barbera's most successful of all time. Others are famous, but time has put a shadow on Boomer faves like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and though I will always love Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and that lot, but they are nostalgia. Scooby-Doo is still generating new versions of the show and spinning off characters. The original Scooby-Doo...Where Are You? show ran for just two seasons, but it ran in one form or other throughout the succeeding decades. The early shows are still the best, with some truly creepy creations such as the Creepy Clown and the Skull-Faced Alien. We all know that in the Scooby-verse such ghosts are merely the creations of criminals and scallywags, and though the supernatural might seem to be seeping into the reality, it will be reason which will rule the day, if only just. The second Scooby-Doo show was in fact The New Scooby-Doo Movies which ran for an hour and guest-starred such pure 70's sensations as Sonny and Cher, Phyllis Diller, Jerry Reed, Jonathan Winters, and Sandy Duncan among others. None of the above were in danger of getting Emmys for their voice work. Alongside these we got repeat visits from The Three Stooges and The Harlem Globetrotters. Most famously, the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin appeared in two episodes. The classic Scooby formula was screwed up by the addition of the guests and the extension of time. For some reason no additional twists and turns were usually added, and we just got more running around for no reason. The factory that was Hanna-Barbera was always more committed to getting their cartoons delivered on time than getting them good. For a time, the team managed both, but by the late 70's they were in a mad dash to keep animation on the continent and on Saturday mornings, a timeframe which was losing its punch as the Boomers aged out. But technically we got a third season of Scooby-Doo, though the shows got back to basics, the need to scare seemed to be absent. Too many fretful parents were on the prowl, and cartoons were getting gutted all over TV. Goober and The Ghost Chasers from 1973 was perhaps the most overt copy of the Scooby-Doo formula, but like the aforementioned hour-long episodes suffered from too many guest-stars such as the inane Partridge Kids and for some strange reason Wilt Chamberlain. What they got right was the length, running at a brisk half-hour Goober, a Saluki to match Scooby's Great Dane was a hat-wearing fourth-wall breaking doggie who for reasons never explained could turn invisible. Unlike the Scooby-verse there were real ghosts in this universe along with unscrupulous villains. When the show was just Ted, Tina, Gilly, and Goober things were pretty decent, but add a guest-star things went to smash. The Funky Phantom from 1971 was the first Scooby clone show and featured three teenagers named Skip, Augie and April along with a bulldog named Elmo. They hook up with Mudsy, "The Spirit of 1776" and his ghost cat named Boo. It's a crowded dune buggy indeed, but their misadventures uncover fake ghosts all across the United States and criminals as well. The show never loses its energy, though indifferent mixing made my disc set at times a bit frustrating to listen to. Scooby-Doo...Where Are You came to Charlton Comics in the mid-70's and despite some indifferent artwork, I enjoyed it okay. Charlton would never win awards for its Hanna-Barbera work, but artwork by veteran Bill Williams was acceptable. Joe Gill wrote the thing as one might expect. Here's a cover gallery of the entire Charlton run. A few decades later DC would start the whole comic book thing over again and make quite the run with it. I even checked out a few issues as Joe Staton was the artist for many of the issues. (More on Mr. Staton tomorrow.) The answer the question asked now for some decades of Scooby-Doo...Where Are You? is not very far at all. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/scooby-doowhere-are-you.html #doo #yogibear #huckleberryhound #goober #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Dr. Graves - A Charlton Classic! Pat Boyette & Rocke Mastroserio Tom Christopher Rocke Mastroserio One of the eras of Charlton collecting I like is the short burst of activity in the company's final throes during 1985 and 1986. These books aren't very expensive, but they can be hard to find. Some of the gems from this time are three issues of Dr.Graves, which picked up the numbering of The Many Ghosts of Dr.Graves one of Charlton's most successful ghost books. These three reprint issues from 1985 and 1986 reprint a wide range of material from several issues of the old series. There is art by Steve Ditko, Pat Boyette, Sanho Kim, Don Perlin, and Ernie Bache. One story even features Boyette inks on Ditko pencils. Much of the debut issue gets reprinted. Some of Doc's earliest adventures from the pages of Ghostly Tales are also sprinkled through these three comics, featuring great artwork by Ernie Bache. Steve Ditko Perhaps the best story is "The Ultimate Evil" by Steve Skeates and Steve Ditko which pits Dr.Graves against a magical threat to the whole of Earth. It evokes those classic Marvel Dr.Strange stories but shows off Ditko's more muscular style of the period. Any story