Showing posts with label Gladstone Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gladstone Comics. Show all posts

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Grave Tales!

Joe Staton
Way back in the early 90's I stumbled across the Hamilton Comics magazine line which gave me, an incurable Charlton ghost comic fan, a real thrill. Here were a trio of comic magazines which evoked at once the classic but by then defunct Warren Magazines as well as the vintage Charlton ghostly line. It was a black and white presentation using some pretty mainstream talent (Joe Staton, Gray Morrow, Pat Boyette) as well as some really impressive indy artists (Batton Lash, John Heebink). These were fun stories with a slightly lurid twist.

What I didn't realize then, and only learned recently was that Grave Tales was a title with a specific history.


The title first rose up in the middle 70's as an Independent comic, then likely referred to as "Underground". The cover, see above, was very striking.

L.B. Cole
So striking that L.B. Cole did a knock-off of it for the debut issue of Hamilton's Dread of Night. For the record the third Hamilton horror title was Maggots. For more Hamilton cover magic, see the gallery below.

Gray Morrow
Joe Staton
Gray Morrow
Gray Morrow
Gray Morrow
Gray Morrow

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Friday, April 26, 2013

The Coles Of Gladstone!


L. B. Cole's artwork is vivid and memorable. His comic book covers are rich with color and radiate excitement and a sense of pulp adventure. Gladstone Comics, then publishers of mostly Disney comics wanted to push into other areas and created the Hamilton Magazine brand. Dick Tracy was another Gladstone character, at the time also a Disney project starring Warren Beatty. Gladstone/Hamilton produced several Dick Tracy books including this one-shot Dick Tracy Magazine featuring an L.B. Cole cover.


It's an offbeat but typically memorable rendition of Chester Gould's great comic strip detective, especially his highly detailed clenched fists.


Also on the Hamilton roster were a trio of horror magazines which tried pretty successfully to evoke a vintage E.C. Comics feel. Dread of Night was one of these magazines.


This cadaverous cover art is reported to be Leonard Brandt Cole's final comic cover art. Typically both eye-popping and eye-catching, the art reveals more and more detail as you continue to grok it. I especially like the frog which counterpoints and  even appears to be mocking the emerging grave dweller. It's a doozy!

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