Gorilla Daze

Haunted Love #3, August 1973

Beneath an atmospheric Tom Sutton cover the Charlton gothic romance title continues to deliver thrills aplenty.

“Brainfever” by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton tells the sorry tale of Myrna, a young lady afflicted by terrible dreams of a car accident. Doctors declare that she’s practically untreatable, and so she is placed in an asylum. There she meets Larry, who is the man she sees in her dreams: a dream where Larry is killed in his Model T Ford. As her condition deteriorates, the doctors recommend shock treatment — but Myrna protests and is sedated. In her dream she goes to the scene of the accident and meets the spirit of Larry — he has indeed been killed — and he tells her that she, too, is now a ghost, having died during treatment. Together they go to find their destiny in the beyond.

The second story in this issue is “The Fiend in the Fog”. Joe Gill and Tom Sutton’s fog-bound Gothic horror is set in 1831 London. While walking near the docks one night young Elizabeth is attacked by a fiend in a sailor’s outfit. She’s rescued by the hunky Captain Robert Teague. Over the coming days, Elizabeth falls for Teague, but he warns her never to venture aboard his ship alone — especially at night. Following a dinner date at her home, Elizabeth goes out into the night after Teague when he forgets his cap. Out of the fog the fiend reappears and throttles Elizabeth! A policeman arrives and scares off her attacker. Teague calls around later as Elizabeth recuperates. He has his cap, so Elizabeth realizes it was he who attacker her and has Teague thrown out of the house.

Feeling that she might have made a mistake Elizabeth sets out for Teague’s ship, and goes aboard — alone. The fiend is waiting for her! Suddenly, Teague smashes in the door. The fiend is actually his brother, insane from an uncured (and unnamed) disease contracted years before (syphilis perhaps — that’d be a first for comics!). The strain conveniently kills the brother, and Elizabeth and Teague fall into each other’s arms and set sail for the New World.

A good issue this one. The first story is slight but reasonably effective, while the fog-enshrouded mystery of the second works very well indeed. It’s sort of the maritime equivalent of Jane Eyre. Tom Sutton’s art is the stand out, far better than any interior work he’s produced on thie series so far.

Sadly, this Charlton material is unlikely to be collected any time soon, but DC’s forays into the world of Gothic Romance is readily available.

Image ©2010 the copyright holder

Haunted Love #2, June 1973

We continue our nocturnal waltz through Charlton’s early-1970s gothic romance title with the second issue, fronted by a Frank Bolle cover. Not as attractive a cover as issue one, it’s true, but effective nonetheless. Inside we get the usual two stories.

Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton present “Richard”, which tells of a young woman who has attracted the spirit of the eponymous fellow at a seance. Later we discover that the medium is a fake, out to extract money from our heroine. However, the medium’s unattractive assistant rebels and reveals the truth, ultimately finding love when he is rewarded by Richard’s ghost.

“I’ll Never Let You Go”, by Joe Gill and Frank Bolle, has a newly-wed haunted by the ghost of her ex-boyfriend, a reckless showoff who died in a car crash. No one believes her, and her husband starts to think she’s going a bit mad and seeing things. It all comes to a head when the spirit burns down the matrimonial home, but is consumed by the fire thanks to some quick actions of the husband, who has finally seen the light.

The art by Joe Staton is shockingly poor, but it was early in his career — he got a lot better later. Bolle’s work is fine, but perhaps not best suited to the gothic romance genre.

Image ©2010 Charlton/the respective copyright holder

Haunted Love #1, April 1973

Charlton was hardly the most with-it publisher and rarely afraid to let a bandwagon pass by before jumping on it. So, a year after DC had thrown in the towel on its range of Gothic Romance comics (Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love and Sinister House of Secret Love — see the Gothic Romance catagory for more), the Connecticut-based publisher launched its own. Subtitled “Tales of Gothic Romance”, just to be sure, Haunted Love ran its merry course for a couple of years, but is mostly noteworthy for its covers. The fine example here is from hand of Tom Sutton, who also contributed one of the interior stories.

“A Kiss to Save Him from the Grave!” is a pretty ropey piece of work by Sutton, showing almost none of the panache of that cover, and it’s possible he wrote it too. It tells the story of Lucille, a young nurse who goes to look after the medical needs of Trevor Galt, a wizened old man living in a creepy mansion. It transpires that he is an evil warlock who remains essentially immortal by taking over the dead bodies of young men. Under the mental control of Galt Lucille attempts the poison the hunky young medic who has uncovered Galt’s secret, but Galt dies before he can invade the younger man’s body. Sutton here displays an odd tendency to draw Lucille with a wild stare, her eyes about six inches apart. Most odd.

