A GHOST FROM THE PAST...



Art by Ernie Colon, written by Michael Fleisher.  Copyright relevant owner

Way back in 1974/'75, the newly launched ATLAS COMICS released a plethora of titles to compete with the company that first bore its name - Marvel.  When MARTIN GOODMAN sold MARVEL COMICS in '72, he anticipated that his son, CHIP, would be given the role of publisher - but he was passed over in favour of STAN LEE.  So, in what many people saw as an act of revenge, Goodman Senior revived Marvel's previous name (after TIMELY) and launched an all-out assault on the comics market.

Sadly it was short-lived, but one of the titles I particularly enjoyed was The GRIM GHOST, about a hanged 18th century highwayman (Matthew Dunsinane) who makes a pact with ol' Nick and returns to 20th century Earth to despatch evil-doers to his new master's domain.

Art by Ernie Colon, written by Michael Fleisher

I only ever bought two issues before it vanished from the face of spinner-racks everywhere, and some months after purchasing them, I passed them on to one of my friends.  Cut to nearly 35 years later, when he visits me one night with a bag of comics.  "Here," he says, "I thought you might like these back."  Amongst the pile is - you guessed it - The Grim Ghost #s 1 & 2.

Now, anyone who's ever acquired a replacement for a comic from their past knows the feeling that usually accompanies the achievement.  The replacement, in some mysterious, mystical, magical way, actually becomes the very one which was lost or relinquished years before.

Art by Ernie Colon, written by Tony Isabella

Imagine then, if you can, how this feeling is magnified when one manages to obtain the actual, original issue from the dim and distant days of one's teenage years. It's a sensation that is almost impossible to describe.  Not long after this I discovered that there had only ever been three issues of The Grim Ghost, and this third issue I obtained - quite by chance - at a Glasgow comic mart not long after for a mere two quid.  In a strange quirk of fate, the friend who'd given me back the first two issues was with me at the time.



It may have taken me 35 years, but I finally managed to complete the set.  Ah, the sense of accomplishment that fills my soul.



Art by Qing Ming Pui

However, there's more: not long after re-reading the comics in sequence and lamenting that the title didn't last longer, I learned that ol' Ghosty is being revived. What's the old saying?  "All things come to he who waits."  Let's just hope that the new series (if it takes off) is as entertaining as the short-lived original run.

(Little did I realize when I first bought issues 1 & 2 that, 15 or 20 years later, I'd be lettering writer MICHAEL FLEISHER's scripts for ROGUE TROOPER in 2000 A.D.  Talk about fate, eh?)