EC Archives: Vault of Horror vol. 1
This Review was submitted by Dennis Feeback
By Various
The Scoop: Legendary publisher Bill Gaines provided the forum and creators like Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Wally Wood, Harry Harrison, Jack Kamen, Harvey Kurtzman, Graham Ingels, and Jack Davis provided the mayhem. Six full issues and 24 complete stories are collected in this full-color, deluxe volume. Foreword by perennial N.Y. Times best-selling author R.L. Stine.
The Package: The book is a solid oversized hardcover. It comes with a nice dust jacket, the same artwork is on the books cover as well. A nice touch! The new coloring, which looks great, manages to make to book look modern while still keeping the creepy feel to the originals. Paper stock is nice with thick glossy pages. An all-around great looking book!
Final Thoughts: Man I LOVE the EC stuff! These books are always great fun, and just a damn joy to read. That being said, the high price tag ($49.99) kept me away from these. However, now that I've read one I'm hooked! These fantastic editions are worth every penny! It is so nice to have these collections in a complete format. I'm a fan for life and will be collecting them all!
As for this volume, this is early in the EC days, so the artists were really just building up to the greatness they would eventually become. The art (Really the best reason to check out these books) isn't quite us to the polish of the later years, but you can definitely see flashes of greatness, and the true beginning of the EC "style". The writing also shows that the winning formula was found early on, as these stories are among some of the best of the line.
My only gripe? R.L. Stein's foreword was really kinda worthless.
Final Rating: A+, Kids, it doesn't get any better than this!
