Over the decades, horror comics have evolved from the cheap thrills of the 1930s and 40s to the seminal EC Comics of the early 50s to the more cerebral terrors of DC's Vertigo. The art of horror storytelling in the medium has been shaped by many talented creators with their own singularly terrifying tales to tell.
Tales From The Crypt Comics Download Cbr Comics
Today, we have great horror titles like The Walking Dead, Harrow County, Locke & Keyand many, many more taking comics and the mainstream media by storm. But they were all preceded by the great horror comics of days gone by, brought to you by a Who's Who of creative talent that helped embroider the horror genre into the fabric of pop culture. So, if you're a real fan of horror comics, there's still some required reading you may need to do.
Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan's Tomb of Dracula was one of comics' finest hours in many ways. The duo created Blade, a character who went on to have his own movie franchise featuring Wesley Snipes and is soon to be rebooted with Mahershala Ali. The seminal horror series served as a training ground for both comic book greats to explore their storytelling abilities and pretty much invent an entirely new genre.
This issue is being featured in its entirety, largely because of its notoriety and its unavoidable involvement in the fall of horror comics in the 1950s. The issue features some classic suspense and drama, with In Each and Every Package (the cover story), and a back-up tale called Monotony about a shady bank employee who takes advantage of a vulnerable old lady.
The late Bernie Wrightston was comic book royalty. He was highly praised by the likes of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Guillermo del Toro, and many comic book greats. Wrightston made an indelible mark on comics history, particularly in the horror genre, and possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of art created in the 20th century was Bernie Wrightston's Frankenstein.
Horror comics emerged as a distinct comic book genre after World War II when young adult males lost interest in caped crimebusters, and returning GIs wanted titillating sex and violence in their reading. One-shot Eerie (1947) is generally considered the first true horror comic, with its cover depicting a dagger-wielding, red-eyed ghoul threatening a rope-bound, scantily clad, voluptuous young woman beneath a full moon. In 1948, Adventures Into the Unknown became the first regularly published horror title, enjoying a nearly two decade life-span.
Horror comics emerged as a distinct comic book genre after World War II when young adult males lost interest in caped crimebusters, and returning GIs wanted titillating sex and violence in their reading. One-shot Eerie (1947) is generally considered the first true horror comic, with its cover depicting a dagger-wielding, red-eyed ghoul threatening a rope-bound, scantily clad, voluptuous young woman beneath a full moon.[2] In 1948, Adventures Into the Unknown became the first regularly published horror title, enjoying a nearly two decade life-span.[3]
In 1950, EC publisher Gaines and his editor Al Feldstein discovered they shared similar tastes in horror and began experimenting with horror tales in their crime titles. Tales from the Crypt traces its origin to a Feldstein story, "Return from the Grave!", in EC's Crime Patrol (#15, December 1949/January 1950) with the Crypt-Keeper making his debut as host. Issue #16 featured more horror tales than crime stories, and, with issue #17, the title changed from Crime Patrol to The Crypt of Terror.[4] Due to an attempt to save money on second-class postage permits, the numbering did not change with the title and continued as The Crypt of Terror for the next two issues.
In 2007, Papercutz, an independent comics publisher managed by former Marvel Comics editor Jim Salicrup, began running a new series of original Tales from the Crypt comics. The new version was announced at the year's New York Comic Con. The first issue was published in June 2007, with a cover drawn by Kyle Baker. All three of EC Comics' horror hosts (The GhouLunatics) appear in the issue, drawn by Rick Parker (artist of Marvel/MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head Comic Book). Contributors to subsequent issues have included well-known horror talents Joe R. Lansdale and his brother John L. Lansdale, Don McGregor, husband and wife team James Romberger and Marguerite Van Cook, Mort Todd, and Chris Noeth. The new version has a smaller digest size with a graphic novel style book binding. Controversy erupted in 2008 when vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was featured on a cover attacking the horror hosts with a hockey stick, published with a letter from William Gaines' daughter Cathy Gaines Mifsud commenting on censorship.[6]
As with the other EC comics edited by Feldstein, the stories in this comic were primarily based on Gaines using existing horror stories and films to develop "springboards" from which he and Feldstein could launch new stories. Specific story influences that have been identified include the following:
The Crypt-Keeper was the primary host of Tales from the Crypt. He was introduced to the public in Crime Patrol #15, and he continued with that magazine through its changes in title and format. He was a frightening presence in those early issues, a sinister hermit sitting framed in the lightless crypt's half-open door, his face all but hidden by the double curtain of his long white hair. But he soon evolved into a more comedic horror host, delivering an irreverent and pun-filled commentary to lighten the horrific tone of the stories he introduced.
