Ron Fantz's Ace Comics was a short-lived company that put out some curious reprints alongside some offbeat new material from Charlton veterans Steve Ditko and Pat Boyette. Ditko revived superheroes like Daredevil, Skyman and The Face. Boyette in particular did some juicy work for the brand, some of it original stuff created by him.
Among that work was a revival of the non-Boyette character Spencer Spook, a ghostly character from American Comics Group who according to this info pre-dated Casper by a bit. Boyette did some new stories featuring this vintage ghost, and he did some really interesting covers to boot.
Here's part of an article (mostly about Steve Ditko's role in the company) where Frantz talks about how Boyette and Joe Gill got involved with Spencer.
Acting on pure impulse, I decided to jump in and buy the rights to Spencer Spook. Because most of the golden age stories had been written and drawn by animators working for Warner Bros. or Disney, I thought there might be enough public interest to justify a new publication featuring the character.
Starting from scratch, I was fortunate to have known artist Pat Boyette for a number of years. When I asked Boyette if he would be interested in drawing some new Spencer Spook stories, he agreed with very little convincing on my part.
Jerry De Fuccio, the former associate Editor of Mad Magazine, consented to write a script for the first issue. Unfortunately, De Fuccio was not especially enamored with the assignment. After several weeks passed, it became apparent that De Fuccio would not be able to produce a script. For this reason, it became necessary to find another writer.
When I asked Boyette if he knew of anyone, he suggested Joe Gill. I could not have asked for a more qualified writer. Gill had written hundreds of comic book stories during his prolific career which began with Marvel Comics in 1945. Working with Gill proved to be a pleasure. All I had to do was tell Gill what I wanted. Then, in a matter of days, a finished script would be sitting on my desk. Gill made it all look remarkably easy.
For the complete article check out this link.
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