Ghost Rider Day!

Dick Ayers was born on this date in 1924. Ayers is likely most famous as an artist at Marvel and many companies before that during the Golden Age of Comics. He was the mainstay artist on Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos. 

Perhaps the character most associated with the late great Dick Ayers, which he had a hand in creating, is Ghost Rider. The character debuted for Magazine Enterprises in the pages of Tim Holt in 1949.

Soon enough he had his own title, and after the debut issue featuring this cover by Ayers, the great Frank Frazetta stepped in to do the cover art for several issues. See this for more on that.

After Frazetta departed though, Ayers was back on the task beginning with the sixth issue.

After the demise of the character and the title and the company, the Ghost Rider waited many more years before riding again. He did with a somewhat different origin and back story for Marvel. Dick Ayers had been a stalwart for the company for many moons, as an inker and penciller. He assumed the art again on his signature character and the title lasted another seven installments.

Marvel revived the name a few years later, but without the western setting and brand new talent. Ayers wasn't connected to the adventures of Johnny Blaze. This new Ghost Rider proved so durable that when the original (sort of) western version (both vintage and modern) was revived his name was changed to "Night Rider" and later to "Phantom Rider".

I've frankly lost track of what they call him now, if he even still exists in some form. AC Comics still reprint his original adventures from time to time, but he's called "Haunted Horseman" when he appears over there.

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Dojo Classics - Frazetta's Ghost Rider!

I've seen scores of wonderful tributes to the late great Frank Frazetta. But I don't recollect seeing anything on his sweet run of cover images for ME (Magazine Enterprises) on the Ghost Rider.

Ghost Rider issues are part of the A-1 Comics run and are numbered accordingly. Ghost Rider also appeared in Tim Holt and Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders. AC Comics has reprinted all of these comics, sometimes by taking the artwork and dividing it up. They call him the Haunted Horseman because Marvel has the Ghost Rider name locked up, but it's still the same lush Frazetta artwork.

These are some exquisite weird western images!

UPDATE: These remain exquisite images. This post originally was created to help celebrate the career of Frank Frazetta, an artist who in many ways transformed aspects of the form. His early material has a definite charm as can be seen in these vintage images.

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