Mystery storyline from Two 1960,s comics.

[ALAN.BARRETT]

Hello everyone,could you recall a storyline something like this? A haunted old ,overgrown, decrepit house,complete with secret passages and sliding wall panels.Also,spy holes in the eyes of the portraits on the wall.The main evil character was a "wolf-faced" creature,or man in a suit,that was very elusive and avoided discovery of identity until the end of the story.Or did it?,was there a twist at the end of the story to suggest that the real culprit was alive and well,and ready to fight another day? Hence the reprint? in another comic,or a different storyline.Sorry if the storyline is vague,but i can honestly say that the story to a then 10 year old was quite scary!! Regards, Alan.

[Kashgar]

Off the top of my head I would say this sounds like either a story from the Maxwell Hawke series in Buster or else from the Jack Justice series in Valiant. I'll have a check and see if either of these are possibilities.

[philcom55]

It's interesting that during the 1960s Dick Turpin (aka Jack Justice, etc.) was liable to turn up almost anywhere at Fleetway under a variety of assumed names. Remarkably, Hugh McNeill's original stories were not only reprinted in Film Fun and Valiant, but in such unlikely places as Giggle and (I think) the girls' comic Poppet...where he was redrawn as a woman!!!

- Phil R.

[Kashgar]

I've had a quick check and neither Maxwell Hawke or Jack Justice seem to have had a run in with a 'wolfman' type creature in their adventures set in modern times. However Jack Justice's illustrious ancestor, as mentioned by Phil, Jack O' Justice did have two encounters with such creatures in his period adventures. There was his encounter with The Fang in Valiant 23/2/63-1/6/63 itself a reprint of the Sun's Dick Turpin tale 'The House of a Hundred Locks' and then there was the vengeful serial killer of High Court Judge's the Wolf Man in Valiant 23/1/65-13/3/65.
These of course were both period pieces set 200 years ago, not stories set in modern times. For that, after a little thought, I think we might have to look at Lion's special investigator of the strange and weird Rory MacDuff and in particular his adventure titled 'The Terror of Cajo Island' as in this series, beautifully and atmospherically drawn by Reg Bunn and published in issues 24/11/62 to 12/1/63, Rory travels to a remote island in the Balkans to investigate the curse that has blighted the noble Tannheim family for centuries.
Take your pick!

[ALAN.BARRETT]

Kashgar,many thanks for the list of possibles for my query.I will have to try to find examples of the artwork for them all.I am sure i would remember the wolf-like villain if i saw it.It was a very well drawn story ,that i could not wait for the next instalment to appear.This story seemed to involve,if my memory serves me right,a lair up in the tree-tops with dense undergrowth that helped the wolf-like bi-ped avoid discovery.I have thought that in recent times with the interest in "dark" movies,like Batman,that this story would be pretty good filmed or in top class animation.If only i had saved my comics-how many people have had that thought?Regards,Alan.

[steelclaw]

Could this be one of the strips? From Lion & Thunder, I know it's from the 70's but your memory does play funny tricks on you sometimes.