The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt Volume 3

The EC Archives

by Al Feldstein, William Gaines, Jack Davis (Illustrator)

No line of comics is more revered and more controversial than the late, great EC Comics, and no EC title is more associated with the legendary publisher than Tales from the Crypt.

This volume of the complete collection of the revered magazine features classic tales of horror, murder, and the supernatural written by Al Feldstein and illustrated by Jack Davis, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, George Evans, Joe Orlando, and Marie Severin.

This handsome hardcover volume collects Tales from the Crypt issues #29-#34, including the original stories, ads, text pieces, and letters.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

216 pages, Hardcover

Published May 30, 2023

About the author

Albert Bernard Feldstein was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine Mad. After retiring from Mad, Feldstein concentrated on American paintings of Western wildlife.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another very nice volume in this reprint series. The art and story telling of EC is a surprise you need to experience if you haven't Recommended

[Garth · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 - 365 Days of Horror

Issues #29-34

Issue #29: Cover by Jack Davis. EC Artist of the Month article about Jack Davis (with photo) by Al Feldstein. "Grounds...For Horror!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; A young boy's bullying butcher step-father locks him in the closet as punishment for various actions; At first, Artie is frightened, but meets a friend named Hozir who lives in the closet and wants to give the step-father what he deserves. "A Rottin' Trick!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Joe Orlando; A man uses a girl then dumps her and makes the mistake of seeking the help of a boat pilot to leave the country who used to love her before she killed herself. "Werewolf!" text story. "Board To Death!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen; A woman with a fear of enclosed spaces due to being trapped in a cave-in as a child is driven insane when her cruel husband repeatedly threatens to bury her alive. "A Sucker For a Spider!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; An embezzling banker who keeps spiders for a hobby is blackmailed by his chief teller who is aware of the embezzlement. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Issue #30: Cover by Jack Davis. "Gas-tly Prospects!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; This story is narrated by a California gold miner who is shot by a claim jumper; He passes out from the pain and when he 'wakes up', he sees the jumper looming over him with a bloody knife and he realizes that he is dead. "A Hollywood Ending!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Joe Orlando; A movie producer, who flies out to an Eskimo settlement, is surprised to find a beautiful American girl living among them and quickly falls for her. "Acid Test!" text story. "Auntie, It's Coal Inside!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen; Young Toby hears a voice inside his head, telling him to do things that his aunt punishes him for. "Mournin', Ambrose...", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; A man goes to visit his uncle who turns out to be a ghoul. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Issue #31: Cover by Jack Davis. "Survival...or Death!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; Two men aboard a cargo ship are bored until they get the idea to build a rat trap and ask the Captain to have a barrel built with a platform in the middle of it and a run off down the center. "The Thing In the 'Glades!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Al Williamson; A man's wife dies in childbirth giving him a deformed retarded son with stunted legs, and he becomes a hermit in his cabin in the Glades. "Soft!" text story. "Kamen's Kalamity!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels (draws himself), Johnny Craig (draws himself), and Jack Davis (draws himself); Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein tell this auto-biographical tale of hiring Jack Kamen to draw horror stories, first telling Kamen that his work is too sweet. "Buried Treasure!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels (as Ghastly); In 1667 Germany a fat Duke lords it over his starving peasants, but when he imposes a tax on the peasants for "dirtying his carriage' with the blood of a young child he rode down in the street, Johann conceives the plot of stealing some of the Duke's jewels in order to pay the tax. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Issue #32: Cover by Jack Davis. "'Taint the Meat...It's the Humanity!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; A butcher during the war gets around rationing points by selling steak to the wealthy customers who will pay cash for it and horsemeat, then stale meat and finally tainted meat to everyone else. "Roped In!", script by Al Feldstein, art by George Evans; Three business partners in construction make a patsy out of a fourth to take the blame for shoddy construction of a hospital that collapses and kills twenty-one patients. "Curse!" text story. "Cutting Cards!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Fred Peters; Two professional gamblers hate each other so much that they challenge each other to a game of chop poker. "Squash...Anyone?", script by Bill Gaines (co-plot) and Albert B. Feldstein (co-plot, script), art by Graham Ingels (as Ghastly); An elephant trainer whose performance entails having the animal raise its foot an inch above his beautiful wife-assistant's face is having an affair with a woman who convinces him to have the elephant crush the wife and have the elephant shot blaming the death on the elephant. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Issue #33: Cover by Jack Davis. "Lower Berth!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; The Crypt Keeper relates his origin story of the meeting between his parents, a 4000 year old female Egyptian mummy and a two-headed corpse. "This Trick'll Kill You!", script by Al Feldstein, pencils by George Evans, inks by Jack Kamen; A magician and his wife are visiting India looking for new acts to perform when he spies a girl with a trick rope that rises into the air when she plays a pipe and can be climbed upon. "Castaway" text story. "The Funeral," script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen; In this grim fairy tale, a young prince grows fond of his nanny until one day she appears dead. "None But the Lonely Heart!", script by Bill Gaines (co-plot) and Albert B. Feldstein (co-plot, script), art by Graham Ingels (as Ghastly); A man who marries homely wealthy women and murders them for their money receives a lonely-hearts letter from a woman who tells him that she lives in a large stone house and encloses a photograph of a lovely woman whom she admits the picture displays two years ago, not having a more recent snapshot. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Issue #34: Cover by Jack Davis. "Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; A first person narrative where a man fashions a monster together out of artificial parts ala Frankenstein and transfers your brain into it. "Oil's Well That Ends Well!", script by Al Feldstein, art by George Evans; Two swindlers run a racket where they visit a small town and convince them there is oil present and get them to issue stock in order to come up with the check to begin drilling. "Love Story" text story. "Attacks of Horror!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen; This grim fairy tale tells the story of king Moneymad's tax scheme. "There Was an Old Woman!", script by Ray Bradbury (original story) and Albert B. Feldstein (adaptation), art by Graham Ingels (as Ghastly); The employees of a mortuary are haunted by the spirit of an old woman who refuses to leave until they return her body to her. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Florian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the concept, the imaginative plots and the gorgeous artwork, but I think this worked better when it was published in monthly magazines. It's fun and creative, but the formulaic stories and predictable plot twists make the stories feel repetitive when consumed in a collected format. I can draw parallels to webtoons, for example - I come back every week to check new installments, but I wouldn't read them collected in a book. I suppose you could call it binging fatigue?

