The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt Volume 2

The EC Archives

by Al Feldstein (Editor), Joe Dante (Foreword)

From stories by the legendary team Bill Gaines & Al Feldstein come the classic horror tales written by Feldstein and illustrated by the all-star line-up of Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Johnny Craig, Feldstein himself, Joe Orlando, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, and Marie Severin. Reprints 24 stories from Tales from the Crypt with a foreword by Joe Dante, director of Gremlins. Reprints issues #7-12 (24 stories) of the comic book Tales From the Crypt, originally published in 1951 and 1952, and the inspiration for the hit movie and HBO series!

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Classics

212 pages, Hardcover

Published July 3, 2007

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

[Scott Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a good time, these were the comics I read as a kid. Love that they have re-released them in these multi volume bundles.

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 2 of Tales From the Crypt is more of the same: Love affairs, people coming back from the dead for revenge, and the occasional classic vampire or werewolf story.

Overall this was decent, worthy of 3 stars at least, but these stories get repetitive after a while and many of them are forgettable. Literally. My memory retention of most of the EC comic horror stories is awful, minus a few standout ones. And this volume did have a few, with my absolute favorite being "Judy You're Not Yourself Today". Which also received an equally, if not better, television adaptation.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, though maybe not as fun as the first volume. The stories start out strong, but lose their kick over the course of the volume. It's like having that third jelly doughnut: still good but definitely crossing the line into over-indulgence.

Of course, I didn't go into this expecting great horror stories. I went in looking for old-school vibes and classic riffs from the dawn of horror comics. Volume Two delivers on that count. The plots are "Tales from the Crypt Standard Issue": innocent person killed by bad guy; supernatural force extracts justice and destroys bad guy. Every story is exactly that.

A few things really irked me. One thing was the incessant use of exclamation points. That may have been a problem in the first volume, but I never noticed. In this one, it felt rampant. The other thing was the constant end-of-story sales pitch to send away for real photographs of the "ghoulunatics". Since this came up nearly every story, it would've been a nice touch to include those photos in this volume. After all, I believe I paid more than 75 cents for this book. That should cover the cost of the photos.

I'm giving this four stars because despite everything I just said, this book was exactly what I wanted. You have to love old school horror comics, otherwise you will be disappointed. If you love them as I do, you won't go wrong with this volume in your collection.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the second volume, "Tales from the Crypt" has improved a little, finding its own roots in a variety of horror tropes rather than trying desperately to be Ray Bradbury. Too many of these still suffer from forced not-even-a-twist endings, but there are moments here, like the cursed voodoo painting, the tree that causes a man to age in reverse, and the ventriloquist dummy with a possessed, deformed head for a hand, which are truly memorable.

[Annalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were so fun! I loved them

[Garth · Rating 3 out of 5]

2023 - 365 Days of Horror

Issues #23-28

Issue #23: Cover by Al Feldstein. "Reflection of Death!", script and art by Al Feldstein; Carl and Al are driving down a dark, lonely road when suddenly headlights appear in front of them, and there is a crash; Al awakens with torn clothes and a smell, asking a driver on the road for a lift to town, but the man screams and drives off. "Last Respects!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; Tony loves and secretly marries Anna, a wealthy, but underage girl; When her Uncle discovers this, he threatens to annul the marriage, which drives Anna to her sickbed. "Precautions" text story. "Seance!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; Alan Bitsby sets out to prove that a medium is faking by asking him to raise the spirit of his 'departed' wife. "Voodoo Death!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Johnny Craig; Jay and Bill witness a forbidden voodoo ceremony; Jay is captured and later meets up with Bill and they leave Haiti. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Issue #24: Cover by Al Feldstein. "Bats In My Belfry!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; An actor loses his hearing, so he goes to visit an unorthodox individual that a friend tipped him off to; This person recommends transplanting the auditory senses of a bat. "The Living Death!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; Two doctors are in love with the same woman; she develops a tumor on her heart; Dr. Manning operates on her, but she dies. "Curse!" text story. "Midnight Snack!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Johnny Craig; Duncan Reynolds is reading horror stories when he gets hungry, and suddenly finds himself in front of a restaurant that is serving up foul-smelling food. "Scared To Death!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Wally Wood; A man weds a woman to secure her uncle's fortune when he dies, but gets tired of waiting so convinces his wife to be an accomplice to her uncle's murder. ⭐️⭐️

Issue #25: Cover by Al Feldstein. "The Trophy!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; A sportsman who is only interested in game for the trophy ends up the victim of a lunatic who thinks the same way about humans. "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Wally Wood; An old crone utters a magical spell that causes her to switch bodies with a man's young wife. "Cunning!" text story. "Loved to Death," script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen; A rejected young man buys a love potion that works a bit too well. "The Works...In Wax!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; Henri and Marie are the owners of a wax museum, and Marie claims that the wax figures in the chamber of horrors tell her that they are being tortured, so she averts their eyes from their victims and lowers their weapons. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ solely for The Works in Wax. Done two years prior to Vincent Price’s The House of Wax and the main character, Henri, resembles Price (somewhat) with a similar name (Price was Henry). Strange coincidence.

