TALES OF THE GHOST RIDER "A Thirst for Blood!"

Besides frightening and apprehending owlhoots and blackguards...

...the original Ghost Rider also narrated a series of supernatural-themed Western tales he didn't actually appear in!

This chapter of the ongoing Tales of the Ghost Rider strip from Magazine Enterprises' Ghost Rider #8 (1953), like almost all of the Tales series, has never been reprinted!

Pity, because it's pretty damned good!

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ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER "Talking Head!"

It wasn't just cowboys and owlhoots who preyed upon peoples' superstitions and fears in the Weird West!

Native Americans also took advantage of them!

Penciled by co-creator Dick Ayers and inked by Ernie Bache, this tale from Magazine Enterprises' Best of the West #4 (1952) wasn't the only time the baddie was a Native American, nor the only time the evildoer was a woman!
In the Old West (as well as today), crime was an equal-opportunity business!

Next Week:

A Dia De Muertos Treat!

A Tale of the Ghost Rider...

featuring actual ghosts, not tricksters!

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ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER "Monster in the Mist!"

Monsters and creatures abounded in the Old West...

...as this never-reprinted tale from Magazine Enterprises' anthology Best of the West #2 (1951) shows!

Best of the West was a bi-monthly anthology title featuring new tales of four ME Western characters who already had their own books...

...done by the various series' usual creative teams to maintain consistency and continuity with the "parent" books!
It lasted from the end of 1951 to the beginning of 1954.

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ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER "Spirit Spurs"

Our Halloween journey through the Weird West continues...

...with the frontier's first masked "mystical" manhunter...who now faces a monster!

As this never-reprinted tale from Magazine Enterprises' Ghost Rider #10 (1952) shows, the Ghost Rider wasn't the only person to prey upon superstitious settlers' fears!

You should note the sheriff is extremely-skeptical about such creatures...and doesn't consider GR to be supernatural, even after his "escape"!

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ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER "Freaks of Fear!"

When the star of the comic you're guest-starring in gives you the cover spot...

...you know you've got a tale that's something special!

Penciled by co-creator Dick Ayers and inked by Ernie Bache, this never-reprinted (in color) tale from Magazine Enterprises' Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders #15 (1952) was the last of a three-issue run as a secondary feature to boost sales on the title.
In fact, they even tried adding horror elements to the lead feature...

...which wasn't very successful!
This was while the Ghost Rider was appearing both in his own comic and the anthology title Best of the West which also featured the Durango Kid, Tim Holt/RedMask, and Straight Arrow, all of whom had their own books!
Trivia: The B-Bar-B Riders comic was based on a Mutual Network radio series that ran from 1948 to 1955.

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Ride the Halloween Night with the Classic GHOST RIDER in October!

He began life in the late 1940s as The Calico Kid, a masked hero whose secret identity was a lawman who felt justice was constrained by legal limitations. (There were a lot of those heroes in comics and pulps of the 40s including our own DareDevil and Blue Beetle!)

But, with masked heroes in every genre doing a slow fade-out after World War II, and both the western and horror genres on the rise, the character was re-imagined in 1949 as comics' first horror / western character!

The Ghost Rider himself was not a supernatural being.

He wore a phosphorescent suit and cape, making him glow in the dark, appearing as a spectral presence to the (mostly) superstitious cowboys and Indians he faced.

Since the inside of the cape was black, he'd reverse it, and appear in the dark as just a floating head, usually scaring a confession or needed information out of owlhoots.

Note: some covers, like the one here, show the inside of the cape to be white! Chalk it up to artistic license (and face it, it looks damned cool).

BTW, the artistically-astute among you can tell that cover above was by the legendary Frank Frazetta!

He did several of them, three of which are included in our digitally-restored and remastered kool kollection!

In the series' early days the villains were standard owlhoots or, like the Rider, people pretending to be supernatural beings.

That changed around 1952, when he started facing occasional real mystic menaces including Indian spirits, vampires, and even the Frankenstein Monster (though not the long-running one from Prize Comics.)

Unfortunately, it was about this point in time that the less-than esteemed Dr. Wertham began his crusade against comics in general and horror comics in particular...

By 1954, The Ghost Rider had lost his series.
The next year he disappeared entirely.

If you're a fan of horror, masked heroes, Westerns, or all three genres, take a long, lingering look at The Ghost Rider's previously re-presented adventures, on this blog.
And, beginning next Wednesday, and running through October, we'll run more tales, some never-reprinted since their first appearances in the 1950s!

Don't Miss Them!

You'll not see his like again!

COWBOYS AND ALIENS Conclusion

Just when it looks like our protagonists are doomed...

...the cavalry comes over the hill!

(Well this is a Western!)

If ever there was a story crying out for a sequel, this is it!

And guess what?

There is an official sequel from Platinum...which never saw print...but was published...

ON THE 'NET!

Click HERE to Read it!

Note: though produced in 2007, it is, sadly, unfinished!