Ghostly Tales # 9

Ghostly Tales #9, c. 1979/1980

Cover artist: Steve Ditko

Music of Murder
Steve Ditko
(Ghostly Tales #69, October 1968)

...To Die A Witches' Death
L. Sabalys/Enrique Nieto
(Ghost Manor #27, January 1976)

The Eternal Oak
Steve Ditko
(Ghostly Tales #71, January 1969)

Beyond The Grave
(Original unidentified, 10 pages)

Live Happily Forever and Ever
Joe Gill/Wayne Howard
(Ghost Manor #21, November 1974)

The Death Mask
Joe Gill/Sanho Kim
(Ghost Manor #18, May 1974)

Terrible Teddy
Tom Sutton
(Ghost Manor #23, May 1975)

A House with a Different View
Jim Aparo
(Ghostly Tales #67, July 1968)


Ghostly Tales #9 is good value for a Charlton-centric K.G. Murray horror comic with a great mix of artists and features. With a couple of Steve Ditko reprints it was always bound to meet my criteria for an issue worth seeking out. Add a Charlton-era Jim Aparo story and the bonus points start to accumulate.

But the real gem in this issue is the Tom Sutton classic, Terrible Teddy. This is a truly delirious 6-page psychodrama about a killer one-eyed teddy bear, with dozens of curved knives for teeth, which stalks and attacks a thief-turned-killer on the run.

I guess that description either has you turning your attention to something far more edifying, or you have already begun scouring eBay for copies. To the latter junkhounds I say keep in mind that the original appearance in Ghost Manor #23, May 1975 is behind a painted Sutton cover based on this story, whereas the reprint in Ghost Manor #50, May 1980 simply reprints a panel for cover duties. It was also reprinted in the ACG Christmas Special #1, 1999.