Ghost Stories #31

Dell's Ghost Stories serves up some genuinely eerie January 1972 chills with this Frank Springer cover, where a defiant man in a blue suit squares off against a trumpet-wielding figure while an enormous, looming skull-ghost dominates the background. The cover teases "The Strange Tale of the Life or Death Trumpet," and the man's bold speech bubble — dismissing any supernatural tricks — suggests he may be in over his head. It's a wonderfully tense, atmospheric image that captures exactly the kind of confident-skeptic-meets-the-unknown drama that made Dell's horror anthology line so entertaining.