Review- TALES FROM THE CRYPT ANNUAL VOL. 1

TALES FROM THE CRYPT ANNUAL VOL. 1 (Gemstone, 1994; Softcover)

Collects The Crypt of Terror # 17-19 and Tales From The Crypt # 20, 21 (cover dates April/May, 1950- December, 1950/January, 1951)

Writers: Al Feldstein, Gardner Fox, Johnny Craig, and Ivan Klapper

Artists: Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Bill Fraccio, George Roussos, Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Graham Ingels, and Jack Kamen

The first few EC Annuals did not have the title printed on the spine.

While not the first Horror comic book, Tales From The Crypt was the title that put the genre on the map. Like every other comic book company, EC dabbled in lots of genres (Westerns, Crime, Science Fiction). The seeds of the genre that they would become synonymous with, Horror, were laid in the last few issues of War Against Crime! and Crime Patrol. They inserted tales under the banners The Vault Of Horror and The Crypt Of Terror on the cover while simultaneously coining their future phrase SuspenStory. Vault Of Horror was launched the same month as this title, and EC's New Trend Direction was on. Haunt Of Fear would follow one month later.

I read all of these comics years ago in Tales From The Crypt Archives Vol. 1. When you compare these issues to those later in the series, two things become apparent. The first is that the trademark EC ironic twist ending, later employed by Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone, isn't quite perfected yet. There are more “happy endings” in these early issues than there would be later on in the series. The second is that EC employed more comic book journeymen than they would within a few issues. EC later had their stable of artists who did very little work outside of EC during that time. Those artists do contribute here as well, but we see folks like George Roussos and Gardner Fox who are known to fans of DC and Marvel Comics of the 1960s.

Al Feldstein's stories are strong right out of the gate, with his rock solid linework adding a confidence to the proceedings. While not as moody as Graham Ingels or as kinetic as Johnny Craig, Feldstein is the “voice” of this series as far as I'm concerned. Jack Kamen is my favorite of the EC artists stable, with artwork of beautiful people put into horrific circumstances.

The ironic EC twist ending is executed effectively for the first time in #20s A Fatal Caper. #21's Terror Ride, on the other hand, has so happy an ending that is seems anticlimactic. Your mileage may vary. I'm not complaining, mind you. I know that the best of this series is yet to come, and I've read every issue before.

Next to my beloved Spider-Man, EC are my favorite comic books. They are certainly the gold standard for Horror comic books. Without EC we wouldn't have the works of Stephen King or John Carpenter, as these comics were a huge influence on their young minds. Believe the hype and pick up some reprints of these comics. You can thank me later.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Gemstone overprinted their single issue reprints in the '90s with an eye toward selling their own back issues. They re-purposed this overstock by trimming and gluing 5 entire issues into a cardstock cover. While this is not technically a trade paperback (it has no ISBN), it is squarebound and has the title on the spine. Close enough for Rock and Roll in my book.

Linework and Color restoration: The linework is excellent, photographed from the original art. The color palette is faithful to the original publication except for the covers, which are all recolored. All of these recolored covers look inferior to the original versions, especially #21, where the recoloring changes the hair color of the judge in the story. Ridiculous.

Paper stock: Standard pulp paper of the day. The pro is that this looks and feels like a real comic book. The con, and it is a very large one, is that this will age and yellow, just like real comic book paper. I am admittedly less and less worried about this sort of thing as time goes by, as I will likely be dead and gone before this book deteriorates too badly.

Binding: Perfect binding (which is fancy talk for glued). If it hasn't fallen apart in 23 years I am not going to lose sleep over it. The gutters are a bit too tight for my taste.

Cover notes: The cover of the first few Annuals, like this one, did not have a cardstock cover. They had a thick glossy paper cover. This is basically a very fat comic book with a really thick cover. There are only a handful of EC Annuals with the paper covers; the rest have cardstock covers.

Review- EVOLUTIONARY WAR OMNIBUS

EVOLUTIONARY WAR OMNIBUS (Marvel, First Printing, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Avengers Annual #17, Fantastic Four Annual #21, New Mutants Annual #4, Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3, X-Factor Annual #3, and X-Men Annual #12 (cover dates Annual 1988)

Writers: Louise Simonson, Mike Baron, Steve Englehart, Tom DeFalco, David Michelinie, Steve Gerber, Gerry Conway, Walter Simonson, and Mark Gruenwald

Artists: Pencilers- Terry Shoemaker, Mark Texeira, Joe Staton, June Brigman, Mark Bagley, Kieron Dwyer, Arthur Adams, Cynthia Martin, Al Milgrom, Mark Bright, Paris Cullins, and Ron Lim; Inkers- Al Milgrom, Scott Williams, Josef Rubinstein, Bob McLeod, Mike Esposito, Joe Sinnott, Bob Wiacek, Cynthia Martin, Gerry Talaoc, Chris Ivy, Keith Williams, Mike Gustovich, Valerie Gustovich, Tony DeZuniga, and Jim Sinclair.

File this one under “Things aren't as good as they used to be...and they probably never were.” I eagerly scooped this book up when it came out, apparently oblivious to my memory of reading it when it was originally published. I hated this crossover at the time of original publication. I knew at age 15 that this was nothing more than a cash grab and a scam, refusing to buy the issues that were not a part of my regular titles. The fact that the story was incomplete unless you bought every single double-sized (and double-priced!) issue was an insult to me then and it is even more so to me now. Of course the point of comic companies is to make as much money as possible, but to insult the fans by forcing them to do stuff like this turned me off back then...much like it has today. I buy nothing that Marvel publishes today. If not for collected editions of vintage material they would see none of my money.

The main story is pretty feeble. The High Evolutionary has returned, deciding to fulfill humanity's potential by accelerating their evolution to it's maximum. This story is dragged into places where it doesn't belong. Incorporating The Punisher into this crossover was a bit of a stretch. To be honest most of these stories don't make a lot of sense, or they simply have the High Evolutionary shoe-horned in there for crossover branding purposes. The Amazing Spider-Man Annual with Speedball and Daredevil was fun, in a corny kind of way. The X-Men Annual was underwhelming, then and now. Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 shows Gerry Conway returning to what was one of the most gaping holes in a plotline from his 1970s run: How a mere college professor could clone a human. Conway's ret-cone only serves to further muddy the waters on the clusterfuck that would soon be known as The Clone Saga a few years later.

If not for the back-up stories in each Annual which chronicled the origin of the High Evolutionary (collected together in the back of the book), I would have ranked this much, much lower. The origin story was highly entertaining, especially when the High Evolutionary was battling Baron Gregory Russoff (the ancestor of Jack Russell, a.k.a. Werewolf By Night).

 

This isn't a high point in the history of the Marvel Universe, nor is this the best work of any of the creators involved. I will still take this over what passes as Marvel Comics these days. At least everyone is acting true to character and the writers tell a story which serve the characters and not themselves. Not every comic has to wow or shock you, folks.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- While I have grown to dislike the size of most Omniboo, this book hits the 400-500 page sweet spot.

There are numerous omissions in this book. If a back-up story didn't belong as a part of the crossover then it was omitted from this book.

Linework and Color restoration: Very good overall, certainly better than the material warrants.

Paper stock: Beautiful thick coated stock with a slight sheen. I loved the paper that Marvel used in their Omniboo during this era.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, book lays completely flat from the first page to the last.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: Thick lamination on the dustjacket, faux leather grain casewrap with dye foil stamping. 

Review- FRONTLINE COMBAT ANNUAL VOL. 1

FRONTLINE COMBAT ANNUAL VOL. 1 (Gemstone, 1996; Softcover)

Collects Frontline Combat #1-5 (cover dates July/August, 1951- March/April, 1952)

Writer: Harvey Kurtzman with Jerry DeFucio (one story)

Artists: Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Russ Heath, Wally Wood, John Severin and Bill Elder

Widely considered to be an anti-war comic, the more that I think about it the more that I believe that it is merely a super realistic war comic. I once considered it to be an anti-war comic because it depicted war in an unfavorable manner. It doesn't glamorize war or paint soldiers as heroes, it paints them as men who are there because they have to be rather than because they want to be. Remember, this was a time when it was not a volunteer army. The stories take place in various wars (i.e. the Civil War, etc.) but the outcome remains the same.

EC's war titles differ from the rest of their comics because they are hand lettered rather than lettered with the Leroy lettering system. I much prefer the Leroy system, as it has a cleaner look to it. I have found this font for Open Office and have toyed with the idea of using it as the font for this blog. What say you, gentle readers?

This being EC, the writing and artwork are all top notch. I have said it before and I will say it again (and again...and again): EC made the best comic books of all time. They were light years ahead of their time and they still blow away anything on the stands today. I have little interest in war comics but EC made even those comics entertaining. I would love to see the Pre-Trend stuff collected someday. A few things were made available in black and white in the old EC Library box sets, but they need to be released in color...and I am not talking about the shitty color found in the current EC Archives. I mean the original color palette.

I have been spacing out these EC Annuals. I still have an entire short comic box of unread ones, so there will be reviews of EC Comics for years to come.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Gemstone overprinted their single issue reprints in the '90s with an eye toward selling their own back issues. They re-purposed this overstock by trimming and gluing 5 entire issues into a cardstock cover. While this is not technically a trade paperback (it has no ISBN), it is squarebound and has the title on the spine. Close enough for Rock and Roll in my book.

Linework and Color restoration: Shot from the original artwork with a color palette authentic to the original publication. If you want to see EC Comics in full color then this is the best way to do so, as these look superior to the originals in print quality.

Paper stock: Standard pulp paper of the day. The pro is that this looks and feels like a real comic book. The con, and it is a very large one, is that this will age and yellow, just like real comic book paper. I am admittedly less and less worried about this sort of thing as time goes by, as I will likely be dead and gone before this book deteriorates too badly.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Thick cardboard with minimal coating. There are signs of wear after years but all in all very solid.

Review- WAR AGAINST CRIME ANNUAL VOL. 1

WAR AGAINST CRIME ANNUAL VOL. 1 (Gemstone, 2000; Softcover)

Collects War Against Crime Nos. 1-5 (cover dates Spring, 1948- February-March, 1949)

Writers: Lee Ames, Johnny Craig, Ed Moore, Graham Ingels, Al Feldstein, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Lee Ames, Johnny Craig, Ed Moore, Graham Ingels, Stan Asch, Frank Bolle, Leonard Starr, Al Feldstein, Sheldon Moldoff, and Howard Larson

This is the first “Pre-Trend” EC Comic that I have read. As I plow through my collection of EC Annuals I have decided to jump back and forth between the various eras. I started with New Trend (Horror), then read some New Direction (i.e. Valor), back to New Trend, and have now went back to the beginning, the Pre-Trend. Unfortunately, much of the Pre-Trend material has not been reprinted. A few things made it into the black and white EC Library sets, but a lot of the obscure stuff seems to be lost to the ages. And don't even get me started on the long promised, perpetually delayed 3D set...

Crime comics were insanely popular with all ages of readers through the 1940s. The first (and best) was Crime Does Not Pay, which had a circulation of six million copies a month. Six million! Keep in mind that publishers today do backflips with 100,000 copies sold. If a monthly hits some magic mark like 300,000 it is cause for champagne. Crime Does Not Pay inspired a slew of imitators, with one in seven comic books sold in 1949 being a “true crime” type comic. It should come as no surprise that EC would throw their hat in the ring, since they hadn't found their “voice” as a publisher yet. That would come soon enough, though.

This series followed the whole “true crime” case formula pioneered by Crime Does Not Pay. A few of these stories even use their famous phrase of “Crime Does Not Pay” in the final panel! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? There are subtle changes as the series progresses. I really enjoy all of this hard-edged, brass knuckle tough guy gangster stuff. Bank robbers and the like. It's all fun, although I won't be reading this to my kids any time soon.

There is some terrific early Al Feldstein artwork hear, and also some Graham Ingels before he was “Ghastly”. As for picking a favorite story, I can't. I enjoyed them all equally. I did like how they switched eras, from train robbers to the Revolutionary War to then-modern times.

While this isn't as good as their Horror comics it was still a terrific read. I have tons of EC Annuals and Archives in my backlog, so there will be more EC reviews in the months and years ahead.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- If you do not know what an EC Annual is, then pull up a chair and I'll give you the skinny on these great books. Gemstone overprinted their single issue reprints in the '90s with an eye toward selling their own back issues. They re-purposed this overstock by gluing 5 entire issues into a cardstock cover. While this is not technically a trade paperback (it has no ISBN), it is squarebound and has the title on the spine. Close enough for Rock and Roll in my book.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: None.

Linework restoration rating: 5 out of 5. William Gaines kept the original artwork, or filmed it, and so what you have here are superb presentations of this material with no line dropouts.

Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. The color palette is entirely faithful to the original issues with the exceptions of the covers. Marie Severin recolored them all for the EC Library sets, and those same versions are found here.

Paper rating: 3.5 out of 5. The comics themselves are printed on the mando pulp paper of the day, while the covers are presented on the original slick cover stock. Some folks prefer this comic book feeling paper. I prefer paper with a little more heft. Your mileage may vary. On the plus side, there is zero glare under any light source.

Binding rating: 4.5 out of 5. The glued binding is nearly 15 years old and has nary a creak when you flip through it. The gutters are incredibly tight, although nothing is lost in them.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. There isn't much in the way of coating, but this book has a nice thick cardstock cover with a fair amount of flex to it.

While this book is out of print, there plenty of other great EC books available for you to buy at InStockTrades!

Review- THE VAULT OF HORROR ANNUAL VOL. 5

THE VAULT OF HORROR ANNUAL VOL. 5 (Gemstone, 1998; Softcover)

Collects The Vault of Horror Nos. 32-36 (originally published by EC Comics, cover dates August/September, 1953- May, 1954)

Writers: Al Feldstein, William Gaines, Jack Oleck, Johnny Craig, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, George Evans, Graham Ingels, Bill Elder, Reed Crandall, Jack Kamen, and Bernie Krigstein

EC Comics rule! They remain the gold standard for Horror comics, Horror anthology series, and for comic books as a whole. If better comics were made then I have not read them. Each issue is divided into four stories,a two page text story, and two pages of letters. I will list my favorite story for each issue, even though they are all winners and I could gush nonstop about this stuff. Perhaps one day I won't edit one of my EC reviews so you can see how long they start out as.

The Bates MANSION? This predate Psycho by seven years.

#32's Whirlpool is the winner for that issue. It paints a chilling picture of mental illness at a time when such things were just creeping into the national consciousness. Together They Lie! from #33 is one of those life insurance scam type stories that are fairly commonplace for 1950s comics, but it is saved with the delicious EC ironic twist ending. These ending might seem unspectacular or even cliched to the modern reader but one must take the era which these were originally published in into account. EC pioneered this technique. This predates Rod Serling's Twilight Zone schtick. 

Ghastly Graham Ingels' turn in #34, Where There's A Will..., is another story about wills and inheritances, another popular topic in Pre-Code Horror comic books. Unlike many of these stories, though, the protagonists actually get away with it. #35 is outstanding. I had to think long and hard about my favorite in that issue. All said and done, I would have to go with Beauty Rest by a narrow margin. Jack Kamen's gorgeous artwork really elevates the material. Heck, all of these EC guys were the best, but Ingels and especially Kamen were the best of the best. Joyce was told she was a shoe-in in a beauty contest because of the note that Mr. Boxer gave her. Helen, her jealous roommate, decides to get one over on her by stealing her entry into the Miss Corpse of 1954 pageant. She ends up murdering her roommate by accidentally giving her an overdose on sleeping pills, but at least she won the Undertakers' and Embalmers' Association award! There seems to be an overt hostility to the mortuary business in these EC Comics, with Feldstein and company basically calling the entire profession a sham and a scam. 

Artwork by the master, "Ghastly" Graham Ingels.

Bernie Krigstein's does the artwork for issue 36's Pipe-Dream, a somewhat cautionary tale about opium addiction. Chen has visions (or dreams) in his opium sleep, and his dreams come true in often gruesome fashion. He feels strong and powerful in his stupor, and even upon realization that his addiction is the source of his woe and his power he continues using, hoping for another dream. 

Artwork by Bernie Krigstein.

I am still working through the crate of EC Annuals that I bought from Russ Cochran in January of 2012. It will be years before I finish reading them all. It's a wonderful problem to have.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- If you do not know what an EC Annual is, then pull up a chair and I'll give you the skinny on these great books. Gemstone overprinted their single issue reprints in the '90s with an eye toward selling their own back issues. They re-purposed this overstock by gluing 5 entire issues into a cardstock cover. While this is not technically a trade paperback (it has no ISBN), it is squarebound and has the title on the spine. Close enough for Rock and Roll in my book.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: None.

Linework restoration rating: 5 out of 5. William Gaines kept the original artwork, or filmed it, and so what you have here are superb presentations of this material with no line dropouts.

Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. The color palette is entirely faithful to the original issues with the exceptions of the covers. Marie Severin recolored them all for the EC Library sets, and those same versions are found here. Some of the blacks on the interior pages look weak, but that is the result of the water based inks used in the 1990s.

Paper rating: 3.5 out of 5. The comics themselves are printed on the mando pulp paper of the day, while the covers are presented on the original slick cover stock. Some folks prefer this comic book feeling paper. I prefer paper with a little more heft. Your mileage may vary.

Binding rating: 4.5 out of 5. The glued binding is over 15 years old and has nary a creak when you flip through it. These copies were not trimmed to a consistent width, so this miscut book has two issues which stick about 1/16” farther out than the others. Most folks wouldn't notice it, but then again, I am not most folks.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. There isn't much in of coating, but this book has a nice thick cardstock cover with a fair amount of flex to it.

This book is out of print, but you can buy plenty of other great EC books at InStockTrades!

Review- AVENGERS: WEST COAST AVENGERS- ZODIAC ATTACK

AVENGERS: WEST COAST AVENGERS- ZODIAC ATTACK (Marvel, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Avengers Annual No. 16, West Coast Avengers Nos. 25-30, and West Coast Avengers Annual No. 2 (cover dates October, 1987- March, 1988)

Writers: Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom (30)

Artists: Al Milgrom and Mike Machlan with Dave Hunt and others ( Avengers Annual No. 16)

The book starts out with the two Annuals which are a sequel to the 1982 mini-series Contest of Champions. The Controller used the East and West Coast Avengers teams in a game to trick Death into releasing the Grandmaster from his deathly exile. Al Milgrom's artwork is best described as “serviceable”. He is okay as long as he has a good inker. When he inks his own work, as he does in the West Coast Avengers Annual, the results are less than impressive. I've read both of these a few times. They were collected in the 1999 Contest of Champions trade paperback which I owned (2001 printing) but then dumped off to upgrade to the 2010 Marvel Premiere Classic Hardcover Avengers: The Contest, which was a remastered and significantly upgraded version of the same material.

The issues from the core series were a huge arc dealing with the Zodiac. The Zodiac have been used so many times and in so many ways that even diehard comic fans find them hard to follow. The original incantation was a criminal cartel, where each sign was a gang leader. According to Wikipedia, there have been six versions of the Zodiac. This book features the second version. Loathe as I am to resort to referring to Wikipedia, the Zodiac are so confusing to me that I had to. 

The battle between Wonder Man and the Abomination in issue 25 is great. I have always enjoyed Moon Knight and was pleased to see him join the team. This group was always a mismatched affair and so he fits right in. The battle between Moon Knight and Taurus in issue 29 is a lot of fun, as we see Moon Knight's schizophrenic personality reemerging. Milgrom's pencils and layouts are good. He is a great storyteller even if he is not a technically great artist. Mike Machlan's inks are not as powerful as Joe Sinnott's but he still saves the day (and Milgrom's artwork). Englehart is mysteriously absent from issue 30 but returns in issue 31 (not in this book). Milgrom takes over the scripting duties in issue 30 in addition to his pencils. The story feels similar to one of those proto-Silver Age Stan Lee alien invasion type stories from Tales To Astonish or one of the other Atlas science fiction/ monster titles.

The material collected in this book is being repackaged in the West Coast Avengers Omnibus Vol. 2, due later this year. The rub of it is that this is the last of the Marvel Premiere Classic hardcovers, while the second Omnibus goes up to issue 41. So I will be dumping this (and Lost In Space-Time) on eBay and upgrading. I resisted buying the first West Coast Avengers Omnibus because I am perfectly happy with the first three hardcovers. This will be the only way that issues 31-41 and Annual 3* will be collected unless Marvel issues another hardcover...which they probably will if I buy the Omnibus. If I don't buy it, it will go out of print and then a collection of issues 31-41 and Annual 3 will never materialize. A pox upon you, completist OCD! (*Annual 3 was also collected in the Evolutionary War Omnibus.)

This will then bump us up to the John Byrne run, which I already own in the VisionQuest and Darker Than Scarlet trade paperbacks. The fill-in issues 58 and 59 are collected along with issues 63-75 in the Along Came A Spider-Woman trade paperback. This would give us enough material, already remastered and restored, for a third potential Omnibus. Don't hold your breath for that one, although I wouldn't entirely rule it out when Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theatres in two years.

That leaves us only issues 76-102 and Annuals 4-8* in order for the entire series to be collected under the West Coast Avengers banner. Annual 4 (Atlantis Attacks), 80-82 (Operation: Galactic Storm), 96, 97 (Infinity Crusade), and 101 (X-Men/Avengers: Bloodties) have been collected in their respective crossover-themed collections.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I love the way that these Chinese made books smell.

DVD-style Extras included in this book:

Marvel Age Annual No. 3 (1985) page 3, a spoof page by Writer/Artist Fred Hembeck, and page 5, which was a preview page with brand new writing and artwork by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, and Mike Machlan. That Annual was a blast, as they had a brand new page for each title that Marvel was currently publishing outlining the next year's plotlines. I loved Marvel Age magazine.

The covers to issues 27 and Avengers Annual No. 16 with modern recoloring. These were used as the front and back cover of the dustjacket for the bookstore market version of the book (see cover image at the top of the review). These are fully rendered and would have been used for a softcover version of this book. They likely will be used if one is ever made available. They are presented here without any trade dress (i.e. logos, etc.).

Linework and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. These Marvel Premiere Classic Hardcovers were a sort of junior Masterworks line. While this isn't quite the “Blu-Ray” restoration you would see in a Marvel Masterwork, it is still excellent.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Sewn binding. The book lays 99% flat. I feel all warm and fuzzy.

Buy AVENGERS: WEST COAST AVENGERS- ZODIAC ATTACK HC at InStockTrades!

Also available in DIRECT MARKET VARIANT flavor.