Issue #26: Cover by Wally Wood. "Drawn and Quartered!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; An artist in Haiti realizes that he has been cheated by several people in the art industry and so seeks out native voodoo practitioners for vengeance. "The Borrowed Body!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Howard Larsen; A woman and her lover plot to murder the wife's husband. "Finale" text story. "Indian Burial Mound," script by Al Feldstein, art by George Roussos; Roy Madison buys a farm from Hiram Becker with the intent of leveling it and turning the property into a flight school, however there is an Indian burial mound located on the property which Hiram warns Roy not to bulldoze. "Political Pull!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; A political rival for the office of mayor poisons the current mayor and leaves a suicide note confessing graft and corruption on the table in order to smear the mayor's past reputation and cement his victory in the election. ⭐️⭐️

Issue #27: Cover by Wally Wood. "Well-Cooked Hams!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; Two American producers want to bring Parisian-style, Grand Guignol, gory plays to a Broadway theater, but the owner refuses to do business with them. "Madame Bluebeard," script by Al Feldstein, art by Joe Orlando; A woman raises her daughter to hate men and so for six years she murders a husband a year, making each appear an accidental death, as trophies for her departed mother. "Nature" text story. "Return!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen; A woman ends up getting pregnant by her husband's ghost! "Horror! Head... It Off!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; A member of the French nobility during the Terror betrays his fellow's confidence in order to curry favor with the revolutionary government. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Issue #28: Cover by Al Feldstein. EC Artist of the Month article by Al Feldstein about Joe Orlando. "Bargain In Death!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis; Two medical students need to procure a corpse in order to get an anatomy credit to graduate and pay an imbecile five bucks to grave rob a newly dug grave. "Ants In Her Trance!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Joe Orlando; A hypnotist places his wife in a trance and commands her to stop her heart; He brings her out of it with the phrase 'snap out of it'; When he falls for another woman, they decide to murder the wife by using the words 'wake up' instead, which won't bring her out of the trance. Break Out! text story. "A-Corny Story," script by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Kamen; An elderly man is fired due to age discrimination and returns to Haiti to work revenge upon his boss. "The Ventriloquist's Dummy!", script by Al Feldstein, art by Graham Ingels; A man with a homicidal head growing out of his wrist pursues the career path of a ventriloquist. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Nicholas Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun collection of six issues from the classic EC comics run! After the first few issues in Volume 1, the format has solidified into the Crypt-Keeper, the Old Witch from HAUNT OF FEAR, and the Vault-Keeper from VAULT OF HORROR all getting to introduce a tale in each issue, with the Crypt-Keeper getting to go twice because it's his series.

The stories are as cheesy and charming as ever. I was pleasantly surprised to come across a few I remember being adapted for Amicus anthology films. In this volume, you'll find "Reflection of Death," about a man who doesn't realize he's come back from the dead until everyone screams when they see him, which was in 1972's TALES FROM THE CRYPT movie. There's also "Bargain in Death," about gravediggers encountering a man who faked his death for the insurance money and mistaking him for a ghoul, and "Drawn and Quartered," about a down-on-his-luck painter doomed by a spilled can of paint thinner, both of which were in 1973's THE VAULT OF HORROR movie (the latter starring DOCTOR WHO's Tom Baker). There's also a story called "The Living Death," about a hypnotized man who can't die until he's released from hypnosis, which is clearly a riff on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar."

These comics are a lot of fun, and I can see why they were so popular back in the day. Once again, I'm grateful to Dark Horse for releasing these trade collections in full color and at a reasonable price.

[M&M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bones històries, compilació clàssica dels anys cinquanta.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great from beginning to end. Packed full of thrilling short stories. This hardcover collects issues 7-12, and the quality of this reprint is fantastic. Full colour throughout the whole book, they include all of the old ads that were in the original issues. If you're thinking of reading this book, you definitely should.

[Deimosa Webber-Bey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality work from the arch-nemesis of the Comic Book Code Authority. This will keep you up at night (checking under the bed, etc).

