The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt #1 Review: A Classic

Very few comic magazines have seen such success as “EC,” especially with their number one series “Tales from the Crypt.” “Dark Horse” continues to bring back these comics in collection form with “The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt #1” which collects “The Crypt of Terror 17-19” and “Tales from the Crypt 20-22” and it is classic horror goodness.

If you’re not familiar with “Tales from the Crypt” or “The Crypt of Terror” they’re magazines that published comics about horror that usually contained some type of supernatural element to them. One long running theme is that all the stories have some type of twist ending that will usually leave your mouth wide open.

One thing that can be said is that the stories that are “told” by the Crypt Keeper are the best out of all of them. If you have to choose any stories to read in this collection, look no further than the very first ones that appear in these comics. They are all well written, have great premises and even better endings.

That does not mean that the other stories aren’t worth reading. Yes, some are not as interesting as the others (“The Corpse Nobody Knew” and “Backfire” come to mind) but the others are pretty interesting. Some of them include “Curse of the Full Moon” and “House of Horror.”

The artwork for these comics is a product of their time. The art is the classic 1950s/1960s style. With that said, the art does have a certain charm about it that does distinguish itself from comic of their time. It brings out the creepyness of each comic which is what these comics try to do. You do have to forgive these comics for making every female blonde; It was the practice at the time and nobody said anything about it.

“Dark Horse” has graciously kept all the ads that appeared in the original publication of these comics. What this does is it enhances the reading experience by making the readers be fully immersed in the comic. These ads are what many kids in that era adored at the time.

”The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt #1” is a nostalgic blast for fans and for people who want to read some classic horror. Although some stories are letdowns, the rest of the collection more than makes up for with with some terrifying horror.