Ghosts (comics)


Ghosts is a horror comics anthology series published by DC Comics for 112 issues from September–October 1971 to May 1982. Its tagline was "True Tales of the Weird and Supernatural", changed to "New Tales of the Weird and Supernatural," as of #75, and dropped after #104.

Publication history

The comic was created by Leo Dorfman, who wrote all of the stories in the first issue. To avoid having it seem that a single writer was monopolizing the comic, editor Murray Boltinoff had Dorfman use the pseudonyms "Geoff Brown" and "David George".
Ghosts was one of several horror-mystery-suspense DC Comics series launched in 1971, along with The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love and The Sinister House of Secret Love. According to DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz, Ghosts "wasn’t a fan favorite, it was a disproportionately good seller." Nick Cardy was the cover artist for Ghosts for issues #1–6, 8–15, and 17–36.
Each issue of Ghosts carried multiple stories of the supernatural. The stories were prefaced by a short description introducing the premise and ended with a summation of how a mysterious justice was dealt to the evildoers of the tale. The first issue of this series carried the singular title Ghost in its indicia, but everywhere else, including advance promotional house ads and even on its own cover, it was the plural Ghosts, as even the indicia would read from #2 on. Limited Collectors' Edition #C–32 reprinted stories from Ghosts #1, 3–6 and featured new material by Leo Dorfman and artists Gerry Talaoc, E. R. Cruz, and Frank Redondo.
Starting with issue #37, a new regular feature was added. At the front of each book a page of single panel depictions of alleged ghost sightings were listed in the fashion of Robert L. Ripley's Believe it or Not! features. These one-page introductory spreads were usually titled "Ghosts and the Supernatural." A Ghosts Special was published in December 1977 as part of the DC Special Series umbrella title. Ghosts #95, introduced the series' first continuing-character feature, "Dr. 13 - The Ghost-Breaker." The character encounted the Spectre in a three-issue storyline. The "Dr. Thirteen" feature last appeared in #102.
For the most part, Ghosts was not "hosted" by a recurring character used in a framing sequence. In issue #104, however, Squire Shade was introduced as the title's host. He lasted in that position until the book was cancelled with issue #112.

2012 one-shot

A Ghosts one-shot was published in October 2012 and featured a story by Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire.

Collected editions