JOHNNY CRAIG ORIGINAL EC ART

Johnny Craig was one of the EC Comics illustrators whose career was revived in the Warren magazines. Here is his original auction art from VAULT OF HORROR #16 (December 1950-January 1951). The story, "Werewolf Concerto", was both scripted and drawn by Craig. It is the only story where the Vault Keeper appears on every page. Monsterologists may recognize the twist ending of this tale to be the reversed in one of the stories that appeared in the first issue of CREEPY, which was illustrated by another EC alumnus. Besides the story, Craig's art was used for the cover. Oddly, the cover for VAULT OF HORROR #17 (see above) was by Craig as well, and could have easily been used for the cover of #16.

NOTE: The pages that follow the original art is the color story from the Russ Cochran reprint (VAULT OF HORROR #5, October, 1993).

FEAR IN FOUR COLORS: LOVECRAFT IN THE COMICS (PART 2)

In issue #17 of E.C's VAULT OF HORROR (February/March 1951), introduced by The Old Witch, written by Gaines and Feldstein, and drawn once again by Graham Ingels, appeared the story “Baby…It’s Cold Inside”. The title, an obvious play on the 1940s pop standard, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” written by Frank Loesser, and like “Fitting Punishment”, is a close adaptation in everything but the title and the character names, to Lovecraft’s “Cool Air”. Since there is no outright use of Lovecraft’s name and title on these stories, it is apparent that Gaines and Feldstein used these plots after plundering the vast sea of horror and supernatural stories available at the time, finding at least some of Lovecraft’s tales suitable material for their comics. It is also possible that they consciously skirted the question of copyright by adapting these stories without the use of title or character names.

 

FEAR IN FOUR COLORS: LOVECRAFT IN THE COMICS (PART 1)

E.C. Comic's "Fitting Punishment" (VAULT OF HORROR #16, December/January 1951), was based on H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "In the Vault". By eliminating the obvious references, writers Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein were apparently avoiding any copyright infringements (Lovecraft's legal issues were complex and at times, even the true copyright holder was in question). Drawn by "Ghastly" Graham Ingels and introduced by "The Old Witch", the story was more than "fitting" for the macabre content of the E.C. horror comics line.

The pages shown here are pre-press original color page proofs and have penciled notes to the printer.