The EC Archives: The Haunt of Fear, Volume 1 edited by Daniel Chabon

Dark Horse Comics, 2021

ISBN-13: 9781506721200

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, comiXology ( Bookshop.org )

Dark Horse’s reprints of EC Comics’ The Haunt of Fear allows readers who have never been exposed to these great comics experience horror comics from the 1950s which were originally published between May 1950 and April 1951. Volume one collects The Haunt of Fear #15-17 and #4-6. Contributors to the comics in volume 1 include Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Al Feldstein, Gardner F. Fox, Bill Gaines, Harry Harrison, Graham Ingles, Jack Kamen, Ivan Klapper, Harvey Kurtzman, Ray Bradbury, and Wallace Wood. Grant Geissman introduces the collection with a brief history of the creation of EC Comics and how the company shifted its focus from educational comics and biblical stories to horror. The artwork in the volume have been digitally recolored using Marie Severin’s original style as a template. 

The numerous tales of terror in these pages are introduced by the Old Witch, the Vault-Keeper, or the Crypt-Keeper. Between the comics are some short one to two page stories of the macabre and various advertisements. Much of the content is dated, as would be expected in something seven decades old. Some of the storylines are very similar to old time radio shows of the era as well. I would recommend this to fans of classic horror comics. 

Recommended

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker