Friday, October 17, 2008

Reprint This! Witches Tales

Sure, the EC horror books are great but I'm getting a bit bored with each new tranche of reprints I see released. Instead of releasing those for the umpteenth time, why doesn't someone work out a deal with Harvey Comics and do a Witches Tales Omnibus? The Harvey line of horror books may not be as famous (or infamous?) as the EC books, but I think they (being Witches Tales, Tomb of Terror, Chamber of Chills and Black Cat Mystery) hold up quite well. As far as I know, there has never been an attempt to put together a package of Harvey Horror and that's a real shame. I'm suggesting Witches Tales as a starting point as that's the series I know best (I've got probably 10 issues), and you've got 26 issues of material (the last two were reprints) so you could go the phonebook route or have plenty of good stuff for a 'Best of'.

Witches Tales is a bit different from the EC books (as well as the Atlas horror lines) as there is a real variety of feel to the stories and looks to the artwork. Some of covers don't really do justice to the stories inside as they are anything but menacing, much as you'd see from DC during that period. When the covers are good, they're fantastic! This series is full of great artwork by creators who have never full got the proper accolades. Rudy Palais, Bob Powell, Manny Stallman, Vic Donahue, Howard Nostrand and Lee Elias are all in top form here. All of these creators deserve to be bigger names in the fanboy world but it is Rudy Palais' work, in particular, that is a true marvel to behold in these pages. It really is a shame that more comic book fans don't have the opportunity to see these artists having a little horrific fun. I know that some of these stories have popped up in reprints (mostly unauthorized) here and there, but these books really deserve a proper reprint volume. I'll be first in line to buy it!

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