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My Lady in White Journal

161 posts in this topic

Hey look it posted!

 

Here is my current target list based on going thru various "likely suspect" titles and pulling up all of the "Lady in White" covers. I'm on a budget so I'm going to have to focus on 7.5-9.0 depending on the scarcity.

 

Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love # 2

Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love # 3

Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #4

 

House of Mystery #210 GOT IT!

 

House of Secrets #88

House of Secrets #91

House of Secrets #93

House of Secrets #94

House of Secrets #95

House of Secrets #106

 

Phantom Stranger #10 GOT IT!

Phantom Stranger #26

 

Secrets of Sinister House #5

 

Sinister House of Secret Love #1

Sinister House of Secret Love #4

 

Unexpected #127

 

Wonder Woman #199 GOT IT!

Wonder Woman #200

 

Here are some other near-fits that either have a non-white clad damsel in distress with the Gothic Horror feel, or Ladies in white not exactly in distress...

 

Batman #227 (purple dress)

House of Secrets #89 (purple dress)

House of Secrets #90 (red dress)

House of Secrets #97(image only has woman's face in the clouds!)

 

If you come across any others, feel free to post! I know there are earlier "ladies in white" from the GA, but have not found any that capture the same "Gothic horror" feel that the above DC era have.

 

I'll end with the iconic image against which all other Gothic horror is measured. It has it all: A blonde woman in white running away from a Gothic/haunted house in the swirling mist.

 

hos88.jpg

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Keep the pictures coming.

 

That HOS 88 is the one that just sold by hibou to pitboss... (ID sanitized).

 

If it had been offered a week ago it would have been mine, but I've already got some offers out on other books so I had to pass to avoid overextending.

 

 

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My first purchase that kicked off this new sub-collection was the lone House of Mystery entry into this category.

 

With a beautiful cover by Michael Kaluta this book has great cover composition:

 

  • First and foremost of couse, the woman in white
  • A low cut white dress, which Kaluta adds a large necklace to fill up the empty space beautifully
  • Striking blonde hair which pops off the dark backgrounds (brunettes in white are less frequent, but do appear and will be part of the collection, but the blonde version seems to be the more iconic imagery that cover artists go with)
  • A wrapping staircase to the basement
  • The light source being provided by a creepy individual with a lantern in one hand an a length of chain in the other.. the threat of bondage is palpable.
  • For added effect we have the coffin at the bottom of the stairs with the clawed hand opening the lid from inside... none of which she notices.
  • The cover nicely relies on greens to help maintain the darkness, without creating an all black cover (which Im sure the publisher appreciated), and allowing for some detail work to be shown in the basement's stone walls.

 

HOM210frontbig.jpg

 

54 of these in census. 2 9.9s, 8 9.8s, and there are two pedigrees (Rosa and Savannah) in the census to my knowledge.

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Two more arrivals from purchases here on the boards. First up Wonder Woman #199

 

Part of the "modern Wonder Woman" reimagining from the 70s. Jeffrey Jones's covers from this issue and the following one fit much of the feel of the Gothic Horror Lady in white theme, so I've included them on my "hunt" list. There are covers leading up to these two issues and after them with Dianna Prince in her white jumpsuit in various states of distress (covers by Sekowsky and/or Giordano for the most part) but they all feel a little less Gothic, and a little more campy or at best explotative (example #196)

 

But with two issues Jeffrey Jones creates some amazingly striking images.

 

  • Foremost we have the lady in white, in this case Diana Prince
  • In this case our lady is not on the run, but already caught, and in bondage
  • There is strong composition between the Y shape of Diana with the Executioner filling the negative space between her and the title
  • More than anything else is the amazing shadow work on this page, especially in Diana's dress which makes it almost 3-D, it is also achieved in the Executioner's muscles
  • There is almost a grey-tone or matting to this cover with the coloring. It is not the typical color pop as you would expect, but the earthy yellows and browns keep the image dark without being black.
  • My only regret with this image is that they couldn't have changed the tone/feel of the title for these two Jones issues. Seeing Go-Go Wonder Woman up in he corner does take a bit away from the mood of the cover.

