volume 1, issues 1-6

série: Tales from the crypt
dessinateur / scénariste: Collectif
éditeur: Gemstone EO 2006
genre: Horreur
classement: biblio520
date: 2006
format: hardcover, with jacket
état: TBE/N
valeur: 40 €
critère: **
remarques: >> archive, see also
dossier 463B US comics
** are the best horror stories

1/ acknowledgements by Russ Cochran, publisher,
to William M. Gaines who published in the fifties
one of the most successful lines
of comic books in history
Al Feldstein was his best writer and artist
for horror stories, both of them created
the famous EC (Entertaining Comics, later on
Educational Comics)
Harvey Kurtzman (Mad Magazine) and Johnny Craig
added to the team their talents followed by
many other talentuous artists such as Jack Davis,
Graham Ingels, Wallace Wood, Joe Orlando,
Al Williamson, John and Marie Severin, Joe Kubert

however due to the restrictions imposed by
the Comic Code, Gaines was forced to draw
the final curtain on EC comic books in 1956

most of the original coloring of these stories
is the work of colorist Marie Severin and
although all of these stories have been
re-colored for this new edition, her style
of coloring was followed to retain the integrity
of the original EC comic books


2/ foreword by John Carpenter
who read during his youth in the fifties
with EC comics the legendary stories
of Bill Gaines such as "weird science" and
"tales from the crypt" (containing entrails,
monsters, demons,death, the undead, the ancient
and new dead, etc), this little comic book
was pulp horror at its finest


3/ the evolution of "tales from the crypt"
Bill Gaines published the first issue of
"International Comics" in 1947
sales were lackluster (not in great demand)
in 1948 the title was changed to
"International Crime Patrol", then "Crime Patrol"
with a new artist: Johnny Craig who introduced
a new character: captain Crime
sales started to increase
later on Al Feldstein stepped in together
with Graham Ingels,
Gaines was now straining toward what would
be called the "new trend" in comics
and with issue 17, Crime Patrol was replaced
by a new title "the crypt of terror" in which
Al Feldstein introduced his narrator,
the crypt-keeper (followed later on by
the vault-keeper and the old witch)
with the first story "return from the grave",
the die was cast and new artists were engaged
(George Roussos, John Alton, Jack Kamen
and Ben Oda)
with this new logo the stories would become
EC's most popular comic books


4/ the crypt of terror, issue 17, april-may 1950
cover art: Johnny Craig, colors: Marie Severin

a) death must come by Al Feldstein **
(the wish for eternal life)
b) the man who was death by an unknown artist
(the life of a executioner
c) the corpse nobody knew by George Roussos
(a detective story)
d) curse of the full moon by Johnny Craig
(the story of a werewolf)
>> p. 42 a photo showing Johnny Craig,
Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines (1949)


5/ the crypt of terror, issue 18, june/july 1950

a) the maestro's hand by Al Feldstein **
(the moving hand)
b) the living corpse by Wally Wood
(the corpse at the morgue coming to life again)
c) madness at Manderville by Harvey Kurtzman
(the mad one is not the one expected)
d) mute witness to murder by Johnny Craig **
(a woman saved by a heart-attack)


6/ the crypt of terror, issue 19,
August/september 1950

a) ghost ship by Al Feldstein
(marooned on a ghost-ship)
b) the hungry grave by Graham Ingels
(ready for a dead body)
c) cave man by Johnny Craig **
(the expedition in the Swiss Alps
to find a specimen of Neanderthaler)
d) the (white) Zombie by Johnny Craig
(the voodoo drums)

>> p. 78 the evolution of crypt logo
the first "trend titles": the crypt of terror,
the vault of horror and the haunt of fear and
as per issue 20 the tales from the crypt

>> p. 94 the creation of comic book pages
first come the writer with a script containing
dialogue, caption (= heading or short title)
and a brief description of the action, then
the laying out was put on the page by the editor,
next would be to pencil the drawings and
the pencil to be inked with or without color
and finally the lettering would be added

>> p. 110 in the beginning of the foray
two further titles were created:
"Two-Fisted Tales" and "Frontline Combat"


7/ tales from the crypt, issue 20,
october/november 1950

a) the thing from the sea by Al Feldstein
(the nightmare of cabin 13)
b) a fatal caper by Jack Kamen **
(the book on magic)
c) Rx...death by Graham Ingels **
(the brother who is being digested alive)
d) impending doom by Johnny Craig
(the gravestone cutter)

>> p. 144 the work condition of the artists
at that time when publishing comic books,
most of them often becaming free-lancers


8/ tales from the crypt, issue 21,
december 1950/january 1951
cover art: Al Feldstein, colors: Marie Severin
>> p. 146 description of the Comic Code used
by the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers
which believes in decency and good taste

a) a shocking way to die by Al Feldstein **
(the new life after a death sentence)
b) terror ride by Wally Wood
(in the amusement park)
c) house of horror by Harvey Kurtzman
d) death suited him by Graham Ingels **
(the cursed poisoned tuxedo)


9/ tales from the crypt, issue 22,
february/march 1951

a) the thing from the grave by Al Feldstein **
(the dead one saving the life of the living one)
b) blood type "V" by Graham Ingels
(transfusion with a vampire's blood)
c) death's turn by Jack Kampen **
(the new type high-speed roller coaster)
d) the curse of the Arnold clan by Johnny Craig
(Arnold's musket and powder-horn)
or the vault of horror
(when crypt-keeper meets vault-keeper)

>> p. 198 the subscription of one year for
the magazine would cost 75 cents for six issues
>> p. 212 the problem with the coloring
of comic books in the 1950s



>> a good achievement of the tales,
some are abit smooth and naive horror stories,
despite the fact that the design was not
always much elaborate but reasonably made
for the price asked for


Information
the EC (Entertaining Comics) Archives is
an effort to preserve for future generations
of comic art aficionados and scholars,
what is generally considered to be
the greatest line of comic books ever published,
the EC line, originally published as regular
10-cents comic books from 1950 through 1955

these comic books were important
for a number of reasons:
- they brought a new, higher level of writing
and artwork to the medium of the comics
- they were popular with young adults
as well as children (one large contingent
of EC readers was the servicemen serving
in the Armed Forces), they were the first
to identify and elevate the comic book artists
to "star status" with the readers and they
provoked a huge outcry from public-minded groups
(and a certain psychiatrist) who maintained
that horror comics in particular and most
comic books in general, were a root cause
for the explosion of juvenile delinquency
in the 1950s

the business of comic books has always
been very initiative when a publisher had great
success with a certain type of comic book,
like Superman for instance
other publishers were quick to jump on
the bandwagon with their own versions
in the 1940s and into the early 1950s,
most homes did not yet have television sets
and the millions of young readers took
to the comic book with a voracious appetite

soon after Superman flew through the
comic book skies, dozens of other costumed
superheroes, each with their own special powers,
appeared on the newsstands of America and were
gobbled up by this new generation of readers

EC Comics began by initiating the most succesful
comic books of the day
the themes of EC Comics started with "funny animal"
stories like "tiny tot comics" (your first comic book)
and followed the trend of the western, romance
and crime comic books of the late 1940s,
until, in 1950, publisher Bill Gaines and
editor/writer/artist Al Feldstein struck out
in a new direction:
horror and science fiction comics
within a year the sales of their new titles
spawned hundreds of other imitators as horror
and science fiction became the "new trend"
in comic books

the team of Gaines and Feldstein created and
produced the horror titles:
- tales from the crypt, the vault of horror
and the haunt of fear
- science fiction/fantasy titles
- weird science and weird fantasy
as well as stories with the famous EC
"twist endings" in:
- Crime SuspenStories and Shock SuspenStories
their success with these titles enabled them to try
a new experiment, the first humorous EC Comic
written and edited by Harvey Kurtzman,
the new book was called MAD
MAD ran 23 issues as a ten-cent comic book
before becoming an iconic magazine and
eventually developing into an American institution
couvertures:
Copyright 2008 - 2025 G. Rudolf