My Rating
“As Midnight Becomes Morning”
Marla had been looking forward to the big trip upstate for weeks. Being a city girl her entire life, she had never experienced the countryside the way her fiancé had. Brad grew up on the very farm they were now driving toward. Everything seemed fine until he turned off the highway and the sound of loose gravel crunching beneath the radial tires became their background noise for the next several miles.
As they continued along the country road, surrounded by green pastures and thick swaths of woodland, Marla began asking questions about the farm Brad called Ravenwood. The property had been in the Henley family for three generations, but after his parents died, the land and buildings had fallen into disrepair. No thanks to his Aunt Coleus and brother Brent.
Brad had always been a kind man from the moment Marla met him, but whenever he talked about those two, something changed in his temperament.
It was apparent that something very bad had transpired between the three of them. What it was, Brad would not reveal. After some playful needling, Marla eventually dismissed the subject. A newfound excitement filled her as she caught her first glimpse of Ravenwood at the end of the distant driveway.
With the death of Brad’s parents, who is the rightful owner of the Ravenwood estate? Why doesn’t Brad remember making love to Marla in the upstairs bedroom? What secret is hidden in the dark corner of the Henley family barn?
“The Devil’s Chapel”
Ever since unemployed schoolteacher Alison Lockwood accepted a caregiver position with the Forsythes—an old-money family with an estate in the Catskills—she has become embroiled in a family dispute stretching back three generations.
It was Alison’s responsibility to care for the elderly matriarch, Lydia Forsythe, but the aging eccentric hated everything about her. In the newspaper advertisement, Mrs. Forsythe had specifically requested a mature applicant over the age of forty. Now Alison understands why.
Two men live at the Fox Grove estate, both estranged sons of Lydia Forsythe. One, Alison soon discovers, displays some extremely disturbing behavior. The other seems trapped within his own world of poetry and the written word.
What Alison Lockwood experiences over the next few months will shake her perception of reality to its very core.
Did an unemployed teacher from the Upper West Side make a fatal mistake by applying for a job intended for an older woman? Who has been killing small animals in the woods surrounding Fox Grove? Should Alison enter the abandoned chapel shunned by Rennie Forsythe and everyone who knows its dark history?
“Your Personal Starscope”
The Zodiac can be traced as far back as Babylonian times. Yet, in 1974, it was apparent humanity still hungered for even the smallest glimpse into its own future.
Love, family, fortune—there were so many questions for those with no understanding of how to obtain true happiness. Thankfully, Seaboard Periodicals provided readers seeking answers with a mystical doorway to salvation.
Well…sort of.
“The Black Unicorn”
Corinne Palmer crossed the Atlantic Ocean to collect an undisclosed family inheritance. She has no idea how little money is left to her. Now stranded in London and exhausted from the month-long voyage, Corinne decides to take the advice of a local boarding school and put her education to good use tutoring the children of Britain’s wealthy elite.
What a wonderful idea, she thought.
Several weeks pass before good fortune finds the American-born governess arriving at the castle estate of Roderick Moore. Corinne’s new charge is Melissa, the unlettered daughter of her unpretentious employer. She is a sweet young girl with a curious manner.
The only question is whether Corinne can teach the child while an oddly superstitious household obsesses over an antique tapestry depicting a baron, a young girl, and a mysterious black unicorn.
Is the tapestry merely an old family heirloom? Why does it inspire such fear among those living inside the castle? More importantly, what exactly has Corinne Palmer gotten herself into?
“The Cruel Cliffs Of Malaspina”
A recently discovered box containing letters from Maggie’s deceased mother, Francesca, triggers a flood of memories from her early childhood. She had always been warm and welcoming spirit in her daughter’s mind. Why have the details surrounding Francesca’s death remained undetermined? Maggie’s perception of her mother will be turned upside down while reading the final handwritten letters.