I'm not sure I will get the other volumes, because at this point I feel it would be more of the same, but i still encourage you to at least to explore the EC universe.

3.5 stars

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Tales From The Crypt has become the most widely known of the EC comics, the stories are not as good as many found in their other publications. Because they deal with the fantastic, it seems like many are wrapped up a little too neatly with not much in the way of the surprise endings so prevalent in a lot of the other titles, and way too often it's just someone coming back from the dead to take revenge.
Once again the artwork comes to the rescue of the sometimes inferior story, making it worthwhile to look at if nothing else.
This volume includes some nice historical tidbits interspersed throughout.

[Paul Sutter]

One never tires of these amazing reprints courtesy of Dark Horse Books. Their attention to detail in bringing back comic from the golden age of comics, keeps reader coming back for more of the best of the EC Comics world. EC was certainly ahead of its time in terms of quality writing, quality artists, and quality in every other manner. Seeing these today gives the same sort of response that those who bought them when they first were released in the early 1950’s got.
The artwork was out of this world, and there are very few stories what could be considered sub-par tales. The stories are taken from issues 29-34 of Tales From The Crypt. In fact, the comics are reproduced as they were printed, right down to the reader’s letters, and promotions for other EC titles.
In this issue, artwork by Jack Davis, Jack Kamen, Joe Orlando, Al Williamson, and Graham Ingels, among others, really bring the stories to life. Some of the best tales in this volume include, Grounds for Horror, where a horrid stepfather keeps putting his stepson Artie in the closet for disobeying him. He threatens the boy’s mother as well, and tells her not to feed him some nights. The boy has a secret invisible friend in the closet, that he calls Hozir. Hozir is not pleased with what the man is doing to Artie, and while Artie tries to control Hozir’s impulses, we find that dad was a true cut-up literally in the end.
Another great tale is Gas-tly Prospects, where an old man goes to California to find gold. After many attempts he hits the big time, and considers himself rich. But he is attacked by a claims jumper, who shoots the old man twice. He buries the man, but the man refuses to accept he is dead, coming back to haunt the man. He throws his body in the lake, and when the man comes back yet again, decides to burn him to death. But the man finds that fire can backfire in the deadliest of ways.
Taint The Meat….It’s The Humanity, is another nifty read, with a wild ending. A Butcher during the War years gets special rationing points for the meat he sells. The more points, the more meat he can sell. But soon he begins selling meat to the highest bidders, then finds the meat is scarce. He resorts to selling horse meat, very old meat, and finally meat not fit for human consumption. When his own child consumes it with fatal results, his wife decides to play butcher for retaliation.
There are other interesting stories such as Lower Berth, The Funeral, Squash…Anyone? The Thing In The ‘Glades, A Hollywood Ending, and None But The Lonely Heart. If you are a fan of EC, this book is a must-add to your collection, filled with stories from six Tales From The Crypt comic book classics. These reprints are definitely true gems.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was eleven or twelve, my dad bought me some comic books I found on a swivel rack at an old general drugstore downtown. One of those comics was a reprint anthology of the Vault of Horror, hosted by the Vault Keeper. I knew about Tales from the Crypt from the HBO series, but I hadn't known that it had started as a comic book or that there were other horror emcees like the Crypt Keeper. I must have read through that comic two dozen times. Growing up, I was always drawn to horror stories and horror movies. There was something grown up about murder, death, and the terrible things that threatened us, both real and make believe. I cut my teeth on old horror films like Frankenstein, The Fly, and The Blob. Essentially bloodless films that still possessed that aura of creepiness and eeriness that gave it such appeal. The old EC horror comics were quite bloody, but the gallows humor and the cartoony style made it palatable somehow to my