The legendary E.C. line ran through most of the early fifties. Before being run out of business midway through the decade by a moral purity crusade who charged that the comics were too graphic in violence and gore, E.C. set many of the standards that the succesful comics to come would imitate.
E.C. was exclusively an anthology format, but had many titles devoted to a variety of genres. The line is primarily known for its horror titles (three magazines, Tales From The Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear), each hosted by its own wisecracking ghoulish character. However these horror stories come off as rather juvenile in the main when compared to E.C.'s true great achievement: the science fiction line (the Weird Science and Weird Fantasy titles). The sci-fi E.C.'s featured not only intelligent, thought-provoking stories but breathtaking artwork, and some consider the WS/WF series to be the greatest single comic book series ever.
Other notable titles in E.C.'s line included Crime Suspenstories, which told more traditional murder/crime stories, each with the trademark twist ending; and Shock Suspenstories, each issue of which offered up a smorgasboard selection of the other genres of horror, sci-fi, and mystery/crime.
Well, Todd, you forgot to mention E.C.'s only remaining series: MAD Magazine. A few years back, MAD reprinted their first 23 issues (Tales Calculated to Drive You MAD). I've got the reprints. I don't think it was a laugh riot, but I was quite enchanted by the artwork by the likes of John Severin, Jack Davis, Bill Elder Wally Wood and, of course, Harvey Kurtzman. Bernie Krigstein and Basil Wolverton even contributed to the series.
In the early `90's some of the old E.C.'s were reprinted. I bought an issue of Vault of Horror, I believe it was. I wasn't too impressed with it. What bothered me the most about it was that some of the lines in the book were rewritten to update the story. Specifically, I remember the date in one story being moved up 10 or 20 years. I found that to be mildly annoying.
MAD actually started out as a comic satarizing the E.C. horror line before quickly evolving into the landmark of American satire we know today.
Sorry to say, but you're only partially right, Todd. Beginning in 1997 the first 23 issues of MAD were reprinted by E.C. Publications. This was done in 8 issues and I have all 8. I can tell you that the first issue of MAD had a horror story parody, a science fiction parody, a gangster/crime story parody and a western parody in it. In other words, Tales Calculated to Drive You MAD did parodies of the entire E.C. Comics line, not just the horror titles.
Yes, I was using the term "horror line" as an all-encompassing phrase to also include the sci-fi and mystery stories. Perhaps I should have been more specific. I too have the complete run of MAD on CD-rom as well as the complete hardcopy EC reprints of the horror/SF/mystery titles).
And MAD died a few years back. What it is currently being published is a Undead creature being kept alive by the unholy powers of AOL Time Warner.
The EC comics were guilty of plagerism numerous times, but on at least one notable occasion, they had a story stolen from them. Tom Godwin's famous 1954 story "The Cold Equations" is virtually identical with the story "A Weighty Problem" which appears in the May 1952 issue of Weird Science.
Frontline Combat #5
Big 'If'! (reprinted in From Aargh! To Zap!)
Not a bad idea for a story, but what I found annoying was when the character rather than the captions, said variations of "If Paul Maynard had". Who talks like that? More natural would have been to say "If only I had".
Apparently a shell splinter hits Paul in the heart, but he manages to survive for over 27 minutes. I'm not sure if this is possible or not, but it seems unusual.
While I do wonder how long the comic MAD would have lasted, it did present a number of great pieces and under the direction of Harvey Kurtzman had a different, crazier style to it than the more polished Al Feldstein creation. For instance, the Feldstein parodies seemed mostly labored around a series of one-liners, while the Kurtzman parodies were their own crazy creations.
Split Personality! The Vault Of Horror #30
The final 2 panels show the twins lavishing attention on their halves of 'their' husband, but as drawn, with the half faces of the guy facing the readers & the gals on the other side of the bed, what the women should be seeing is the inside of the guy's head, not the external half.
Foul Play! The Haunt Of Fear #19 Reprinted in Foul Play!: The Art And Artists Of The Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics!
NNAN. I presume they reprinted this story because the author used the title for his book, but as I understand it Jack Davis wasn't that fond of it, so it's interesting that it's used to illustrate the section about him.
Page 3, Panel 3. Caption says that Satten smirks, but he isn't drawn smirking.
Doc White sure is good to figure out that Jerry Deegan was killed with a fast-acting poison & to recognize the traces of poison still on Satten's cleats.
Blind Allys Tales From The Crypt #46 Reprinted in Foul Play!: The Art And Artists Of The Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics!
NNAN but I had to laugh at how unsubtle this story is.
Describing the terrible conditions the blind tenants live under & then how they hear "the clinking of champagne glasses".
Okay, so they don't actually say there is champagne in those glasses, but the implication is that he has made an incredible amount of money off blind tenants who probably do not have high-paying jobs to begin with. What's this guy's secret? The fact that he also lives in this building would seem to indicate that this slumlord only owns one slum (or the rest must be really bad off).
Also if the living conditions are this bad how come the tenants haven't complained to others? Don't they have friends or family?
And of course he's also cruel, with a capital CRU. Tripping blind people, removing banisters to watch them fall, dumping water on them... yeesh. Subtly is not an option.
The Flying Machine Weird Science-Fantasy #23 Reprinted in Foul Play!: The Art And Artists Of The Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics!
On page 1 the emperor's robes are green, but on page 2 they are blue.
Tales From The Crypt returns http://www.papercutz.com/news1a.html
I remember one story about a tiger that could turn into a lady. The story said that the tiger was captured in Africa.
Interesting, considering that tigers are indigenous to Asia, not Africa.
She was a tourist? ;-)
Good an answer as any.
Of course, the out of universe answer is that the story was written decades ago, long before there was an Internet for one to do easy research on.
Even then opening an encyclopedia or a call to a library could have gotten the info easily.
Heck, I seem to recall some stories of readers complaining to Edgar Rice Burroughs about putting animals in the wrong locations as far back as the 1920s, so the writer of that EC story just goofed up.
Even then opening an encyclopedia or a call to a library could have gotten the info easily.
Guess that was too much like work.
I recognize some of the stories mentioned here from their adaptations for the 1990's Tales From The Crypt TV show.
I recently read a short story called Lost.
In this story, a bank robber named Blackie, along with his two accomplices, a husband and wife named Tom and Nell, hide their ill gotten loot in a system of caves that only Blackie knows the way out of. Blackie suggests they stay there until the heat dies off.
At one point, Blackie goes out on a supply run, but gets arrested. He tells the cops that he is alone and gets tossed in prison for twenty years.
When he gets out, twenty years later, Blackie figures that Tom and Nell are long dead and the loot is his. When he returns to the cave, Blackie is attacked by both Tom and Nell, the two having degenerated into cave dwelling creatures. Blackie manages to kill them both.
However, before he can recover the loot, Blackie is attacked by a third creature, Tom and Nell's son. Needless to say, it does not end well for Blackie.
My question is, how did Tom and Nell survive for twenty years in that cave? I didn't see any water, or anything they could eat.