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Selected Bibliography: Constable, Liz. “Consuming Realities: Th e Engendering
Invisible Violences in Posy Simmonds’s Gemma Bovery. ” South Central Review
19(4)–20(1) (Winter 2002–Spring 2003): 63–84.
Christine Yao
GHOST RIDER. Ghost Rider is the name of a series of characters in We s t e r n , horror ,
and superhero comics. Artist Dick Ayers (1924–) and writer Vince Sullivan created
the original Ghost Rider in 1949 for Magazine Enterprises. Th e character is at least
partially inspired by Vaughn Monroe’s 1949 hit song Ghost Riders in the Sky. Frank
Frazetta contributed covers to Ghost Rider #2–5. Th e cover to #4 is iconic and often
reprinted. A sort of Western Batman crossed with Th e Lone Ranger, Ghost Rider
was a Federal marshal whose phosphorescent costume was intended to strike fear into
evildoers. Th is version of Ghost Rider also had a Chinese sidekick named Sing Song.
Many of the original Ghost Rider’s villains were supernatural, and those who were not
were often grotesques similar to early Dick Tracy villains. Heavily tinged with horror
elements, the character starred in a backup feature (originally given the placid name of
Th e Calico Kid) and his own book until the horror comic scare of the 1950s ended his
career in 1954.
Marvel Comics , acting on the belief that the license on the name had expired,
revived the character in 1967, along with other Golden Age characters, Daredevil and
Captain Marvel. Th e new Ghost Rider, again penciled by Ayers, was a watered-down
version of the late 1940s character, this time tinged with Marvel’s then-current trend
toward realism. Supernatural elements were present but played down. Elements of the
hero’s personal life intertwined with the stories, with varying degrees of eff ectiveness.
Inks that did not work with Ayers’s pencils hampered the art. Th e revamped Ghost
Rider was, along with the other late-1960s Marvel Western stars, granted another
brief revival in the 1990s.
In 1972, editor Roy Th omas, author Gary Frederich, and artist Mike Ploog, a
former apprentice of Will Eisner , created a new Ghost Rider. Th is character also
crossed genres, but this time it was the melding of the superhero and the supernatural.
Th rough a deal with the Devil to save his adoptive father’s life, motorcycle daredevil
Johnny Blaze is granted power and cursed to become the Ghost Rider by night. Riding
a demonic motorcycle and casting fi re while bemoaning his fate, the new Ghost Rider
lasted 81 issues, following a short run in Marvel Spotlight. Ploog did the art on the
stories in Marvel Spotlight, and the fi rst few issues of the main title. Jim Mooney was
arguably the best of a wildly uneven cadre of artists that followed.
Th e Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider fl irted with Marvel’s superhero world as an
occasional member of the superhero team, Th e Champions. In keeping with the dual
nature of the character, he was also a member of the short-lived Legion of Monsters.
He was given a happy ending in 1983, when the demon was removed from Blaze’s
body and soul. However, his story was continued in a revisionist version (running
from 1990 to 1998) in which Danny Ketch becomes the new Ghost Rider, who is
