by Roger Ash

The Original Ghost Rider Vol. 1

When you hear the name “Ghost Rider” it wouldn’t surprise me if the first image that came to your mind is a man with a blazing skull for a head sitting atop a motorcycle with flaming tires. But there’s another Ghost Rider; one from earlier in comics history. This Ghost Rider is a cowboy dressed all in white astride a white stallion. It’s this Ghost Rider who is the subject of The Original Ghost Rider Vol. 1 from Canton Street Press.

The Original Ghost Rider Vol. 1 collects Ghost Rider #1-5 and four stories from Tim Holt #11-14 published between 1949-1951 by Magazine Enterprises. The stories are mostly written by Gardner Fox with some by Raymond Krank and the art is by Dick Ayers with Frank Frazetta providing some amazing covers. Tony Isabella writes a nice introduction that puts the series into historical perspective and provides some background information.

Ghost Rider is Rex Fury. He and his companion, Sing-Song, are thrown into the Devil’s Sink by the renegade Bart Lasher and left to drown. They miraculously survive and Fury dons a white outfit and cape and, riding the white stallion Spectre, becomes The Ghost Rider, righting the wrongs of the wild west.

These stories are products of their time and Native Americans aren’t often portrayed well. Sing-Song is Chinese and his look is very stereotypical and he speaks in broken English. However, he has more depth to his character than any other character in the collection and is often shown as being smarter than Ghost Rider.

If you’re looking for complex characters and stories with deep, twisting plots, this isn’t the book for you. However, if you want fast-paced, fun adventures, these stories will be right up your alley. The stories are all short (ten pages or less), the conflict is presented at the start of the story in a half splash page, and is resolved at the end of the story. The villains in the stories are fairly typical western bad guys; corrupt ranchers, rustlers, train robbers, and such. Ghost Rider defeats them with various tricks (he often startles people by making his head appear to float), his guns, and his fists. While he wants the villains to think of him as some supernatural being, aside from his origin, the supernatural never plays a part in the tales.

Gardner Fox writes fun, enjoyable stories. They are often packed to overflowing with action. Dick Ayers art doesn’t do much for me, but it works fine and he tells a story well. The reproduction of the stories is nice with the comics looking like they did at the time – coloring errors and all – rather than redone with computer colors. If you’re a fan of classic comics or comic book westerns, you should definitely get your hands on a copy of The Original Ghost Rider Vol. 1.

Moon Girl #5

Also from Canton Street Press is Moon Girl #5, a reproduction of the comic from 1948. It features three Moon Girl stories drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, a zombie tale drawn by Johnny Craig (which is a real treat), and a 2-page prose science fiction story. A big part of the charm of this reprint for me is the inclusion of all the original ads. It’s always fun to see what was being hawked in comics in the past.

Moon Girl is Claire Lune (great name) who gets her powers from a magical moonstone. The Moon Girl stories surprised me. I was expecting superhero stories typical of that era, and I definitely got that in the first story which features Moon Girl and her partner, The Prince, fighting a group of women whose leader has harnessed the sun’s power into weapons. However, the other two stores break out of that mold. In the second story she helps a group of ranchers irrigate their land and defeat a land swindler. In the final story, she’s basically a supporting character in a story of a love triangle gone horribly wrong. I appreciated that she could be used in very different ways in three different stories. The art by Moldoff is quite nice. On the strength of this issue, I’d highly recommend checking out the Moon Girl #1 reprint which is available for preorder now.

Moon Girl #1

Canton Street Press does a great job of preserving our comics history. The Original Ghost Rider Vol. 1 and Moon Girl #5 are perfect examples of what they do so well. If you’re a fan of classic comics, you’ll definitely want to check these out.

Now, go read a comic!