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Graphic Novel Review: The EC Archives: Terror Illustrated edited by Daniel Chabon, original series editor William M. Gaines

Cover art for EC Archives: Terror Illustrated

The EC Archives: Terror Illustrated edited by Daniel Chabon, original series editor William M. Gaines

Dark Horse, 2022

ISBN-13: 9781506719788

Available: Kindle edition, hardcover ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

The EC Archives: Terror Illustrated includes illustrated prose stories of terror, murder, and the supernatural with works by Al Feldstein (also writing under Alfred E. Neuman), Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, Johnny Craig, and more! This collection also features the never printed third issue, and a foreword by Mick Garris. The book, advertised as “Picto-Fiction,” contains illustrated stories rather than a traditional comic.

 

I’m going to start out this review with the negative. There are some problematic stories in this volume, the worst of them being “Mother Love” by Maxwell Williams and illustrated by Charles Sultan, and “The Long Wait” by Alfred E. Neuman and illustrated by Johnny Craig. In “Mother Love,” Leona’s father sells her to a brute named Clint as a bride. She is endlessly abused and tormented, and rape is alluded to in this story. She is described as no smarter than a toddler, and lines like “Not that Leona thought of her life as a horror. Her mind was not capable of that” made this hard to get through. It gets worse. Clint discovers she is pregnant, and after he beats and abuses her further, he devises a plan where he would abandon her at the hospital. I don’t often ruin the end of the story in my reviews, but I will here. She eventually escapes the hospital and returns to the cabin, with her stillborn baby in a jar, and kills Clint. When the police arrive, nothing is done to try to figure out why what happened, happened. An abused woman is arrested for killing her abuser. This story is problematic on so many levels. 

 

In “The Long Wait” by Alfred E. Neuman, illustrated by Johnny Craig, Red Buckley murders his boss, plantation owner Emil Duval. As can be expected when a plantation is mentioned, you can bet there are racist depictions of Black “workers” Kulu approaches the main house and says “Kulu wanna be house-boy. Kulu wanna be servant.” Yikes. You think Buckley gets his comeuppance in the end…but it still reveals a racially insensitive reason that it occurs. 

 

This is not to say there are not some gems in this volume. There are some good stories here. The first story in issue 1, “The Sucker”, by Maxwell Williams and illustrated by Reed Crandall, is told in second person: you are on the run when you meet a beautiful dame who cheats and robs you, and the only thing you can do every night is kill her…again…and again…and again. In “Halloween”, by Alfred Feldstein and illustrated by Reed Crandall, Ann Dennis is hired as the matron of Briarwood Orphan Asylum by the headmaster, Eban Critchet. She does her best to improve the lives of the orphans in her care, but when she discovers what the headmaster has been doing, she takes matters into her own hands, and the children aren’t far behind. “The Gorilla’s Paw”,  by Alfred E. Neuman and illustrated by Johnny Craig is a violent and brutal retelling of the classic “Monkey’s Paw” tale. After a man is convinced he must purchase a mummified gorilla’s paw from a curio shop, he is plagued by nightmares and wishes he had never bought it, then awakens to find the paw holding the amount of money he paid for the paw. When he discovers the secret of the paw, he keeps on wishing, and his last wish proves to be a doozy. “Keepsake” by Jack Oleck, illustrated by Graham Ingels, gives us the story of an undertaker mourning the death of his childhood friend and unrequited love, Miss Hettie. During his time as undertaker, he kept a deadly secret for her, and after he discovers another one of her little secrets, he will be able to keep another. A fun inclusion in the third issue is the “Letters to the Editor” column the best one that denounces the magazine as “the highest and most advanced form of Brainrot on the market today” and “the stories and thoughts that these magazines contain are truly the work of Satan.”

