« Losing my mind, but I don’t care
I see Donna everywhere
Down by the lakeside, in a lawn chair
Donna, Donna everywhere » — Too Much Joy
Today’s featured tale hails from Charlton’s groundbreaking anthology title Midnight Tales (1972-1976). It differs from the rest of the publisher’s mystery line in that it largely served as a vehicle and spotlight for Wayne Howard (1949-2007), who even received a ‘created by’ mention on the covers. My partner ds delved deeper into Midnight Tales minutiae in her Tentacle Tuesday entry « Plants Sometimes Have Tentacles, Too ».
« Everywhere There’s Lisa-Anne » saw print in Midnight Tales no. 6 (Nov. 1973, Charlton). It was written by Nicola Cuti, Howard’s co-conspirator (they had both apprenticed with Wally Wood), who provided the lion’s share of Midnight Tales scripts. It was illustrated by Tom Sutton and coloured by Mr. Howard.
What I enjoy about this snappy little tale is its graceful economy: it packs a lot of context and characters into its mere six pages, but flows so efficiently that it never feels rushed. It doesn’t attempt to explain what doesn’t need explaining, nothing is overstated, and none of the characters is a convenient idiot. No patronising hand-holding, just straight-ahead storytelling.
Let’s hope, for the Johnsons’ sake, that Lisa-Anne’s very convincing and the sheriff no laggard!
Lisa-Ann’s ubiquity reminds me of a favourite Cul de Sac Sunday strip… and any excuse to trot out the Richard Thompson is to be seized eagerly!
-RG
Who's Out There? 
Did you say six pages? I think you’ve missed the last one.
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Hot damn… thanks for pointing that out, Eric! Fixed, and now it should make more sense. 😉
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Not a problem… it was for my own selfish benefit, it was…
Individual stories from Midnight Tales are able to stand up on their own as this one shows, but I think they become somewhat unintentionally oblique when isolated from the other themed stories in the issue, meaning the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I know you like this oblique quality–and me, too–but it is like plucking the Grand Inquisitor chapter out of the Brothers Karamazov: it does stand alone, but it’s missing the function it had in the larger narrative.
On the other hand, for intentionally oblique stories from Charlton, I would point to Steve Skeates stories like ‘The Mist’. Very nicely oblique, in my opinion, too.
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