“They were arguably the best commercial comics company in the history of the medium, and their list of artists and writers between 19 represents a Who’s Who of the most accomplished craftsmen working in comics at that time.”Īnd in an essay this year, he wrote: “EC came as close as a mainstream comics publisher could to being the comics equivalent of Barney Rosset’s Grove Press. “The EC line represents a high-water mark in the history of commercial comics,” he wrote in an e-mail. Gary Groth, Fantagraphics president and editor of its EC Library, thinks he knows. So why, decades after its death, is EC still alive - and even thriving? IDW also put out biographies this year of Wood and EC’s indispensable editor-writer-artist, Al Feldstein.
IDW Publishing is producing stunning, portfolio-size Artist’s Editions, with work by EC all-stars like Wally Wood, Jack Davis and Harvey Kurtzman (who created Mad magazine) and others. Just last month, Fantagraphics released two more albums in its EC Comics Library, started last year, and will soon publish its first volume of illustrator interviews in “The EC Artists.” Dark Horse Comics has revived the EC Archives, and will continue the series with “Tales From the Crypt: Volume 4,” next month. While I was still somewhat shocked at how open the stories featuring psychoanalysis are, for anyone seeing what is shown on TV today, this is fairly tame material.This is a chilling and improbable tale of the living dead: Even though they were savaged by the politeness police and left lifeless some 60 years ago, EC comic books, which spawned notorious titles like Tales From the Crypt, Shock SuspenStories and Mad, have become the comics that refused to die. It was considered shocking and scandalous when originally published in 1956, the same time - approximately - as the psychoanalysis stories contained in this volume.
I remember reading PEYTON PLACE as a senior in high school.
Let's talk a moment about the subject matter for just a second. It's too bad the Picto-Fiction format never really too off. FRAZETTA!!! And the writing is top notch too. In addition to the three Nappi covers, there are stories illustrated by Jack Kamen, Reed Crandall, George Evans, Graham Ingles, Al Williamson, and Frank Frazetta. That changed recently, however, when I discovered that Rudy Nappi, the cover artist for Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles between 19, painted the covers for issues 2-4 of SHOCK ILLUSTRATED that are collected here.
I never really allowed myself the chance to become a fan of EC's titles - there were far too many other comics (mainly DC) that I had an interest in reading.
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