Comic Info
Comic Name: Tales from the Crypt
Publisher: EC/Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Al Feldstein
Artist: Al Feldstein/Graham Ingels/Jack Davis/Johnny Craig/Wally Wood/Jack Kamen/Howard Larsen/George Roussos/Joe Orlando
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2022
Tales from the Crypt #27
Reprints Tales from the Crypt #23-28 (April 1951-February 1952). The Crypt Keeper and his friends are back with a whole batch of new stories of horror. From voodoo spells, supernatural body-swapping, cursed puppets, and the undead rising, the horror is real as those with impure thoughts and plans pay for their actions! There is a lot of room for corpses in the Crypt, and the Crypt is open for terror!
Written by Al Feldstein, The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt—Volume 2 is a Dark Horse Comics reprint of the EC horror comics. Following The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt—Volume 1, the collection features art by Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Howard Larsen, George Roussos, and Joe Orlando. The collection has been reprinted in both hardback and paperback by Dark Horse Comics.
I always loved horror growing up and books of ghost stories and horror tales were always a favorite. Most of those stories feel like the basis for all of the EC horror comics which take a very simple approach to the horror…those who sin are the ones who die.
Despite the controversy surrounding EC and the horror they presented, fundamentally, they are pretty morally positive stories. While generally an innocent pays the crime initially (a husband whose promiscuous wife hooks up with a philandering man ends up dead, etc.), the guilty pay…in scores. The horror of the comics often is pretty real with acid baths and other nasty deaths. I can imagine in the 1950s, they were pretty shocking, but now they are so cartoon that they are often almost quaint.
Tales from the Crypt #28
Another great thing about the reprints is seeing everything else surrounding EC. You have advertisements for other magazines, and it is also fun to see advertisements for the pre-horror comics they put out which include things like Picture Stories from the Bible and other “non-horror” comics right next to stories about zombies and ghouls.
The art is great and this collection is no exception. The collections often highlight pages of art and the cleaned up presentation of the comics is top notch. The artists are all classics and some of the additional articles and letter pages give a bit of insight to how EC operated…including an introduction of Joe Orlando in Tales from the Crypt #28. Orlando went on to do horror and other comics for years…along with other artists here. It is fun to see some of these artists starts.
The EC Archives are a great addition if you love horror and if you love comic books. Their significance in the whole progression of the comic industry can’t be forgotten, and Dark Horse is doing a great job keeping them out there and affordable. The oversized collections are definitely worth seeking out and if you were a fan of the Tales from the Crypt series or movies, it is a fun to see some of the stories that were turned into episodes. Open the Crypt…it is always worth it.
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