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The EC Artists' Library #16
The Living Mummy and Other Stories
When Jack Davis took up his pen for EC Comics, he made his innocent victims more eye-poppingly terrified, his ax-murderers more gleefully gruesome, and his vampires and werewolves more bloodthirsty and feral than any other artist. These horror and suspense tales — from the pages of Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, and Shock SuspenStories — offer everything a horror fan could ask for: re-animated bodies and body parts, a ghoul who stores bodies like a squirrel stores nuts, a vampire who moonlights at (where else?) a blood bank, greedy business partners, corrupt politicians, jealous lovers, revenge from beyond the grave, and a healthy complement of vampires, werewolves, and assorted grotesqueries. All leavened with the cackling, pun-laced humor of scripter Al Feldstein and illuminated as only the virtuoso brushwork of Jack Davis can present them.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 5, 2016
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Jack Davis
303 books6 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 7, 2018
The Living Mummy and Other Stories collects 32 tales illustrated by Jack Davis for EC Comics.
Most of the stories are written by Al Feldstein, although Ray Bradbury gets credit on one and another is a uncredited retelling of The Monkey's Paw. It's the usual EC conglomeration of cheating husbands, cheating wives, cheating business partners, werewolves, vampires, mummies, and even a conjoined twin or two. While that's all well and good, there are also a ton of "vengeance from beyond the grave" tales, my favorite kind of EC horror tale, and Jack Davis is the maestro.
Davis' art is iconic, the art I picture in my head when I think of EC comics. His slightly exaggerated characters are grotesque at times and the black and white format of this collection is the perfect way to showcase his art. His heavy black inks really pop without color to hold them back. His shambling, rotting corpses are my favorites of all the EC artists' rotting corpses. And there were many.
That's about all I have to say. If you're only going to buy one of Fantagraphics' EC Artist Editions, The Living Mummy would be the one to get. When it comes to the classic EC artists, Jack Davis was the best of the best. Five out of five stars.
Most of the stories are written by Al Feldstein, although Ray Bradbury gets credit on one and another is a uncredited retelling of The Monkey's Paw. It's the usual EC conglomeration of cheating husbands, cheating wives, cheating business partners, werewolves, vampires, mummies, and even a conjoined twin or two. While that's all well and good, there are also a ton of "vengeance from beyond the grave" tales, my favorite kind of EC horror tale, and Jack Davis is the maestro.
Davis' art is iconic, the art I picture in my head when I think of EC comics. His slightly exaggerated characters are grotesque at times and the black and white format of this collection is the perfect way to showcase his art. His heavy black inks really pop without color to hold them back. His shambling, rotting corpses are my favorites of all the EC artists' rotting corpses. And there were many.
That's about all I have to say. If you're only going to buy one of Fantagraphics' EC Artist Editions, The Living Mummy would be the one to get. When it comes to the classic EC artists, Jack Davis was the best of the best. Five out of five stars.
May 10, 2023
Very pretty. Mixes a little bit of Crime stories in with his tales for Haunt of Fear and Vault of Horror. The artwork is his earliest for the label, so it gets better as it goes, but the stories are pretty solid all the way through. "Wolf Bait" is probably my favorite here, "Lend A Hand" and "Cheese That's Horrible" are exactly the kind of fun Jack Davis and EC are so justly famous for. There's a couple crime 'quickies' towards the end that feel like little goodies, I've always liked how they break up the structure in the comics and here as well. Great, great work.
December 8, 2017
It was great to re read some of these stories and see some for the first time. There was an odd morality to some of these tales where people got their just desserts. Most of the time when reading these bits, you were wondering how they would meet their ironic ends.
It didn't surprise me to read that the artist was considered simple some times. What did surprise me was how modern some of the tales were in terms of treatment of sexism. Sometimes the depiction of race was a bit off but nothing that verged to outright racism. There was a gentleness in these stories.
The lettering was awesome. It is the type of lettering that I dream about reading. Even with pages stuffed with words, it was easy to read. I am happy to have read this.
As an aside... this is the guy that gave us Alfred E Neumann. So, I have a soft spot for him and his work.
It didn't surprise me to read that the artist was considered simple some times. What did surprise me was how modern some of the tales were in terms of treatment of sexism. Sometimes the depiction of race was a bit off but nothing that verged to outright racism. There was a gentleness in these stories.
The lettering was awesome. It is the type of lettering that I dream about reading. Even with pages stuffed with words, it was easy to read. I am happy to have read this.
As an aside... this is the guy that gave us Alfred E Neumann. So, I have a soft spot for him and his work.
June 8, 2023
Whenever I read one of these EC collections I can feel myself getting more and more antsy to improve my own art. With this book of Davis's work, I could feel my skin crawl from wanting to be this good. His art is absolutely stunning, full of emotion and detail that even elevates the bad stories in here (of which there are a good handful). Every panel is worthy of study, with Davis's inking being the absolute finest of the EC stable. Each brush stroke is a fiery lick of genius. Feldstein's writing ranges from crude to pretty great, with the peak in this book of both writer and artist present in the story "The Patriots!" Stellar, stellar, stellar.
August 16, 2023
Jack Davis' loosed limbed style with exaggerated features was the perfect accompaniment to the Tales From The Crypt stories.
Although Graham Ingels is noted for his horror illustration, I think Davis was the more accomplished and versatile. It's no wonder that he went on to become one of the most sought-after and highest-paid illustrators in the business.
The stories in this book are the usual EC fare, with corpses rising from the ground to exact revenge, so it's Jack Davis' artwork that really makes it worthwhile.
Although Graham Ingels is noted for his horror illustration, I think Davis was the more accomplished and versatile. It's no wonder that he went on to become one of the most sought-after and highest-paid illustrators in the business.
The stories in this book are the usual EC fare, with corpses rising from the ground to exact revenge, so it's Jack Davis' artwork that really makes it worthwhile.
April 26, 2017
Another great collection of EC's prolific artist Jack Davis. The only reason this collection is not receiving a 5 star review is due to a few EC "quickies" which were not that good, or even necessarily "quick." This collection makes a great companion volume to Davis's "Taint the Meat... It's the Humanity" also available from Fantagraphics Books.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews