Tales From The Crypt no. 1
02/02/2008 . Source: Paul Skevington 

pub: Papercutz. 48 page comic. Price: $ 3.95 (US), $ 4.95 (CAN).

Buy Tales From The Crypt in the USA - or Buy Tales From The Crypt in the UK

check out website: www.papercutz.com/tc/tc.html

I'll have to assume that the majority of people reading this are as unfamiliar with the original 'Tales From The Crypt' as I am. The comicbook finished publication in 1955 after a backlash concerning horror and violence in comics made it virtually impossible for its publisher to continue producing the title. You will probably be more familiar with the TV series of the same name that ran from 1989 to 1996, a surprisingly good anthology show that is currently being repeated both in the UK and the US.

After a long period in limbo, the comicbook is now back from the dead, resurrected courtesy of 'Papercutz', a publisher whose current backlist consists of 'Nancy Drew' and 'The Hardy Boys', comics that I also find terrifying but for entirely different reasons.



At the back of this issue we find a brief discussion concerning the company's decision to pump new life into this old corpse. Here it is made clear that although they intend to stay faithful to the original title's style of storytelling, they won't be depicting any graphic violence that might anger little Johnnie's overly protective parents.

The issue opens with the re-introduction of the three original narrators, The Crypt-Keeper, The Vault-Keeper and The Old Witch, a scene replete with the Keeper's familiar ghastly puns. This quickly leads into the first story, "Body Of Work".

Upon turning the page the reader is immediately confronted with garish, blocky artwork that fails to come anywhere near the sort of quality I would hope for in a launch title. When you open the pages of a horror comic you expect certain things from the art. For example, the creation of an atmosphere that will support the darkness of the storyline and make the final payoff worthwhile. This story's artwork style doesn't have a hope of fulfilling this criteria.

I'm afraid that the plot, which involves married couple Mike and Linda Anderson as they seek to steal their neighbour's paintings, didn't appeal to me neither. The characters seem forced, even their occasionally amusing banter feels like it has been stretched thin, almost to the breaking point. They act in an entirely unbelievable way and when they meet their inevitably untimely end it leaves the reader feeling apathetic to say the least. Even the panel breakdown is less than ideal, featuring some bizarre time-shifts and it seems to take Linda an inordinate amount of time to read one article in a newspaper. She starts reading it at home and finishes it in a supermarket, which is totally bizarre unless they live right next door to it.

The second story 'For Serious Collectors Only' is much more enjoyable. It concerns young supermarket employee Thomas Donalley (hey, perhaps he works opposite the Anderson House), who has an unhealthy obsession with collectible figures. One day, fortune places the ultimate object of lust before his eyes, a figure more wonderful than any he has seen before which he must have at any cost! All right, the socially dysfunctional toy collector who lives with his mother is a bit of a cliché, but the writer is obviously invoking a little self-parody here so it won't cause any offence to those who do possess a number of collectable figures and I think you'll find there's nothing wrong with that thank you very much....

Ahem! Back to the point.

Unlike the previous story there is a genuine thread of grim humour permeating the tale, courtesy of writer Rob Vollmar. The final two panels are genius; you'd have to be dead not to crack a smile at it. Artist Tim Smith does a good job here with an exaggerated style that mimics the tone of the TV series; flamboyant and over-the-top yet still somehow mildly unsettling. It's a clear demonstration of how important picking the right artists can be to a book.

Returning a title as well-known as this to the public eye was never going to be an easy task. Despite this, 'Tales' shows enough promise to leave me hoping that this new series goes on to be as influential as the original. It will be the quality of the stories that Papercutz chooses to fill its title with that ultimately decides this.

Paul Skevington