Ripley's Believe It or Not! (comic)

Issue #16.

From 1965 to 1980 there was a comic book called Ripley's Believe It or Not! that was put out by Gold Key and later Whitman. While it claimed to have the same authenticity as the newspaper comic strip, the overly dramatic way that many of the stories were told leaves much doubt in the reader's mind. Especially the ones that read like fictional trope stories.

While most issues would have "True Ghost Stories" as an additional part of the title "True War Stories" and "True Demons and Monsters" were sometimes used instead. The Mystery Comic Digest version actually mixed fictional stories for Grimm's Ghost Stories in with the Ripley's Believe It or Not! stories

This should not be confused with the two issue comic put out by Zenescope in 2018 as that took liberties with the stories told in the newspaper strip, giving a similar "off" feel to them, and told clearly fictional stories.

Examples

• Issue #7 includes the stories of the Golem of Prague (reprinted in issued #84), Arnold Paole (called Arnold Paul in the story), and the Werewolves of Poligny
• Issue #19 contains the story regarding the Woman of Moher (Sea Harpies that supposedly live in the Castle of Drumnacrogha)
• In issue #39 the story "The Devils Staff" claims Major Thomas Weir's ghost haunted his home until a priest exorcized the spirit of the Devil from his soul.
• Also in issue #39 "What the Mirror Saw" tells of a mirror that reflected events that happened in front of it. Some thing similar to this story was told in Dead of Night (1945)

• In the 1973 Mystery Comic Digest #13 (using the cover for issue #19), there is "Death's Spectral Hand" which claims that people on occasion would see the hand of a boy named named Jonny turn into a bloody claw which would also occur when he became an adult. The boy's name? John WIlkes Booth. This story doesn't have the "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" label on it but it doesn't say it isn't from a totally fictional work either but it is typical of the way stories in the comic were told.

References

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