eleven year old self. Reading this collection was like a pleasant trip down memory lane for me. It doesn't quite convey the best experience. The pages are glossy and the art style and coloring are crisp and refined. The old comics were printed on cheap, rough paper and the inks bled and the colors could be muddy. But that somehow added to the charm of the stories, the dinginess of the printing fitting right in with the ghouls and corruption of the characters who populate the grim tales within. This book is more like a time capsule, transporting the reader to a time when horror was fun, another way to pass the time pleasantly. Perhaps post-atomic fatalism made us more open to horror and terror as a leisure genre. At the same time EC was making its horror comics, Alfred Hitchcock was beaming into people's homes each week to gleefully present stories of murder and larceny. There are some gems in this particular volume, perhaps the best being a Ray Bradbury story adapted to comic form. I highly recommend if you're a fan of the gruesome and macabre, and you like simpler times, when murderers are done in by the fresh corpses of their victims, or ironic comeuppances are served with a healthy dose of black humor puns.

[Nicholas Kaufmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great collection of fun, cheesy fright tales from EC, courtesy of Dark Horse! Seasoned horror fans won't find any surprises in these stories of supernatural or ironic comeuppance, but that's not why we read them. We read them because they're fun and enjoyably lurid. We read them for the hosts' groan-worthy puns. We read them for the iconic art.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover two stories in this volume that I remembered seeing adapted for TV and film. The first is "Lower Berth," which I remember from the old Tales From the Crypt HBO series and which purports to be the Crypt Keeper's origin story, set in a traveling carnival where a two-headed "freak" falls in love with an ancient mummy. The second is "This Trick'll Kill You," which was adapted as a segment in the Amicus horror anthology film The Vault of Horror and involves a magician murdering someone in order to steal their "Indian rope trick," only to discover the rope itself wants revenge. There's also a story here that adapts Ray Bradbury's "There Was an Old Woman."

I'm really enjoying these collections of TALES FROM THE CRYPT and the other EC horror titles! I'm eager to read more!

[Joshua Begley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, oh, man, there's nothing quite as fun as reading Tales from the Crypt. The stories might be a little rushed at times, and the endings don't always land, but there's a joy, a delight in the creepy, the eerie, the grotesque that's almost childlike that permeates every panel and infects you. The stories range from tales of supernatural revenge to karmic comeuppance to the evil that people do to one another. The stories are wordier than modern readers are accustomed to, so that might put off new readers, but the interplay between text and image where the text does just as much heavy lifting is so much fun. And the art is fantastic. Joe Orlando and Jack Davis were probably my favorites, but you can't go wrong with any of the roster on these issues, especially when the great Marie Severin does coloring duties. If you're a fan of horror and comics, you should absolutely check this out. Even when it falls, it still entertains.

[Choupi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un tome 3 que j’ai moins aimé aux autres. J’ai trouvé que certaines histoires avaient assez mal vieilli, répétitives ou moins intéressantes. Ma préférée reste celle du charbon, mais dans l’ensemble y’en avait quelques-unes de moins mémorables avec des clichés un peu trop utilisés à mon goût.

Cela reste cependant toujours une lecture cool, à l’ancienne et qui me rend nostalgique de la série TV que je regardais dans les années 90. Un humour noir grinçants et des dessins en noir et blanc efficaces.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two volumes were a bit rocky, but EC finally figures out what "Tales from the Crypt" can and should be in the third volume. The stories are less predictable, more pulpy and lurid. The jokes and asides feel less childish and pandering, and more playfully macabre; we're getting closer to the perfect tone that the first few seasons of the TV show would hit. Best of all are the increasingly common literary adaptations, such as Ray Bradbury's "There Was an Old Woman."