Days before Francesca fell to her death from the cliffs of Malaspina, an island near Italy, she had written a desperate letter begging for assistance from those she knew in America. The Malaspina heiress believed someone inside the family castle was trying to kill her.
Unfortunately, Francesca provided no definitive leads or suspects.
As an estranged member of the Malaspina family, Maggie had maintained little contact with those from the old country. All she possessed were vague childhood memories of her time on the island and the disturbing letter left behind by her mother.
Being a modern, headstrong woman of the 1970s, Maggie decides to rekindle ties with Nonno Malaspina and the various family members surrounding themselves with her grandmother’s money and influence. If foul play had anything to do with her mother’s death, surely an educated woman such as herself could uncover the truth.
Over the next few weeks, Francesca Maggie Malaspina will dive headfirst into a world of old money, European privilege, bitter jealousy, and family secrets.
But will she be strong enough to endure the constant head games of those who may wish to do her harm?
“Asylum”
Anabelle Lee had always been a dedicated nurse. Her father, Dr. Farnham, converted their stately farmhouse into a makeshift hospital during the American Civil War. There, the Farnham family tended to wounded soldiers as well as the poor displaced by the fighting. It was during those terrible years that Anabelle discovered her calling.
Once the girl grew into womanhood, her only dream was to attend the local university and learn everything she could about nursing. Social norms of the period dictated that a woman of her status should marry and raise children. Nurses were women of lower financial standing, or daughters born into liberal-minded families.
Anabelle would have none of that.
She had helped her father at Farnham Hospital for as long as she could remember, and she had no intention of abandoning the profession she loved.
Anabelle was perfectly happy with her position until that man arrived at the hospital one afternoon.
Dr. Henry Willis was a handsome gentleman who operated an asylum near Charleston—a facility dedicated to caring for those suffering from mental abnormalities. Anabelle and the others found him charming and highly intelligent, even for a man of his education. His problem was maintaining a staff at Grasslands Retreat. Dr. Willis desperately needed nurses and caretakers because, for some strange reason, none of his employees stayed very long.
That should have been Anabelle’s first warning.
What convinces Anabelle to accept Dr. Willis’ offer and work at his asylum? Why does she reject a marriage proposal from her longtime suitor, Dr. Edward Wexton? More importantly, what dark secret is Dr. Willis hiding beneath Grasslands Retreat?
“Mommy, Save Me From The Night Monsters!”
Rhea’s daughter Nancy had never been the same after witnessing her father’s murder. The little girl had become unnaturally quiet and reserved for a toddler. She never made a fuss. In fact, Rhea Winthrop could count the number of times her daughter had cried during the past year on one hand.
One day, while the family was shopping in the small town of Ocean View, Long Island, a lunatic with a rifle began firing into a crowd of shoppers. Fate would have it, David Winthrop is struck and killed, leaving Rhea without a husband and Nancy without a father.
Now Rhea struggles to make ends meet until one fall afternoon when a letter arrives from an attorney in Lewytville.
According to the document, Rhea’s grandmother has passed away, leaving behind a substantial estate for her granddaughter. Several days later, Rhea and Nancy arrive at the Lewytville train station expecting to meet Adam Richards, attorney for the Wesley family.
To Rhea’s surprise, Uncle Rudy is waiting for them instead.
Why did Uncle Rudy cancel Rhea’s meeting with the Wesley family attorney? How many aunts and uncles were promised a piece of the family fortune? Is little Nancy really seeing ghosts, or are the “night monsters” merely the result of trauma brought on by her father’s violent death?
“The House Where Time Stood Still”
The old woman had been so inviting. She probably hadn’t received a single visitor in years.
Diane had stopped in the town of Milton while traveling north. Since her divorce, she had begun traveling more often, as her responsibilities back home were now at a minimum. When she noticed Miss Sarah beckoning to her from an old brick mansion overlooking the town park, Diane’s heart went out to the lonely woman.
Something about the place seemed odd, though.
