My first true introduction to horror came when I was ten years old (about 1993). My brother got his hands on some reprints of E.C. Comics (aka Entertaining Comics) and I convinced him to give them (or sell them) to me. It was probably the best decision I had ever made when it came to harassing my sibling.
The covers in particular got my attention. One of them (the cover to Crypt of Terror #17) showed a werewolf in a dark alley. Another one, which was Tales from the Crypt #36, shows a ravenous vampire in a taxicab. I knew then that I was onto something special. It took a long time to build up a collection. The comics came out quarterly and I didn’t always make it to the bookstore (Walden’s or B. Dalton’s back in those days) at the right time to get them. I ordered back issues and learned about subscribing, which helped to fill the gaps. This was right before the internet became a shopping tool, and so every order was accomplished by mail.
Currently, I have an entire reprinted run of Tales from the Crypt (formerly Crypt of Terror), Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime Suspenstories, and Shock Suspenstories, in one form or another. I can’t begin to describe how much of an impact these stories have had on me.
For one thing, it gave me an inkling about how dark Ray Bradbury’s imagination was. The writers for E.C., particularly William M. Gaines (the publisher and head honcho) and Al Feldstein, read pulp magazines for their ideas and they lifted several from Bradbury’s stories. Bradbury saw the stories and called them out on it, and they agreed to pay him for further adaptations. It didn’t seem to be very combative, and it showed that E.C. was willing to give credit where it was due. It was also a matter of fact that comic books cannibalized the pulps frequently back in those days (yet somehow, so many of the comics from back in those days seem much more genuine than they do now. . .)
Thanks to E.C., I also became acquainted with the tropes of horror fiction, such as the dead returning from the grave for vengeance, vampires getting destroyed by a wooden stake, and werewolves getting killed by silver. More nuanced were the twist endings that became a hallmark of E.C. storytelling, although I came to learn that this was something that writers like Robert Bloch and other contributors to Weird Tales employed on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, E.C. lifted from Bloch as well, especially one of my favorites from Vault of Horror #19, which used Robert Bloch’s twist ending to his story “Sweets to the Sweet.” I recognized it instantly when I read Bloch’s tale in early 2008, having read the reprinted Vault of Horror issue multiple times back in 1995.
Of course, one of the standouts was the artwork. To this day, E.C. has its share of imitators, but no one has every duplicated E.C.’s quality or consistency (I will say that Creepy had some of the best covers ever.) Up to the 1950s, the art in the E.C. Comics was unmatched compared to the rest of the industry. With classic work by geniuses like Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, Graham Ingles, Jack Kamen, Wally Wood, George Evans, and even a couple by Frank Franzetta, E.C. was groundbreaking and continues to set a high standard to this day.
Last, but not least, I should also mention the humor. The hosts of the horror comics, The Crypt-Keeper, the Vault Keeper, and the Old Witch not only had a macabre sense of humor but also employed a never-ending string of morbid puns. This rubbed off on me, which might be why I have a propensity for dad jokes. I could swear that E.C. also lifted this tendency for wordplay from Robert Bloch. Sometimes, the campiness of their humor complemented the exaggeration in some of the artwork such as in the story “Country Clubbing” from Haunt of Fear #23.
I recently got my hands on a few Tales from the Crypt softcover archives that were reprinted by Dark Horse Comics and plan to re-read them. I have some catching up to do. This also puts me in the mood to re-watch the Tales from the Crypt HBO series that came out while these comics were being reprinted during the 90s. The tv show lasted seven seasons and attracted dozens of big names. The episodes aired (edited for public television, I didn’t have cable) around the same time that I read the comics as a kid and the intro music still lives rent free in my head, the perfect atmospheric score for a spooky night of reading and watching. With that being said, I just got the idea of writing an article on my favorite episodes from the series, so I’ll share that at some point.
To be honest, I was a timid kid when it came to horror, at a time when the thought of Freddy Krueger scared the daylights out of me. E.C. was a gateway drug to bigger fictional thrills. First the comics, then movies like Creepshow that were clearly inspired by them, and eventually the slashers and beyond. It helped transform me from a figurative 90 lb. weakling into the heavy lifting horror fanatic that I am today. Thanks, E.C.
