{"id":148686,"date":"2020-10-29T11:48:57","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T15:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=148686"},"modified":"2020-10-29T12:13:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T16:13:49","slug":"how-horror-transformed-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/10\/29\/how-horror-transformed-comics\/","title":{"rendered":"How Horror Transformed Comics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The History of EC Comics<\/a> tells the story of one of the most infamous and influential forces in twentieth-century American pop culture. Founded in 1944, EC Comics quickly rose to prominence by serving up sharp, colorful, irresistible stories that filled an entire bingo card of genres, including romance, suspense, westerns, pirate tales, science fiction, adventure, and more.<\/em> Perhaps most crucial to the company\u2019s success, however, was its pivot to horror<\/em>. In the following excerpt, Grant Geissman chronicles the origins of such gruesome, bone-chilling series as <\/em>Tales from the Crypt and explores how the relationship between two key figures\u2014the artist, writer, and editor Al Feldstein and the company\u2019s publisher, Bill Gaines\u2014<\/em>acted as an engine that propelled EC Comics to the forefront of the industry.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Detail from the cover of Three Dimensional Tales from the Crypt of Terror<\/em> No. 2, Spring 1954. Art by Al Feldstein. Copyright: TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

With Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein both working and hanging out together, Feldstein had the boss\u2019s ear. On their car rides to and from the office, Feldstein began to chide Gaines for playing follow-the-leader. \u201cYou\u2019re taking Saddle Justice<\/em> and turning it into Saddle Romances <\/em>because Simon and Kirby came out with a romance book and it\u2019s doing well,\u201d the ever-ambitious Feldstein said to Gaines. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna follow them and get clobbered when it collapses, just like the teenage books collapsed. Why don\u2019t we make them follow us? Let\u2019s start our own trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaines and Feldstein had talked about the old radio dramas they had loved as kids, shows like Inner Sanctum<\/em>, The Witch\u2019s Tale<\/em>, and Arch Oboler\u2019s Lights Out<\/em>. Inner Sanctum<\/em> and The Witch\u2019s Tale<\/em> both featured hosts who introduced the tales\u2014the former by \u201cRaymond,\u201d a spookily sardonic punster, and the latter by \u201cOld Nancy,\u201d a cackling witch. Feldstein recalled that as a kid he used to climb down the stairs to sneak a listen, and was happily terrified by them. Gaines had similar recollections. Feldstein kept pushing for that, and Gaines finally said, \u201cOkay, we\u2019ll try it.\u201d This was, in fact, a somewhat similar concept to the one the artist Shelly Moldoff had pitched on the aborted Tales of the Supernatural<\/em> comic. Gaines was apparently mum about the situation with Moldoff, and Feldstein later said that he knew nothing about it at the time. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

An untrimmed press proof of Johnny Craig’s cover to Crime SuspenStories<\/em> No. 3 (February\u2013March 1951). Copyright: TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

So with the December 1949\u2013January 1950 issues of Crime Patrol<\/em> (no. 15) and War against Crime!<\/em> (no. 10), EC introduced what was billed on the covers as \u201can Illustrated Terror-Tale from the Crypt of Terror!\u201d and \u201can Illustrated Terror-Tale from the Vault of Horror!\u201d Feldstein wrote and illustrated both stories.<\/p>\n

The story from the Crypt of Terror was hosted by The Crypt-Keeper, and the story from the Vault of Horror was hosted by The Vault-Keeper, both inspired by the hosts from the old radio shows. Hedging the bet, \u201cThe Crypt of Terror\u201d appeared in the last position in Crime Patrol<\/em>. (However, \u201cThe Vault of Horror\u201d story occupied the first slot in War against Crime!<\/em>) The covers of both comic books were done by Johnny Craig, who had done all of the previous covers for both titles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Johnny Craig\u2019s Christmas cover of The Vault of Horror<\/em> No. 35, February\u2013 March 1954. Copyright: TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gaines liked the experiment well enough, because the next issues of both books (Crime Patrol<\/em> no. 16 and War against Crime!<\/em> no. 11, both February\u2013March 1950) contained further installments, with the stories in the same positions as before. Craig again contributed the cover art for both books.<\/p>\n

Gaines and Feldstein liked doing these stories, and it did seem like they were onto something. Back then the wholesalers employed \u201croad men,\u201d guys who checked the newsstands to see how things were selling. When they sent back the \u201cten-day check-ups\u201d indicating strong sales for the experimental issues of Crime Patrol <\/em>and War against Crime!<\/em>, Gaines and Feldstein went all in for horror. And a New Trend was ushered in at EC.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein in the EC office in late 1950, with a rack of their latest comic books. Copyright: TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the seventeenth issue they changed Crime Patrol<\/em> to The Crypt of Terror<\/em>, and with the twelfth issue they changed War against Crime!<\/em> to The Vault of Horror<\/em>. Both comics were April\u2013May 1950. A month later they changed Gunfighter<\/em> to The Haunt of Fear<\/em>. (They changed the title of The Crypt of Terror<\/em> to Tales from the Crypt<\/em> three issues later, after \u201cthe wholesalers made some noise,\u201d according to Gaines.) All three books continued the numbering from the previous titles, Gaines\u2019s usual ploy to avoid paying the fee for a second-class mailing permit on a new title. (He got away with this on the first two titles, but on The Haunt of Fear<\/em> they had to change the numbering, starting with the fourth issue, and pay for a new permit.)<\/p>\n

With the second issue of The Haunt of Fear<\/em> (no. 16, July\u2013August 1950), Gaines and Feldstein also added a third horror host, The Old Witch, and the unholy trio of hosts was complete. The Three GhouLunatics\u2014as the three horror hosts came to be called\u2014would appear at the beginning and end of each story and offer up punny, smart-alecky commentary. EC\u2019s new horror comics were pretty much an instant hit with readers, and Gaines, Feldstein, and Craig all shared that enthusiasm. EC\u2019s business manager, Frank D. Lee, was not as enthused. When asked how he liked a new cover or story, Lee responded, \u201cI don\u2019t like it.\u201d Feldstein said that Lee was \u201cpretty grumpy\u201d about EC\u2019s new comics and openly expressed his dislike for them. Lee wasn\u2019t the only naysayer. Sol Cohen, who had been advising Gaines, declared \u201cthe ship is sinking,\u201d and bailed sometime in 1949 for a position as a comic book editor at Avon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Detail from the cover to The Vault of Horror<\/em> No. 18, April\u2013May 1951. Art by Johnny Craig. Copyright: TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Johnny Craig illustrated the covers for the first several issues of all three of the horror titles, and also illustrated the cover of every subsequent issue of The Vault of Horror<\/em>. A fine\u2014but very slow\u2014craftsman, Craig told Roger Hill: \u201cI was supposed to do three stories a month. I was lucky if I did one<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing with the \u201cA New Trend\u201d blurbs on the covers of EC\u2019s new comics, collectors began to refer to the comics published before that as \u201cPre-Trend\u201d comics, and the term stuck. Not all that many Pre-Trend artists managed to jump into the New Trend. Graham Ingels continued to work on the company\u2019s \u201clove books,\u201d but he soon turned out to be the quintessential horror artist. Bill Gaines said: \u201cIn the early days of EC we had Graham typecast into the western books, and when we started the love books we used him there for a few stories, but he didn\u2019t seem to fit. When we started the horror titles, we didn\u2019t use Graham because we thought he\u2019d be good at it, we used him because whenever an artist came into the fold we had to use him for something. So we stuck him in the horror books, and it didn\u2019t take us very long to realize what had happened\u2014that Graham Ingels was \u2018Mr. Horror\u2019 himself.\u201d Gaines and Feldstein started calling him \u201cGhastly Graham Ingels\u201d in the letter columns in 1950, and the name stuck. Ingels started signing his work with the pen name \u201cGhastly,\u201d and began specializing in what Bill Gaines\u2019s biographer, Frank Jacobs, once famously referred to as \u201ccadaverous inkings.\u201d Ingels\u2019s horror tableaux are fetid, swampy, decaying, and oozing, and when depicting a rotting, shambling corpse, he was second to none. As the horror comics developed, Ingels also became known for his interpretation of the grinning visage of The Old Witch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tales from the Crypt<\/em> No. 28, February\u2013March 1952. TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Feldstein wrote (and drew) all of his earliest EC horror stories on his own, and the rest of the stories in the early horror comics came from outside scriptwriters like Gardner Fox and Ivan Klapper. Within a very short time Gaines started bringing in snippets of ideas to be fleshed out into complete stories. At the time, the perpetually chubby Gaines was taking a prescription appetite suppressant that contained Dexedrine, which affected his sleep. Gaines would stay up half the night reading pulps and collections of horror and science-fiction stories. He scribbled plot ideas on scraps of paper he called springboards, and brought them to Feldstein the next morning. (Gaines also worked with Johnny Craig on stories in a similar fashion.)<\/p>\n

