For October I visit Midtown Comics in New York City to get an omnibus of EC's Tales from the Crypt. Then I recap three of my favorite short stories and mix up some Halloween cocktails. / comictropes / comictropesshow
I'd love to visit an alternate reality where EC were never forced to go under. People think of comics as a super hero medium but had EC continued to this day I wonder if comics would instead be seen as a horror medium.
I wish I lived in that timeline. I never liked super hero comics. As close as I get is sometimes reading Spawn. I like detective, occult, horror kind of comics. There's really never enough to read in the medium so I drop out for long periods of time
@@darkwoods1954 same...the EC bug hit me and been buying all the 90s reprints! I was Never into horror and stumbled some EC stories and couldnt believe how good the stories were! And they were written and drawn over 50yrs ago!!
I'm late to the party yet again, but really happy to see you included these terrific EC gems. Loved all their books and Tales remains one of my all-time favorite titles. Jack Davis was amazing and his covers were as beautiful as they were grizzly. Al Feldstein was stellar, as well. Fantastic writers, too. I concur about the need for more modern-day anthologies. Often, those short, pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you stories are the ones that haunt you the longest. Great job, as always, and sweet ass libations, to boot! Thanks for your hard work!
Aside from a few Bradbury adaptations (after he cordially brought it to their attention that they'd ripped off one of his stories, they ended up doing several more, credited, adaptations), the stories were actually all written - uncredited - by Al Feldstein, after being brainstormed between Al and Bill Gaines (with voracious reader Gaines often drawing heavily - sometimes riding the plagiarism line - from all the stories he was reading in the pulps). And speaking of, you did actually hit that trope, as The Ventriloquist's Dummy was heavily inspired by a number of previous "living dummy" stories, though adding their own perverse penchant for utilizing conjoined twins. The artists were always considered the stars, and were given stories suited to their unique styles. And there wasn't a better stable of artists at any other publisher. I've always felt that much of the pushback against EC was motivated, not only by a desire by the other publishers to exile the black sheep that was causing them so much heat, but also professional jealousy. At its height, Tales from the Crypt was outselling everything but Superman, and the art was stunning. Particularly the original line work, before it was colored and printed down to size. The EC artists were very competitive, and fans of each other's work, and would include detail that they knew would never translate to newsprint, simply to impress their peers in the bullpen. And full time colorist Marie Severin, who later went on to draw for Marvel, is sorely underrated, though the printers often botched the placement. Overall, for a few short years, EC was producing some of the most impressive graphic fiction available.
This is the first video that I’ve seen from channel when it was recommended to me. The history of EC Comics is FASCINATING and AMAZING. I’ve read some of the issues online and they are AWESOME!
Bradbury did not sue them! He wrote a letter. Kindly letting them know, how much he's owed for them using his stories! So instead of disputes? Gaines invited him to a deal, we're they both would benefit. And Bradbury accepted happily. It did become and made EC more strong. 👊
+ComicTropes In the old EC comics primarily The Crypt- Keeper was the narrator of , (of course),, Tales from the Crypt. The Vault Keeper, The Vault of Horror. The Old Witch was the narrator of The Haunt of Fear.
Hey-o, @@ComicTropes, I've seen ppl make all kinds of Jack O'Lanterns outta all kinds... ...but not an apple! But for your cup purposes, how about just a few flecks deskinned for eyes/teeth/etc? Oi~! Just. Realized. Skin = Deskin. Well shit. ha!
When my dad was younger he stayed at a cheap hotel that had a stand up comedy show the unknown person turned out to be george lopez before he became famous
I remember reading Telescope on a reprint. I rather loved how the author makes the rat unexpectedly sympathetic. The two castaways are shown as equal throughout the story, and are described as sharing the same plights and going through the same emotions. And I loved how in the end the rat had more genuine reason to fear the sailor than the other way around. Usually a human vs rat story would have the rat as the outright bad guy.
I'm sure you probably know this, but it's worth noting that most of the Tales from the Crypt adaptations (including the HBO series and the UK movies), despite the title actually adapt material from across the entire range of EC's horror, suspense and even war comics.
You left out my favourite EC horror comix trope: the scene where the gruesome corpse is discovered by someone whose invariable reaction is "Good Lord! *choke*" Virtually all EC artists were great, but "Ghastly" Graham Ingels (16:08-19:12) was always my favourite in the horror comics. His people live in a dingy world of decay, deep shadows and distorted perspectives where everyone looks venal and ugly, always grimacing or flying into a rage, committing terrible acts before finally getting their EC-standard issue comeuppance. To me the effective horror aspect of any story he illustrated comes mostly from his dark, creepy depiction of the world as a slightly surrealistic nightmare, a strong visual effect that at times can play against the frequently goofy stories. You almost don't notice the visual storytelling going on because what gets your attention is how vividly he depicts people worn down by time, struggling to hang on or to live with some terrible secret, existing in some falling-apart house or apartment, being goaded by desperation into doing unspeakable things.
How would the two guys choped off all of their limbs, eventually there would be only one limb left, and you cant chop off your arm with your arm, was there a third person or am i putting too much thought into this.
So glad you chose Cutting Cards. Not only was it one of my favorites from the comics, it's also one of my Top 10 HBO episodes, and almost certainly the most faithful adaptation they ever did on the series. You can even look at the way Gus is drawn and see exactly why they cast Lance Henriksen. He's a dead ringer.
19:03 Man I thought the dude's hand had like mind control powers or was able to turn people into dummies when he touched them but wow the real story was way more shocking lol
Later the Creepy magazine would duck out from under the CC on the technicality that it was not a comic but a magazine given its physical size (they made it bigger so it would fall under what would constitute a magazine). This also, by the way, influenced where they could sell these. Eventually they got some Italian artists who specialized in sexy Romance comics and/or books to add some spice to the stories to great succes. This also opened up the way for these comics to get liscensed, translated and sold to European markets, starting with Italy. Given their enormous popularity everywhere else all over Europe, Dutch publishers figured they had a garanteed succes on their hands and printed vast amounts of the first issues. Unfortunately however, nobody was buying them. So the series got the axe after seven issues and nowadays those seven issues aren't really all that rare.
Great video, Chris! Used to love watching the show, but never read the comic. The Crypt Keeper was hilarious. He's my go-to voice whenever I make creepy comments HahA! The influences of pop culture! Thanks for posting!
I traded 3 comics for 1 TFTC comic when I was in the 4th grade in 1991, nothing special except it was a TFTC comic. I loved the vintage, spooky art and cool stories
In the 1980s I donated my Dad's EC comics that we had around the house to the New York Public Library's rare book collection....you couldn't find it? Uh oh....
You know what I wish would use the anthology idea? Godzilla movies. I somehow think that the giant monster formula would work better as short vignettes than as full-fledged films. Just pick any old Godzilla flick and notice how much of it is just filler that they crammed in to stretch out the movie, when they could have just made three 30-minute stories instead. Making it an anthology series would also allow you to feature a lot of different monsters that could each have their turn in the spotlight, instead of just shoe-horning them all into the same story to appease the fans.
You are knowledgable on tbe industry, you love comics , you are a living encyclopedia, you are well educated , historically savvy, open to different genres but what I like you about you as well is that you are not a nerd , geek or soy manchild!! Tales from the crypt was reprinted in Greece in Greek language years ago, 20 or more. I collected some of them but I had no idea it was a 1950's comic...
Nice selection of horror stories. The comics produced in this decade are simply the best ever produced. Period. Have you noticed the recent Craig Yoe line of horror stories? Highly recommended.
Did the chopping story take inspiration from that episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents "Man from the South" in which Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre bet fingers for Lorre's car? It also has a great twist ending.
Now, wait == that's not how I remember the story about Bradbury. Where did I see it? Was it The Steranko History of Comics or The Mad World of William M. Gaines? One of those. But it's definitely been going around for years. EC published a story that clearly mashed together two stories Bradbury had written. I mean, there would have been no doubt if any court case had been filed. But Bradbury didn't sue. He wrote EC a letter saying he appreciated the adaptation, now where was that check they owed him? And that led to the series of Bradbury adaptations you saw throughout the EC line, often touted on the cover with Ray Bradbury's name featured prominently. It was the best way that sticky situation possibly could have been resolved.
"Entertainment director at a big resort hotel at the mountains" No doubt Feldstein wrote this story about the Catskills mountain resorts, in the 50's it was filled with tourists and the hotels had a lot of entertainment and performers, from big names, Sinatra, Lewis &Martin, to unknown performers comedians singer etc
Fun fact. The crypt keepers eyes in the tv show are the same eyes from the Chucky doll in the original child's play movie. Any way check out some of my detailed music in my playlists thEP and thEP2
Watching you make drinks is almost as entertaining as the parts about comics hahaha By the way, were those cops in Midtown Comics on official business or were they shopping for comics?
It’s really sad that the government dealt a killing blow to EC. It’s pretty sickening actually. Also, parent groups are one of the worst things America has ever produced
I wish you'd given some background about the artists and writers of the stories (as well as what issues the stories appeared in) instead of spending all that time with the booze. I have a complete collection of EC'S, but not totally familiar with what story is where/wanted to look these up, but, unless I missed something by skipping all the liquor-making, guess I'll have to thumb through those issues myself to find them (although I DO seem to recall that the TELESCOPE story may have actually been a cover story---and fact you mentioned it was one of the later issues will likely help make it relatively easy to find). I always felt that THE HAUNT OF FEAR was superior to CRYPT and VAULT due to the stronger focus on Graham Ingels'/ "Ghastly" art over the others.
There was a Tarentino story that made reference to that last story. I think the movie was Four Rooms. I loved all these stories even though they are extremely cheesy.
Marvel and DC's predecessors took the opportunity to get rid of the competition by toning down their books and throwing EC and other horror publishers beneath the proverbial bus. Besides, it looks to me as though Congress was more interested in claims of organized crime being involved with publishers than Dr. Wertham's highly questionable theories.
At the intro to "Telescope" (9:41), the crypt-keeper is making tennis+horror puns. I don't know why. "Menace, anyone"; "You've come to the right Creep-Court, 'cause that's my Racket!". As you stated: very, very poor. The story has nowt to do with tennis, so its an odd choice. It's too specific + tennis has far too little of the Macabre about it; after all these years? The link between Tennis & Death is still yet to be proven. Game, Set and Cr*p.
@12:10 ₵☈⅄℘₮ ₭☠☠ㄗ☠ℜ ཿ "I'll dig you Later w/Another Grave Tale of Terror! Till Then, Let me leave you with This Morbid Thought: Don't count your Chicks until they're _HATCHETED!_ 'Bye Now!" Pay later; that's some real... ... _CRYPTIC_ advice!
I thought Mile High Comics in Denver, Co. was the world's largest comic dealer in the world. 65,000 square feet 10 million books in their warehouse on Jason street.