Written by Nick Montelongo
The covers in particular got my attention. One of them (the cover to Crypt of Terror #17) showed a werewolf in a dark alley. Another one, which was Tales from the Crypt #36, shows a ravenous vampire in a taxicab. I knew then that I was onto something special. It took a long time to build up a collection. The comics came out quarterly and I didn’t always make it to the bookstore (Walden’s or B. Dalton’s back in those days) at the right time to get them. I ordered back issues and learned about subscribing, which helped to fill the gaps. This was right before the internet became a shopping tool, and so every order was accomplished by mail.Currently, I have an entire reprinted run of Tales from the Crypt (formerly Crypt of Terror), Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime Suspenstories, and Shock Suspenstories, in one form or another. I can’t begin to describe how much of an impact these stories have had on me.
For one thing, it gave me an inkling about how dark Ray Bradbury’s imagination was. The writers for E.C., particularly William M. Gaines (the publisher and head honcho) and Al Feldstein, read pulp magazines for their ideas and they lifted several from Bradbury’s stories. Bradbury saw the stories and called them out on it, and they agreed to pay him for further adaptations. It didn’t seem to be very combative, and it showed that E.C. was willing to give credit where it was due. It was also a matter of fact that comic books cannibalized the pulps frequently back in those days (yet somehow, so many of the comics from back in those days seem much more genuine than they do now. . .)
Thanks to E.C., I also became acquainted with the tropes of horror fiction, such as the dead returning from the grave for vengeance, vampires getting destroyed by a wooden stake, and werewolves getting killed by silver. More nuanced were the twist endings that became a hallmark of E.C. storytelling, although I came to learn that this was something that writers like Robert Bloch and other contributors to Weird Tales employed on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, E.C. lifted from Bloch as well, especially one of my favorites from Vault of Horror #19, which used Robert Bloch’s twist ending to his story “Sweets to the Sweet.” I recognized it instantly when I read Bloch’s tale in early 2008, having read the reprinted Vault of Horror issue multiple times back in 1995.
Of course, one of the standouts was the artwork. To this day, E.C. has its share of imitators, but no one has every duplicated E.C.’s quality or consistency (I will say that Creepy had some of the best covers ever.) Up to the 1950s, the art in the E.C. Comics was unmatched compared to the rest of the industry. With classic work by geniuses like Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, Graham Ingles, Jack Kamen, Wally Wood, George Evans, and even a couple by Frank Franzetta, E.C. was groundbreaking and continues to set a high standard to this day.
Last, but not least, I should also mention the humor. The hosts of the horror comics, The Crypt-Keeper, the Vault Keeper, and the Old Witch not only had a macabre sense of humor but also employed a never-ending string of morbid puns. This rubbed off on me, which might be why I have a propensity for dad jokes. I could swear that E.C. also lifted this tendency for wordplay from Robert Bloch. Sometimes, the campiness of their humor complemented the exaggeration in some of the artwork such as in the story “Country Clubbing” from Haunt of Fear #23.
I recently got my hands on a few Tales from the Crypt softcover archives that were reprinted by Dark Horse Comics and plan to re-read them. I have some catching up to do. This also puts me in the mood to re-watch the Tales from the Crypt HBO series that came out while these comics were being reprinted during the 90s. The tv show lasted seven seasons and attracted dozens of big names. The episodes aired (edited for public television, I didn’t have cable) around the same time that I read the comics as a kid and the intro music still lives rent free in my head, the perfect atmospheric score for a spooky night of reading and watching. With that being said, I just got the idea of writing an article on my favorite episodes from the series, so I’ll share that at some point.To be honest, I was a timid kid when it came to horror, at a time when the thought of Freddy Krueger scared the daylights out of me. E.C. was a gateway drug to bigger fictional thrills. First the comics, then movies like Creepshow that were clearly inspired by them, and eventually the slashers and beyond. It helped transform me from a figurative 90 lb. weakling into the heavy lifting horror fanatic that I am today. Thanks, E.C.
Written by Nick Montelongo
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