Comic Books: An Old World of Ghosts and Monsters

Of course, in the old days we had Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery and Ripley's Believe It or Not True Ghost Stories in digest form. You may notice that Frankenstein Monster and The Monster of Frankenstein are two separate series, both by Marvel, and now collected into a large Essential volume. I read that copy of Ghost Manor years ago in grade school and was happy and surprised when I finally tracked it down. Those Journey into Mystery comics are notable in that they contain adaptations of two stories, in one of which Robert Bloch writes of the (fictional) death of H. P. Lovecraft, and another where Lovecraft returns the favor. The Hellblazer comics are a bit of an anomaly, as they are the only comics that Mike ever bought as an adult (probably for their occult content and probably as part of his half-hearted efforts to become a cult leader - my impression). Their main protagonist, the anti-hero John Constantine, went on to be a part of the Sandman Mythos. Some of these things I have written of in more detail elsewhere on the Niche, not always in easy searchable form.