Why would a beautiful old house overlooking a public park be surrounded by barbed wire and “No Trespassing” signs? No wonder the woman seemed so desperate for company. Even the fence appeared to frighten away the local children, leaving the nearby swings and slides strangely deserted.
Diane circles the property until she discovers a damaged section of fence large enough to climb through.
Why would anyone erect such an ugly barrier around a beautiful house like this?
Over the next twenty-four hours, Diane is going to find out…
Reviewer Notes
Out of all the books and magazines published by Atlas/Seaboard during its short existence, I find Gothic Romances to be one of the most interesting. Why did Martin Goodman choose the Gothic Romance genre as one of the places to spend his new publishing company’s limited budget? Goodman had left Marvel Comics and entered the publishing game once again with every intention of competing against his former company. For one brief moment, it looked as though Atlas/Seaboard might actually pull it off.
Then came the bad management decisions, distribution problems, and eventually the collapse of the company.
Was this single edition of Gothic Romances one of those questionable decisions? I really don’t know. Atlas/Seaboard clearly marketed the magazine to young women interested in romance, mystery, and Gothic horror. I admit, after reading the magazine from cover to cover, this middle-aged horror fan thoroughly enjoyed it.
To be clear, Gothic Romances is a periodical magazine—not a comic book. There are no sequential panels, superheroes, colorful costumes, or fistfights every three pages. Instead, readers get a collection of prose stories, including “The Cruel Cliffs Of Malaspina,” which is practically a full-length Gothic novel in its own right.
The artwork appears mainly on the various story title pages, puzzles, Zodiac material, and throughout the magazine’s wonderfully dated advertisements. If you’re the type of comic collector who starts getting nervous when a page contains more than three paragraphs, this magazine probably isn’t for you.
Personally, I enjoyed the hell out of it.
It also appears Martin Goodman wasn’t afraid to spend some money when it came to acquiring artistic talent for his new company. Atlas/Seaboard became known for offering competitive rates and unusually favorable treatment toward creators for the period. Artists such as Ernie Colón and Neal Adams appear within this single issue.
Wild, right?
The stories themselves are surprisingly varied, although after reading enough of them, I began noticing a few recurring ingredients in the Atlas/Seaboard Gothic Romance recipe:
- A distressed woman — She is usually coping with divorce, the death of a loved one, financial hardship, family trauma, or some form of domestic abuse.
- A payday — Somewhere along the way there is usually money involved. An inheritance, wealthy family, mysterious estate, handsome rich man, or long-forgotten family fortune waits just around the corner.
- Marriage — Boy, do these women get married. No matter how many ghosts, psychopaths, murderous relatives, haunted estates, or supernatural creatures they encounter, romance usually finds a way to sneak through the front door before the final page.
That last one especially dates the magazine. Modern Gothic stories don’t necessarily need to reward their heroines with a husband, but in 1974 it apparently remained one of the genre’s favorite ways of telling the reader everything was going to be okay.
Overall, Gothic Romances turned out to be one of the biggest surprises I’ve encountered while digging through the short-lived Atlas/Seaboard catalog. I went into this magazine expecting a historical curiosity. Instead, I found a massive collection of Gothic mysteries, romance, murder, haunted estates, family fortunes, lunatics, ghosts, and enough dysfunctional wealthy families to keep a psychiatrist employed for the next twenty years.
If you can get your hands on this very rare copy of Seaboard Periodicals’ Gothic Romances, give it a read. There is a surprising amount of content packed between these covers, and it will keep anyone who enjoys old-school Gothic horror busy for quite a while.
Would I want Atlas/Seaboard to have published twelve issues of this thing? Probably not.
But one bizarre, oversized trip into the world of 1970s Gothic Romance?
I’m glad Martin Goodman spent the money because I reading this format regulary. I’m a guy, so the romance angle is not for me. But for what it is I give this single edition of Gothic Romances a solid five out of five stars.