The Howling EC Inspiration

 Many classic horror movies and creators have told of their love of EC comics in childhood and how it influenced and inspired them in their writing and directing of horror in adulthood. Steven King, George Romero and John Carpenter in particular. However EC's influence can be seen in many other films of the 80s era. The Howling for instance features a blink and you'll miss it reference to EC on the wall of Eddie Quists apartment. Amongst the art and magazine covers he has stuck to his wall is a comic cover with art work homaging issue 29 of Tales From The Crypt. Though strangely they chose to make the cover a vampire hunter staking a Vampire rather than using or homaging one of the many Werewolf covers EC published. 

Shiver Suspenstories 2 Oni Press EC

 Oni Press have been going full throttle with their EC revival titles over the last two years publishing constant new titles and issues. In December 2024 we had a one shot Christmas special titled Shiver Suspenstories, following from the legacy of EC's classic Shock Suspenstories and Crime Suspenstories. Now for Christmas 2025 Oni Press have published a second issue with one cover in particular homaging the classic Vault of Horror issue 35. Possibly the most well know issue of Vault as it has been adapted to the big and small screen. First in 1972 when Britains Amicus films adapted it along with four other EC stories for their Tales From The Crypt movie then again in 1989 for the first season of the HBO Tales From The Crypt TV series in one of it's most beloved episodes. 

EC Comics Return From The Dead in the 21st Century

 In 2022 to tie in to the Shudder ongoing Creepshow TV series, Image comics released a five issue mini series. The first new Creepshow comic to be widely released since the original movie comic book adaptation in 1982. Creepshow was George Romero and Steven Kings loving homage to the EC horror comics they grew up with and were inspired by. The most well known and remembered being Tales From The Crypt, in no small part due to the 90s TV series that itself was inspired by the Creepshow movie. 

Image released another five issues as volume 2 in 2023 with a third volume due in Autumn 2024. With the red box around the title on the cover and horror host The Creep introducing each tale inside it felt like a modern return to EC. 

Maybe due to Creepshows success, Oni Press have acquired the license to produce official EC comics. Though rather than reviving established titles such as Tales From The Crypt or Weird Science, they have instead created all new EC titles. The first two being Epitaphs From The Abyss for horror and Cruel Universe for their sci-fi tales. This helps to establish them as something original and somewhat avoid too many comparisons to the classic EC titles which were some of the best comics ever produced and a very hard act to follow or replicate. 

Oni Press are soon to include two more EC titles, Shiver Suspenstories and Cruel Kingdom in the vein of the classic EC titles Shock Suspenstories and Weird Fantasy. 

Oni Press have been proud to announce they are the first return to EC in 70 years though this is not quite true. In 2007, Papercutz had the rights to produce EC comics and published Tales From The Crypt Volume 2 which lasted 13 issues. Then almost a decade later in 2016 Papercutz released a volume 3 of Tales under their Super Genius imprint. This volume was aimed at a slightly older audience than volume 2 which was an ages 10 and up comic. Volume 3 only lasted two issues though from December 2016 to January 2017. 

So really it's been 7 not 70 years since new EC comics were published. But I guess a 7 year gap doesn't sound so impressive. 

As an interesting coincidence, Tales From The Crypt issue 1 and Creepshow issue 1 both show their respective horror hosts rising from the grave to signify their returns after such long absences. 

H.P Lovecraft Cool Air Comic Adaptations

Cool Air is a short story written by H.P Lovecraft in 1926, originally published in the March 1928 issue of Tales of Magic and Mystery. It tells the tale of a man who moves into a New York apartment block and meets a fellow tenant who is obsessed with defying death and preserves himself though increasingly low temperatures. Though his efforts come gruesomely unstuck when the power goes out....

                                      

Berni Wrightson adapted H.P Lovecraft's Cool Air into a comic strip eventually collected by Pacific Comics in issue 2 of Berni Wrightson, Master of the Macabre. Wrightsons art work brings the story to beautiful and gruesome life. Invoking the style of Ghastly Graham Ingels of EC fame.

EC had themselves adapted the story in Vault of Horror issue 17, renaming it Baby It's Cold Inside and giving it a more contemporary setting.

 

Creepshow All Hallows Eve

Creepshow episode 3 features a story called All Hallows Eve written by Bruce Jones. The story is adapted from the first issue of the Pacific Comics title, Twisted Tales which ran for ten issues from 1982 to 1984.

