Books by Al Feldstein

Zero Hour And Other Stories (The EC Comics Library)

by Al Feldstein

With his wholesome approach, Jack Kamen stood out amongst the grandguignol grunge, gritty realism, or futuristic dazzle of his fellow EC cartoonists — but his brilliant editor/writer Al Feldstein found a way to exploit the surface innocence of his style with seemingly nice stories of romance gone horribly wrong, or future fantasies with an unexpectedly brutal twist. And nowhere did Kamen’s clean-but-lush graphics work better than in the stories he created for EC’s science-fiction comics. The title story, “Zero Hour” (one of three in this book adapted from works by Ray Bradbury), set in a Spielbergian suburban idyll, is particularly well served by Kamen’s surface innocence; “A Lesson in Anatomy” works similar magic, with its Mayberry-esque setting veering into alien-invasion terror. If there was any devil in Kamen, it came out in his loving depiction of the female face and form, and you could see why his hapless heroes were often fatally entranced with them — as in “Punishment Without Crime” (Bradbury again), “He Who Waits!” (a scientist finds an extreme way of rejoining his eight-inch-tall inamorata), and “Miscalculation!” (the lucky recipient of a package from the future literally brews his own harem); even the supercomputer in “Only Human!” proves vulnerable to a beautiful woman’s charms. Zero Hour And Other Stories contains 22 classic EC yarns — plus the usual all-new biographical, historical, and critical essays that have made Fantagraphics’ EC Library series the ultimate version of these classics.

Aces High (The EC Comics Library, 11)

by Al Feldstein, George Evans, Harvey Kurtzman

George Evans was a master of the aviation war story. This collection includes all of his highly-acclaimed stories for Aces High, EC’s famous air war title. As a bonus, we present a rarity: Evans’ never-before-reprinted 3-D story of World War I ace Frank Luke (in regular, easy-on-the-eyes 2-D). This volume also includes numerous Evans crime and shock stories, including “As Ye Sow…,” “…My Brother’s Keeper,” and “Cadillac Fever.” Other war stories, many done in collaboration with Harvey Kurtzman, include “Napoleon!” and “Flaming Coffins” (which Evans wrote, about the inherent perils of WW I aircraft). Like all books in the Fantagraphics EC line, Aces High features essays and notes by EC experts on these superbly crafted, classic comic book masterpieces.

Man And Superman And Other Stories (The EC Comics Library)

by Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman

These stories ― all drawn by Kurtzman, some of which he also wrote ― are from the pages of Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Tales from the Crypt, and more. With Al Feldstein, Kurtzman created "Lost in the Microcosm," "The Man Who Raced Time," and "Atom Bomb Thief." There's also "The Radioactive Child," "The Last War on Earth," and the titular story, a cautionary tale about how the laws of physics would impact a real-world superhero, delivered in a uniquely bold, slashing cartoony-but-dead-serious style. This volume also includes essays by experts and more.

Grave Business And Other Stories

by Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels

Even in an era of explicit horror films, “Ghastly” Graham Ingels still delivers a shock to readers with his grisly depictions of the stomach-churning fates of the evil men (and women) in these stories―leavened only by a sly wink to the reader and a generous dose of dreadful puns. Ingels’s brushwork oozes ominously across every panel, perfectly setting the mood for the shudder-inducing fates of such corrupt characters as the sadistic asylum director, the political candidate who murders his opponent, the ventriloquist with the homicidal “dummy,” the millionaire who persecutes an aged junkman, and the medieval duke who runs over a young boy with his carriage then taxes the peasants to pay for cleaning up his victim’s blood. 

The EC Comics Slipcase Volume 2 (The EC Comics Library)

by Johnny Craig, Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen

Featuring: Johnny Craig’s complete crime and horror stories from Crime SuspenStories and The Vault of Horror, twenty-five legendary horror stories from “Ghastly” Graham Ingels, Al Feldstein’s solo science fiction from Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, and twentytwo EC science-fiction gems illustrated by Jack Kamen. Plus essays and notes by EC experts! A great gift for Father’s Day or for the genre-fiction fan in your life.

Spawn Of Mars And Other Stories (The EC Comics Library, 12)

by Al Feldstein, Wallace Wood

The science fiction genre owes a debt, especially visually, to EC Comics, and this highly anticipated Wallace Wood collection shows why. It features over two dozen comics stories drawn in Wood's meticulously detailed brushwork (his "lived in" spaceship interiors helped inspire Star Wars' Millennium Falcon). And with titles like “Spawn of Mars,” “The Dark Side of the Moon,” “A Trip to a Star,” “The Invaders,” “The Secret of Saturn’s Ring,” and “The Two-Century Journey,” how can you go wrong? Like every book in the Fantagraphics EC line, Spawn of Mars and Other Stories features essays and notes by EC experts on these superbly crafted, classic comic book masterpieces.

