Friday, May 25, 2012

Gold Key Comics...The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor

With his first appearance in Mystery Comics Digest #5 in July of 1972, Dr. Spektor was an "occult detective" fighting spirits and demons over its 26 issue run. Written by Donald Glut and  initially drawn by Dan Spiegle for its try-out issue, Jesse Santos was chosen to illustrate the remainder of the series in his distinctive style.  Adam Spektor first started out as a narrator to  Western Publishing's numerous mystery anthology books, but he soon left this "horror host" role and was teamed up with his lovely Sioux secretary, Lakota Rainflower, when Spektor spun off into his own series in May of 1973. Our paranormal fighting hero dealt with mummies such as Ra-Ka-Tep, Baron Tibor the vampire, the Frankenstein monster, werewolves and other chilling creatures, often with the help of his part-time assistants  Elliot Kane and dear cousin, Anne Sara. Graced with beautiful painted covers and slick Jesse Santos interiors, the artist's work got looser over the five years of the series  due to his other commitments on various titles, but still retained all the excitement, mystery, and horror of the feature. Sprinkled throughout the issues was Glut's many cross-over appearances of his other characters such as Tragg and Dagar and even heroes like Dr. Solar. With the recent Dark Horse reprinting of these  delightful tales in a hard cover deluxe format, a new generation of fans can discover these Gold Key gems from the past.

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