Dark Horse hopes for a shock-filled Christmas with the December 17 release of Choke Gasp!, a celebration of 75 years-worth of EC Comics. The hardcover book will contain 528 pages of EC tales handpicked for what could be one of the most comprehensive collections of EC stories on the market.
This is going to be a behemoth of a book, and an important one as well. Libraries should look to stock up on this collection as it can attract more than just casual readers. Comic book historians and academics have an invaluable primary source in their hands once this gets released. Anyone interested in the origins of the Comics Code Authority cannot let this book pass them by.
Choke Gasp! will collect stories from the classic publisher’s most popular titles, including Crime SuspenStories, Frontline Combat, Haunt of Fear, Impact, Shock SuspenStories, Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales, Vault of Horror, Weird Fantasy, Weird Science, and Weird Science-Fantasy.
Tales from legendary creators such as Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, and Wally Wood will be featured and will represent EC Comics’ enduring legacy as a storied symbol of free speech.
With the cancellation of Mad Magazine, which was ironically announced on July 4th, EC Comics collections will become more and more important. They pushed the boundaries of horror and crime fiction in a postwar period (1945 and onwards) where veterans were dealing with the traumas of World War II. With science fiction and comedy they redefined the meaning of satire in comics. Ultimately, EC Comics made comics dangerous in a time when they needed to be precisely that.
Keep an eye out for this special hardcover celebration of EC Comics. The 75 years of comics collected in it will surely show readers just how much of a mirror readers were gazing into when reading their EC floppies.
EC rebuts the current notion that comics of the past were apolitical and didn’t comment on the issues of the day.
In the early ’50s, saying that blacks and Jews shouldn’t be lynched, and that the Klan was evil, were controversial positions in many quarters. Ditto for saying that powerful people could get away with rape and murder.
Comments are closed.