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Content Items (10 total)

Phantom of the Class of '76

Illustration on Cover, Front

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

Character(s): college graduation; photographer; ghost in cap and gown

First Line: More Pulsating Pages in 5 Haunting Spectral Stories!

Synopsis: Death attends a college graduation seeking its diploma.

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Job Number: B-3995

Notes: Colors credit provided by Anthony Tollin.

Ghosts and the Supernatural

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

First Line: Ever since their co-existence on this superstition-ridden planet began, man has sacrificed animals to rid himself of sin and sickness.

Synopsis: Animal sacrifices in Arabia, India, and Australia are discussed.

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Job Number: B-3881

Notes: Introductory page.

The Phantom of the Class of '76

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

Character(s): Jeff Taylor; Brian Willard (attorney); Marnie Rollins (missing person); gatekeeper for Guru Rahma Nari's temple; Guru Rahma Nari; Guru Rahma Nari's bodyguard; ghost

First Line: It's a harrowing ghost story, but if it keeps even one of you from experiencing the torment I suffered, it's worth re-living the nightmarish ordeal with... The Phantom of the Class of '76

Synopsis: After going missing for three days, college student Marnie Rollins attended her graduation ceremony but was mysteriously "blank-whited-out" from the class photo. Boyfriend and fellow student Jeff Taylor and Brian Willard, attorney for the missing student's family, investigate her disappearance. The trail leads to the temple of Guru Rahma Nari, founder of an "Oriental cult [which has] been infiltrating colleges".

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 6

Job Number: B-3855

Notes: The title is worked into the story's first line.

"Jeff Taylor" is the presumed-fictional protagonist of the story, yet he is credited - both in the issue's published credits - and in this index - as the "person" who "told" writer Carl Wessler this tale. Taylor is given a script credit in this index (which, technically, he has in the published story), but also a creator record object in the GCD database which contains no information beyond his "name".

There are database entries for a *character* named "Jeff Taylor" (a common enough name for a fictional character) in several disparate stories - but it would seem that the gimmick of crediting "Jeff Taylor" as having told the story to one of DC's writers has found its way into the GCD creator object database. The entry in this index will be left "as-is", pending conclusive proof one way or the other.

The Haunted Hoard

Text Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): typeset

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

Character(s): Scudder; ghost

First Line: Scudder shriveled under the slashing rain, his body bent forward, discomforted by the thin rivulets running down the back of his neck.

Synopsis: Time-obsessed Scudder believes that all the time he saved by making instant coffee and frozen TV dinners, speed reading, driving above the speed-limit, and taking the Concorde from New York to Paris can be stored in his bank's safety deposit box - and be ready for him to use to forestall death when it comes. That moment comes for him in a most ironic way.

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Job Number: B-3957

You Will Die Yesterday

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

Character(s): Floyd Ralston (captain of heroin-smuggling ship); Ralston's first mate; Ralston's crew; Admiral Ralston (ghost of a war hero of 1812)

First Line: Out of the mist of time came a phantom hero to warn the greedy merchants of death that... You Will Die Yesterday

Synopsis: Captain Floyd Ralston's heroin-smuggling ship is attacked and doomed by the ghost of Admiral Ralston, a war hero of 1812, and his cannon-firing ghost frigate for bringing great dishonor to the Ralston name.

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 4

Job Number: B-3845

Notes: The title is worked into the story's first line.

This story bears a great resemblance to the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV episode "The Haunted Submarine" (1966), but with a few elements "turned-about". In it, the ghostly ancestor of Admiral Harriman Nelson, Captain Seamus O'Hara Nelson, sails his ghostly frigate out of the mists and begins firing its cannons on the Submarine Seaview. Here, however, the admiral is the mortal human, and the captain is the ghost, and it was the ghost who brought dishonor to the name of Nelson as a slave trader.

Considering the enduring popularity of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in syndicated reruns (still running weekly as of 2022), it is far from unlikely that this story's writer or editor might have seen "The Haunted Submarine" during or around 1978, and considered it good source material with a few necessary tweaks.

Onward and Upward

In-house Column on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): typeset

Subject Matter

Genres: non-fiction

First Line: Changes. These days, they come fast and furious.

Synopsis: Jenette Kahn discusses the latest cover price increase (to 50-cents) and the corresponding additional eight pages of new story material. "A 47% gain in story, for a 43% raise in price." Also the removal of all advertising in the "Dollar Comics" line.

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Notes: Between pages 2 and 3 of previous story.

The Spectral Stones

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

Character(s): Allan; Jane; old man; druids (in flashback); young sacrificial maiden (in flashback); taxi driver

First Line: England abounds with tales of the supernatural... from the dripping figure of the bloody pirate rising off the stormy coast of Cornwall to the ghosts of the condemned, rattling their chains in the dank dungeons of Warwick Castle.

Synopsis: In 1971, Allan and Jane visit Stonehenge. Jane is unnerved by an old man's story of ancient druids and human sacrifice, but skeptical Allan becomes too curious.

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 5

Job Number: B-3933

Funeral for a Phantom

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

Character(s): The Great Wilhelm (magician); Heinz; Clara

First Line: In a Germany recovering from World War II, a single man's death was hardly a shocking event, no... until it was followed by a fantastic Funeral for a Phantom

Synopsis: In 1945, a renowned magician dies of heart failure while on stage. His two assistants steal "the strongbox containing the secrets of his most famous tricks", which should have rightly belonged to the magician's family. With their stolen secrets, they form their own magic act, an act of very short duration.

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 5

Notes: The title is worked into the story's first line.

The Ghost Who Wouldn't Die

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror, occult

Character(s): Eustace Blakely (murder victim); Sam Lewis (sheriff); Jake Walters (killer)

First Line: The victim was an easy mark, for he was mere flesh and blood!

Synopsis: In the northern Rockies of 1971, a murder victim's ghost "invigorates" a broken-down old sheriff and leads the lawman to his killer.

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 4

Job Number: B-3896

Volume 77 [78] Issue 24 - Week of June 12, 1978

In-house Column on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Letterer(s): typeset

Subject Matter

Character(s): Human Target [Christopher Chance]; Odd Man; Ray [Happy Terrill]

First Line: Brave & Bold features Human Target!

Synopsis: Previews of The Brave and the Bold (DC, 1955 Series) #143, Shade, the Changing Man (DC, 1977 Series) #9 [which doesn't appear to have been published], and Black Lightning (DC, 1977 Series) #11 [which was the final issue of that series] - all of which were to have an on-sale date of June 19th, 1978. The Daily Planet page shares space with "Ask the Answer Man" and "Direct Currents".

Reprinting

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Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Notes: Except for The Brave and the Bold, the previewed titles for June 19, 1978 were affected by the DC Implosion.