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.

31 days of horror Year 3 day 30 comics 05

Curse of the Weird #3

First off I love this cover. The homage to Basil Wolverton caps off what is already an eye catching cover. This issue we get a total of 4 stories. First off is "The Return of the Brain" with pencils and inks by Russ Heath Jr. The brain of  a dead Nazi scientist goes around causing mayhem. Wacky idea that works pretty well. "The Hog" is next,with pencils and inks by the legendary Joe Kubert.Good story about a guy who is a road hog. Really if it wasn't for the Kubert artwork I doubt this story would have been reprinted. But the art is up to Joe usual standards. "Till Death do us part" with pencils and inks by Vic Carrabotta is the next one. Typical husband wants to kill wife story. Sadly nothing really made this stand out,and the artwork is the normal blah stuff from this era. "Where Monsters Dwell" which is written and drawn by the great ,and sadly kinda forgotten,Basil Wolverton. Scientist make a beam that allows them access to another dimension. And it is full of monsters. Lots of great Wolverton artwork that takes what is really a below average story and raises it up a few levels. We get another few pages telling us about the history of these stories and it is a nice piece giving some much needed context. Curse of the Weird #3 gets a A.

31 days of horror year 3 day 29 comics 04

Curse of the Weird #4

The final issue of this forgotten mini series. We start off pretty good with a great cover by Tenneyson Smith. This moody cover really stands out. The first story is the never reprinted in color and uncensored classic "Zombie". Written by Stan Lee and with Bill Everett on the art chores this a great slice of pre-code horror. It even was spun off into it's own b/w magazine by Marvel in the 70's. The dark moody artwork must have been a shock to the comic reading public back when this was first published. "The End of the World" is a nice slice of Sci fi. But it not for the great Basil Wolverton artwork it would be just your average story. "Worlds at War" has art by Jack Davis. This funny sci fi story has fun artwork from a guy mainly known for his time working on Mad magazine and his stuff at EC."There'll be some changes made" is the finaly story. And it helps end this issue and the series on a high note. We get stunning artwork from Steve Ditko,and a story that isn't completely predictable. I get the feeling that this mini didn't sell too well. Which is sad cause I would have loved more pre-code reprints of stories. But at the time people seemed more interested in buying gimick covered crap. Curse of the Weird #4 gets a A.

Monster Menace 1-4

Monster Menace 1-4

This was a kinda companion piece to Marvel's "Curse of the Weird" 4 issue mini. This series focused on the various Marvel pre-Silver age giant monster stories. This is the place were Fin Fang Foom and Groot showed up for the first time. So highlights from the 4 issues are. "I spent Midnight with the Monster on Bald Mountain" written by Stan Lee and art by Steve Ditko is a great moody story that shows both men at their artistic peaks. "The Terror of Tim Boo Ba" again by Lee and Ditko not only has a monster with a great name,but a fun twist ending that had to be mind blowing to the kids that read these stories many years ago. "When the Totem Walks" starts off the second issue with another blast of pure fun from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. They take the stupid idea of a killer monster Totem Pole and make it into something believe able for a comic book. "Save me from the Weed" besides the laughable title,is a fun science fictionish story from Stan Lee with Jack Kirby doing the pencils and Dick Ayers on inks.This is one of the many radiation gone wrong stories that were all through out pop culture during this era. "I can't escape from the Creeping Things" is another mortality tale from Lee and Ditko that has a very early ecological slant to the story.Then wrapping up issue 2 is the highlight of the issue. "I fought Colossus" written by Stan Lee pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Steve Ditko. Another of this era's "The machines are gonna take over " scare tales."I Live again" is the sequel to "The thing from Bald mountain" comic. It has the team of Lee and Ditko again and their talent shines through.Issue 4 starts off with a fun cover by Floyd Hughs. We start off with a sequel to the walking Totem story from a few issues back. "Orrgo the unconquerable" is a amazingly fun tale by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Then we get what I consider the highlight from the entire 4 issue series "Rorgg,King of the Spider Men!!". Written I am pretty sure by Stan Lee this has pencils from Jack Kirby and I think Dick Ayers did the inks. Small town gets invaded by a group of aliens that have 6 arms and look kinda like Spiderman when he grew the extra arms. This story was the best way to end what was a decent mini series. I enjoyed "Curse of the Weird" more,mostly cause the Marvel giant monster comics are not some of my favorite stuff. But judging this on all 4 issues "Monster Menace" gets a B.

