Shocktober 10/19/21

This collection of stories from EC Comics is the second such collection to come out recently (the first being the Tales from the Crypt volume that came out just a couple of months ago).

Both reprint stories from the 1950s run of EC Comics' horror line, with artwork from some of the best in the business: Johnny Craig (who handled the cover duties for this volume), Wallace Wood, Graham Ingels, etc. And though the artwork has been recolored, the coloring has been matched beautifully with Marie Severin's original work.

The results? Some of the scariest comics ever produced.

The perfect complement to Shocktober!

This Week's Travel Reading, Shocktober Edition 10/18/21

Having started the month with H.P. Lovecraft, I couldn't see myself going through the rest of Shocktober without at least touching on my favorite horror author (and a major influence on Lovecraft): Edgar Allan Poe.

Like Lovecraft, Poe didn't live very long; he was just 40 years old when he succumbed to...what, exactly? There are no records regarding why Poe died, and speculation over the years that he died due to accute alcoholism (or one of the many diseases inherent in that condition), but no one knows with any certainty.

Before he died, though...man, did he conjure up some nightmares.

The Pit and the Pendulem. The Cask of Amontillardo. The Masque of the Red Death. The Tell-Tale Heart. My personal favorite, The Black Cat. And so many more.

As with the Lovecraft volume I recently acquired, this Collected Poe really isn't suited to travel reading--it weighs about 10 lbs. and would wreck my neck and back if I were to tuck it into the backpack for reading on the long train/bus ride to and from the job.

Still, it's comforting to flip through as the days grow shorter and cooler, and the nights grow longer and deeper.

Shocktober 10/17/21

Shocktober 10/16/21

Tales from the Crypt wasn't the first horror anthology comic book published in the United States. It was, however, verly likely the most popular of the many, many horror comics published in the early 1950 before Frederic Wertham, a German-born psychiatrist/author/cruisader against comic books in general and horror comics in particular, turned the glare of the media spotlight on the garishly colored, luridly drawn and salaciously written horror comics.

Werthan's book, Seduction of the Innocent was, according to Wikipedia, "a minor bestseller" that nonetheless had sweeping effects on the comic book industry: Horror comics, for the most part, ceased publication overnight. Where there had been dozens of publications, only a few survived, and those became more tame than the "funny animal" comics or "Blondie and Dick Tracy reprints.

But they didn't go away. Not forever. And not completely.
Initially, EC tried to shift their comic book lines over to black-and-white prose magazines with illustrations drawn by many of their comic book artists, but the effort was too little, too late: the magazines went bust after a couple of issues, and only one magazine out of EC's whole line--the humor-oriented Mad--survived.
But that wasn't the end of the gory story. Oh no.
In the 1960s, Warren Publishing began a line of black-and-white magazines--Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella--that was a direct throwback to the EC Comics line, even employing some of the same artists and writers (Johnny Craig, Wallace Wood, Frank Frazetta, Reed Crandall and Angelo Torres, to name just a few). Since these were magazines, not comic books, they weren't subject to the Comics Code and, thus, could publish whatever the hell they wanted to. And did.
Creepy lasted until 1983 (with a lone followup issue published in 1985). Eerie ended around the same time. And Vampirella? Her original run ended at the same time as they other two magazines, but she was revived in comic books soon after and has rarely been out of print since.

Take that, Fred.

Shocktober 10/15/21

The second volume of the adventures of Morbius the Living Vampire came out earlier this year, and it features much the same as the first: Michael Morbius, turned into a vampire by an experiment designed to cure him of a rare blood disease, wanders through the Marvel Universe, encountering various monsters and superheroes.

Considering that Morbius is slated to appear in his own big-screen adaptation--with Jared Leto in the title role--next year, now might be a good time to bone up on his past adventures.

Shocktober 10/14/21

Samuel "Shemp" Howard is best known for his two stints with the Three Stooges (in the early 1930s and from 1946 until his death from a massive coronary in 1955).

Before that second run as a Stooge, though, he'd made a name for himself with his own series of shorts, plus supporting roles for stars at Universal, including W.C. Fields (The Bank Dick), Abbott & Costello (Buck Privates, Hold That Ghost) and various other movies (The Invisible Girl, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx).

In 1946, Shemp's younger brother, Jerome (best known as Curly), suffered a serious stroke on the set of Halfwit's Holiday and was never able to return to the act (aside from a brief cameo as a sleeping train passenger in Hold that Lion), so Shemp put aside his solo career and rejoined the Stooges.

Once there, Shemp starred alongside Larry and Moe in numerous shorts, including several horror-themes ones like Spooks, which was originally shown in the then-new process of 3D.

Shemp never made another movie or short without Moe or Larry, and in 1956 Shemp suffered a heart attack after attending a boxing match and died while on the taxi ride home. He was 60 years old.

Shocktober 10/13/21