It was a frantic schedule. Four days a week, Gaines and Feldstein hammered out plot ideas from Gaines\u2019s springboards, with Feldstein always mindful of which artist they were plotting the story for that day. If Feldstein didn\u2019t think a particular plot could be made into a script that would fit a particular artist\u2019s style, he would pass on it, and Gaines would have to pitch another idea. Gaines said: \u201cAl and I would sit down, and I would have to sell Al on one of my springboards. That\u2019s what it amounted to. After he had rejected the first thirty-three on general principles, he might show a little interest in number thirty-four. I\u2019d then give him the hard sell and he\u2019d get going. He\u2019d run into the next room and start working out the plot.\u201d Although many of these springboards were inspired by existing stories, the duo invariably changed and improved upon the plots, in some cases making a far better yarn than was told in the original source.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The cover of Tales from the Crypt<\/em> No. 39. December 1953\u2013January 1954. Copyright: TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once they had set a plot, the two might work on some \u201cfill,\u201d fleshing out the plot a bit further. By then, it would usually be lunch time, and Gaines and Feldstein (and often Craig, along with any artists who might be in the office picking up or dropping off a job) would go to lunch at a nearby Italian place called Patrissy\u2019s, where, Feldstein recalled, \u201cwe all got fat. They had great Italian food.\u201d After lunch, Gaines would do paperwork and so forth, and Feldstein would write the actual story. (There was never a typed script; Feldstein would write the stories directly onto the art boards.) Gaines often had a nervous stomach at this point, because \u201cI never knew if and when Al would come bursting back in and say \u2018I can\u2019t write that Goddamn plot!\u2019\u2009\u201d Then the pair would have to start the process all over again, because, said Gaines, \u201cwe must have a story by five o\u2019clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

The horror stories Feldstein and Gaines came up with were all designed to have twisty, O. Henry\u2013type endings, with the protagonist virtually always exacting a well-deserved measure of poetic justice against the antagonist, even if the protagonist had to somehow return as one of the walking dead to exact his revenge. This was Old Testament, an-eye-for-an-eye\u2013style retribution, with the irony being that Gaines was an atheist. The EC horror stories were gory and many went way over the top, but this was fantasy, remember. Gaines said: \u201cThe old EC stories were largely sick humor. Almost every one of those horror stories was tongue-in-cheek. That stuff was strictly fantasy, and in the field of fantasy I\u2019ll go as sick as you want. But if I see real blood, I\u2019ll faint.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The cover of one of the three issues of the Tales of Terror<\/em> annuals, issued in 1951. Cover art by Al Feldstein. Copyright: TM & \u00a9 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grant Geissman is one of the world\u2019s leading experts on EC Comics and <\/em>Mad magazine, and the author and designer of four books on the subject. He is also an Emmy-nominated guitarist and composer who cowrote the music for the hit television series <\/em>Two and a Half Men and <\/em>Mike & Molly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Excerpted from <\/em>The History of EC Comics<\/a>. Text copyright \u00a9 2020 by Grant Geissman. Published by TASCHEN.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant Geissman chronicles the origins of EC Comics\u2019s horror titles, including the gruesome, bone-chilling \u2018Tales from the Crypt.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2069,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[67827],"class_list":["post-148686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Horror Transformed Comics by Grant Geissman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Grant Geissman chronicles the origins of EC Comics\u2019s horror titles, including the gruesome, bone-chilling \u2018Tales from the Crypt.\u2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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