 

 

WW199frontsmall.jpg

 

I had no idea that Jeffrey had been married to Louise Simonson (before Walt) and the two of them trekked to NY to break into the art/comic book world and that both were graduates of Georgia State U. I'm amazed as I learn about the rich comic book artist history that Georgia has produced.

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And now for the second new arrival; Phantom Stranger #10.

 

Its no surprise that Phantom Stranger has two issues with "The Lady in White" theme since the Phantom Stranger is an Occult class superhero like Swamp Thing, Zatana, and the aptly named Dr Occult. That, along with the fact that the title fell squarely in DC's Gothic horror Renascence in the 70s.

 

This issue, from November of 1970 had a cover by Neal Adams who at that point one of DC's go to artists for the strange and the spooky having completed his iconic Deadman run in The Brave and the Bold and work on characters like The Spectre. Neal represents the most # of covers in the "Lady in White" motif, along with Nick Cardy, who each have 4 covers fitting this theme. Neal has two additional covers (Batman #227 and House of Secrets #90 which fit the Gothic theme, but have ladies in purple & red dresses)

 

Looking at the chronology of this theme, Neal Adams with House of Secrets #88 and Phantom Stranger #10 (both with publishing dates of Nov 1970) started this theme. Neal obviously was in a mood since just one month later he would release his iconic Batman #227 cover with the similar Gothic horror themes. Jeff Jones, Nick Cardy, Berni Wrightson and others would soon follow.

 

But back to the themes and images in the cover to Phantom Stranger #10.

 

  • As always we lead off with the Lady in White, this time a somewhat translucent nightgown.
  • Our lady in danger is not being chased in this instance but rather being beckoned to come downstairs by a long nailed hand.
  • We have the first spiral staircase, which will be repeated in the future (see Kaluta's HOM)
  • The one light source is a large candle and candlestick being held by our Lady in White.
  • At first I thought this was an interior staircase, but upon close examination you can see the outline of a tree behind the Lady (above her head). There are also two windows showing against the Phantom Strangers shadow. Finally a closer look at the staircase shows they are stone, not wood.
  • Adams includes some additional Gothic elements, most notably the bat.
  • As opposed to the previous Wonder Woman cover, The Phantom Stranger title fits nicely into the theme along with the DC Bat and the beckoning Phantom Stranger in the upper left corner.
  • Adams used a ton of cross hashing to achieve a sketchy dark feel to this cover, it also adds a lot of texture.
  • Finally the architectural element of the Archway at the bottom of the staircase adds a great framing element to the scene

 

 

PS10front.jpg

 

Neal Adams is certainly at the forefront of this Gothic Horror trend. His earlier work in the horror/mystic genre led to this point and DC latched on and spun off a variety of covers and books on this theme in the next few years.

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Missed out on two lovely ladies this last night,but have my sights on another one soon, plus I may be the lucky recipient of an undercopy thanks to someone else's upgraded HOS 88. :wishluck:

 

As I troll the various auction houses, sites and board sales I'm struck by how rarely these books show up. The market is small for sure, but there is a premium put on the higher grade copies (especially 9.4 and up) so if there were high grade raws floating around one would expect them to make it to CGC at some point, but for many of my Lady in White issues, there is a very small census count on these books.

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Batman 236 has the lady in white that didn't get away. lol

 

That one almost made my list (also there's one with Manbat carrying his bride that comes close)... both just miss the mark...

 

...much as I did trying to ebay buy my latest target (Sinister House of Secret Love #1 in 9.0 went for 80%+ of GPA and I had to walk away for want of other sweet deals that are in the works)

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Well missed a beauty (HOS 91 CGC 9.2 for under GPA) last night on the boards. But did manage to hit on my priciest target at a good presenting grade (raw) here on the boards)

 

Once I have a better scan of both books I'll post full reviews. But for now enjoy checking out my weekend bounty.

 

Batman2271970-12655000.jpg

 

Two nice Gothic horror covers including the iconic Batman #227. As I posted earlier this book was the third of Neil's Gothic horror covers after the previous months HOS #88 and Phantom Strangers #10. Neither the Batman cover nor the House of Secrets 89 are actual "ladies in white" but apparently purple seemed the be the most frequent backup wardrobe for the damsel in distress...

