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Graphic Novel Review: The EC Archives: Terror Illustrated edited by Daniel Chabon, original series editor William M. Gaines

Cover art for EC Archives: Terror Illustrated

The EC Archives: Terror Illustrated edited by Daniel Chabon, original series editor William M. Gaines

Dark Horse, 2022

ISBN-13: 9781506719788

Available: Kindle edition, hardcover ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

The EC Archives: Terror Illustrated includes illustrated prose stories of terror, murder, and the supernatural with works by Al Feldstein (also writing under Alfred E. Neuman), Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, Johnny Craig, and more! This collection also features the never printed third issue, and a foreword by Mick Garris. The book, advertised as “Picto-Fiction,” contains illustrated stories rather than a traditional comic.

 

I’m going to start out this review with the negative. There are some problematic stories in this volume, the worst of them being “Mother Love” by Maxwell Williams and illustrated by Charles Sultan, and “The Long Wait” by Alfred E. Neuman and illustrated by Johnny Craig. In “Mother Love,” Leona’s father sells her to a brute named Clint as a bride. She is endlessly abused and tormented, and rape is alluded to in this story. She is described as no smarter than a toddler, and lines like “Not that Leona thought of her life as a horror. Her mind was not capable of that” made this hard to get through. It gets worse. Clint discovers she is pregnant, and after he beats and abuses her further, he devises a plan where he would abandon her at the hospital. I don’t often ruin the end of the story in my reviews, but I will here. She eventually escapes the hospital and returns to the cabin, with her stillborn baby in a jar, and kills Clint. When the police arrive, nothing is done to try to figure out why what happened, happened. An abused woman is arrested for killing her abuser. This story is problematic on so many levels. 

 

In “The Long Wait” by Alfred E. Neuman, illustrated by Johnny Craig, Red Buckley murders his boss, plantation owner Emil Duval. As can be expected when a plantation is mentioned, you can bet there are racist depictions of Black “workers” Kulu approaches the main house and says “Kulu wanna be house-boy. Kulu wanna be servant.” Yikes. You think Buckley gets his comeuppance in the end…but it still reveals a racially insensitive reason that it occurs. 

 

This is not to say there are not some gems in this volume. There are some good stories here. The first story in issue 1, “The Sucker”, by Maxwell Williams and illustrated by Reed Crandall, is told in second person: you are on the run when you meet a beautiful dame who cheats and robs you, and the only thing you can do every night is kill her…again…and again…and again. In “Halloween”, by Alfred Feldstein and illustrated by Reed Crandall, Ann Dennis is hired as the matron of Briarwood Orphan Asylum by the headmaster, Eban Critchet. She does her best to improve the lives of the orphans in her care, but when she discovers what the headmaster has been doing, she takes matters into her own hands, and the children aren’t far behind. “The Gorilla’s Paw”,  by Alfred E. Neuman and illustrated by Johnny Craig is a violent and brutal retelling of the classic “Monkey’s Paw” tale. After a man is convinced he must purchase a mummified gorilla’s paw from a curio shop, he is plagued by nightmares and wishes he had never bought it, then awakens to find the paw holding the amount of money he paid for the paw. When he discovers the secret of the paw, he keeps on wishing, and his last wish proves to be a doozy. “Keepsake” by Jack Oleck, illustrated by Graham Ingels, gives us the story of an undertaker mourning the death of his childhood friend and unrequited love, Miss Hettie. During his time as undertaker, he kept a deadly secret for her, and after he discovers another one of her little secrets, he will be able to keep another. A fun inclusion in the third issue is the “Letters to the Editor” column the best one that denounces the magazine as “the highest and most advanced form of Brainrot on the market today” and “the stories and thoughts that these magazines contain are truly the work of Satan.”

