Showcase Presents: Ghosts Vol. 1

Now I do believe in ghosts!

This volume is the Silver Age compilation of Ghosts issues #1-18. They ran from Sep. 1971 to Sep. 1973. Each issue has between four and six different stories, all having to do with the supernatural. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of storytelling present. I initially expected most stories to be simple copy/paste jobs, where a ghost haunts someone until death. Yet the series presents itself as "true tales of the weird and supernatural." It's like a historical record of supernatural occurrences throughout the centuries. This means that a large variety of locations and time periods are used, as well as actual historical figures mixed in with the fictional accounts.

Stories could be anywhere from 1300 to "present day" 1970. Locations I can think of off the top of my head are Italy, Haiti, Germany, England, France, America, Spain, and the Czech Republic. But since it's historically accurate, the beginning narration may point out that the name of the country has changed over time due to the course of history. It really gives the whole thing a much more credible feeling.

The writers are also well-researched into the native customs of wherever a story takes place, and use that to their storytelling advantage. They also use phrases in the native language whenever possible. A lot of effort went into making these stories seem as believable as possible. It was much appreciated on this end. Granted, there were some ridiculous clichés, but they were the exception. I hardly ever rolled my eyes, and we're talking Silver Age DC here. That's saying something.

Unfortunately, the names of the writers for most of the stories are unknown. The only regularly reoccurring one is Leo Dorfman. He's credited to writing approximately 25% of the material, although it's likely he did more.

The artists, on the other hand, are nearly all accounted for. The art itself is hit and miss. The work that stood out to me was by Jack Sparling, John Calnan, Jim Aparo, Nestor Malgapo, E. R. Cruz, and Gerry Talaoc. Outside of those six, the rest of the art got the job done, but was pretty formulaic and disappointing. The book is printed in black and white, which is actually superior for this kind of work. Colorization at this time took away from the quality and detail of the pencil/ink work.

Plus a lot of them are pretty funny.

The stories themselves are quite good. There are the standard plots: curses uttered before death, spirits returning to avenge their wrongful death, etc. But then there are stories where the ghosts are actually assisting the (still living) protagonist who has been wronged, often without their knowledge. The ghosts are the good guys most of the time, trying to make the world a better place (in their own way).

There are also the stories of the tricksters plotting a prank, and the whole thing going smoothly, until it's revealed that the key players never actually showed up. All of the stories have an opening and closing narration, and the last sentence in all of them is an inquiry to the readers' belief in the supernatural (e.g. "Now do you believe in ghosts?", "It might have happened...only if you believe in ghosts!", etc.)

The antagonists, who most of the time are the living, are such assholes. You're looking forward to seeing them haunted for the rest of their life and beyond.

I cannot get over what an asshole this guy is.

There is also quite a bit of violence, which I'm not sure how DC got away with so much during this time period.

There are certain plot devices that show up quite a bit. For instance, to reveal the presence of phantoms, infra-red lights, infra-red film, or infra-red radiation is used (not sure how that last one works).

And since it's DC, and it's the 1970's, they can't escape having some goofier stuff.

There were some stories that had that humorous plot twist. For example, a greedy merchant turns his village against a "witch" he discovered, his goal being obtaining her land. Yet later, she returns to exact her revenge with magic she "learned in the grave," which effectively actually makes her a witch, right?

Pictured: A grudge.

Or a weird promise made by a doctor to never bury a dead woman's body. So logically, he sticks the corpse in a clock and leaves it in his office for all to see. But after he dies, the owner of the museum where the clock has been taken decides he doesn't want that gross thing hanging around. So he buries it (with a humorous piece of logic thrown in).

Naturally, she returns and kills them all for breaking a promise made years before any of them had been born and couldn't possibly have known about. Oh well.

Overall, it was a really good and entertaining read. I was really happy at the diversity of the storytelling, as well as the historically and geographically accuracy. It really turned them from regular ghost stories into authentic narratives. Plus this volume has pretty much my favorite cover ever. DC's horror comics of this time are all pretty good. I've already made it through The Spectre, House of Mystery, and House of Secrets volumes, and I'm looking forward to Weird War Tales, The Witching Hour, and Secrets of Sinister House. Just need some free time, which everybody has a ton of, right?