This doubled sized reprint from Russ Cochran
contains issue #34 of Crypt and Crime Suspenstories #15. Though I mention
Gemstone as the publisher of the most of the EC Comics reprints in my
collection, it was actually Cochran from Missouri who first obtained the rights
to reprint the entire EC line. (Other EC reprints exist before this but Cochran was the first to reprint the entire line of EC Comics comics.) The collection was very popular, but it was a
niche market.
The Russ Cochran Company found itself unable to recoup its losses
and sold the rights to newly established Gemstone. Gemstone got the brilliant
idea to reprint in small batches and later reissue as needed. Thus, back issues
of past copies could either be ordered through mail or replenished in comic
shops nationwide. It’s this method that’s held on for over 25 years and helped
keep the EC Comics from fading into obscurity.
In Tales, our first story is by the Crypt
Keeper in segment called “The Crypt of Terror” which was Tales’ original title.
That story is based on the cover image in which a mad scientist creates a
Frankenstein type monster and it goes on the rampage at a carnival. Then the
Vault Keeper spins a yarn about two con men who dupe a small town into
believing their sitting on the next oil boom. The Crypt Keeper then returns in
his signature segment “Grim Fairy Tales” which are fanciful fables with
gruesome endings. This go-round, the Crypt Keeper regales us with a story of a
king who goes too far when he learns about taxation.
The
last story is by the Haunt of Fear’s Old Witch. It’s rather interesting as it’s
adapted by Ray Bradbury of Fahrenheit 451 fame. It’s a fairly light tale in
which an old woman filled with salt and vinegar doesn’t want to die so badly
that her spirit storms the mortuary in which her body is housed and demands it
back.
What I found so intriguing about this ghost
story was that it’s basically by a well-known author. When Fredic Wertham testified
before the Senate during the Juvenile Delinquency hearings, he claims that
there was no ‘artistic merit’ to the prose found in comic books. Bradbury is
such a big deal that not only did my wife read some of his work in high school
for her English classes, I read it too! And I went to a strict anti-anything
secular Christian school! So when ever anybody tells you that comics are
rubble- you can point out that the great Ray Bradbury was featured in comics as
was Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, and even Doctor Seuss!
Before
I close, let’s examine the Crime Suspenstories reprint. The first tale is a
film noir-type love triangle between a wife with a bad heart, her husband, and
his best friend who happens to be her lover. Take about Double Indemnity! Then
Ray Bradbury returns! This time, his tale ‘the Screaming Woman’ stars a little
girl who hears a woman begging to be released from a shallow grave but nobody
will believe the tyke’s warnings. Next, we get an interesting story told in two
parts in which the same man must suffer through thirst an dehydration first on
the high seas and then in the Sahara. There are plenty clever twists in ‘Water,
Water Everywhere…” as well as a unique story structure that clearly influenced
some of the greats of the Silver Age like Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and Stan
Lee. Finally, the Old Witch guests to recall the bickering marriage of a
hen-pecked husband and his meddlesome wife.
The
Crime comics of the 1950s were a thing of the past by 1959. Crimes of the heart
in which implied sex, adultery, and murder were considered taboo. Thus there
was a rise in crime digests like Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen. Those mags
contained the occasional illustration but were considered so wordy that it
wouldn’t appeal to kids. Crime Magazines were still available where kids could
reach them and they still had graphic covers. But the changing format was
considered enough to prevent kids from going into a wanton frenzy like un-coded
comics were said to have inspired.
True,
it was 30-years later, but in the 80s I remember walking into a newsstand and
buying crime mags as a gift for my mother who loved a good mystery. I was never
carded. I couldn’t have been- I was 8! Still, the view towards comic books as
low culture is proof of the hypocrisy of censorship. The next time someone
tells you comic books are kids’ stuff and for the uneducated, ask them if they
watch The Walking Dead, or have seen Men in Black? When they say “yes” tell
them it was based on a comic book and watch their face drop. Argument won in
your favor!
Worth
Consuming
Rating:
8 out of 10 stars.
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