Ghost Manor #23

History

By May 1975, Ghost Manor volume two was in the hands of editor George Wildman, with Nicola Cuti serving as an energizing force in Charlton's editorial department. Charlton's well-documented policy of minimal editorial interference — demanding only that content not violate the Comics Code — gave artists like Tom Sutton unusual creative latitude to both write and draw their own stories, a freedom Sutton exercised fully on "Terrible Teddy," as he later confirmed in an interview published in Charlton Spotlight #3. The issue brought together a typical Charlton Bronze Age lineup of workhorse contributors: veteran scripter Joe Gill on "Abide With Me," Cuti himself scripting the "It's A Gas" segment with art by Mike Vosburg, and a one-page Don Newton vignette rounding out the Baron Weirwulf's Haunted Library feature.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published May 1975 (cover date) by Charlton Publications Inc., 36 pages, edited by George Wildman.
• The cover is a painted original by Tom Sutton, depicting the vengeful teddy bear from the issue's lead story — an unusually direct cover-to-content correspondence for Charlton.
• "Terrible Teddy" (6 pages) was written, penciled, inked, and lettered entirely by Tom Sutton — confirmed by Sutton himself in an interview in Charlton Spotlight #3.
• The issue contains three interior stories: "Abide With Me" (script Joe Gill, art Sururi Gumen), "It's A Gas" (script Nicola Cuti, art Mike Vosburg), and "Terrible Teddy" (script and art Tom Sutton); plus a one-page "The Moon: Fact and Fiction" vignette scripted by Nicola Cuti with art by Don Newton.
• Mr. Bones serves as the in-story host framing "Abide With Me" and "It's A Gas"; Baron Weirwulf hosts the issue's Haunted Library feature.
• "Terrible Teddy" was reprinted in Ghost Manor #50 (May 1980), demonstrating the story's staying power within Charlton's own reprint program.
• "Terrible Teddy" was selected as the lead story in Tom Sutton's Creepy Things (IDW/Yoe Books, December 2014), volume #9 of the Chilling Archives of Horror Comics hardcover series — one of the only Ghost Manor stories to receive a modern archival collection.
• The other horror hosts indexed for this issue — Winnie the Witch (Ghostly Haunts), Mr. L. Dedd (Ghostly Tales), Dr. Graves (The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves), Professor Coffin, and Arachne Coffin (Midnight Tales) — were hosts of Charlton's sister anthology titles, not hosts within Ghost Manor #23 itself; they appear in the issue via house advertising for Baron Weirwulf's Haunted Library.

Cast · 7 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Ghost Manor

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#19 1st appearance — Baron Weirwulf

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#2 1st appearance — Mr. Bones