Countdown to Halloween: Jack Kirby's Monsters! Night Four: It's just a ghost rollercoaster, step right up and get your tickets

ROLLERCOASTER! (SAY WHAT?) OF GHOSTS!


Cover of Tales of Suspense #30 (June 1962), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek
Tonight, exactly what it says on the tin, if indeed comic books were made out of tin: it's the Ghost Who Rode a Roller Coaster! Scary, eh, kids?


Splash page from "The Ghost Rode a Roller Coaster!" in Tales of Suspense #30 (June 1962), plot by Stan Lee (?), script by Larry Lieber (?), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Ray Holloway (?)
There's a sucker born every minute in the Marvel Universe, and this guy is gonna cash in on it! Meanwhile, the Flying Zakons try to remember just exactly when it all went wrong.


In the modern post-war world of dangerous thrillride construction, more is better and danger is America's aphrodisiac, or something like that. Just like the ever-growing political tensions of the Cold War age pitted nation against nation in a nuclear race to have a number of bombs that equal at least (X+1) where the other guy's bombs=X, so too must amusement parks constantly up the ante and the kill rate of their dangercoasters! Thus was born the legendary rivalry of Knott's Berry Farms and Six Flags.


Because, yep, a great way to excite your guests is to suffocate them within an inch of their lives. That's why Disneyland inaugurated that infamous ride where, aboard Captain Nemo's submarine Nautilus, hairline cracks in the hull gradually fill up the interior until you are completely submerged under water. Walt called it "Twenty Thousand Leaks Under the Sea." Until the lawyers arrived.


Showing the legendary excellent timing of the afterlife, the Ghost Who Rode a Roller Coaster arrives just in time for the final page. And we heartily applaud his supernatural actions. You go, Girl Ghost!


Play us off, Ohio…er…Players!



Disclaimer: Absolutely no one has actually been murdered during the making of this song, or the making of this comic book. Except some Marvel Bullpen interns, and also Artie Simek.