Cool Ass Comics: EC Favorites & The Amazing Spiderman

This edition of cool ass comics has some more horror comics including three covers from the Gladstone reprints of classic EC titles. The Gladstone reprints were in color and contained two books in one. I also threw in some very old Amazing Spiderman covers from the mid 1960's.


First up is TALES FROM THE CRYPT #1. This issue reprints one issue of TALES and also an issue of CRIME SUSPENSE STORIES. You may recognize some of these from the famed cable television program. The illustrated stories are as follows--

TALES FROM THE CRYPT #33 (1952)

'Lower Berth': Origin tale of the Cryptkeeper set in a creepy carnival.

'This Trick'll Kill You': A husband and wife magician act murder for a mystical trick. Realized for the screen in the 1973 Amicus film, THE VAULT OF HORROR. The comic version is more violent.

'Grim Fairy Tale': A spoiled brat thinks his nanny has passed away only to realize she is still alive.

'None But the Lonely Heart': A money grubbing man murders old women for their fortunes and gets more than he bargained for.

CRIME SUSPENSE STORIES #17 (1953)

'Touch and Go': A man kills another in his home and goes insane cleaning every inch of the house in an attempt to erase any trace of fingerprints. From a story by Ray Bradbury.

'One For the Money...': A goldigger causes her husband to have a heart attack. She then meets a kindly old woman who harbors a deadly secret of her own.

'Fired!': A ranch hand takes advantage of his lover and pays for it in the end.

'...Two For the Show': A man murders his wife with an axe and buries her body in the cellar. The police on to him, he chops her up and puts her remains in a trunk. Later, his trunk gets mixed up with another from a kindly old woman....


Next, it's VAULT OF HORROR #1. This Gladstone reprint contains two comics; VAULT OF HORROR and THE HAUNT OF FEAR. The stories are as follows--

THE VAULT OF HORROR #34

'Star Light, Star Bright': The new master of an insane asylum learns the inmates hate him.

'While the Cat's Away': Two travel agent con men rob their clients while they're away on vacation. They get more than they bargained for when they try to rob a sinister estate.

'Smoke Wrings': A timid, bespectacled older gentleman sells an idea to an advertising agency only the agent tries to steal the idea for herself with disastrous consequences.

'Where There's a Will': An old man fakes his funeral to hear just what his friends and family really think of him.

THE HAUNT OF FEAR #1

'The Wall': A man kills his wife in a rage after her pet cat was getting more attention. He buries her behind a brick wall, but it seems the cat has been holed up with her.

'House of Horror': A fraternity initiation goes horribly wrong when a pledge enters a haunted house.

'The Mad Magician': This story about a maniacal magician may have been the inspiration for H.G. Lewis's THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970)

'The Thing in the Swamp': A scientific experiment gone wrong creates a flesh eating, blob creature out in the Georgia swamplands.


Now it's Gladstone's HAUNT OF FEAR #1 which contains an issue of HAUNT and also WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY. The stories are as follows--

HAUNT OF FEAR #17 (1952)

'Horror We? How's Bayou?': A homicidal duo living deep in the bayou get their comeuppance from victims returned from the dead for revenge.

'Gorilla My Dreams!': A mad doctor transplants an unwilling patients brain into the body of a gorilla. An ironic twist ends this grim tale.

'A Likely Story!': A royal artist puts up with a cranky old Queen wishing for a beautiful portrait.

'Garden Party!': A woman obsessed with her garden goes off the deep end when her husband invites a dozen couples over for a barbecue.

WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY #28 (1955)

'The Inferiors': A group of bickering space scientists traveling the galaxy for intelligent life find an abandoned civilization on an unknown planet. They find a disc that details what became of a race of humanoid lizard people who once resided there.

'Lost in Space': A young woman wishes to return to Earth to see her lover against her fathers wishes. She sneaks aboard a cruiser to make her way back to the third planet to be with her man only to make a shocking discovery.

'Round Trip': A man in his sixties dreams of his childhood and having missed out on his dreams of being a space traveler. Relegated to being a dishwasher and a henpecked husband, he thinks of what could have been.

'The Trial of Adam Link': The threat of a human like robot is brought to bear during a trial that would see this man-robot put to death. A sequel to the story, I, ROBOT.


Above, it's issue #2 of Marvel's THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN from March, 1973. I could swear I had issue #1 as well, but can't seem to find it at this time.

From here on down, it's a collage of seven covers from Amazing Spiderman starting with issue #27 (August, 1965) through #39. As you can tell by the scans, some of these are in better condition than others. Issue number 39 is special in that it reveals the identity of the Green Goblin. It's one of the most sought after issues from AMAZING SPIDERMAN.








UNTIL NEXT TIME...