No one can withstand the power of Talus the Great!

You may or may not recall this post from last July, which was a continuation of a little quest or search of sorts which I've been passively pursuing for some time now, even before I started blogging. I started reading comics as a preschooler; in fact, I could read before I started first grade (no kindergarten in our rural Kentucky independent school system at the time), and comics were a big reason why, I do believe. Anyway, one of those precious few first comic books that were given to me by my parents and grandparents was Strange Planets #16, which (as I came to find out later via pal Dave) was by and large an I.W. Publishing/Super Comics reprint of February 1952's Strange Worlds #6, published by Avon Comics. And among the stories in this comic was the tale of a young fellow in a far-flung future who ruthlessly came to rule the world with an iron fist. There were others that made an impression as well; one, an extrapolation of the Native American "Maid of the Mist" story, another about a wrongdoer who is haunted by a vengeful totem spirit. I kept and reread the comic over the next few years, but as I grew up, it lost a cover and a page or two and eventually was relegated to a box in the basement, with other damaged comics that I owned as a kid and didn't choose to add to my collection when I actually got around to beginning the hobby in earnest. For a few more years after that, if I happened to be digging around in my parent's basement looking for this or that, I'd see it and look it over and toss it back in. At some point, it got moved, the box that is- my pack-rattish folks wouldn't have thrown it away, I don't think, but the upshot is that I havent laid eyes on the book in a couple of decades, I'll bet. But that one story stuck with me, and I thought if I ever ran across it again I'd like to own it or at least read it again, so I started asking around both here and on the internet, and today, on a site called Beware, There's a Crosseyed Cyclops in My Basement! I finally found it, where someone had put it up for download. I will share it now with you (cleaned up a little in Photoshop, because yellow paper does not make me nostalgic) -from 1952 via 1964, script and art credited to Norman Nodel, here's "The Man Who Owned the Earth":

Rereading it now, for the first time in a LONG time, well...it's not a great story, I don't think. There are huge holes in the script, and the dialogue is wooden even by early 50's standards. Talos' rise to power is only mentioned in passing, and how he managed to achieve this is glossed over completely. His motivation is unconvincing- we're never really made to understand what drove him to do what he did. For that matter, the resolution doesn't really convince all that much either, although there is precedent for people who realize a lifelong goal finding themselves unhappy after the getting of it, realizing that the pursuit was what made it worthwhile. Still, dude! You've got the world at your feet! If nothing else, chill and kick back with a cold one and some video games or something till you find a new goal! The art is not great either; it's often crude and perfunctory. That is a nicely done pose on the dancing girl on page five, I will say.

Regardless, here it is. I'm a little hard pressed to define exactly what it is that fascinated me so about this story as a child, and can only venture guesses. What do YOU think about it?

Submitted for your approval, one of my favorite kids' books: 13 Ghosts by Dorothy Gladys Spicer. I'd link to something on the Net about it, but I couldn't find a gosh darn thing. So it's entirely possible that this may become the top referral for future searches for 13 Ghosts and Ms. Spicer. This would make a nice Halloween post, I guess, but I'm an impatient sort so here's a brief look at the book, with some illustrations. As always, click on the thumbnails to see a bigger image...

Anyway, this was one of several books that really grabbed me hard when I was in grade school; in fact, my copy is from that very same school library. When they moved the grade schools at Horse Cave and neighboring Cave City together, creating Caverna Elementary School in a nice new building back in 1973, they decided not to take every book from the two libraries, leaving those that were beat up or in not-so-great condition. One of the teachers remembered that I was fond of this one and a couple others, and put them aside for me and now I get to share with you!

Published in 1965 by Coward-McCann of New York, Ghosts is essentially a collection of supernatural folk tales from several different countries, including the Netherlands, Ireland, England, Russia and Japan, and is illustrated by someone named Sofia, about who I could find nothing on the Net, either. I seem to recall that she(?) is from Bulgaria, but I can't even verify that. Her "about the artist" section inside the book just says "SOFIA, who has illustrated many fine books for children (Oh yeah? Name some!), adds excitement and shivery fun to 13 Ghosts". Anyway, I've helpfully provided some scans of her interior art. Her work here is all in charcoal or pencil, and she has a loosey-goosey style that conjures an effective mood, even if sometimes her figure drawings are a bit off.

As you can probably gather from the title, there are 13 stories in this tome; what little info I could get about Spicer tells me that she apparently was a folklorist of some sort and published other collections like this with the "13" theme- 13 Goblins and the like. I've never had the pleasure of reading any of the others. The stories contained therein are "The Phantom Ship", kind of a Flying Dutchman tale from the Netherlands; "The Ghostly Hand of Spital House" (featuring a hand of glory), from England; "The Spider Specter of the Pool", from Japan; "Jack O'Leary's Plow", from Ireland; "The Hopping Lights of Devil's Hill", from the Netherlands, and one of my favorite stories about two ghosts that cause trouble in a small village; "The Weeping Lady of Llyn Glasfryn" a Welsh tale of a tragic young lady and a supernatural flood; "The Coffin That Moved Itself", again from Netherlands (lots of spooks over there, I guess); "Old Nanny's Ghost" (England); "The White Lady of Pumphul", about one of a number of ghostly apparitions- this one a weaving lady- that sometimes lead to treasure, again from Netherlands; "Vania and the Vampire", a corking good and somewhat creepy Vamp story from Russia; "The Black Bearded Brownies of Boneburg" (Netherlands, apparently the nexus of all supernatural activity); "Timothy and the Buggane Ghost", (Isle of Man), about a tailor and a monster in an old church- no idea what "buggane" is; and lastly "The Ghost Goblins' Gold", another Welsh tale about ghostly goblins. And gold.

I was about 6 or 7 when I first started reading this book, and I was already interested in tales of ghosts and monsters- this added fuel to the fire. I remember drawing characters from these stories, and trying to come up with variations on them of my own. Of course, looking at them now as a theoretical adult, I can see that they're written in a simple fashion, but Spicer's language is evocative and they still grab the imagination. As far as I can tell, this collection has been out of print for many years; I saw one or two copies on sale at eBay and places like that. I'm glad that I was able to get a copy- it's nice to refer to from time to time.