Grimm's Ghost Stories #34

This Gold Key issue from 1976 features a story in which a newly married couple head to the bride's ancestral plantation home. There, the couple notice that the girl looks strangely like a lot like the painting of a family member who died in the pre-antebellum era. According to legend, the ancestor died mysterious overseas and nobody knows where she was buried. So the ghost of her paramour haunts the plantation, desperate to be reunited with his eternal love. When a series of near tragedies before the new groom, could he be targeted by the ghost of the spurned lover hoping to be reunited with this look-a-like bride?

If this sounds pretty complicated- it is. But the plot isn't the worst thing about this story. It's the cover. Now, I love the painted cover by Gold Key icon George Wilson. It alone is quite eye catching. However, it gives away a very important plot point. In this day and age, such a spoiler wouldn't fly. 

In this day and age, another thing that wouldn't fly would be the story itself. The overall setting of a former slave plantation and the devoted black servant that still serves in the abandoned home is rather racist. 

Will this cause me to burn the book? If you know me and my blog at all, I am a champion of free speech. Plus, I am married to a Jewish princess. So the answer is NO. If anything, as I consider myself an semi-professional comic book historian, I plan on holding on to this for the next time I might want to site something on an article on race in comics or something.

Overall, I wasn't too impressed. There was a back-up feature. But I can't for the life of me remember what it was about. And the one-page prose story about a legendary find of gold treasure in England was so poorly written. I am surprised the United State Post Office approved it for Gold Key's First Class mail requirements.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.