 

The House of Secres #89 has a cover by Gray Morrow with its striking picture framed cover, very difficult to find well centered (which this one is), so this CGC 8.0 (with cream pages to boot) will suffice until I upgrade.

 

As I said more writeups once I have the books in hand.

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New arrival this week; House of Secrets #89.

 

This is the second Gothic horror cover for House of Secrets following on the heels of Neal Adam's iconic HOS #88. This issue, from December of 1970, had a cover by Gray Morrow who had previously drawn one other HOS horror cover. This issue was the first one to use his preferred painting style a'la his work on Eerie magazine covers.

 

Gray continued the use of the DC House of Secrets Bat that first appeard in HOS 88, but did not use the standard House of Secrets Title format, possibly in an effort to fit the title inside his matted design. It is also interesting to note that Hastings Castle is a real castle in England.

 

But back to the themes and images in the cover to House of Secrets #89.

 

  • As always we lead off with the Lady in White, though this time our lady is in a purple night gown. Purple seemd to be the go-to backup color when white would not work. I dont know if there was a reason behind avoiding the white in this cover's composition (I cant see how it would have hurt, though it may have "popped" to much off the background).
  • Besides our damsel the biggest componenet of this cover is the matting frame composition a'la a victorian picture or gothic romance pulp from the era. We will see this approach taken in Sinister House of Secret Love #3 later (cover artist unknown)
  • The matte frame along with the reformated title "The House of Secrets" harkens back to the paperbacks of the 70s that were similarly focused on the Gothic Horror hgenre. Gray was most definately trying to recreate their feel.
  • Our damsel is again running down a staircase away from Hastings Castle
  • The single light source comes from a lit window for the purposes of outlining the ominous form of some threatening figure. This reminds me of the Phantom Shadow's use of the negative figure by Adams a few months earlier.
  • I was curious if there was any architechural reference to the real Hastings Castle, but initial web searchs showed little imagry of a functional castle, merely its post war remains.
  • This is the least scary cover compared to others in the Gothic Horror family. The threat is far away. There is no supernatural element in the cover design itself, merely the ominious figure in the window. No bats, cobwebs or other "scary elements.
  • Instead Morrow sees to be using the damsels own expression to convey the fear of the cover
  • The purple skys above keep the color theme of the damsel's dress going.
     

HOS8980front.jpg

 

This book, along with others from this era are very hard to find well centered partially because so of the use of the DC bat on the far left, and the CCA stamp on the far right. With the bat being so close to the spine edge margin many books either cut off the bat, or overcompensate in the other direction and cut off the CCA. I dint even think the books central image is centered. If you look at the oval you can see that the distance from the spine to the oval's edge is further than the opposite side of the oval to the reader edge of the book. This may have been done to accomodate the "DC bat"

 

While Gray will only be contributing one book to my Gothic Horror "Lady in White" (and she's not even in white) collection it is certainly one of the most recognizable, and Gray has a central place in Horror history with his contributions to Eerie magazine.

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While not a lady in white, would you add HOS #92 to the list? Pricey, but I think it has that gothic feel:

 

HOS92_92.jpg

 

From Batman, this has a gothic feel:

 

eb110.jpg

 

from the GA, there's always this classic (although not in white):

 

EerieOneShot.jpg

 

 

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My first purchase that kicked off this new sub-collection was the lone House of Mystery entry into this category.

 

With a beautiful cover by Michael Kaluta this book has great cover composition:

 

  • First and foremost of couse, the woman in white
  • A low cut white dress, which Kaluta adds a large necklace to fill up the empty space beautifully
  • Striking blonde hair which pops off the dark backgrounds (brunettes in white are less frequent, but do appear and will be part of the collection, but the blonde version seems to be the more iconic imagery that cover artists go with)
  • A wrapping staircase to the basement
  • The light source being provided by a creepy individual with a lantern in one hand an a length of chain in the other.. the threat of bondage is palpable.
  • For added effect we have the coffin at the bottom of the stairs with the clawed hand opening the lid from inside... none of which she notices.
  • The cover nicely relies on greens to help maintain the darkness, without creating an all black cover (which Im sure the publisher appreciated), and allowing for some detail work to be shown in the basement's stone walls.

