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uosdwisrdewoh's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastic groundbreaking comics, packaged in a far-too-pricey edition.
Entertaining Comics (EC) had a momentous, but all too brief, impact on the comic books in the early to mid 1950s. Called Educational Comics until its publisher died in a boating accident and his more populist-minded son took over, EC put out a line of science-fiction, crime, and horror books that were written with a level of cleverness unseen elsewhere and illustrated by a top shelf of artists. But its war titles, edited, written, and laid out by Harvey Kurtzman, were the cream of the crop. While other titles in the line like Tales from the Crypt relied on shocking (for the day) gore and black humor, Kurtzman went against the grain of other war comics with stories emphasizing the futility and insanity of combat. One tale finds a fresh recruit in World War I trapped on the barbed wire in no man's land, crying out for help, his fellow soldiers in the trenches going crazy listening to him die. Another story, set during the Civil War, ends with a soldier inadvertently shooting his father dead. Throughout, Kurtzman demonstrates a painstaking attention to storytelling and pacing. Unlike his contemporaries, Kurtzman allowed many moments to pass silently, without narration, letting his precise layouts carry the drama with style.
This volume offers a fascinating window into another time. Half of the stories in these comics published in 1951 and 1952 are Korean War tales. It's tough to imagine comics (or even other pop culture like TV) taking on the Iraq or Afghan wars in a similar way. But even in this regard, Kurtzman's vision comes through. Other contemporary war comics emphasized the adventure or portrayed the war patriotically. Kurtzman's tales end as often in tragedy as they do in triumph, and even those happy endings come with a bitter undertone. We're only a few years past the "buy war bonds!" era, but cultural changes that would come to fruition in the Vietnam War have their roots here.
For too long, these pivotal comics have only been available to enthusiasts. And they are likely to remain so. This hardcover volume is just over 200 pages, six issues worth, and costs $49.95. It's a decent looking oversize volume, with each issue followed by a brief essay giving historical context, not to mention the reproduced house ads from the original issues (which offer a look at how swiftly the company had shifted gears: an ad for Shock SuspenStories with its cover image of an electrocution sits opposite an ad trying to shift old copies of Picture Stories from the Bible). But there are also a few garish ads for other volumes in the reprint series, which look horrible in a deluxe edition.
These stories have also been recolored from the original comics. For the most part, this is done with care. And although the notes claim that the original colorist's guide was followed, it's only in the loosest sense. The early EC books may have had superlative writing and art, but they were colored idiosyncratically, with climactic panels often washed in pastel pinks or yellows. The recoloring job is much more naturalistic; blues, greens, and browns predominate. It's attractive to modern eyes, and in many ways an improvement, but it's still a baffling move. The EC fans who'd want to shell out hundreds of dollars for these volumes prize historical accuracy above all, and the new fans who'd appreciate the modern colors are pretty much priced out. This new EC fan has been grabbing cheap 90s reprints off eBay and out of back issue bins and borrowed the deluxe hardcover edition from the library.
Again, great work. It's a shame that such an important piece of comics history remains out of the reach of the casual reader.
Entertaining Comics (EC) had a momentous, but all too brief, impact on the comic books in the early to mid 1950s. Called Educational Comics until its publisher died in a boating accident and his more populist-minded son took over, EC put out a line of science-fiction, crime, and horror books that were written with a level of cleverness unseen elsewhere and illustrated by a top shelf of artists. But its war titles, edited, written, and laid out by Harvey Kurtzman, were the cream of the crop. While other titles in the line like Tales from the Crypt relied on shocking (for the day) gore and black humor, Kurtzman went against the grain of other war comics with stories emphasizing the futility and insanity of combat. One tale finds a fresh recruit in World War I trapped on the barbed wire in no man's land, crying out for help, his fellow soldiers in the trenches going crazy listening to him die. Another story, set during the Civil War, ends with a soldier inadvertently shooting his father dead. Throughout, Kurtzman demonstrates a painstaking attention to storytelling and pacing. Unlike his contemporaries, Kurtzman allowed many moments to pass silently, without narration, letting his precise layouts carry the drama with style.
This volume offers a fascinating window into another time. Half of the stories in these comics published in 1951 and 1952 are Korean War tales. It's tough to imagine comics (or even other pop culture like TV) taking on the Iraq or Afghan wars in a similar way. But even in this regard, Kurtzman's vision comes through. Other contemporary war comics emphasized the adventure or portrayed the war patriotically. Kurtzman's tales end as often in tragedy as they do in triumph, and even those happy endings come with a bitter undertone. We're only a few years past the "buy war bonds!" era, but cultural changes that would come to fruition in the Vietnam War have their roots here.
For too long, these pivotal comics have only been available to enthusiasts. And they are likely to remain so. This hardcover volume is just over 200 pages, six issues worth, and costs $49.95. It's a decent looking oversize volume, with each issue followed by a brief essay giving historical context, not to mention the reproduced house ads from the original issues (which offer a look at how swiftly the company had shifted gears: an ad for Shock SuspenStories with its cover image of an electrocution sits opposite an ad trying to shift old copies of Picture Stories from the Bible). But there are also a few garish ads for other volumes in the reprint series, which look horrible in a deluxe edition.
These stories have also been recolored from the original comics. For the most part, this is done with care. And although the notes claim that the original colorist's guide was followed, it's only in the loosest sense. The early EC books may have had superlative writing and art, but they were colored idiosyncratically, with climactic panels often washed in pastel pinks or yellows. The recoloring job is much more naturalistic; blues, greens, and browns predominate. It's attractive to modern eyes, and in many ways an improvement, but it's still a baffling move. The EC fans who'd want to shell out hundreds of dollars for these volumes prize historical accuracy above all, and the new fans who'd appreciate the modern colors are pretty much priced out. This new EC fan has been grabbing cheap 90s reprints off eBay and out of back issue bins and borrowed the deluxe hardcover edition from the library.
Again, great work. It's a shame that such an important piece of comics history remains out of the reach of the casual reader.
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