Wednesday, April 27, 2016

2016 Comic Challenge 157 Tales from the Crypt #02 Gladstone run

TITLE-Tales from the Crypt #02
PUBLISHER-Gladstone/The Bruce Hamilton Company

Somehow this short lived run of EC horror reprints from Gladstone escaped my attention.It wasn't until 2 years later and Russ Cochran took over the reprints that I really got into collecting these affordable reprints of some of the best horror comics to ever come out.

Under the great Jack Davis cover,there is eight stories.The lead story has the Crypt Keeper as our host,makes sense to me since Tales from the Crypt was CK's title.And this story has some beautiful Jack Davis.Plus is were the cover image comes from.

Up next is a Vault Keeper hosted story.Joe Orlando provides the art,and I have always loved all the horror stuff he has done.And since the first story focused on a werewolf,the Vault Keeper is bringing us a story about vampires.

CK is up again with "Busted Marriage"Jack Kamen does the art. He was known for his gorgeous women. EC did lots of bad marriage stories in their horror titles,and this isn't one of the better ones.

A mummy story,hosted by the Old Witch,is next.Ghastly Graham Ingels handles the artwork.With Ingels the gorier the better. So I was a bit disappointed he got a mummy story.Since those usually do not have huge amounts of gore.

Ahhh OK seems the second half of the issue is a reprint of an issue of Crime SuspenStories.The Russ Cochran reprints would do this. The cover is by Johnny Craig.And shows a man freezing to death in a meat locker.While a sinister butcher looks on. What I don't like is they removed the issue number off the cover.

"Out of the frying pan..." has Johnny Craig art. For some reason he uses his Jay Taycee pen-name.It is your typical EC crime story. This time I didn't guess the twist before it happened.

Jack Kamen appears again with "A Trace of Murder".This one is better than the previous story.And again we get some more of Kamen's gorgeous women. Something about Kamen's art reminds me of Matt Baker's art in the Golden Age.

"The Escaped Maniac" is a very forgettable story. EC would put out a dud some times. And when they did they were really bad. The art is credited to George Bell,who is a name I do not remember seeing associated with EC.

To end the issue we get a final story. This one with Ghastly Graham on the art chores.And it is a Haunt of Fear tale hosted by the Old Witch. And ends up being the best story from this reprint of Crime SuspenStories.

I really have no clue what a copy of all these late 80s thru mid 90s EC reprint comics would cost ya on Ebay or one of the many online comic shops. I just know I find them fairly often in comic shop/convention cheap bins. This issue I dug out of the dollar bins at a local comic shop. And for a buck or two you really can't go wrong with reprints of pretty much anything from EC.

Tales from the Crypt #02 gets a Buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 156 Chainsaw Vigilante #01

TITLE-Chainsaw Vigilante #01
PUBLISHER-NEC

I enjoyed the Chainsaw Vigilante appearances in the various Tick comics I had read. So finding this issue for 50 cents I had to get it.

Well honestly the cover is the only reason this is worth the 50 cents I paid. The issue is mostly Chainsaw dealing with being defeated by the Tick in The Tick #10. Most of the issue he is out of costume and having long boring as fuck discussions with some woman.

I found it odd that almost every page had between 7 and 9 panels. And so many panels meant the art looked cramped. Seems Zandor Cannon does the art and story. Maybe if he focused on just one this would be a much better comic.

Chainsaw Vigilante #01 gets a Pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 155 Warriors of Plasm #01

TITLE-Warriors of Plasm #01
PUBLISHER-Defiant

Plasm/Warriors of Plasm was the start of the Defiant universe. And also the one title from them I had never read anything of. I own the issue zero,that came as a trading card set,but have never read it. Dug issue #01 out of a cheap bin recently.

Set in an alternate universe,were everything is organic based,Lorca is a prince like asshole.Then we find out that Lorca is a rebel. And has discovered our world. So is stealing people from our world. To give powers and use as army against the ruling class.I am guessing this 6 or so humans that end up on the Plasm world and have powers are going to be our titular heroes.

Pretty much everything else I have read from Defiant had a good story and ok art.Warriors of Plasm is the opposite. The art,by Dave Lapham is gorgeous. But the story by Jim Shooter is a jumbled,over written mess.

Warriors of Plasm #01 gets a borrow.