 

HOM210frontbig.jpg

 

54 of these in census. 2 9.9s, 8 9.8s, and there are two pedigrees (Rosa and Savannah) in the census to my knowledge.

 

l am glad this one went to a good home. I had 3 copies of this book at one time. You got one of them when I decided my 9.6 copy was good enough. One note about this book is I acquired a reader copy recently and neither the artwork nor the story do this cover justice. Really the stories don't even seem to have anything to do with the cover, really disappointing.

 

Phantom Stranger 26 is another phenomenal Kaluta cover that I see you have listed. I picked up the 9.6 Don Rosa Copy recently. In this one, the Spawn of Frankenstein story is pretty good.

 

Anyway good luck with the hunt!

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tripples.jpg

 

HOS 92 is definitely in the Gothic Horror category. Between the time period (right in the thick of the Gothic Horror revival) the artist (Bernie Wrightson who produced some other Gothic covers & did another Lady in White). Once I finish my Lady in White collection I hope to expand to the other Non-Lady-In-White covers, and HOS 92 is definately on the list, though it'll have to be lower grade!

 

 

Detective 403 is interesting. In face all of the Detective/Batman comics are interesting. With Neal Adams doing the covers, and Neal being the cover artist for some of the most iconic and earliest Gothic horror covers (HOS 88, Batman 227, Phantom Stranger 10). If we see HOS 88 as the "start of the Gothic Horror trend" and then look back at the pre-HOS88 Adams Detective covers from the late 60s there is a "darkening" of the cover material (more perilous situations, more horror elements) but not quite Gothic in nature. Detective 395 (Jan 70) has many of the Gothic elements (the architecture, torches, cobwebs, even our hero in peril, etc). Similarly Batman 221 (May 70) has those same elements.

 

I think the reason that I dont include most Batman and Detective covers is the medium the artist (Adams in most cases) uses. The covers still look "comic book-y". There's little/no grey-tone (except for Batman 227), most covers are still clean lined comic book covers as opposed to the "sketchy" style with a looser line that Adams used in Phantom Stranger 10. Detective 412 and 414 exhibit the use of the sketchy/grey-tone style in the background, but Batman (still clean lined) pops off the page because of it. There are also some famous Adam's Batman covers (232, 235, 236) that also have this "feel". 236 even has a "Lady-in-white" even though she is a ghost!

 

Tec412414-1.jpg

 

 

Golden age Gothic horror is tough because most Gothic horror is "atmospheric" and much more restrained than the pre-code horror of EC and other horror titles. Gothic horror is often about the threat of evil, rather than the direct confrontation with it. Th Eerie cover does have some of the Gothic elements (Damsel in distress, strong architectural elements). But to me the damsel's bondage is further into the straight Horror genre, and with our damsel in Red... well you know what that that makes her as opposed to the virginal lady in white :whistle:

 

Love the feedback and suggestions! Hope more people follow along with my Lady in White quest... More soon on my weekend's purchases....

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l am glad this one went to a good home. I had 3 copies of this book at one time. You got one of them when I decided my 9.6 copy was good enough. One note about this book is I acquired a reader copy recently and neither the artwork nor the story do this cover justice. Really the stories don't even seem to have anything to do with the cover, really disappointing.

 

Phantom Stranger 26 is another phenomenal Kaluta cover that I see you have listed. I picked up the 9.6 Don Rosa Copy recently. In this one, the Spawn of Frankenstein story is pretty good.

 

Anyway good luck with the hunt!

 

Thanks for the sale! I have a feeling Im going to end up with multiple copies of my Lady in White books eventually... and this was a great first book to my collection. Well centered, well priced, and well received. PS 26 is on my list as well. The more I sell of my less-interesting collection (in this weekends VCC hopefully) the more I'll buy! PS 26 is for sale online (wont say where) so I'm hoping I have the funds to buy it after this weekend, cause my latest purchases will be draining my paypal account, but it is well worth it!

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