One-shot occult detectives are more common than you know. The early comics all had to have one. After Siegel & Shuster created Dr. Occult, they were everywhere. This led to many experiments in van Helsing-type ghostbreakers. They would appear in a single issue, then fade away like the ghosts they chased.
Crown Comics #1 (1945) featured “Graves Ghost Hunter” written by “B. Chrysler” with art by Alex Blum. The ghost of Agnes Harrington is haunting Graves and killing with her poison touch. The last panel promises Graves will be back in the next issue of Crown Comics. (Like Godot, we are still waiting….) Graves got the cover but didn’t excite enough readers to fulfill his promise.
Adventures Into the Unknown began their run with a number of psychic doctors including Dr. van Dyke who appeared in the two parts of “The Living Ghost” Adventures Into the Unknown #1 (Fall 1948) , written by Horror grandmaster, Frank Belknap Long. Both segments were drawn by Edvard Moritz. When the Living Ghost takes Tony’s girl, Gail, he seeks supernatural help from van Dyke.
Adventures Into the Unknown #2 (December 1948-January 1949) provided the second act with “Out of the Unknown”. When the Living Ghost takes Gail (again!) Tony seeks out van Dyke and sees a picture in his office. Tony gets the idea of setting monster-against-monster. Van Dyke actually isn’t all that useful. Tony has to do all his own footwork. Technically, van Dyke appeared twice but since the second piece is really the second half, it feels like a one-shot.
Dr. Douglas Drew (not to be confused with Dr. Desmond Drew from the Eisner group or DC’s guy of the same name) appeared in “The Old Tower’s Secret” written by Frank Belknap Long and drawn by Edmond Good. Doug Drew is very much the action-oriented ghostbreaker. He fights off an evil spirit during a seance with an emerald plant, traps it and ultimately finishes off a three hundred year old love triangle to send all the ghosts to their graves.
Dr. Adams is the ghostbreaker in “The Witch-Cat of Salem” from Issue #3 (February-March 1949) Art by Ken Bald and Pete Riss. Bob and Ann inherit an ancient Salem witch trial curse. Fortunately they have the mysterious Dr. Adams who pops up whenever he likes. He defeats the ancient witch-cat curse then disappears. His Bible, that he oddly left behind, is dated 1648. Adams won’t be the last ghostbreaker to be a ghost. (See Dr. Styx for one.)
Junius B. Jethro M. D. does the job of van Helsing in “The Vampire Prowls” written by Frank Belknap Long and drawn by Leonard Starr. J. B. Jethro is your full service van Helsing consultant. He counters, tracks and dispatches the bad guy all for the same low price.
In “The Affair of the Ferrick Phantom”, the author is not known but the art by Ed Moritz. This one opens in a salon of the Anti-Ghost Society. They are debunkers and skeptics. Ferrick shows up to convince them that ghost do exist. The imminent psychologists all explain away his incredible story. Only they can’t do that with Ferrick’s final piece of evidence…
Issue #4 (April-May 1949) “Specialist in Spooks” features a real-life occult detective and writer, Elliott O’Donnell. The comic’s writer is not known but the art is by Charles Sultan. The writer has cherry-picked a few of O’Donnell’s cases from his popular non-fiction books.
I think it is pretty clear that Sultan didn’t use a photo of O’Donnell in this story. O’Donnell is a thin-faced man with a large nose. I suspect Sultan did his version of “an Irishman”.
“The Case of the Roman Curse” (Adventures Into the Unknown #7, October-November 1949) was again written by Frank Belknap Long and drawn by Jon L. Blummer. Christopher Fenn, ex-GI, and his secretary, Penny are off to England to lay some Roman ghosts. A little time travel and soon his customer is saved.
As Adventures Into the Unknown got its footing, the writers dropped the occult detectives for regular people faced with horrific situations. This meant the protagonist could die, go insane, etc. because they weren’t expected to return.
“Spook-Buster’s Doom” appeared in Adventures into the Unknown #18, April 1951. It was written by an unknown author but drawn by Paul Cooper. It features the ghostbreaker, Otis Findley, a famous debunker of fake seances. This time the ghost of a centaur is called up and Findley dies under its hooves.
Dark Mysteries #2 (August-September 1951) has “The Monster’s Ghost”. The author is not known but the art was done by Joe Orlando. Bruce Gibson, denouncer of fake mediums, buys a haunted house and finds ghosts are real. He survives the night, even a phantom sword in his chest, but no one will believe him.
“He Hunted Ghosts” (House of Mystery #3, April-May 1952) was text feature about the real-life occult detective, Harry Price and his investigation of Borley Rectory. The story was written by David Kahn as Don King. The illustration was provided by Raymond Perry.
“Ghost Hounds of Trelawney” appeared in Beware Terror Tales #1, May 1952. The author is a ghost but the artist was Bob Powell. John Marshand is a ghost buster who wears the trenchcoat and fedora. He is up against a new version of the Hound of the Baskervilles, two hounds and a kilted Scotsman.
“The Ghost Hunter” (Mystery Tales #7, January 1953) was written by an unknown writer and drawn by Manny Stallman and Chris Rule. Hunt, the famous ghost buster charges Mr. Priestly to get rid of the ghosts haunting his house. Later we see Hunt and a monster have a conversation. The creature is in cahoots with the detective, and the one doing the haunting. The final surprise is Hunt is a ghost himself. This story has some wonderful Lovecraftian touches like the Deep One-like goblin.
Also January 1953 was “An Ancient Ghost Story” in The Thing #6. The author is not known but the art was done by Dick Giordano. This story is probably the first ghostbreaker tale recorded. It appeared in “The Letter to Sula by Pliny the Younger.
Tales to Astonish #1 (January 1959) offered an unnamed occult detective who claims “I know the Secret of the Poltergeist!”. The author is not known but the art is by Steve Ditko. The highly qualified explorer of the unknown seeks a logical answer as a young couple are driven from their home. Of course, he knew the answer all along…
Forbidden Worlds #130 (September 1965) gave us “The Ghost That Died”, written by Richard E. Hughes (as Kurato Osaki) and drawn by Hy Eisman. Uncle Henry is haunted by the spirit of his nephew, who was sent to his death as a money collector. James Wilkes, a gambler, shot him. The ghostly visits get so bad that Henry Matthews goes to Dr. Saunders at the Institute For Psychic Research. Saunders traps the ghost in a circle of fire then shoots it with Ghostbane. The spirit of the nephew, who so badly wanted to warn his uncle, fails to stop Matthews from confronting Wilkes and gets shot too.
By no means every one-hit wonder. There is Dr. Gotcha from Casper the Friendly Ghost comics as well as many others to watch out for. You never know where you’ll find them…
Most of these comics are in the public domain and available at DCM.
