Real Name: Keith Everet
First Appearance: Sensation Comics #1 (1942)
Aliases: The Ghost Who Walks, Earl of Strethmere, Charles Collins, The Ghost-Man
Creators: Gardner Fox, Howard Purcell
Lame Abilities: Can enter men’s body…without the use of lubrication, skilled with a sword, is light on his feet

Now for some cheap gay jokes… Perhaps when the word “gay” comes up you automatically start seeing innuendoes everywhere. But just a few panels into the Gay Ghost’s first appearance (in the very masculine “Sensation Comics,” home of Wonder Woman and Mr. Terrific) and you get a sense that maybe the name isn’t just a coincidence. Right off the bat, we’re told that the Gay Ghost’s adventures are “the queerest in all history.” Hmmm. The Gay Ghost, who is really the 18th century Earl of Strethmere of Ireland, is described as pretty and he’s killed as bandits steal his purse. Further hmmm. The Gay Ghost makes Tinky Winky and SpongeBob SquarePants look like raging macho men. Where was Jerry Falwell at the time? We’ll never know now. (Hmmm…I stroke my chin and wonder…Jerry Falwell dead? Gay Ghost revival? Someone call DC! I have a comic to write.)

But let’s back up and find out how pretty Keith Everet, the Earl of Strethmere, became a gay…sorry…the Gay Ghost.

As the Earl bestrides his stallion, on his way to ask the lovely Deborah Wallace for her hand in marriage, a gang of rogues sets him upon. The scallywags attempt to steal the earl’s purse. As he struggles with the scoundrels, he is shot, mortally. His spirit is lifted up to heavens, whereupon he is greeted by his ancestors. His caveman forbearer tells the late earl that his dead relations feel his pain and that he can return to the mortal plane if he vows to be an avenger for justice. But there’s a rub. He must wait for his love, Deborah Wallace, to return before he can begin his life anew. The problem is further complicated by the fact that when he returns to earth it is 80 years thence and Deborah is long dead.

Alas, Keith Everet is forced to haunt his old castle until the day of his love’s return. (It is never explained why the Gay Ghost must wait, except, apparently, that it is the only devise the unimaginitive writer could create to transport his 18th century earl to the present day.) Two hundred years pass, and, lo, Deborah Wallace returns…or at least one of her relations with the same name. Good enough! For some reason spies enter the castle behind the 20th century Deborah Wallace and her boyfriend Charles Collins. They kill poor ol’ Charles, which gives the Gay Ghost the perfect opportunity for some man-on-man body possession. He enters the limp body of Charles without the aid of lubrication and we’re off to the races. Deborah and Charles Collins/Keith Everet head to America, where evildoers will soon succumb to the wrath of the Gay Ghost.

To be fair, this was when “gay” meant “lively” and “merry” (doesn’t it still?), attributes not really befitting a ghost, though, especially the “lively” part. So maybe we’re all being a bit immature in our assessment of the Gay Ghost. However, when the Gay Ghost appeared in comics some years later, they shoved the “Gay” in the closet and changed his name to the Grim Ghost…though he was still carefree and happy. Proving a gay ghost by any other name…