that showcases the complete destruction of Earth as part of the prologue has got some real beans. This Charlton revival sputtered out after a few months. But editor John Wren with the help of Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko among others gave it a yeoman's try. Artist Tom Christopher even produces a new cover for issue #74. But it was to no avail. On a fun note, take a look how they blended Pat Boyette's cover for issue #1 with Rocke Mastroserio's artwork lifted from issue #4 for the cover of #73. Pat Boyette Rocke Mastroserio And here's Rocke's original cover for issue #7 which got flipped for later use on #75. Rocke Mastroserio Dr. Graves - The Ghost Fighter debuted in a story by Ernie Bache from Ghostly Tales #55. Ernie Bache With the passing of these final Charltons, the company was dissolved and the assets sold off. Soon the storied printing plant would become a parking lot. All we have now are the comics, which linger like the very ghosts Dr. Graves battled so valiantly. And finally, here are some early Dr. Graves covers by Steve Ditko. Number sixteen was my first issue of the series. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/dr-graves-charlton-classic.html #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Thirteen Faces Of Winnie The Witch! Winnie the Witch debuted in Ghost Manor #13, an unlucky number for anyone but a ghost host of a comic book I'd reckon. She added something to the Charlton ghost host roster that had been woefully missing to that point--sex appeal. Winnie was a looker. She was probably inspired by Warren's sultry horror hostess and heroine Vampirella. With her brilliant blue skin, her long green tresses, her sometimes green and sometimes white mini-dress, and those mod glasses, she was a total babe for sure. Winnie was a winner and hung around Charlton for the duration pretty much, the resident babe. Even after the arrival of Baroness R.H. Von Bludd a few years later, it was still Winnie who had won my heart. Here's a gallery of the winsome witch by a twelve of Charlton art greats. The final image is something a bit different. Charles Nicholas & Vince Alascia Pat Boyette Steve Ditko Sam Glanzman Fred Himes Wayne Howard Sanho Kim Pete Morisi Don Perlin Warren Sattler Joe Staton Tom Sutton And finally, we have this. It's a bit blurry, but this is what Winnie might look like in real life if she attended a comic book convention. I prefer to think the camera operator is just quivering with the thrill of meeting such a classic character. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/thirteen-faces-of-winnie-witch.html #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

DC Ditko Mystery Tales! In the late 1970's and early 1980's Steve Ditko turned his attention to work at DC. Charlton was drawing back from the marketplace and Ditko needed places to draw comics, and despite his independent work, DC was a good place to get a check. In addition to some creative series which we'll get around to next month, Ditko also drew many stories for the myriad horror and science fiction comics that DC produced during this era. In comics such as House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Ghosts, Weird War Tales, Secrets of Haunted House, Mystery in Space, Time Warp and Unexpected Ditko brought to life many a monster and creepy crawler. These stories are collected in The Steve Ditko Omnibus Volume One. Actually, the first two short stories in this collection are from 1964 from two issues of Strange Adventures. Then we leap to the later material written by such DC stalwarts as Jack Oleck, Jack C. Harris, Len Wein, Paul Levitz, Michael Fleisher, Arnold Drake, Steve Skeates among others. Ditko even writes the last story in the volume himself, a wacky yarn named "Em the Energy Monster". Sadly, Ditko only drew one cover for DC's haunted books during this era, for House of Mystery #277 seen above. Below are the comics in which Ditko stories appeared and the covers are by a host of talents such as Jack Sparling, Mike Kaluta, Berni Wrightson, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, among others. But most are by the great Joe Kubert who was the master of DC covers during this time. E Above is the cover for The Steve Ditko Omnibus Volume One. With Shade the Changing Man getting the cover attention, you'd never realize wealth of weird tales inside by one of the genre's finest. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/dc-ditko-mystery-tales.html #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Ditko At Charlton - 1974! The year 1974 is a bit of an anomaly in the history of Charlton Comics. There was a severe paper shortage in late 1973 which pushed into the following year and caused the small publisher to go into something of a hiatus for several months. The result is that Make My Dreams Come True - Ditko at Charlton: 1974 is a slimmer tome than its predecessors. It comes in at two hundred pages or thereabouts, one hundred pages short of the 1973 volume. But it can be well argued that the variety is far greater. In addition to ghost stories by Joe Gill (among others) and Steve Ditko from titles Ghostly Haunts, Ghostly Tales, The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, and Ghost Manor we get three "superhero" stories from the pages of E-Man and The Charlton Portfolio from the CPLGang. We get the second of two Killjoy stories by Ditko working alone. This one came from E-Man #4 and once again Ditko's voiceless anarchist gives the "looters" and "criminals" what for. This one is less varied than the previous episode, but it might be funnier. As with the earlier Killjoy story, we get a black and white version in the back of this volume. Next from E-Man #5 we get Liberty Belle by Gill and Ditko, their first new superhero in some years. Liberty Belle is in actuality Caroline Dean who operates a modeling agency and in her spare time undertakes missions for the United States government in the guise of Liberty Belle. The story gave me an impression of those wonderful James Coburn Flint movies from the 60's. If you want to read the story of how Liberty Belle saves the space program from the Commies check out my post for July 4th from this year where the story is available in its totality. Other writers in this volume are Jane Giddens, Tom Peterson and Nick Cuti. Amusingly Gill signed two of his stories "Jack Daniels" and "Johnny Walker". (Whatever it took to choke down those meager Charlton rates I reckon.) Ditko only created four covers in this year, actually only three since was created years before. It is noted that Ditko-drawn images of the ghost hosts decorated most of the covers of that ilk during the year. Here those covers are with more on Blue Beetle below. Blue Beetle #6 both written and drawn by Steve Ditko was advertised but scratched from the publication list despite being ready to go six years earlier. It would be up to Roger Stern and the other gents of the CPLGang to get that book into print in The Charlton Portfolio which also featured great art by a range of Charlton talents as well as articles on E-Man, Yang, and many others. This story has been reprinted by DC in its Archive series in color but here appears in black and white as it did in the original Portfolio. And that's it for Ditko in 1974. Things get a little bit back to normal next time, but with lots of changes too. More on Halloween. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/ditko-at-charlton-1974.html #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Ditko's Monster Menace! Back in the 90's when Steve Ditko was winding down his mainstream career in comics you had a hard time telling when he'd pop up next. One place was in a nifty four issue reprint series edited by Mort Todd called Monster Menace. Of the four issues Ditko drew two of the covers including the one above featuring not only himself and Stan Lee hard at work but an avalanche of monster mugs from the mighty Atlas/Marvel monster years. Here's a look at a raw version of the artwork Ditko turned in before it was menaced itself by logos and branding imagery. And here it is again with some of that identifying copy in place. Notably missing still is the little Jack Kirby blurb at the bottom. Ditko also did the cover for issue three of Monster Menace and this one is bit more typical of the work he was doing at the end of his career in the halls of Marvel. Dismayed and frightened regular folks (Ditko's bread and butter) are scared of an oozing green gelatinous monster as it appears on the sidewalk. The copy at the bottom announced the monster "Zuztak", but this is no Zzutak my friends. Zzutak was a delightful monster penciled by Kirby and inked by Ditko who appeared in an issue of Strange Tales and some years later in the third issue of Fear where I first encountered him. He's always been a favorite. He was an ancient Mayan monster recreated by an artist given three dimensional paint by a mad Mayan priest who lusts for power and an army of Zzutaks. The artist instead paints up an enemy to do battle with Zzutak and the Mayan priest's plans are foiled. It's one of my favorites. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/ditkos-monster-menace.html #monstermenace #ditko #steveditko #morttodd #mayan #zzutak #stanlee #jackkirby #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Clipping A Few Dedd Heads! Rocke Mastroserio When Charlton bailed out of the superhero genre in the late 60's, they dived into the ghost one. Thunderbolt (which had been Son of Vulcan which had been Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds) became Ghostly Tales, a comic hosted by Mr. L. Dedd. He's just about my favorite horror host for a comic, his cackling approach perfect pitch for the Charlton-style ghost story. Below are a bunch of versions of Mr. Dedd taken from sundry comics, each by a different artist. Steve Ditko Jim Aparo Pat Boyette Wayne Howard Tom Sutton Wes Crum Rocke Mastroserio was the first artist to render Mr. Dedd and he did the first several covers before guys like Pat Boyette, Steve Ditko, Jim Aparo, and others tried their hand at him. It's Mastroserio's version that I still find the best. Some artists make him too noble looking, only Rocke made him appear as wretched as he should look. Rip Off https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2026/10/dedd-heads.html #dedd #jimaparo #patboyette #steveditko #rockemastroserio #ghostlytales #unexploredworlds #boyettewayne #crumrocke #howardtom #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit