Just in time for Halloween, it's CREEPY
Like many horror nerds my age, I was a little young to be a firsthand aficionado of EC Comics "Tales from the Crypt", "Vault of Horror" or "Haunt of Fear". However, almost everyone *creating* the horror films, books, short stories and comics I WAS devouring as a kid waxes poetic about their first issues of those vaunted titles.
Hearing George Romero, John Carpenter, Steven King or just about anybody who was anybody in the late 70s and early 80s horror milieu spin yarns about hollowing out a secret compartment in their closet wall to hide EC comics from their mom is akin to the Buzzcocks or Robert Smith talking about how they were at one of the very first Sex Pistols shows. It's somewhere between nostalgia and mythology. As a teen and now an adult, finding EC reprints or archives hasn't been difficult, but I always felt like somehow, I missed the boat. Like I got cheated out of being there when those comics were new and edgy and controversial.
Luckily, I DID catch the tail end of the "sequel". Warren's Eerie and Creepy were still around when I was a young adolescent. Being ignorant of EC stuff then, for the most part, I didn't realize that Eerie and Creepy were the work of many of the "old EC crew", featuring the same literary storytelling, fantastic artwork and most of all, wry, dark sense of irony, poetic justice, and dread as the best of the work done for Bill Gaines. Like my horror idols and their "Tales from the Crypt" issues, I too had to hide my Warren mags from my mother, who would promptly toss them in the dustbin when and if she found them. It was a true right of passage.
Dark Horse Comics is in the process of issuing the complete Eerie and Creepy Archives. I have Vol. 1, which collects Creepy 1-5, and it's beautifully reproduced, well worth adding to your own bookshelf. Vol. 2 is out too, though I don't have it yet.
Just for fun, I thought I'd share scans of a full issue of Creepy, this one, Number 6, featuring a version of my favorite Poe story, "The Cask of Amontillado", among other spooky fare.
Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!!
Creepy Number 6
Hearing George Romero, John Carpenter, Steven King or just about anybody who was anybody in the late 70s and early 80s horror milieu spin yarns about hollowing out a secret compartment in their closet wall to hide EC comics from their mom is akin to the Buzzcocks or Robert Smith talking about how they were at one of the very first Sex Pistols shows. It's somewhere between nostalgia and mythology. As a teen and now an adult, finding EC reprints or archives hasn't been difficult, but I always felt like somehow, I missed the boat. Like I got cheated out of being there when those comics were new and edgy and controversial.
Luckily, I DID catch the tail end of the "sequel". Warren's Eerie and Creepy were still around when I was a young adolescent. Being ignorant of EC stuff then, for the most part, I didn't realize that Eerie and Creepy were the work of many of the "old EC crew", featuring the same literary storytelling, fantastic artwork and most of all, wry, dark sense of irony, poetic justice, and dread as the best of the work done for Bill Gaines. Like my horror idols and their "Tales from the Crypt" issues, I too had to hide my Warren mags from my mother, who would promptly toss them in the dustbin when and if she found them. It was a true right of passage.
Dark Horse Comics is in the process of issuing the complete Eerie and Creepy Archives. I have Vol. 1, which collects Creepy 1-5, and it's beautifully reproduced, well worth adding to your own bookshelf. Vol. 2 is out too, though I don't have it yet.
Just for fun, I thought I'd share scans of a full issue of Creepy, this one, Number 6, featuring a version of my favorite Poe story, "The Cask of Amontillado", among other spooky fare.
Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!!
Creepy Number 6