Tales from the Crypt: The Official Archives

This is a great book if you're a collector and need all the original comics. Very cool piece of history.

A mere comic book in 1950, today Tales From the Crypt and its Crypt Keeper are trademarks whose value exceeds their initial medium, much as Disney's Mickey Mouse surpasses the value of his cartoons. And if Mickey means amiable family entertainment, the Crypt Keeper signifies a particular kind of horror tale: one combining brevity, gore, black humor, and moral irony. Tales From the Crypt is also a multimedia property. Digby Diehl touches most bases along its history, beginning with the origin of comics books, a marriage between newspaper comic strips and pulp fiction. In 1896, Richard F. Outcault created The Yellow Kid, a comedic strip of cartoons about ... a yellow kid (allowing its publisher to showcase a newly invented, bright yellow ink, a favorite practice of tabloid yellow journalists). Until the late 1920s all cartoon strips were comedic, hence, a comic strip. In 1933, Max Gaines conceived of reprinting comic strips into pulp books, making him the Father of the Comic Book. In 1945, his partners at Action Comics bought him out and he founded Educational Comics, publishing titles such as Picture Stories From the Bible and Bouncy Bunny in the Friendly Forest. He died in a 1947 boating accident, saving a child's life while perhaps sacrificing his own. Bill Gaines grew up hating and avoiding comics because they had represented Max, a critical and demanding father. Now Bill's mother insisted that he run EC. He did, changing EC from Educational to Entertaining Comics, and hiring Al Feldstein to draw an Archie clone, Going Steady With Peggy. But Bill soon dropped the idea of cloning successful trends, a standard publishing practice then (and now?), and created what he called his New Trend titles. The history of EC's New Trend horror and crime comics (Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories) informs much of Diehl's book, but there is much else. We read of Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, Bill's sci-fi comics tolerated out of love since they never achieved the success of their horror siblings; the GhouLunatics (Crypt Keeper, Vault Keeper, Old Witch); Harvey Kurtzman's distaste for horror, his meticulous attention to military detail in his beloved EC war comics (Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat), and his creation of, and defection from, MAD; EC's plagiarism of Ray Bradbury's "What The Dog Dragged In," leading to a long, congenial working relationship with Bradbury (but who later requested that his name not be put on covers, as he worried that being adapted by the comics hurt his authorial reputation); and the cloning of the New Trend, so that by 1953 about 150 competing horror titles were being published, today mostly forgotten. Sections on each EC artist includes bios and samples of his unique style. Al Feldstein, who wrote and edited most of the New Trend, demanded that each artist have his own signature style. Bill Gaines encouraged it by instituting an "Artist Of The Issue"

this book is for you... it is full of great pictures and information... it is awesome

While I was never a big fan of the HBO cable series - I always felt it was more a star vehicle than a scare vehicle - I did always enjoy the comics it was based on, and with this, the offical history of EC and all their creations, you too will become a fan all over again. This book comes fully equipped and packed with features. It spotlights the history of EC and beyond, background profiles on artists, writers and producers, as well a comprehensive listings of episodes from the HBO series, plus four reprinted classics from the original run (LOWER BERTH/THE THING FROM THE GRAVE/HORROR WE? HOW'S BAYOU? and THE OCTOBER GAME - adapted from a story by Ray Bradbury... who has an interesting history with EC), plus a cover gallery running the gambit of all the EC horror series. This is a must for any fan of the series or collector of comics in general. Very fun, very nice package and very well done. My only complaint is that on occasion the material can read a bit light, but it never bores you... and you learn a thing or two, like: Just who owns all the original art work from MAD #1? To find out - buy and and read inside.

Digby Diehl has dug up enough ghastly art and story lines from the old E.C. vaults to chill even the most die-hard Crypt fans! This book captures the horror and fascination many of us experienced as kids, encountering our first Tales from the Crypt comic. This archive presents a rich visual history of the development of the horror genre in comics, its rise to horrific success, and the devastating blows it was dealt in the 1950s, as comics came under tighter censorship scutiny. It is worth having this book for the collection of cover art alone, but also worth noting is the section on its spinoff into the television series. Anyone who has ever seen the comics, or the shows, will undoubtedly enjoy poring over this collection into the wee hours of the night...