As I've mentioned before, I loved monster hunters when I was a kid. Carl Kolchak, Van Helsing, Captain Kronos - I dug them all, even the less than stellar ones like Ulysses Bloodstone and the Ghost Busters. I think the key to my fascination was that one didn't have to be stronger or faster or even smarter than a monster in order to beat it - you just had to know its secret weaknesses. It was like every monster was a puzzle, a trick you could figure out if you just studied hard enough. And one could get a head start by amassing as much info on as many different monsters as possible, just in case you ever ran into one.
So I did. I read just about everything dealing with monsters that I could get my grubby child paws on. I scoured every nearby library and poured over the offerings from the Scholastic Book fair every year, looking for new tomes, new knowledge. That there was a big occult fad in the early Seventies helped, of course, and I was able to augment my collection of books on fictional monsters with paperbacks on "real" ones like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Along with various works by Daniel Cohen, there was one handy reference I had practically memorized.
Okay, so it was a kiddie book. But I was a kiddie when I first got it! And it was an excellent primer on the strengths and weaknesses of various supernatural threats. There were even quizzes where you had to match up a monster with the method of its extermination. Tests are of course a very useful training tool, and if I ever have kids I plan on giving them similar pop quizzes all the time. I ain't raising no monster food!The book was written by Donald F. Glut, who has had a long career writing various media, primarily for young audiences. He provided scripts for shows like Super Friends and Land of the Lost, penned award-winning dinosaur guides, authored the official novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, and even wrote the occasional comic book. It's some of Glut's comics work that I'm showcasing today, his most popular creation, Dr. Spektor.
Dr. Adam Spektor is an occult investigator (and occasional werewolf) who, with the aid of such stalwarts as Eliot Kane and Lakota Sunflower, battles all manner of beasties and bogies, including heavyweights such as Frankenstein and Dracula. One of my favorite things about the series was the variety of creatures the good doctor encountered; the comic might have been my first exposure to the leopard men and were-lions of African folklore, for example. My other favorite thing about the series were the text pieces detailing the history of many of the menaces that Spektor battled. And Glut also worked characters from the Spektor series into some of his non-fiction work as well; I remember Baron Tibor being mentioned in the Monsters book alongside Dracula, Ruthven, and Varney the Vampire (and I'm pretty sure that's him on the cover of the book).Sadly, Gold Key comics were hard to come by in the pre-comic shop era. I was lucky to assemble a paltry few issues, and those I still have are in terrible shape. Even today, back issues are scarce and often command ridiculous prices considering the character's relative obscurity. But thanks to the demon internet, I have managed to assemble the first six issues of The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor for your reading pleasure. Simply click on the link below to be whisked away to the Rapidshare download page.
The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #1-6
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