This publish is Filed Under:
Home page Highlights,
Interviews as well as Columns
Wayne Markley
by Wayne Markley
A great deal of people who understand me or checked out this column on a regular basis believe I am as well harsh as well as cynical about contemporary comics. I assumption there is something to that thought. It drives me up the wall exactly how few contemporary writers understand exactly how to tell a story. Every comic is a never-ending soap opera which develops to some major surprise. I would suggest that this is just a reflection of other develops of entertainment, which have likewise ended up being bloated and, at times, seem to not understand exactly how to tell a concise story. since of this modification in the world of entertainment, I believed I would take the time in this column to look back to the comics of the 1950s, particularly the horror comics, where most stories were between five as well as ten pages, the art was anywhere from horrible to really, truly good, as well as perhaps most importantly, each story had a point, a twist, or a shock.
Tales From The Crypt
Obviously, the most famous of the 1950 horror comics was their EC line of titles; Tales From the Crypt, vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, etc., none of which I am going to discuss in this column. (If you truly want excellent art as well as stories inspect out these titles, offered in nice full color hardcovers). No, what I am going to discuss are the horror comics which do not get the press by comic historians, however are at times as great as the ECs, however alas, are commonly at a lower expert level, however are just as entertaining. fortunately for contemporary comic readers, there are a number of reprints of this material that have been coming out for a number of years now from AC Comics, PS Artbooks as well as Yoe Books. I will admit these books can be expensive, however I believe they are worth every cent as you get to see stories that have not been seen in over fifty years now as well as are however a fond memory to a handful of collectors.
Crypt of Horror
AC Comics is most likely finest understood for publishing Femforce for the last thirty years. together with Femforce, AC publishes golden Age Greats (long-lost superhero characters), finest of the West (classic western stories) as well as guy of Mystery, which when once again collects long forgotten golden Age heroes. They just recently published by the 19th problem of Crypt of Horror, a significant (well over a 100 pages per problem as well as most problems are pushing 150 pages) comic that features at least twenty stories from the past. most of these reprints are from the 1940s as well as 1950s. All are horror stories, however they vary from suspense stories, to monsters (they just recently did a werewolf problem with more werewolf stories from the 1950s than I even understood existed), thrillers, as well as even out-right horror. The stories are all short, the longest being 10 pages, however they are all great. I will admit that not all of their stories will make your skin crawl, however a high portion will. What I like about these stories in Crypt of horror is the skill they reprint. Not all of the stories are credited, as well as I am guessing since most of the work was not signed in the 1950s they do not understand who all the artists ae. a few of the artists that are credited include such greats as Jack Kirby (inked by Al Williamson no less), Bob Powell, Mort Meskin, Simon as well as Kirby, Dick Briefer, Lee Ellis, as well as many, many more. The Crypt of horror comes out about when every four months as well as they are difficult to find. They are offered for pre-order from Westfield Comics in addition to directly from AC Comics.
Chamber of Chills
Another publisher that is reprinting a big amount of traditional material from the past is PS Artbooks. PS Artbooks is an English business that is collecting the famous Harvey horror line of comics. They do these books in two formats, one is high end hardcover books collecting five comics each time together with a number of historical articles as well as background information. These are extremely nice books as well as tend to be priced at around $50 each. These hardcovers are likewise restricted as well as when they offer out, which they tend to do extremely quickly, the cost skyrockets. Thankfully for the rest of us, PS Artbooks is now reprinting these hardcovers as cost effective softcovers ($25.00 each). While the cost is lower, the material is likewise less. With each softcover, they gather five single comics in a extremely nice trade collection without any type of of the historical information. Each comic is reprinted totally with the front as well as back covers in addition to the inside covers. So far they have done softcovers of the very first two volumes of Harvey’s Chamber of Chills (the very first ten issues). These areall full color stories (unlike Crypt of horror from AC which are black as well as white reprints) that are almost all directly ahead horror stories. granted most of the creators with in these pages are understood only to the most hardcore comic historians, yet the art as well as stories are prime example of 1950s horror comics (these stories are from 1951). The art varies from so-so to excellent, however there is a sense of fun that I no longer discover in contemporary comics. as well as when once again each story is total within eight to ten pages. PS Artbooks has plans to do softcovers of Witches Tales, tomb of Terror, as well as Black feline Mysteries, all which will be five volumes each. These likewise are difficult to discover however I would motivate you to inspect www.westfieldcomics.com or the publisher’s website.
Haunted Horror
Craig Yoe is an editor, packager, as well as a publisher. He currently bundles books that are published by IDW. Craig, like me, as well as the fine people at AC Comics as well as PS Artbooks, is a huge fan of the old horror stories. I have talked a great deal about Craig’s books in the past, all of which are excellent as well as are recommended. He has hardcover collections of Bob Powell’s Terror, Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein, Jack Cole’s Deadly horror (yes, horror stories from the creator of Plastic Man), Zombies, as well as many more. His most recent job has been full color comic books reprinting 1950s horror comics in Haunted Horror, as well as it is must reading for fans of this traditional material. While the hardcovers have all had a style – an artist or a topic – these comics reprint random horror stories from the exact same pool as AC utilizes as well as sometimes a Harvey horror story as well. I have not noticed any type of of the exact same stories being reprinted between all of the different publishers yet, however I suppose it is possible. There have been three problems so far as well as there is a fourth on the method as well as a fifth one has been solicited.
Ditko Monsters: Gorgo
In closing, speaking of Craig Yoe, I would like to suggest a new release from him as well as IDW called Ditko Monsters: Gorgo. As the title implies, it is a collection of all of Steve Ditko’s Gorgo stories. It is a lovely full color hardcover reprinting all of this reptilian monster tales. It was a Godzilla knock-off, if you are not familiar with it. I will admit this is not the biggest comics ever done, however it is a great deal of fun as well as it is Steve Ditko. inspect it out. I hope you will take the chance to try one or more of these collections of traditional horror. They are all true to their roots (the old radio shows such as Suspense), short stories with twists, or sometimes a monster. commonly these stories drift into criminal offense as well as other genres, however horror finest summaries the stories over all. There is likewise a number of “good woman art” with-in the pages of these stories also if you like that kind of thing.
As always, whatever written right here are my believed as well as do not show the opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. comments are welcome at MFWAY@AOL.COM in addition to evaluation copies. I would likewise like to prolong a huge say thanks to you to AC Comics for their assist with this column.
Thank you.