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reprints Tales from the Crypt #23-28 (April 1951-February 1952). The Crypt Keeper and his friends are back with a whole batch of new stories of horror. From voodoo spells, supernatural body-swapping, cursed puppets, and the undead rising, the horror is real as those with impure thoughts and plans pay for their actions! There is a lot of room for corpses in the Crypt, and the Crypt is open for terror!

Written by Al Feldstein, The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt—Volume 2 is a Dark Horse Comics reprint of the EC horror comics. Following The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt—Volume 1, the collection features art by Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Howard Larsen, George Roussos, and Joe Orlando. The collection has been reprinted in both hardback and paperback by Dark Horse Comics.

I always loved horror growing up and books of ghost stories and horror tales were always a favorite. Most of those stories feel like the basis for all of the EC horror comics which take a very simple approach to the horror…those who sin are the ones who die.

Despite the controversy surrounding EC and the horror they presented, fundamentally, they are pretty morally positive stories. While generally an innocent pays the crime initially (a husband whose promiscuous wife hooks up with a philandering man ends up dead, etc.), the guilty pay…in scores. The horror of the comics often is pretty real with acid baths and other nasty deaths. I can imagine in the 1950s, they were pretty shocking, but now they are so cartoon that they are often almost quaint.

Another great thing about the reprints is seeing everything else surrounding EC. You have advertisements for other magazines, and it is also fun to see advertisements for the pre-horror comics they put out which include things like Picture Stories from the Bible and other “non-horror” comics right next to stories about zombies and ghouls.

The art is great and this collection is no exception. The collections often highlight pages of art and the cleaned up presentation of the comics is top notch. The artists are all classics and some of the additional articles and letter pages give a bit of insight to how EC operated…including an introduction of Joe Orlando in Tales from the Crypt #28. Orlando went on to do horror and other comics for years…along with other artists here. It is fun to see some of these artists starts.

The EC Archives are a great addition if you love horror and if you love comic books. Their significance in the whole progression of the comic industry can’t be forgotten, and Dark Horse is doing a great job keeping them out there and affordable. The oversized collections are definitely worth seeking out and if you were a fan of the Tales from the Crypt series or movies, it is a fun to see some of the stories that were turned into episodes. Open the Crypt…it is always worth it.

[Paul Sutter]

It may sound redundant at times, but if you want a classic reprint of some of EC Comics most memorable stories, then you cannot go wrong with the EC Archives. Dark Horse has done an impressive job of reprinting the best of EC, and the comics that mattered to people generations ago. Yes, EC was controversial for its graphic horror comics, causing it to tone down the visuals in the stories. But if you wanted stories with a difference, then these were the tales for you.
Once more The Crypt-Keeper, The Old Witch, and The Vault-Keeper keep the comics lively, each one trying to out-gross and out-frighten the other with their stories. By today’s standards these stories are sort of tame, mainly because of the fact the visuals of murders and dismemberments are non-existent.
Even though America had gotten over the horrors of war several years previously, and people had seen some terrifying photos of death and disaster, somehow comics were seen by some as more alarming and threatening to the psyche of the youth of America. Laughable, yes, but sometimes emotion outranks logic.
Still what we see in this volume, are exact reproductions of issues 23 to28 in this series. We have the typical revenge stories which were a staple of these comics, but the manner in which they differ and are played out, is what makes the book so much fun to read seventy or so years after they were created.
It is not difficult to see why the books were so popular, the fact the stories were engrossing, sometimes silly, but they usually had lots of revenge tales, where those who committed crimes were punished in the end. Some of the more interesting stories in this edition include The Borrowed Body. A wife finds a new lover, and wants to get rid of her unsuspecting husband. He is attacked but the attacker dies running from the scene. The wife is shocked to find the husband still alive and kills him with a fireplace poker. But she soon discovers the husband and lovers switched bodies, making it a true shock, and of course the wife must suffer for her sins.
Other classics include: Loved To Death, Scared To Death, Bats In My Belfry, Madam Bluebeard, and Well-Cooked Hams. So lovers of classic horror and EC’s best, add this exceptional archive to your library today.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's still no Shock SuspenStories, but I enjoyed this book as much as the second Weird Science.

A little too much voodoo, but the rest of the stories definitely worked. I loved Wally Wood's "Scared to Death." Right from the opening splash (one of the best of all time), to the final shot of Ralph's hand disappearing beneath the lake, it just clicked.

