My Rating
“The Thing That Howled”
Dartmoor – South Devon, Doctor Spektor and his assistant Lakota Rainflower arrive near 2:30pm at the estate of Howard Rogo. Two weeks prior the Doctor received a phone call requesting assistance from a very disturbed man claiming to hear disembodied howling noises from inside his manor house. Mr. Rogo also reported seeing a phantom hound roaming the grounds of his property and the mists covering the surrounding moorlands.
Last week the Doctor and Lakota arrived in London and spent several days at the British Museum. Mr. Rogo’s paranormal events sound more like a plot to an Arthur Conan Doyle novel than anything substantial. So the two began their investigation in the hall of records researching anything pertaining to hauntings in the Dartmoor area.
Was there any historical records to validate Mr. Rogo’s claims? What is the dark secret Doctor Spektor must reveal to truly close this case? Does Lakota Rainflower have the courage to face a supernatural threat? Collect the series to find out!
“The Painter Of Doom”
“Every good painter paints what he is.” – Jackson Pollock. In the case of Harry Ivie, he was a fraud. More to the point, the man had no luck selling his original paintings, rather his talent excelled in reproducing works from more famous artists. Picasso, Vango, and Monet just to name a few. The money he made from his forgeries was staggering for one in his social standing. It wasn’t until he stole that strange antique case filled with bone handled paint brushes which his nightmares began.
The visions in his dreams were becoming more vivid each night. Two passenger trains collide, killing everyone on board. The sinking of a cargo ship off the east coast of New Jersey, all hands lost at Sea. It all seem unreal until Harry looked at his easel. The very disasters envisioned in his previous night’s episode were there on canvas in full detail. But how? Did he have the power to predict the future? Or, was it something more sinister? Harry raced out to the public library hoping to find some kind of answer.
Will Harry Ivie unravel the truth behind the bone handled paint brushes? How many disasters have flown through his dreams since he took the case. Was there a 17th century curse tied to the midnight painting sessions? Collect the series to find out!
Reviewer Notes
For what it was, issue two of Doctor Spektor was a solid read. Back in 1973, most horror comic books persisted as an anthology compilation of random stories and events. Even though the plots are similar to other more famous works of fiction, at least they are well done.
Throughout the history of movies and television, once a fad hits, the people in charge reproduce the hell out of it, then move on to the next shiny thing. Just look at the slasher genre of the late 1970s and 1980s, or the vampire and witch craze of the 1990s. It’s called beating a dead horse. In the case of silver and bronze age horror comics, all the big named publishers followed the exact same path.
I’m giving this issue of Occult Files Of Doctor Spektor three out of four stars. If you are interested in other comics like this, go check out Charlton comics and their long list horror characters that host similar products. There will be something for you, in the dark, it waits to be rediscovered.
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