The Lovecraftian Tom Sutton at Charlton

Tom Sutton has great range from space heroes to terror tales. His most Lovecraftian examples of his great Horror art came in the early to mid-1970s when he worked for Charlton. A fan of Lovecraft, Tom enjoyed the tentacular beasties of the Cthulhu Mythos. But there is so much more as well. It wasn’t possible to feature every comic he did during this period, so here are the best fourteen of fifty-six stories he drew. Not surprising, the best examples were written by him as well as rendered in four colors.

“Those Tentacles” (Ghostly Tales #106, August 1973) was written by Nick Cuti. Hal allows a devilfish to take his friend because he is having an affair with his wife, Edie. Turns out, Edie’s got some other guy in the works. Hal’s guilt drives him mad, with tentacles appearing from everywhere trying to kill him. He goes to Dr. Steiner, the shrink and gets a hypnotism treatment. No more guilt. Too bad the tentacles are real. Not a Mythos tale per se, but very much so in structure.

“The Weirdest Character I’ve Ever Known” (Ghostly Haunts #38, May 1974) was written by Joe Gill. The inspiration for this one is probably Richard Matheson’s Twilight Zone episode, “A World of His Own” (July 1, 1960) in which a man creates and destroys wives with his imagination. In this story it is literary characters. Miss Fermoy comes to the great writer’s house and witnesses him destroying creations such as a very Robert E. Howard Serpent Man, along with vampires, werewolves, zombies, shambling things. The writer, Jason Bliggs (his pen name) is something of an H. P. Lovecraft. In the end we see he, too, is a creation. The real creator is a shadowy figure who decides to become a comic book artist. “It doesn’t take that much talent.” The style of this comic is a little different from other Sutton pieces, having a Harry Clarke feel to it.

“The Thing in the Hole” (Ghostly Tales #111, September 1974) was written by Tom Sutton. Dr. Nostromo invites Skylar King and his wife to join him in exploring the Hell Caverns, where his old partner, Martine, disappeared. The couple follow him into the strange caves to find a giant pit. Inside is a tentacled Martine. Nostromo has brought the Kings as a sacrifice. Mrs. King uses Martine’s old gun to bring down a stalactite and cork the pit. The two survivors are faced with the fungus that made Martine a monster. The ending is very William Hope Hodgson’s “A Voice in the Night”.

“A Lovely Night in Paris” (Ghostly Haunts #41, November 1971) was written by Joe Gill. A woman is kidnapped by weird red mutants and taken into the famous sewers of Paris. A police office, Henri Marchand, follows to retrieve her. The mutants take the woman to their king, a giant rat. Henri shoots the monster and saves the girl. End with a kissy final panel. I suspect the story was for a romance comic like Haunted Love but proved too weird perhaps?

“Mountain of Fear” (Haunted #20, February 1975) was written by Tom Sutton. This one is the full-meal deal of Mythos tales. A man inherits a family home in the mountains. His ancestor was involved in some shady magic that involves rebirth over many lifetimes, magical tomes and a race of tentacled alien space monsters. There is an underground kingdom filled with zombie-like slaves and dinosaurs. The lovers wins free but the new girlfriend does a Lost Horizons and ages to dust. Our hero is thrown into the local nuthouse, incurably insane. For more on this comic, go here.

“Through a Glass Darkly” (Ghostly Tales #113, February 1975) was written by Tom Sutton. An old astronomer finds the Lens of Nemesis and puts it into his telescope. This arcane glass allows him to see the true fabric of all space. The old man calls himself a god before dropping the lens by accident. The energy released vaporizes the entire universe. Tom sneaks in a Mythos reference when the old man says “By the Serpent-bearded Byatis!” from Robert Bloch’s “The Shambler From the Stars”.

“Out of the Deep” (Haunted #21, April 1975) was written by Tom Sutton. A man is stranded on an island where the ghosts of his murder victims haunt him until Kulu (Cthulhu) shows up to munch on him.

“Fear Has a Name!” (Haunted #22, June 1975) was written by Nick Cuti. Harley Davis, the stunt rider, is a man without fear. And for good reason. Mere accidental death or dismemberment is nothing compared to the tentacular thing living in his basement. Nancy, rather than losing her mind, joins him in fearlessness.

“The Well” (Creepy Things #1, July 1975) was written by Tom Sutton. Iraah has a wishing well. It tells him to court a rich widow. He does as instructed, wooing her, but eventually murdering her and throwing her body in the well. His farm animals follow, and finally him. We see the frog-like being that dwells below. After his death, the farm is put up for auction: “Fertile Farmland with an exceptional well”.

“Journey to Lost Orlaak” (Haunted Love #11, September 1975) was written by Tom Sutton. Cassandra Marsh is a woman who was once Queen Cassandra of Orlaak, then a sea adventureress in another life. Now she is a bored house maid for Master Del Sombra. The cruel master listens to her dreams and plans to use them to find lost Orlaak and its golden treasures. He takes the maid to the city rising from the sea but she remains, its loved queen, while Del Sombra sinks back into our reality. It was all a dream but Cassandra is gone! There is a lot in this one, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The City in the Sea”, sunken R’yleh (now changed to Orlaak) but no deep ones. The idea of a comic called “Haunted Love”makes me grin.

“Slimes, Slogs and Glumps” (Creepy Things #2, October 1975) was written by Nick Cuti. A young boy living in the swamp captures frog-like creatures. When his father gets angry about them, he smashes the boy’s tank. Outside, the parents of these weird critters take note and begin oozing toward the shack. This ending reminded me of this.

“Man’s Best Fiend” (Creepy Things #4, February 1976) was written by Joe Gill. Mr. Weaver sells all manner of strange pets from slime to tentacled things to werewolves. He has an unsatisfied customer return and kill him with a bat creature he purchased there, when the man’s previous werewolf purchase turns out to be his own brother.

“Brain Fever” (Haunted #27, May 1976) was written by Mike Pellowski. This one borrows from Frankenstein and Herbert West, with a scientist creating a monster from body parts. When the creation is brought to life they discover they used a werewolf’s brain. The thing turns hairy and kills all the people in the lab.

“Subway Stop” (Haunted #31, January 1977) was written by Tom Sutton. Fred Ott is taken by a werewolf and a Frankenstein monster to see Dr. Jekyll but after a hypnotic journey through Poe’s world he ends up on the subway tracks. He is not Fred Ott but Roderick Usher come back to his house. When the house falls the train runs him over. Perhaps Tom’s greatest comic for Charlton, a masterpiece among masterpieces.

Conclusion

Lovecraft’s influence on Tom’s work was a natural partnership of a writer who wrote classics of weird fiction with an artist who could do anything from period costume to heavy atmospherics. Sutton’s abilities as a painter were shown in multiple covers, each more intense than the last one. Tom knew horror from fiction. He was a fan. He followed up this string of great comics with The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1978), a portfolio of HPL artwork.

Tom Sutton worked at Charlton from the early 1970s and into the 1980s. His work after this, for DC and Marvel in particular, sometimes fails to allow Tom to truly achieve the heights he did in Ghostly Tales, Ghostly Haunts, Haunted, Ghost Manor and Creepy Things.  These comics, along with his stunning work on the Future Chronicles in The Planet of the Apes magazines at Marvel, will guarantee Tom has fans for years to come.