 

This volume provides a glimpse into the horror enjoyed in the 1950s and echoes the radio plays such as Suspense, The Mysterious Traveler, Inner Sanctum, and others. Despite the problematic elements of some of the stories, I still found enjoyable tales of terror within these pages, and the artwork was well done. This book, along with other EC Comics archival editions, would be an interesting addition for comics history, as well as courses studying comics and graphic novels. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on March 18, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The PS Book of Fantastic Fictioneers: A History of the Incredible (volumes 1 and 2) edited by Pete Von Sholly

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The PS Book of Fantastic Fictioneers: A History of the Incredible (volumes 1 and 2) edited by Pete Von Sholly

PS Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1786364258 (volume 1)

ISBN-13: 978-1786364265 (volume 2)

Available: Hardcover

 

Fantastic Fictioneers is a two-volume set from PS Publishing of short essays, arranged alphabetically, meant to celebrate 120 people who have contributed to what creator Pete von Sholly describes as the “imaginative arts”.  This term covers individuals who have contributed to a wide swath of media, from children’s authors to comic book artists and writers, movie directors, animators, actors, publishers, and writers of science fiction, mystery, and horror. Some have passed away, like H.P. Lovecraft and Forrest Ackerman, and others are still with us, like Stuart Gordon and Ramsey Campbell. Each entry starts with a large illustration filling three-quarters of a page including the likeness of the entry’s subject accompanied by an illustration by von Sholly of what made them a prominent “fantastic fictioneer” (for example, the entry on Charles Addams pictures the Addams Family conjuring up Addams’ ghost in a seance; the background of Hiernomyous Bosch’s portrait contains creatures from his paintings; Ray Harryhausen’s face floats among his many models) followed by the first few paragraphs of a short essay. Some essays are detailed biographical entries, others are more personal accounts, and many are a combination. The entry on H.R. Giger includes musings and analysis on his work; the entry on Octavia Butler goes into detail on her life but includes a personal account; and Maria Alexander’s entry on Clive Barker is mainly a personal account of her experiences with him and his work.  Each essay includes many photographs of artifacts and artwork related to the work of the essay’s subject, as well as photos of the individual. Von Sholly was able to get some prominent names to write many of the essays, including S.T. Joshi on Lovecraft, J.D. Lees on Ishiro Honda, and Harlan Ellison on Frank Herbert. If you have the time, you could spend quite a while turning the pages and learning a little about the varied “fantastic fictioneers” included.

The entries aren’t consistent enough in their format and content for the books to be used reliably as a reference source of biographical information, but the collection of individuals profiled crosses many areas of the “imaginative arts” and there is information on individuals that might not be typically covered (I had never heard of Seabury Quinn before). Although it could have benefited from a little more diversity (very few women and minority “fictioneers” are covered), Von Sholly explains that, outside of a few “obligatory” entries, the majority are subjective favorites. As long as the set already is, ultimately choices about what would be included had to be made, and there is no doubting that Fantastic Fictioneers is a labor of love. Unfortunately, while it is a gorgeous volume, it lacks an index, and many of the images are not credited, which could be a detriment to a library purchasing it. Fantastic Fictioneers will appeal most to collectors and fans, and large libraries interested in adding specialized biographical reference materials to their collections.

Due to the variety of individuals covered, and the expense of purchasing the set (about $130 for both volumes), I’m including images of the table of contents of both volumes below. It really is a wide-ranging collection of entries! For those fascinated by all aspects of speculative fiction, this is a unique collection!

Editor’s note: I received a PDF file from the publisher for this review.

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Posted on January 24, 2020 by , Reply

There’s A Monster In My Fishbowl!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that my son is obsessed with cryptids. He is particularly fascinated by the Thetis Lake Monster, which looks a lot like the Swamp Monster or the Creature from the Black Lagoon. So I was tickled when I opened up the newspaper to the comics page and saw a little cartoon of a little boy being menaced by what my son easily identified as the Thetis Lake Monster…  and naturally, getting the best of said monster. We had to find out more. So we looked online and found Lio, a comic strip that’s perfect for the parents of monster-loving little fiends with big imaginations. The kids might like them too. Mine did. Check it out!

Posted on January 21, 2012 by , Reply
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