Charlton Comics in the 1970s wasn’t immune to the power of H. P. Lovecraft. Both Marvel and DC had their dalliances, why not Charlton? Tom Sutton, the best of the Charlton artists was obviously a fan, writing and drawing at least three Mythos pieces. Who better to capture the weirdness of Lovecraft?
“No Way Out” (Ghostly Haunts #28, December 1972) was written by Nick Cuti and drawn by Joe Staton. This story is special in that the main character is an obvious version of Lovecraft.
Jabez Monchek is a man with issues. He can’t see the doors in his house. People, like Murry who drops in with groceries, appear through the walls. We learn that as a young boy his mother kept him indoors. After his father and mother die, Jabez no longer goes outside.
Trapped inside the house, Jabez wastes his time reading. (Notice the Mythos references in this panel: Colin Wilson, Abdul Alhazred and of course, Lovecraft. Oddly, the title of the comic as well.)
One day Carla D’Arcy comes through the wall. Her car has broken down. Jabez feeds her then shows her the house. He has written 200 pieces of fiction and non-fiction and sculpts. Carla wants Jabez to come with her, to leave the house. He refuses and she goes. Immediately he regrets this and finds all the doors returning. Still, he can’t quite go through them… A clever summation of Lovecraft’s odd life, with the house without doors being a metaphor for his own issues trapping him.
“Mountain of Fear” (Haunted #20, February 1975) was written and drawn by Tom Sutton. It was reprinted in #44. This full issue story seems to be inspired by “At the Mountains of Madness” and “The Shadow Out of Time”.
Burton Parsons comes to Fear Mountain at the request of Ethan Phyre. Parsons is a lawyer who is summoned to write a will. When he arrives at Battleborough he finds Ethan dead and buried in the cemetery for fifty years. The lawyer goes out to the Phyre house, a ruined mansion. There he finds Ethan in the basement next to the cistern. Ethan tells Parsons to block every opening to the earth, to seal them in. Ethan passes out and Parsons is unsure what he meant. (End of Part 1)
Parsons then meets Ethan’s daughter, Hester. She insists that Ethan must be taken below to the Old Ones. Parsons sees the Vled, which can control minds. He and Hester carry the body below. Finished, Parsons passes out. When he wakes, Hester calls him her lover, Stefan. Parsons corrects her. In the weird caverns, Parsons meets the strange inhabitants of the world under Fear Mountain, including Zerkas, the Blind One and the hooded, Iram Mostar. Using a stalagmite as a harpoon, Parsons kills a Vled then flees. His flight is stopped by a T. Rex! He finds some carvings on the wall by Stefan Habstd, Hester’s old beau.
Parsons then meets the Elder One, an antennaed being. When Parsons tries to tackle it, he passes right through. He is powerless to do anything and realizes he is trapped in a living hell. (End of Part II)
Parsons is bent on escape. He discovers a gigantic jewel called the Eye of the Elder but can’t get at it to destroy it. He is taken the Renewal Chamber, where weird machines trap the prisoners in an undying eternity. Parsons uses some of the gasoline for the machine to start a fire. In the panic the T. Rexes get loose and start killing. In the destruction, Parsons and Hester find a way back to the surface.
Once back in the house, Hester discovers her coffin. She realizes she died over a century ago. With that she collapses into a pile of bones. Parsons races from the house through the graveyard, crying that the villagers must close up the wells and the caves. He is obviously headed for the nuthouse. Sutton’s inspiration is fairly obvious, with elder beings and such. The more SF elements seem closer to “The Shadow Out of Time”. Hester’s death is Lost Horizon (again!).
“Out of the Deep” (Haunted #21, April 1975) written and drawn by Tom Sutton. Reprinted in #55 with a cover.
Hardy is shipwrecked on a strange island where an old man in a cassock chides him for his crimes.
While recuperating, Hardy has dreams of the men he was responsible for killing as well as eldritch monsters. He steals a boat and escapes the old man only to suffer death at the tentacles of Kulu (Cthulhu).
Sutton’s tale this time is a version of “Dagon” with some character building. Lovecraft has his protagonist wander around on a slimy island but there is no history of guilt or shipboard murder.
“Fear Has a Name!” (Haunted #22, June 1975) was written by Nick Cuti and drawn by Tom Sutton. Harley Davis is a professional stunt driver. He is literally a man without fear. He will do any stunt no matter how likely he is to be killed. When a disgruntled driver tries to shoot him Harley doesn’t even flinch. The man thinks he knew he had blanks in the gun, but Harley denies it.
Harley’s girl, Nancy wants to know the secret of why he has no fear. To answer this he takes her to the old house his grandfather left him. There he tells her of a monster that dwells under the house. He shows her a book that might only be The Necronomicon or some other eldritch tome.
He explains that slowly over time the monster has come closer and closer to the surface and some day it will destroy the world. Finally he shows her S’nngarth, Lord of the Earth. Rather than losing her SAN roll, Nancy loses her earthly fear and joins Harley in the jumping act as his wife.
I think Lovecraft’s great quote about Fear: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” was the source of this story. Cuti does something different with it.
“The Kukulkaton” (Monster Hunters #2, October 1975) was written and drawn by Tom Sutton. After six months in the Yucatan jungle, Brandon is fed up with Kruger and his secretary, Mila. Brandon wants jade. Even the terror of Kukulkaton and his ripping hearts out of people’s chests won’t stop him. Kruger tells them they must go to the Pyramid of T’Kal. Taking a rubber raft, they find an ancient ruin filled with gold and skeletons of victims.
A great beating fills the temple. Kruger panics and dies falling down a trap door. Brandon and Mila wait and see Kukulkaton, with his pounding stolen hearts.Their end is predictable but we don’t get to see it. Sutton has done something a little more jungle adventure and a little less HPL here. The last shot with the pounding hearts reminds me of Scott Smiths The Ruins for some reason. Clark Ashton Smith and ol’ HPL would approve.
“The Source” (Haunted #28, July 1976) was probably written by Joe Gill and was drawn by Frank Bolle. This stripped down Mythos tale gives no information on where the monster came from. All we know is that Old Thomas Willett keeps the thing in a locked basement and that while it feeds he steals one jewel from it. Unfortunately, it only eats people. The year is up and Willett needs a new sacrifice to get his annual treasure. He invites Albert Maxus from the bank and his fiancee, Agatha Brown. Willett tells his housekeeper to get the dinner ready but she is already on it. She knows the drill. While having a drink, Albert puts knock-out drops in Willett’s drink. This is just as he planned. The couple take the key from his jacket.
The dreadful deed done, Willett wakes from his drugged sleep to go and get his diamond. The only problem is Albert and Agatha had had a case of conscious and left without going to the basement. The monster will be fed and Willett is on the menu.
The way Frank Bolle drew the monster it looks Lovecraftian or perhaps a bit like a plant monster. Since we get no hints who knows? The whole jewel thing seems more Jamesian to me than Lovecraftian. Mike Zeck’s cover feels more HPL.
“Author of?” (Haunted #29, September 1976) was written by Nick Cuti and drawn by Frank Bolle, paid honor to three major influences: Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury.
Covers
A tasty look into the Charlton vaults! Thank you fot the memories. Charlton has often been given a dismissive if not bad press. But back in the day it offered independently minded artists and writers more creative freedom than the dominant comic publishers. My own career as a freelance writer, long before I was largely known for Western novels by “Chap O’Keefe”, included several stints of script writing for comics, beginning in the UK in the early 1960s. Some ten years later I was working as a journalist in New Zealand from where I also submitted scripts for the Charlton “ghost” titles edited by George R. Wildman. These were usually drawn by Tom Sutton or Steve Ditko. Sutton, in fact, drew the first couple of these: “Storm Freak” (Scary Tales) and “The Wrath of the Masalai” (Ghostly Tales). Great times! But sadly, Charlton eventually dropped its “All New” policy and began issuing reprints. George wrote in February 1978, “I am sorry to say that at the present time we are not accepting any outside material due to our small production schedule of only twelve titles.”
Thanks for this. I am always intrigued to hear from those who were there.
“Haunted” 19 cover is Pat Boyette’s, and “Baron Weirwulf…” 22 is Don Newton’s.
Thnaks.
Thanks.