Tales From The Crypt
EC Comics were all published from the late 1940s until around 1956, when the Comics Code Authority whitewashed all comic books to remove all themes of horror and violence. Everyone receives the Member Price on books. Although EC's brief reign came to an end amid Senate hearings and industry self-censorship, Gaines and his stable of artists and writers created a legacy that continues to inspire American pop culture, in no small part because of EC's notoriety. Within a few years, he transformed it into the most innovative publisher of comic books in the 190s.
Gaines became publisher of EC Comics, he inherited a company deep in debt and struggling to survive. Please click here to login. These volumes are simply gorgeous and you cant help but take your hat off to Gemstone for keeping the EC legacy alive. As will all the volumes they are hardcover with a dust jacket and make the perfect addition to the horror fans library. Along with the covers and stories, the book reprints the original advertisements and letter columns which are always fun to read and give you the flavor of what readers felt when reading these stories fifty years ago. While the color in these volumes has been re-mastered, it has been done to maintain the integrity of Severins original work. Geissman also pens an article on the great colorist extraordinaire, Marie Severin who amazingly handled the coloring chores for most of ECs titles when she came aboard in 1951. Geissman presents a case for the title gaining the identity it has become known for during this period.
Geissman hits on what I mentioned earlier regarding Jack Davis becoming the cover artist as well as handling the lead story in each issue until the end of the titles run. Each volume of the EC Archives includes several historical essays and vol. The stories are mostly all told in the usual EC formula, ending with a biting sense of irony has someone who richly deserves it gets their gruesome comeuppance. Some of the highlight stories from this collection include A Sucker for a Spider, The Thing in the Glades, the humorously grotesque Taint the Meat its the Humanity, This Trickll Kill You, and Grim Fairy Tale, and Lower Berth which features the origin of the Crypt-Keeper.
There's the executioner raising his axe, about to slice the hands off and unfortunate man for issue #15 and the female mummy and two-headed ghoul from issue #17. Each of the six covers are suitably macabre but two stand out. Amazingly more that fifty years after its demise, EC Comics continues to cast a giant shadow over the entertainment industry, influencing modern comics, horror fiction, and film.
The subject matter for EC Comics were horror, science fiction/fantasy, crime stories, war stories, and stories with a social message that generally had a twist or "shock" ending. EC Comics were superior to other comics of the 1950s because of a higher quality of writing and artwork, and they were widely imitated by other comics publishers. These comic books were accused of having no redeeming value to society and were effectively banned by the actions of these groups in creating the Comics Code. Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and Senator Estes Kefauver's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency attacked horror comics as causes of the rise in juvenile delinquency and crimes by minors.