Can you identify this comic?

I cannot find a thread like this one. If there's a thread like this one, feel free to move this comment.

Anyone think of an old comic you read that, even with the help of the Almighty Google, you cannot find or identify?

I recall a horror comic I saw when I was a kid. It could not have been published any later than the early 1970s. A couple move into a house, maybe his family home. His deceased ancestor (grandfather, maybe?) had been an occultist type. The couple encounter aliens. The ancestor summons Satan or a Reasonable Comic-book Facsimile, who zaps the aliens in order to help his faithful servant's descendants, or something like that.

Yeah, I can list off endless horror comix titles. I even wrote an article once about horror comic. But I have no idea where this story is from, or why the payoff panel got stuck in my head. I think trying to reconcile extra-terrestrials with theology at a very young age fundamentally influenced my developing beliefs, or something.

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  • I believe the story was "Trespassers" from Charlton's Scary Tales #7 (1976). A GCD search found it for me. Its summary is "Two space aliens pretending to be ghosts are in turn haunted by real ghosts." The artist was Enrique Nieto. The panels at the top here are from the story. (Spoiler warning. The ghosts in the extract are the aliens. At the climax the authentic ghost calls on the "master of darkness" and he appears.)

    If 1976 is too late I can only suppose the script was recycled, or this wasn't the story's first appearance.

  • Well dang. I guess while I was off-line, several people posted and then un-posted.

    "Trespassers" could be it, but I swear I read it earlier than 1976 (1975 in some searches). It does appear that Charlton reprinted quite a bit in Scary Tales, as you suggest. Thanks for the lead.



    Luke Blanchard said:

    I believe the story was "Trespassers" from Charlton's Scary Tales #7 (1976). A GCD search found it for me. Its summary is "Two space aliens pretending to be ghosts are in turn haunted by real ghosts." The artist was Enrique Nieto. The panels at the top here are from the story. (Spoiler warning. The ghosts in the extract are the aliens. At the climax the authentic ghost calls on the "master of darkness" and he appears.)

    If 1976 is too late I can only suppose the script was recycled, or this wasn't the story's first appearance.

  • he posting and deposting was all me. I put up a list of horror companies it might be, and took it down when I found the possible answer. And I'm a compulsive reviser.

    If it's of interest, these are the early/mid 70s American horror publishers I can think of:

    • B&W horror titles of the period included Warren, Warren imitators (Skywald, Eerie Publications), and titles with B&W pre-Code reprints and/or redrawn stories. Marvel's B&W horror line didn't start until 1973 (except for Savage Tales #1 in 1971). Atlas/Seaboard did a few B&W issues mid-decade.

    • Colour horror publishers included Marvel, DC, Charlton, Gold Key, and Archie (Chilling Adventures in Sorcery and Mad House). The only 70s Dell horror title I could find was Ghost Stories in its reprint phase. (Reprint final issues of The Outer Limits and Flying Saucers appeared in 1969.) Skywald did one colour horror issue, The Heap #1. Atlas/Seaboard's issues were all dated for 1975.

    • Gold Key did a horror digest, Mystery Comics Digest.

    ACG ceased publishing in 1967.

    In the 70s Marvel reprinted a lot of pre-Code stories in colour titles. After Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows most of its new colour horror starred series characters, but new content (adaptations or original stories) appeared in the opening issues of Supernatural Thrillers, Chamber of Chills, Journey into Mystery, and sometimes in back pages elsewhere. SF/horror adaptations appeared in Worlds Unknown. Pre-Code reprints sometimes appeared in the back of the horror characters' titles.

    The second half of the decade saw horror adaptations in Marvel Classics Comics and a movie adaptation, The Island of Dr. Moreau #1.

  • The entire issue has been reprinted here

    Thanks!

    As is usually the case with old horror comics, I remember it better than it was, though the art is evocative.

    I didn't realize at the time the aliens were Cthulhu Lite in their final appearance.



    Luke Blanchard said:

    I believe the story was "Trespassers" from Charlton's Scary Tales #7 (1976). A GCD search found it for me. Its summary is "Two space aliens pretending to be ghosts are in turn haunted by real ghosts." The artist was Enrique Nieto. The panels at the top here are from the story. (Spoiler warning. The ghosts in the extract are the aliens. At the climax the authentic ghost calls on the "master of darkness" and he appears.)

    If 1976 is too late I can only suppose the script was recycled, or this wasn't the story's first appearance.

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