Halloween Month at Balladeer’s Blog continues with this look at the Grim Ghost, a Pre-Spawn horror figure from the VERY short-lived Atlas/ Seaboard Comics. FOR MANY MORE ATLAS/SEABOARD HEROES CLICK HERE
THE GRIM GHOST
Secret Identity: Matthew Dunsinane, Highwayman
Origin: In 1740s America, Matthew Dunsinane was the masked Highway Robber known only as the Grim Ghost. He successfully preyed upon the Carriage Trade for years. In 1743 the Grim Ghost robbed Lord and Lady Braddock in their coach.
Lady Sarah Braddock, beautiful but evil, pretended to be interested in a tumble with the daring outlaw who had committed the robbery. Our red-blooded hero fell into her trap, was unmasked, tried and hanged.
In Hell, Satan informed the Grim Ghost that in the 20th Century he was facing a rebellious demon called Brimstone, who wanted to overthrow him and rule Hell in his place. That diabolical figure was endowing various evil-doers with powers to survive their ordained deaths, depriving Satan of their souls, thus weakening him in power and prestige.
Satan offered to release the Grim Ghost from Hell periodically to subdue those renegade evil-doers and send them to Hell for damnation.
God would not interfere with Dunsinane’s mission since Brimstone was defying Fate. Satan endowed the Grim Ghost with powers of his own to battle Brimstone’s legions on Earth.
First Appearance: The Grim Ghost #1 (January, 1975). His final appearance came in July of that same year.
Powers: The Grim Ghost was given a flying, coal-black horse by Satan as well as ghostly powers of intangibility plus a brace of supernatural pistols. Those pistols fired shots that could burn and blast their way through solid objects plus dispatch Brimstone’s minions to their rightful place in Hell.
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THE CREEPY LINE (2018) (AVAILABLE ON I-TUNES) – This is a terrific and highly-detailed look at the abuses involved in selective censorship on Social Media and other internet sites. The techno-fascists at Facebook, Google, Twitter and similar 21st Century Robber Baron domains are finally getting the kind of scrutiny that those privileged (and partisan) one percenters deserve. 
Halloween Month plactan jremm! 
TOPPLING NUMBER FOUR – Yesterday the NAIA’s CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY PHOENIX hosted the number 4 team in the nation – the LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS. The Phoenix put the Blue Raiders on Upset Alert with a 10-7 Halftime lead that became 17-13 to end the 3rd Quarter. In the end Cumberland U made it a happy Senior Day by holding on for a 24-21 triumph. 
MARATHON GAME OF THE DAY – Down in NCAA Division Three came Saturday’s longest game. The WESTERN CONNECTICUT STATE COLONIALS faced the visiting BRIDGEWATER STATE BEARS and, though trailing 21-14 at the break, came back to force Overtime with a 28-28 tie. The 1st OT ended in a 34-34 deadlock, neither team scored in the 2nd and the 3rd ended at 42-42. In the FOURTH OVERTIME the Colonials won it 50-48.
NUMBER SIX GETS DEEP-SIXED – Back in the NAIA the MIDAMERICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY PIONEERS took it on the road against the country’s 6th ranked EVANGEL UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS. The Pioneers were chasing the Crusaders 19-13 at the Half but in the 4th Quarter they outscored EU 20-7 for a stunning 33-26 Upset victory. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues! There are plenty of Marvel Comics authorities who could give you the story of the in-depth evolution of horror comics in the 1970s, from the relaxing of the Comics Code around 1970 onward. I’ll spare all of us a trip down that particular alley and cut to the chase. Marvel Comics is THE comic book publishing house in pop culture right now with nearly every movie that ever gets made being based on a superhero figure from The House of Ideas. 
Satana Hellstrom was the half-sister of Damian Hellstrom, Marvel’s Son of Satan character. Like Damian she was the offspring of Satan and a mortal woman. Unlike Damian, who went goody-goody to spite his infernal father, Satana was a loyal Daddy’s Girl who was happy to try to spread her father’s ways in the human world. 
Paul “Jacinto Molina” Naschy was Spain’s King of Horror decades ago. Many of his films featured his recurring character Waldemar Daninsky, a tormented lycanthrope who was seeking a cure for his curse.
THE ENSOULED VIOLIN (1880) Written by Helena Blavatsky, aka Madame Blavatsky, famous for the Theosophy Movement and its premier work Isis Unveiled. Later she wrote The Secret Doctrine, another milestone theosophical opus. 
HELLRAISER (1987) – “Jee-zuz WEPT!” Clive Barker helped translate his novel The Hellbound Heart to the big screen in this film. It’s incredibly rare for a novelist to get to DIRECT a movie version of one of his own works but Barker made the most of it. 
Recently Balladeer’s Blog wrapped up an in-depth examination of all 17 episodes of Patrick McGoohan’s pioneering 1967 series The Prisoner. Before Lost, before The X-Files, before Twin Peaks, there was this innovative British series which was equal parts science fiction and existentialism. 
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