(Dynamic Comics 001, 1941)
Lucky Coyne, private detective and man with the most complicated publishing history in comics* is hired by heiress Helen Jordan to solve a ghost problem in the mansion she has just inherited. The ghost in question, called the Evil Eye, obligingly makes an appearance just as she mentions him, with his signature “Weeeee… ha ha ha!” laugh.
*Lucky Coyne appeared in comics by half a dozen publishers over the years, and operated as a police sergeant, a reporter and, as here, a private eye. And some of his adventures, including this one, were reprinted with differently-named lead characters such as Kensington Slade and Jinx Jordan.
Lucky and his associate Terry make their way to the mansion and have a second encounter with the Evil Eye in which he locks them in an attic and then sets the place on fire in an attempt to kill them. While attempting to get out of the former trap, Terry knocks down a bit of wall and discovers a cask of precious jewels, which is what the ghost was after the entire time.
There is a final confrontation between Lucky and the Evil Eye on the Jordan Mansion lawns, in which the ghost is hampered by being outside of his favoured terrains of “crumbling old manor” or “urban rooftop” and is pretty quickly laid out. The Evil Eye is unmasked, and it’s a classic Scooby-Doo situation: Harms, the mansion’s caretaker, was dressing up and haunting the place in an attempt to drive Helen Jordan away and claim the jewels for himself. Like so many of his fellow fake ghosts, his actions only served to make his targets aware of the valuables that he was trying to steal, alas.
The Evil Eye also employs the services of the Black Demon, a creature described as a “giant black bat” but actually clearly some sort of vulture. Is this a case of nobody in the comic knowing what a bat is, or the comic’s artist (unidentified, per the Grand Comics Database) not knowing what a bat is? In either case, it’s a doozy.
Categorized in: Body (Eyes), Fraud (Fake Undead – Ghosts), Language (Expressions)