[Stephen Snead · Rating 5 out of 5]

It you are an old boomer which I am this is a fun read. Good art work. Although I like the original left alone. I like the old flawed coloring and mistakes & splotchy art of the old 40's and 50's drawings. But, I'm one of those people that like the hiss & pop of old vinyl records and the original black & white of old movies.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.

That's all.

[Kirby Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

EC Comics reached its stride with the comics captured in this volume. Wonderful!

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic, horror comics that made history and you cannot help loving.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

[M&M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bones històries, compilació clàssica dels anys cinquanta.

[Mrspacekphs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fully unhinged.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant like the last two volumes. Stories are great and i love reading the crypt keepers corner columns!!

[Kris Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

EC Comics are the best comic books ever made. To think that this stuff pre-dates The Twilight Zone, most Hitchcock, etc., just goes to show how much this influenced others.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite stories were those drawn by Jack Kamen and Jack Davis. Features a great story at the end of the collection written by Ray Bradbury.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

It’s getting more scary/morbid!!!

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½

[Fernando · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tercer tomo que recopila la mítica colección "Historias de la Cripta" en el que tres "guardianes" nos presentan cuentos breves de terror y enormes dosis de humor negro que está editando Diábolo en España con una enorme calidad.

Esta es la mejor entrega hasta el momento porque se aprecia cómo la colección comenzó a asentarse en una línea mucho más adulta y de tono más "pulp", atrevido y con finales menos predecibles y que se alejan de la moralina tradicionalista predominante en aquellos tiempos para dar paso a otras perspectivas de la vida. Uno aprecia que las perspectivas iban cambiando hacia nuevos mares de inconformismo y rebeldía ante las imposiciones cerradas conservadoras.

También se puede observar que el humor resulta muchísimo más macabro, cruel y menos pueril así como la introducción de nuevos seres imaginativos que se distancian de los arquetipos malvados y cuya psicología se nos presenta más compleja y variada, con motivaciones que distancian de la simple maldad por ser "monstruos" o "antagonistas".

Siempre me saca una cándida sonrisa la lectura de secciones que han mantenido como las cartas de los lectores y los anuncios. Se debe tener un respeto enorme por estas maravillas del cómic que debieron sortear grandes peligros para salir a la luz, luchando contra una realidad en contra. Estas revistas eran la adolescencia contestona que nos permitió ser lo que somos ahora.

[EC Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Killer, almost defines classic EC. Possibly the best gallery of Jack Davis' work in one volume (except maybe HOF 3), including the Cryptkeeper's origin, an inventive POV story, the classic "Gas-tly Prospects" and "Grounds for Horror", a favorite chiller about an imaginary friend who does some real bad things.
Ingels is deep in his groove with "Squash, Anyone?", and "Sucker for a Spider". "Kamen's Kalamity" is a meta-oddball humor story that deserves it's own shrine in EC history, definitely one of Kamen's best, with each EC artist doing their own portrait. Some nice Orlando work and the first EC story of Al Williamson, with "Terror In the Glades" add variety and round this out to be probably the most solid volume of Tales From the Crypt.
After three increasingly tight volume 2's, this reaches what is arguably the peak of Gaines and Feldstein's consistency with the horror titles. Although they as writers and all of the individual artists would hit higher peaks than this artistically, this is maybe the most packed volume of tales they offered. Love the Gemstone printings, too.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Influente ao máximo, este comic junto com outros títulos da EC Comics foi um dos grandes responsáveis pela comissão de auto-censura da indústria que surgiu na sequência de uma reacção alérgica social à iconografia do género. Se hoje os estilismos dos ilustradores dos contos tenebrosos da EC nos parecem deliciosamente antiquados, à época chocaram sensibilidades. Puro terror em quadricromia, a puxar ao grand guignol. Como é possível não gostar das imagens lúridas de monstruosidades e das narrativas curtas mas melindrosamente perversas? Nada mau para uma editora que se iniciou com banais adaptações bíblicas, mudou radicalmente a indústria com uma linha de títulos influentes cujo conteúdo aguenta o teste do tempo e, pós complicações mediáticas, se manteve com a revista de cartoons mais conhecida do planeta.

[Beatlesfan685]

want to read so bad

[Sylvester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only few stories were good, the rest were rather uninventive.