Ghost Rider #2

The Macabre Menace of the Tarantula!

Featuring: Ghost Rider
Release: February 14, 1967
Cover: April 1967
12 cents
Edited by: Stan Lee
Written by: Gary Friedrich
Drawn and plotted by: Dick Ayers
Inked by: Vinnie Colletta
Lettered by: Artie Simek
17 pages

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Hold, sons of Satan! If it is your wish to protect– then protect yourselves– from the wrath of the Ghost Rider!

After dealing with some cattle rustlers, Ghost Rider returns to his secret cave. We are reminded of his origin and how some of his tricks work.

A pullstring from a tree opens the cave. The lantern projects his own image in a ghostly manner, and covering parts of his body makes parts of the image seem to disappear, so he can appear to have no head or no chest. His lasso is black to the point of being invisible at night.

They spend a lot of time making very clear to the reader there is nothing supernatural going on. And I wonder if that’s entirely for narrative purpose. Or if the audience also includes the censors from the Comics Code Authority, who generally forbade supernatural concepts in Code-approved comics. So it may have been important to clarify that Ghost Rider was not in fact a ghost.

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X-Men #28

The Wail of the Banshee!

Featuring: X-Men
Release: November 3, 1966
Cover: January 1967
12 cents
Stan Lee editor
Roy Thomas writer
Werner Roth artist
J. Tartaglione inker
Artie Simek letterer
Irving Forbush noise-maker
20 pages

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How could these puny humans– who dwell among the smoke and noise that they call civilization– hope to appreciate such matchless beauty?

So my normal standard for making posts is to prepare the post one day, but not publish it the same day. I sleep on it and give it a last lookover before publication.

I’m skipping my usual standards today. Because today is St. Patrick’s Day. So I’m posting this without my usual extra day to edit. And from a pub. While some number of drinks in.

As seems appropriate.

This issue feels appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day because it introduces the character of the Banshee.

Who I think is Irish. Though they don’t say so. At least, I associate banshees with being Irish. Of course, I also associate banshees with being women, so shows what I know.

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