Number 1497: It’s up to yew! Ghost-hunter and the Roman curse.

This is one of those supernatural stories that resolves itself at the end by dragging in some power over ghosts of which we readers have not been apprised. In this case it’s the ghost-hunter, Christopher Fenn, who “just remembered” what will defeat the ghosts before they are about to kill him. Note to writers of supernatural stories: Introduce said spell or power early in the story, then use it later. It's storytelling 101.

Despite that glaring flaw in “The Case of the Roman Curse” I like the art. It's drawn by Jon L. Blummer and comes from Adventures Into the Unknown #7 (1949).

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Number 886


Giants of the Unknown


Whoever wrote this tale for Adventures Into the Unknown #4, 1948, had a great imagination for fantasy, but not much of an ear for dialogue. Characters exposed to extraordinary things are given to expressions like "Golly!" "Jeepers!" "Good gosh!" But notwithstanding that, I like this story with its ancient giant and time travel. It races along from one improbable and impossible situation to another, like I expect from ACG, but the artwork is definitely above average.

The artist, Jon L. Blummer, is one of those I've written of who entered the comic book field in the earliest days, but of an even earlier era with his art style. I don't know much about Blummer at all, except that he created Hap Harrigan and Ultra-Man for DC and kept busy in comics for the rest of his career. The only date I have in relation to Blummer is that he died in 1955.

Karswell, of The Horrors Of It All, ran a great Blummer story in March, 2008. "The Dead Remember" is a story of vengeance on Nazis who killed Jews. I posted a moody zombie/crime story by Blummer in Pappy's #551.

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Number 551


Zombie killer!


Skeleton Hand was a very successful pre-Code title for ACG. According to the excellent article on ACG by Michael Vance in Alter Ego #61 (highly recommended!) all of the "supernaturals" sold well for that company. They used a lot of artists, some of them old-timers from the beginnings of comic books, which included artist Jon L. Blummer, who drew the eerie zombie-crime story, "Death For Hire."

Blummer drew for several companies, including very early DC. He had a style that reminds me a bit of Rudy Palais. According to biographical information I've read, Blummer had only a couple of years left to live when he drew this story, which appeared in Skeleton Hand #1 in 1952. He died in 1955.

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