The other story in this premiere issue is “Eternal Teacher”, which sees a young tutor discovering the horrific truth about the young woman he’s come to teach. A genuinely unsettling tale, with a tragic ending, it reminds me of the stories in those portmanteau movies of the late-60s/early-70s, such as Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors. Charlton stalwart Nicola Cuti scripts, with art by a young Joe Staton.

Not a great comic by any means, but solid entertainment — if sometimes for the wrong reasons.

Image ©2010 the respective copyright holder

Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #6, July-August 1972

While not really a Gothic Romance cover in the truest sense this final example of the genre from Dark Mansion does at least feature our old friend, the girl in the white dress — though in this case, it’s actually a wedding dress. The cover is by Alan Weiss, but what makes this issue particularly special is that it has a ‘lost’ 10-page story written a drawn by Jack Kirby (with inks by Mike Royer).

“The Psychic Bloodhound” was left over from the unpublished second issue of Kirby’s failed black and white magazine Spirit World. With that title’s cancellation, the contents were scattered across several of DC’s mystery books. Check out Weird Mystery #1-3 for the remaining stories and features intended for the magazine. Though the story wouldn’t have been a great fit for the original format of Dark Mansion, it works well enough in the new, more mystery-oriented direction brought in by editor Joe Orlando.

Spirit World fared far better than the unpublished In the Days of the Mob #2, most which still hasn’t seen print to this day.

©2010 DC Comics

House of Secrets #95, January 1972

A guest appearance here, on this splendid Nick Cardy cover, of our old friend, the girl in the long white nightgown. While this isn’t technically a Gothic Romance title, it serves as a nice little adjunct.

As usual with these anthology mystery comics, the interior is a bit of a mixed bag. John Albano and Don Heck bring us the creepy tale of a young boy’s imaginary friend in “Creature”, while writer Len Wein tells of “Things That Go Bump in the Night”, with art by the unusual pairing of Jack Sparling and George Tuska. Sparling and Wein also look at “The Day After Doomsday…”, a poignant filler.

“The Last Sorceror” and “The Phantom of the Flames” are 1950s reprints drawn by Bernard Bailey and Joe Maneely respectively.

The best is saved ’til last however. “The Bride of Death” is a chilling tale of deal with the Devil to obtain eternal youth, written by Jack Oleck and drawn by the magnificent Nestor Redondo. The detail Redondo packs into every panel has to be seen to be believed.

It’s also interesting to note that this issue has the letters page that sees readers comment on HoS #92 — the first appearance of Swamp Thing. No surprises, Wein and Wrightson had hit gold.

©2009 DC Comics

Secrets of Sinister House #5, July 1972

All things must pass, as George Harrison memorably sang. And so it was that less than a year after it began, the gothic romance genre wound down in comics. In an effort to boost sales, the title of the former Sinister House of Secret Love was changed to the snappier — and perhaps less girl friendly — Secrets of Sinister House, and the direction changed to more standard mystery/horror fare. However, there was inventory to use up, and so this issue still features a gothic romance tale. The always good value team of Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano illustrate a Michael Fleisher script: “Death at Castle Dunbar”.

As ever Nick Cardy provides a wonderfully atmospheric cover, this one clearly ringing the changes by being pen and ink based rather than the pencil grey tone techniques of previous issues.

©2009 DC Comics

Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #5, June 1972

With the tv show Dark Shadows having bitten the dust a year before, the era of gothic romance was perhaps fading. Reflecting this, DC chose to rename their gothic romance comics, and move them away from the eerie romance genre towards more standard House of Mystery-style anthologies. This issue represents a kind of half-way house: the title has changed from Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love to Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion, but the story contained therein is inventory left over from the original title. Jack Oleck and Don Heck tells how “They All Came to Die!”, a full-length 36-page tale that saw the genre out in fine style.

Not quite the last gasp though, as sister title Sinister House would undergo a similar change the following month.

Nick Cardy, at the time a ubiquitous presence as cover artist at DC, provides the fine cover — and the penultimate appearance of that lass in the long white dress.

©2009 DC Comics

Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #4, April 1972

Getting towards the end of the genre now, sales were falling and a change of direction was on the horizon. In the meantime, however, there was still a comic to fill and this one has some lovely art work by Ernie Chan — it’s inked by Vince Colletta, but there you go. Story by Dorothy Manning

The terrific cover, one of the last of its kind, is by Nick Cardy. Moody, atmospheric, and utterly wonderful.

©2009 DC Comics

The Sinister House of Secret Love #4, May 1972

The last issue of the book to carry this title sports a marvelous cover by Tony DeZuniga. He’s responisble for the interior art too: a full 37-pager with plot by (presumably) Mrs DeZuniga and finished script by Mike Fleisher. By this point the interest in Gothic Romance — if there ever was any — was on the wane, and the following issue would see the last story in this vein.

©2009 DC Comics