Wallace Wood applied his preternaturally lush brushwork to over two dozen stories in the thematically overlapping ( dreadful things happen to people, both innocent and guilty ) horror, crime, and suspense genres. This work is the subject of one of the two premiere releases in Fantagraphics highly-anticipated new EC reprint line.

Taking its title from one of Wood s all-time classics, the evil little paranoid thriller Came the Dawn, this collection features page after page after page of Wood s sleek and meticulously crafted artwork put in the service of cunning twist-ending stories, most often from the typewriter of EC editor Al Feldstein.

These tales range from supernatural shockers from the pages of Tales From the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear ( The Living Corpse, Terror Ride, Man From the Grave, Horror in the Freak Tent ) to often pointedly contemporary crime thrillers from Crime SuspenStories ( The Assault, The Whipping, and Confession, which was singled out for specific excoriation in the anti-comics screed Seduction of the Innocent, thus giving it a special cachet), but the breathtaking art and whiplash-inducing shock endings are constants throughout.

Like every book in the Fantagraphics EC line, Came the Dawn will feature extensive essays and notes on these classic stories by EC experts but the real meat of the matter (sometimes literally, in the grislier stories) will be supplied by these ofted lurid, sometimes downright over-the-top, but always compelling and superbly crafted, classic comic-book masterpieces."

Barely old enough to drink when he joined the EC Comics stable, Al Williamson may have been the new kid on the block, but a lifetime of studying such classic adventure cartoonists as Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) and Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) had made him a kid to reckon with as he proved again and again in the stories he created for EC s legendary New Trend comics, in particular Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. As a result of Williamson s focus, it s possible to compile all of Williamson s New Trend EC work into one book which Fantagraphics is finally doing here. Sci-fi aficionados should note that although most of the stories were written by Al Feldstein, 50 Girls 50 features three of EC s legendary Ray Bradbury adaptations, including I, Rocket and A Sound of Thunder and a unique curiosity, a strip adapted from a short story submitted by a teenage Harlan Ellison. Williamson ran with a gang of like-minded young Turks dubbed the Fleagle Gang, who would help one another out on assignments. Thus this book includes three stories upon which Williamson was joined by the legendary Frank Frazetta, and one story ( Food for Thought ) where Roy Krenkel provided his exquisite alien landscapes, to make it one of the most gorgeous EC stories ever printed. As a supplementary bonus, 50 Girls 50 includes three stories drawn by Fleagles sans Williamson: Frazetta s Shock SuspenStories short Squeeze Play; Krenkel s meticulous Time to Leave; and Angelo Torres s An Eye for an Eye, an EC story that famously fell prey to censorship and was not released until the 1970s. As with other Fantagraphics EC titles, 50 Girls 50 will also include extensive story notes by EC experts."

Joe Orlando was a mainstay at EC, especially on science fiction, and this collects 23 of his best sci-fi stories. All of them, most scripted by Al Feldstein, serve up classic O. Henry-style endings, such as 'I, Robot, ' and 'Fallen Idol'. The title story is one of EC's most famous, with its blunt anti-racism message. When it was printed during the era of the Comics Code, publisher Bill Gaines and Feldstein had to fight to keep the story's final panel 'reveal' (and thus its whole point) intact

Graham Ingels' loving depictions of the endless corruption of flesh and nature made him the go-to guy for stories involving swamps, maniacs and dismemberment. This collection features 25 classic stories.

Long before “one giant leap for Mankind,” EC Comics speculated on the wonder—and horror—posed by space travel.

The EC Archives: Weird Science volume 3 features the zenith of these explorations by comics pioneers Al Feldstein, William Gaines, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Joe Orlando and more. This softcover volume collects Weird Science issues #13–#18 with remastered digital color based on Marie Severin’s original tones. Includes the adaptations of two Ray Bradbury tales, “The Long Years” and “Mars is Heaven.”

Foreword by Jerry Weist, comic art historian and author of the Hugo Award-nominated Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life.