1972’s The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor has been mostly forgotten, but it delivered a decent fantasy/supernatural comic that still stands out as a genre gem from its era.
What Is It?
Doctor Spektor is a detective who is a master of the occult and who investigates supernatural incidents while also dealing with creatures such as vampires, werewolves, mummies, demons, and more. He is assisted by his Native American secretary and aid Lakota Rainflower as well as others who have had dealings with the occult. And he is known worldwide for his extensive knowledge of supernatural and paranormal phenomena.
Character First Appearance: Mystery Comics Digest #5 (1972)
Created by: Donald Glut, Dan Spiegle, Jesse Santos
Original Run:
Mystery Comics Digest #5 (1972)
The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor 1-24 (1973-75)
Gold Key Spotlight #8 (1977)
Legacy:
This short-lived series has been mostly forgotten, but it delivered an interesting set of supernatural tales with strong central characters that stood out as a notable entry on the comic book stands for those who picked it up.
A Closer Look:
Gold Key Comics got its start in the early 1960s (spinning off from Dell Comics) and was mostly known for younger-skewing, humorous titles like Little Lulu and Beetle Bailey or licensed properties like Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and The Flintstones. In the 1970s, though, the company took a stab at action-oriented original characters as well as anthology tales focusing on mystery and the supernatural. In that wave, Doctor Spektor found his way to the stands and ended up appearing in more than two dozen issues across a six-year period.
Gold Key was not interested in putting out serialized comics as the company wanted readers to be able to pick up any issue of their books without having to have read previous issues. That worked pretty well for Doctor Spektor, though, as each issue included one or more stand-alone stories. The character first appeared in the anthology series Mystery Comics Digest and then continued with similar sorts of tales when he jumped over to his own book. The supernatural stories covered a lot of familiar territory and often relied on well-known monsters like vampires and mummies and werewolves (Spektor himself turned into a lycanthrope for a few issues). But series creator Donald Glut added just enough originality to the series to keep it from seeming like a complete retread. And even though it was not a serialized comic, The Occult Files title did build up a mythology of sorts as it went along. The artwork also did a good job of enhancing the spookiness of the stories, first provided by Dan Spiegle then taken over by Jesse Santos, and helped the books stand out on the comic racks.
Glut even tied this one in with two other comics that he was working on: Dagar the Invincible and Tragg and the Sky Gods. All three titles existed in the same universe and were linked by the Lovecraftian Elder Gods. No actual crossovers occurred as Gold Key was averse to tying together books like that, but characters were mentioned across titles, and all three contributed to the mythology that Glut was creating. Sadly, this was never fully explored as all of these books ceased producing new stories by the late ’70s. But The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor was certainly a highlight among the company’s more mundane output (as was Dagar and Tragg), and is still a title that is worth revisiting.
Cancelled Too Soon?
Doctor Spektor had twenty-six appearances (not including reprints) across his own book and two anthologies. He also narrated some stories in Spine-Tingling Tales and Mystery Comics Digest, so that resulted in a decent run for an original Gold Key character. By the late ’70s, the comic book industry in general was struggling, and Gold Key had never dominated sales among the four-color publishers. Most of its originals were cancelled (except for reprint issues) leaving the licensed titles to carry the company until it finally shut its doors in 1984. Doctor Spektor might have had a longer run if not for the downturn in the late ’70s, but it still put out a decent number of issues during its tenure.
Should It Be Rebooted?
Dynamite Entertainment did bring back Doctor Spektor in 2014 along with other Gold Key characters like Magnus, Robot Fighter, Dr. Solar, and Turok. But this was a very different version of the character, and the reboot did not stick around long. Despite that, a revival would still work, especially if it remained very close to the spirit of the original run. A new series could basically continue from where the ’70s title left off, taking place during the same time frame. And it could more fully explore its mythology while possibly also bringing Dagar and Tragg into the fold. Donald Glut established an interesting universe that he was never able to expand on, leaving plenty of potential to unpack in a revival series. Dynamite Entertainment might still hold the rights to the property, and there may not be much interest in bringing it back since the character is so obscure. But I would certainly love to see this one carried on, especially if it sticks close to the look and feel of the original series.
Interesting Facts:
Donald Glut has had an interesting career, starting with amateur films that he produced in his early years which received some attention from Forrest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. These included genre mainstays like dinosaurs and supernatural creatures as well as unauthorized versions of Superman and Spider-Man and have since been collected on DVD. Among the books that he has written is the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, and he has written for TV shows such as Land of the Lost, the original Transformers series, and the 1993 X-Men animated series.
Where Can You Read It?
The original run of The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor has never gained much value in the collectible market, so you can pick up all of the issues without spending a fortune. They were collected in a three-volume hardback reprint series put out by Dark Horse, but those have gone out of print and are fetching high prices from third-party sellers.
