YAAAAAAAAAH!

Yaaaaaaaaah! It looks like Gemstone Publishing are going tits up, (see here for details). This is bad news for ageing American men who still get a kick out of reading Disney comics, but I'm also gutted because it probably spells the end for The EC Archives. Tales From The Crypt Volume 4 and The Vault Of Horror Volume 2 have already been cancelled, so it's difficult to see a future for the series at the time of writing. 

As someone who owns all 12 of the archives that have been published thus far, I can honestly say that these books are some of the most beautiful reprints I've ever seen. When I originally heard that the entirety of EC's pre-code catalogue was going to be recoloured I was very sceptical, but the new colourists have been doing a wonderful job. They've remained true to the palette that Marie Severin used back in the 50s and just sharpened everything up. The results have been spectacular and the thought of the series going unfinished is one which makes me genuinely unhappy.

I know that the man behind the archives, Russ Cochran, has made it his personal mission in life to get these books out, so there is some hope that  he'll make the effort to ensure that the project will continue under the imprint of another publisher. Perhaps Dark Horse could pick up the slack, after all they are doing a similar thing with Creepy and Eerie. They might decide to pass on the war and crime books, but I'm guessing that the audience for EC horror and sci-fi reprints is bigger than the one for the Warren equivalents. If it's worth their while to reprint Creepy and Eerie then it must make sense to do Tales From The Crypt. 

All hope is not lost then, but for the moment I think we have to assume that the series is dead. Bollocks, I knew the credit crunch would impact my life in the end! 

Nick Nacks of the Executioners

I love this panel of an executioner in his front room.

Sorry about lopping off the left hand side of the panel but unfortunately its impossible to scan any of the EC archives properly without ruining the spine.

I'm an EC nut so obviously I'm in a frenzy over these glossy reprints. They're big expensive buggers but my are they pretty.

I had some doubts about the recolouring largely because I think Marie Severin did a perfectly good job in the first place, but thankfully Gemstone have stayed true to the originals and the new colours look fantastic.

As great as the Archives are though, I won't be selling my beat up originals. Most of them are in horrible condition - battered, torn, taped and faded - but there's still a thrill to be had from leafing through original pre-code comics.

Check out this one - that's Marie Severin's autograph on the cover!