Greenwich Library has made yet another collection of classic EC comics from the 1950s available to fans. The Haunt of Fear Vol. I collects the first six HoF issues from 1950-1951, complete with the original covers and house ads in full color!
These are EC Comics at their most embryonic, with the artists & writers (the latter included editor Al Feldstein, Gardner Fox, and even publisher William M. “Bill” Gaines) feeling their way through. There’s an okay Poe take-off (The Wall) with art by Johnny Craig. Future Mad magazine creator/artist Harvey Kurtzman (who hated the horror genre) contributes the okay House of Horror (a college fraternity initiation in a haunted house goes very wrong) and Television Terror! (another haunted house tale, this one focusing on a live newscast and with a more shocking climax). Craig returns for the moody, atmospheric Vampire! (why does the tux-wearing Mr.Winslow keep a coffin in his basement?) and the black comedy Seeds of Death (a woman searches for her missing husband, unaware that he’s been killed & the murderer is after her; great ironic climax).
Plus there’s great stuff by artists like Jack Davis (Cheese, That’s Horrible! and the goofy The Living Mummy), Ghastly Graham Ingels (the Frankenstein-like Monster Maker! and the ghoulish The Hunchback!), and Jack Kamen (The Tunnel of Terror, with a “huh?” ending & the better plotted and twisted A Grave Gag!). You also get to see artist Wally Wood beginning to develop his own unique storytelling style from the early crudeness of The Mad Magician! (with future science fiction author/artist Harry Harrison) to the horrific (and sexy) vampire tale So They Finally Pinned You Down!
It’s not perfect, but The Haunt of Fear Volume One is a LOT of fun!
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