Curse of the Weird #2

Curse of the Weird issue 2

Published back in the comic glut of 94,this 4 issue mini series was over looked by most of the comic fans. This is a series that reprinted "weird" tales from Marvel's Atlas era books. You get 5 stories. The first "The Ghost of Grismore Castle" has amazing artwork from the comic genius Steve Ditko. Kinda a normal ghost story,but it is elevated from an average story to a great story by art. Ditko has an energy and aura around his artwork that I can't really describe. Up next is "Bat's Tales' written by Stan Lee and pencils and inks by Russ Heath Jr. Passable vampire story with a predictable ending. "Innocent Bystander" is third,with pencils and inks by Dick Briefer. Never heard of Dick before but his artwork is a little below average for the time period. The story is like a 3rd rate "Crime Suspense Story". "The Unsolid Man" pencils and inks by the great Joe Orlando.Besides the art this one is not worth reading. And it isn't as good as Orlando's great stuff with EC. Wrapping up the comic is "No Sign of Life" written by Stan Lee and pencils and inks by Steve Ditko. Very cute Sci Fi story that doesn't over stay it's welcome. And beside the usual pages of ads,we get a few pages giving us some background on the stories,writers and artists that worked on this issue. I found this issue along with the following 2 at Coast Con last year. Got them outta the cheap bin and just the 2 stories with Ditko artwork are worth 10 times what I paid for them.

Golden age reprints 02

Ahh the second issue in the Eclipse series Mr Monsters Super Duper Special. This one focuses on public domain horror stories. First up is "The Secret Files of Dr. Drew: Leo's Ghost" written by Marilyn Mercer and art by Jerry Grandenetti. While not the worst horror comic story I have ever read this one wasn't that great. Next up is "The Man Who Never Smiled" written by and art by Basil Wolverton. Great little short story that has a twist ending that even though I saw it coming was still fun. Plus you can never go wrong with Basil Wolverton artwork. "The Metamorphosis of the Gkmloooms" written by unknown and art by George Evans. Again this story isn't the worst but is far from the best. Thanks to middle of the road stories and one great Basil Wolverton one I can't highly recomend this comic. It is another of my dollar bin finds and even then I feel like I paid about 50 cents too much. 5 outta 10.

Golden age reprints 01

Mr Monster was a semi-popular indy hero in the mid 80's. Eclipse decieded to have him host a series that was gonna reprint alot of public domain comic stories from the golden age. This was the first issue in what ended up being called Mr Monster's Super Duper Special. It reprints in 3-d,two stories that were printed in 3-D a long time ago. "Picture of Evil" is a story with art by Joe Kubert,sadly the writer's identity has been lost. Interesting story that is helped out alot by the amazing Joe Kubert art which really pops in 3-D.The next and only non-reprint story is "The Damned" is both written and drawn by Michael T. Gilbert,who is also the creative force behind Mr Monster. This story is like an acid trip gone bad in 3-D. Finally we get to the last story which is another reprint."The Blind, the Doomed -- and the Dead" another great slice of golden age 3-D horror goodness. The art is by Bob Powell,and again sadly the writer's name is lost to the sands of time. I managed to find a copy of this somewhat uncommon issue for a buck. But it didn't have the 3-D glasses,luckily I had also picked up the "Friday the 13th 3-d" dvd so I used the glasses from it. Over all this comic is worth searching out,and if you can find it with the glasses I can see spending as much as $4 for it. But if it is missing the glasses don't pay more than a buck. 8 outta 10.