"Loved to Death" was the first EC story I ever encountered, in the HBO Crypt TV series. Andrew McCarthy and Mariel Hemingway were in it.

Graham Ingel has really started to leap out as my favorite of the EC horror artists. His "The Works... in Wax" is massively creepy, and he really imbues each of his tales with a really disturbing edge that the other artists can't quite match. He seemed to draw a lot of period pieces also, which I think also make them stand out more. Less suburban femme fatale horror and more genuinely creepy, forgotten-world terror. Incredible stuff.

Page 3 of Jack Davis's "Bargain in Death" (issue 28, the final issue of this book), anybody else notice that the landlady's TEETH FALL OUT in the last panel? HAHAHAHAHAHA

Orlando's "Ants in her Trance" has a bad name, but a great ending, and Davis's forementioned "Bargain in Death" has one of the most surprising and subdued endings.

[Luke Southard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve got a fondness for Tales From the Crypt. It was the perfect blend of scary for a younger kid, the Cryptkeeper (as shown in the 90s show) was such a visual that you couldn’t help but stare, and the fact I had to stay up so late to catch it on USA only made it feel more worth it. There was a struggle and it also felt a little taboo.

They also released junior novelizations that I read as a kid and really enjoyed.

Recently there has been a reboot of TFtC and I am not a fan. There was just something about it that rubbed me the wrong way.

Then it hit me: there were too many puns. The old stories like this kept the puns in the bumpers but the stories really dod try to scare you. Or at least unsettle you.

Personally, I always looked at them like Grimm tales - just morality tales about not trying to get ahead in nefarious ways or indulging in revenge fantasies or just plain hurting people.

The worst part about these books aren’t the tales inside but rather what happened to the writers and artists after all the parents started clutching their pearls and blaming the comics for their kids’ behaviors. If you’re interested in that, you should check out The Ten Cent Plague. It’s a very good book that covers comic history.

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Podría pasarme días escribiendo sobre estos cómics que ayudaron a poner los pilares del terror contemporáneo y que, después de las décadas aguantan con soltura la obsesionada corriente de "presentismo" que no deja de ser otra forma de censura condenatoria y, sobre eso, estas viñetas saben mucho...

Son los cuentos que queremos seguir escuchando en torno a una fogata o al encender el maldito televisor. Cierto, quizá puedan resultar inocentemente moralistas en un primer vistazo para un lector profano pero, cuando se profundiza, se descubre que su moraleja resulta profundamente perversa enarbolando una bandera de humor negrísimo en honor de los monstruos, esos compañeros que, para muchos, han sido siempre los mejores amigos que hemos tenido en nuestra vida. Porque los monstruos, los fabulosos monstruos, también nos producen una sensación de que hay algo más en el mundo que asfalto, sinsabores y guerras (bien a escala mundial, nacional o doméstica).

Esopo se hubiera sentido profundamente orgulloso de todos los perversos seres humanos que terminan reclamados por la única justicia posible en un mundo injusto, la de lo ultraterreno que poco tiene que ver con perspectivas de Cielo e Infierno sino de ese escorzo perverso del monstruo que se alza para cobrar venganza y termina erigiéndose casi en un super héroe de los actuales. Un monstruo que, en multitud de ocasiones, no deja de ser ese Destino burlón y su justicia poética como le ocurre en una de las historias a un pintor injustamente tratado que, a través del vudú, se toma la justicia por su mano y acaba preso de su propia maldición.

Nada más terminar el segundo tomo ya estás deseando tener en las manos el tercero porque Diábolo publica titánicamente con la calidad del libro como insignia estas joyas que ya merecían una edición tan cuidada y repleta de mimo.

Simplemente, fantástico.

[L Ron Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horror aficionados rhapsodize about EC Comics as if they published veritable Necronomica teeming with forbidden images. So it’s surprising when you pry open Tales from the Crypt Vol. II and find… a fairly tame assortment of morality tales, many of which lack the wicked twists for which the publisher is now remembered. Aside from a few money shots — the reveal of a decaying face in “Reflection of Death!”, a severed head in “A Trophy!” — the book hardly contains the kind of Grand Guignol graphics that would warrant a crackdown from public decency campaigners. The reuse of stock plots (murder victims returning from beyond the dead, voodoo spells having unintended consequences) further dull the impact, even when artists like George Roussos, Jack Kamen and Wally Wood keep things visually engaging.

[Nate]

The second Tales from the Crypt collection is even better than the first. The first story here, “Reflections of Death,” sets the bar extremely high: a man (narrated as you, the reader) dreams he gets in a car accident and loses two months of his life, unaware that he’s turned into a walking corpse. Then something remarkably similar happens. It’s told so well, and the face of the guy is gross and twisted like it should be.

I also loved the grand guignol story (those last two panels!) and the one about the woman who kills her seven husbands and pays for it. If you like horror, this stuff is just great. It's easy to see how these comics were prime influences on guys like John Carpenter and Joe Dante.

Two storytelling crutches in these comics: stories set in Haiti featuring voodoo, and a man and woman in love conspiring to kill the woman's husband.

[Joaquin del Villar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recopilación de relatos de horror de la mítica EC. Destacaría "Bargain in Death", una historia de ladrones de cadáveres mezclados con cierto experimento que hace que una persona parezca muerta, con esta combinación nada sorprende al final.. "Here´s a ghostly yarn I call it... Return", una historia de aparecidos de lo mas bizarro, pues el fantasma deja embarazada a la viuda. "Political Pull" un político que muere y pierde su prestigio, pero su sucesor tampoco es que le quede mucho. En definitiva, relatos interesantes para pasar un buen rato. Por salud mental, leer estos recopilatorios poco a poco

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standout story is the very first in this volume “Reflection of Death” which takes place from the main character’s point of view. The reader sees what he sees, which makes this one very memorable.

For the most part, every one of these stories is predictable. Many themes reoccur as well. If the writer has run out of ideas this week, the plot will be that the main character does really bad things to people and his victims come back as zombies , werewolves, or vampire bats to exact their revenge. That doesn’t keep these from being entertaining.

Best art in this volume was from Jack Davis and Johnny Craig. Ugliest art is from Graham Ingels.

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ends on for me one of the two or three stories I read in jr high 45 years ago and have stayed with me ever since: the ventriloquist whose dummy is a little too hands-on w/the female fans. I joke about it now but I remember reading this at the tender age of 12 or 13 and being physically repelled by it's all too real body horror imagery which in my remembering is so much worse than what's really graphically shown. Brilliant stuff from Al Feldstein and Ghastly Graham Ingles. The whole book is great but as I re-read these stories decades later it occurs to me that it's mostly crime-comix but w/supernatural twist endings. Genius.

[Jeff McIntosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a pleasure to read any EC Comics reprints. I assume that the text and pictures are slightly larger than the original - which is nice. Fun to read the original ads for rings and other jewelry as well....

Although I have never seen one...the characters of the Crypt-Keeper and his compatriots hawked actual photographs of themselves for a mere 10c, or a quarter for all three..anyone ever seen one?



Jeff McIntosh

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love going back in time and reading the EC comics. Not only do I get to see some of the greats of comic art and writing as they get their start, I also get some damn fine stories from the 1950s. These comics resisted the Comic Code Authority's attempt to censure comics. Very nice art and plots make these a joy to read. Recommended

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason this collection didn't tickle me as much as the other EC horror collections I've read so far. It's a lot of ho-hum stuff until towards the end where the latter stories are pretty much all knockouts. Always good stuff in general, though. Highlights here are "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" (much better and different than what one would expect) and "Bargain in Death."

[theperksofbeingmarissa ;) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like others said, some parts of the stories did not age well. There was a comment about semicivilized people that’s racially insensitive. I also found voodoo part of the first story racially insensitive.

Other than that, I enjoyed the all the stories! They are predictable (all except the last one). If I were a kid, I don’t think I would’ve guessed the endings correctly though!

[Choupi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très bon deuxième tome que j’ai préféré au premier. Il y a 3-4 histoires oubliables mais le reste c’était plus maitrisées et mieux écrits. On retrouve comme d’habitude des thèmes classiques et récurrents de l’horreur des années 50. Pas de quoi surprendre, mais agréable à lire pour la nostalgie du genre.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool! Love how these are the stories from the 50s that ended up being the basis for the HBO show “Tales From The Crypt”

A lot of the stories are cheesy and considered tame by today’s standards but they are all highly entertaining!

[Ernesto Juárez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se ve el avance cronológico en la publicación de estás historias, ya que la calidad crece, además que identificar una historia que fue adaptada a la serie de televisión alegró a mi niño interno, espero leer pronto los demás volúmenes

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. All the stories are excellent whilst others are just that bit better.

Loved reading about readers thoughts and letters in the crypt keeper corner. And what is it about Haiti and vodoo?! Was mentioned in a few stories.

Vol 3 is on order :)

[Diane Arcand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Loved them when I was younger and they are still a good read today. Great artistry and interesting story lines.

[LiamB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spooky spooky spook!