 

This volume provides a glimpse into the horror enjoyed in the 1950s and echoes the radio plays such as Suspense, The Mysterious Traveler, Inner Sanctum, and others. Despite the problematic elements of some of the stories, I still found enjoyable tales of terror within these pages, and the artwork was well done. This book, along with other EC Comics archival editions, would be an interesting addition for comics history, as well as courses studying comics and graphic novels. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on March 18, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Greedy Three by Karen Katchur

 

The Greedy Three by Karen Katchur

Podium Publishing, Feb. 2023

ISBN: 9781039416307

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

(  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Poor Noah Weber!  All he wanted to do was transport an illegitimate baby (complete with a teenage stand-in mom) across the US border to sell to a wealthy Canadian couple.  A simple plan like that: what could possibly go wrong?  

 

Well, plenty!  When the money drop part of the deal goes bad on the US side, a local hermit (who happens to be baby-obsessed) wanders across the aftermath, takes the money and hides it.    Her cabin becomes the site of most of the book, as all three characters wind up there with their own agendas.  The hermit, Hester, wants the baby; the teenage fake mom, Eve, has the baby but wants the money; and Noah wants both, so he can complete the deal.  None of them trust each other, so it becomes a bizarre version of a Mexican standoff, with each of them looking to get what they want.  There is a bit more to the plot, but that covers the basics without spoiling anything.

 

It’s a fun read. Katchur has proven herself to be a good writer over the past few years.  The book varies between predictability, and wild unpredictability.  There are twists that the reader won’t see coming, and there are some that you can easily guess.  Example: since there is a baby in the book and most writers tend to loathe hurting kids or infants in fiction, you can probably guess what will happen.  But the fun maneuvering between Noah, Hester, and Eve doesn’t go where expected, and there is some darkly amusing humor throughout the story, which gives the book its own flavor.  The scene with the three of them fighting, while they are all suffering from a bad case of the trots and have to keep dashing to the bathroom is hilarious, warped fun.  The interactions and squabbling between the three of them are the best part of the book. They are quirky, fun characters, Noah being the most entertaining.

 

It’s the book’s unpredictability that may work against it for readers that expect realism.  One example is Noah and Hester.  She hid the money and won’t tell him where it is, but he has the gun and control of the situation.  Why not just beat it out of her, or threaten to shoot the baby, which Hester is obviously attached to?  But…he doesn’t.  Perhaps he really isn’t that bad of a guy after all, despite being involved in a sleazy business?  Or, is it just too unrealistic to be plausible?  That will depend on the reader.  There are a couple other scenes along the same line, but by not taking the obvious path, Katchur allow the unexpected to happen, and it helps the storyline.  Again, it may be too much for some readers, but most will probably enjoy it.

 

Although it is uneven at times, The Greedy Three is an engaging story of three people trying to double-cross each other, and the interactions between them are enough to carry the story across the finish line.  The majority of readers will likely get a kick out of this.

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on March 17, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: In the Porches of My Ears by Norman Prentiss

Cover art for In the Porches of my Ears by Norman Prentiss

In The Porches of My Ears by Norman Prentiss

Cemetery Dance, 2023

ISBN 978-1-58767-872-1

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

Norman Prentiss is a very talented storyteller (winner of the Bram Stoker Award), whose most accomplished tale, so far, is the outstanding “In the Porches of My Ears” which also provides the title for this collection.

 

It’s a totally unsettling piece of fiction, starting in the darkness of a movie theater where a woman whispers about what happens on the screen… ( winner of the Bram Stoker Award)

 

The present volume assembles sixteen Prentiss stories previously appeared in print elsewhere.

 

In addition to the title story, other remarkable tales are “Interval”, an insightful, disturbing description of human behavior after a plane crash, when relatives  are waiting in vain at the airport, and “The Everywhere Man”, revolving around a puzzling and disquieting video becoming “viral”.

 

Another special mention goes to “Invisible Fences”, a vivid novella addressing the way overprotective parents try to defend  their sons and daughters from life’s unavoidable dangers.

 

All very good stuff, probing the dark side of our apparently ordinary existence.

 

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

Posted on March 17, 2023 by , Reply
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