The 1972 film from Amicus Productions features five stories from various EC comics. "Reflection of Death" (#23) and "Blind Alleys" (#46) were adapted for the film, the others were adapted from The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror. A second Amicus film, The Vault of Horror, also used stories from Tales from the Crypt and Shock SuspenStories (despite its title, it did not use any stories published in the Vault of Horror comic). An homage film entitled Creepshow followed, paying tribute to the tone, look, and feel of Tales from the Crypt and other EC comics, without directly adapting any of the stories.
The following tales were used in HBO's Tales from the Crypt television series: "The Man Who Was Death" (issue #17), "Mute Witness to Murder" (#18), "Fatal Caper" (#20), "The Thing From The Grave" (#22), "Last Respects" (#23), "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today" (#25), "Loved to Death" (#25), "Well Cooked Hams" (#27), "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" (#28), "Korman's Kalamity" (re-titling of "Kamen's Kalamity", issue #31), "Cutting Cards" (#32), "Lower Berth" (#33), "None But The Lonely Heart" (#33), "Oil's Well That Ends Well" (#34), "Curiosity Killed" (#36), "Only Skin Deep" (#38), "Mournin' Mess" (#38), "Undertaking Palor" (#39), "Food For Thought" (#40), "Operation Friendship" (#41), "Cold War" (#43), "Forever Ambergris" (#44), "The Switch" (#45) and "Blind Alleys" (#46). Other episodes were based on other entries in the EC Comics line: The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories and Two-Fisted Tales.
Two films by Universal Studios, Demon Knight (1995) and Bordello of Blood (1996), were based on the series, neither of which was particularly successful with critics. A third film, Ritual, was slated for theatrical release in 2001, but was only distributed internationally (without the Tales from the Crypt connection) until 2006 when it was released on DVD in the United States, with the Cryptkeeper segments restored. Unlike the 1970s-era Amicus films, these films were not based on stories from any of the EC comics. The Frighteners was intended to be another film in the series, but executive producer Robert Zemeckis decided to release it as a standalone film.
In 1956, Harvey Comics discontinued its horror comics, and the tone of scary magazines across the country was doused with a wet rag. The horror continued in the Silver Age, but as you might find in the first few issues of House of Mystery for example, the stories always ended with the supernatural elements being faked or a moral play where the bad guy gets his comeuppance.
That theme grew as the 70s progressed, and Bronze Age comics were then written for a Young Adult audience rather than selling the silly stories Fawcett used to publish with Captain Marvel and Mr. Tawny the Talking Tiger.
You begin by creating a dedicated Comixology account or logging in with your existing Amazon credentials. Purchased digital comics are tied to your account, so you can access the books via your PC's web browser or one of Comixology's Android or iOS mobile apps. Comixology is free to download, but you must pay for individual issues or the $5.99 per month subscription plan (more on those options in a bit).
When you find a book that interests you, click an issue icon to see its synopsis, creator credits, pricing, rating, and sample pages you can try before buying. Building a digital comic book collection is as simple as clicking price icons to place the comics into the shopping cart, and then clicking the Purchase icon. You can also add titles to a wishlist to buy them at a later time. The potent combination of accessibility and ease of use means that comics-heads may have to show some restraint in order to not drain their wallets.
Unfortunately, many pre-1980s books are missing in action. The large holes in the Spitfire and the Troubleshooters series, for example, are disappointing. The rival Marvel Unlimited all-you-can-read subscription service has many books that haven't yet appeared in Comixology, so that's worth checking out if you're looking for back issues. That said, Comixology is working on digitizing many old-school comics.
In fact, Comixology sells many books from the pre-superhero era, such as Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales, and Weird Love. So, in a way, Comixology has become an incredible comics archive, with titles spanning many eras. 2ff7e9595c
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