Twisted Tales was Bruce Jones attempt at a modern EC comics style series along with his sci-fi comic, Alien Worlds. Both comics were heavily influenced by EC horror and science fiction titles such as Tales From The Crypt and Weird Science Fantasy.

Twisted Tales, an update/homage to EC comics has now become part of the extended Creepshow franchise which is itself an update and homage to EC originating from George Romero and Steven Kings love of those comics which heavily influenced both in their careers in horror.

 

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror issue 11

Tales From The Crypt issue 41 homaged in Bart Simpsons Treehouse of Horror issue 11.

Halloween EC Comic Covers

 A homage to Tales From The Crypt 36 by https://www.instagram.com/dvglzv

 Gripping Tales of Horror by https://www.instagram.com/caseybooth/

Tales of Halloween by https://www.instagram.com/theaterofcreeps/

Tales From The Crypt British Edition

In 1954 the UK saw it's own short lived run of EC comic reprints. Two issues of Tales From The Crypt, one issue of The Haunt of Fear and supposedly one issue of The Vault of Horror though I have yet to find any images of Vault. Much like in american, horror comics in the UK were used as an easy target to blame for children behaving badly so that parents didn't have to face any hard truths about their own parenting ability. As always the government were quick to jump on the bandwagon so that they could appear to be fixing a complex problem but not having to actually do anything other than censoring harmless comic books with no evidence to back up any of the accusations against such material. EC comics were quickly banned in the UK and the few issues that were produced have become rather rare and almost forgotten.

Ghostbusters EC Comics Homages

IDW homaged EC with their Mars Attacks comics and continue the trend with the cover of Ghostbusters Get Real issue 2. Inspired by The Vault of Horror issue 25.

The Real Ghostbusters animated series also gave a nod to EC with a Weird Science style comic book cover featuring in the episode Mr Sandman, Dream me a Dream. 

Mars Attacks EC Comics Homages

IDW homaged EC comics Weird Science covers, in particular Wally Woods art work with their Mars Attacks First Born covers. Appropriate as Wally Wood helped design the Martian for Mars Attacks and EC comics were an influence in the creation of the original Mars Attacks Topps cards.

Tales From The Crypt and EC Comics

After it's murder at the hands of hysterical parents whipped into a frenzy by Fredric Wertham in his attempt to market and cash grab with his book Seduction of the Innocent, Tales From The Crypt and EC comics have risen from the grave multiple times in the decades since.

In the 1970s it was brought to the big screen by Amicus films in Tales From The Crypt and The Vault Of Horror. Then in the late 80s it became a popular TV series on HBO lasting 7 seasons, with an 8th released in the form of audio dramas by seeing ear theatre. The series also spun off into an animated show with John Kassir reprising his role as the voice of the Crypt Keeper which he also lent to the live action series and audio dramas.

The animated series led to the release of an action figure line, though curiously the action figure of the Crypt Keeper was based on the live action design where as the rest of the figures were in the animated style.

The comics themselves have been reprinted multiple times in the 70s and 90s as well as in various hardback collections. Most recently by Dark Horse Comics.

A brand new Tales From the Crypt comic series begun in 2007 published by Papercutz. This lasted until 2010 then went on hiatus until 2016 when two more issues were released under the Super Genius imprint of Papercutz. Though the series seems to have returned to the grave once again for the time being.

Tales From The Crypt ...And All Through The House

The Vault of Horror issue 24, published by EC comics in 1950 featured two christmas horror stories. Shoe Button Eyes and ...And All Through The House. The latter of which has been adapted into a movie and tv episode.

 

The issue itself was reprinted in Tales From The Crypt Presents The Vault Of Horror issue 4 in 1992 by Russ Cochran.

The first live action adaptation was Amicus films Tales From The Crypt movie in 1972 starring Joan Collins and set in England rather than America.

 

Then in 1989 the HBO TV series of Tales From The Crypt again adapted the story to the screen, this time setting it in America as it is in the comic. 

Tales From the Crypt issue 35

Tales From the Crypt issue 35 by EC comics. Later reprinted in issue 2 of the Gladstone series.
The main story featured on the cover ‘By the fright of the silvery moon’ is a werewolf tale which was also loosely adapted for the Tales from the Crypt audio series. Being a fan of Werewolves, this has always been my favorite EC cover.
The second story features vampires and was adapted on screen for the Amicus Vault of Horror film in the 70s.
After a text story called ‘The Rack’ and another comic strip titled ‘Busted Marriage’ the last tale, ‘This Wraps It Up’ centers on a group of archaeologists encountering a Mummy. It was fun to have an issue featuring three classic monsters all in good stories.