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Items11
1
Tales from the Crypt (1950)
Published
Start here if you want the familiar EC rhythm: a short horror story sets its trap, then springs it in a few panels. Look for the first EC Archives volume to begin at the start of the run. The complete hardcover is the better route if you already know you want every story.
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Vault of Horror (1950)
Published
Read this next for Johnny Craig. The first EC Archives volume begins with issue #12, so that number on the contents page is no reason to skip it. If you like a story that takes its time making something ordinary feel ugly, Craig's pages are where to linger.
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Haunt of Fear (1950)
Published
This is the third of EC's signature horror anthologies. Pick up the first EC Archives volume to start at the beginning, or seek out the Graham Ingels stories if it is the brushwork you came for. The figures and their surroundings look as if they are decaying from the same cause.
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Weird Science (1950)
Published
For a change from graveyards, try the first Weird Science collection. Look at how Wally Wood and the other artists give imaginary machinery a sense of weight. These stories work well a few at a time, especially if you like a big science fiction idea delivered in the space of a short comic.
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Weird Fantasy (1950)
Published
Weird Fantasy is a companion to Weird Science, and its first archive volume makes an easy comparison. The alien stories often work best when an encounter makes you rethink which side of the story seems strange. Read it for the shift in perspective as much as the spacecraft.
More about Weird Fantasy6
Shock SuspenStories (1952)
Published
Pick this up if you want to see EC turn the sting at the end of a story toward human cruelty. Start with the first archive volume. The shifts between suspense, genre stories, and social themes mean you can open almost anywhere and get a different kind of tension.
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Crime SuspenStories (1950)
Published
Save this for when you want criminals worrying about each other instead of monsters in the cellar. The first Dark Horse volume gives you an early sample of Johnny Craig's work. Read it for ordinary people making bad decisions and finding out how little control they had to begin with.
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Mad (1952)
Published
Start with the first issue of Harvey Kurtzman's comic-book MAD, reprinted in facsimile. Its horror spoof lets you see EC teasing the kinds of stories it was publishing elsewhere. The first 23 issues are the comic-book run to look for if you want the parody before the magazine format.
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Panic (1954)
Published
Read this after early MAD for a second take on EC's parody. The first archive volume gives you Wally Wood and Basil Wolverton among the artists. Its appeal is how far an image can push a joke by cramming it with detail or exaggerating an expression.
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Impact (1955)
Published
Start with the story Master Race in the first issue, or pick up the complete Impact archive. Spend time on Bernie Krigstein's sequence of narrow panels. The way he divides a few seconds into separate images is worth looking at even if you've already heard how the story ends.
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Weird Science-Fantasy (1954)
Published
Once you have tried Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, read the combined title's later issues. The Incredible Science Fiction archive includes Weird Science-Fantasy #27–29 before the title changes. It lets you see what EC's science fiction looked like near the end of that run.
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