"Big Game" is the second story in Haunted Mansion #4. It was written and illustrated by Aaron Alexovich.
Synopsis[]
Lord Albert Dunswallop - as narrated by his faithful adventure chronicler Perkins - is a globe-trotting adventurer and hunter of exotic creatures. For the past 22 years, Perkins has followed Lord Dunswallop from one far-flung locale to the next, documenting his increasingly strange encounters with (and subsequent victories over) a menagerie of beasts and monsters that he has since stuffed and made trophies of. Now, the only entity that remains unchallenged and un-mounted on his wall is a ghost.
This brings Lord Dunswallop and Perkins to Gracey Manor, home to "nearly a thousand lost souls." As they pair enter the house, Dunswallop proclaims the deadly nature of the "Gracey ghasts," describing monstrous phantoms with long claws and sharp teeth. Presently, they reach a door where eerie sounds emanate; Dunswallop continues exaggerating the dangers of the ghosts by asserting they are feasting on unfortunates on the other side. When Perkins asks if they should have brought firearms with them, Dunswallop scoffs, claiming all he needs are his oak-like arms, and pushes the door open.
Beyond is the ballroom. where the happy haunts have their midnight jamboree. Perkins points out that they look humanoid, and Dunswallop replies that they can assume a number of different forms. He scans the ghosts, looking for the most ideal spirit to capture and put on display, and settles on the Executioner. When Perkins inquires how Dunswallop will grapple with a ghost - considering their incorporeal state - Dunswallop assures him he's though of everything: shortly before, he imbibed a deadly poison, with the plan to temporarily separate his spirit from his body, subdue the spectre, put him in a sack and return to his body. Lord Dunswallop marches off, and Perkins realizes he's been talking to his master's ghost, spotting Dunswallop's dead body lying slumped behind him.
Dunswallop makes a big show of arriving and tries to show bravado to intimidate the ghosts, but they instead cheer when they see him. Phineas says they were expecting him, that Madame Leota predicted the arrival of a new ghost today: number 992. A confused Dunswallop gets pulled into the revelry by celebrating ghosts, and Perkins reluctantly drags his master's body away, musing if the reader might be in the market for an adventure chronicler.