The Martian Monster And Other Stories (The EC Comics Library, 25)

by Al Feldstein, Jack Kamen

Stories in this volume include "The Martian Monster," in which a 9-year-old boy befriends a Martian in the woods and asks him to kill his stepmother ― but the "Martian" convinces him that it’s really his father who he should target. There’s sharp social commentary in "…And Then There Were Two!" (highly intelligent robots unveil a plan for world peace, but political opportunists launch an anti-robot campaign to discredit them) and "Prediction of Disaster!" (an astronomer concludes that our sun is about to go nova and tries to warn the world).

Sucker Bait And Other Stories

by Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels

Even 60 years after their original release, in an era of explicit horror, EC Comics superstar Graham “Ghastly” Ingels’s grisly pages retain the power to shock. His loving depictions of the endless corruption of flesh and nature made him the go-to guy for stories involving swamps, maniacs, and dismemberment ― and all three combined to best effect in one of the standouts of this collection of his stories: “Horror We? How’s Bayou?” ― considered the single most spectacularly drawn of all of EC’s horror stories, with a climax that would give body-horror king David Cronenberg nightmares. Ingels specialized in depicting the unimaginable. If you ever wondered what the vengeful, decaying corpse of an elephant stomping a woman to death would look like, it’s in here (“Squash...Anyone?”). Or living rats sewn into the bodies of a tyrannical king and queen (“A Grim Fairy Tale”)... or the results of injecting a “poison-pen” letter writer with literal poison and reducing him to, in the words of Al Feldstein’s script, a “foul-smelling, oozing pool of putrescence” (“Notes to You!”). One of the two Ray Bradbury adaptations in the book, “There Was an Old Woman” (about a deceased crone who simply refuses to stay dead) provides the closest thing to a note of sweetness that you’ll find here ― perhaps with the exception of the genuinely romantic “A Little Stranger!” and its loving marriage between a dead vampire and a dead werewolf. Sucker Bait And Other Stories features 25 classic stories from Tales From the Crypt, Shock Suspen-Stories, Vault of Horror, and Ingels and his “Old Witch” character’s special showcase Haunt of Fear ― plus the usual fascinating historical, critical, and biographical material.

Master Race And Other Stories (The EC Comics Library, 21)

by Ray Bradbury, Al Feldstein, B. Krigstein (Bernard)

In addition to "Master Race,” this volume includes “The Flying Machine” (based on a story by Ray Bradbury). Other stories include: “Slave Ship,” an unpublished science fiction tale that was only discovered in the decades following EC’s demise, “The Monster From The Fourth Dimension,” a horror/science fiction shocker that has never been reprinted since its original appearance in 1954, and other Krigstein crime, horror, war, and science fiction stories covering the full gamut of EC titles, including Tales From the Crypt, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, Aces High, and Incredible Science Fiction.

The Million Year Picnic and Other Stories (The EC Comics Library, 18)

by Ray Bradbury, Will Elder, Al Feldstein

This collection includes all 15 of Elder’s humorous Panic stories (The Night Before Christmas” got the first issue banned in the entire state of Massachusetts); all seven of his science fiction tales from the pages of Weird Science and Weird Fantasy (including two Ray Bradbury adaptations, "The King of the Grey Spaces!” and “The Million-Year Picnic"); and a special horror story that hasn’t been seen since its original publication more than 60 years ago.

The EC Archives: Weird Science Volume 4

by Al Feldstein

The Weird Science archives take flight at Dark Horse in an affordable, oversized paperback!

Don’t miss any of the sci-fi classics from such visionary artists as Wally Wood, Al Feldstein, Harry Harrison, and Harvey Kurtzman!

Featuring “Upheaval!” by legendary author Harlan Ellison!

This volume collects the complete Weird Science issues #19–#22 and Weird Science-Fantasy #23–#24 in glorious remastered color!

The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt Volume 3

by Al Feldstein, William Gaines

The classic EC series, now in a deluxe-size trade paperback!


Bringing you even more classic terrifying tales written and illustrated by the all-star line-up of Al Feldstein, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, and more comics legends! Reprinting stories from Tales from the Crypt issues #29–#34.

Foul Play and Other Stories

by Al Feldstein, Otto Oscar Binder

When Jack Davis took up his pen for EC Comics, he imbued his stories with a playful sense of (gallows) humor that made his innocent victims more eye-poppingly terrified, his ax-murders more gleefully gruesome, and his revenge-seeking corpses more morbidly motivated than any other EC artist. These horror and suspense tales -- from the pages of Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, and Shock SuspenStories -- include frightful fare such as "Hyde and Go Shriek!", "Tombs-Day!", "Witch Witch's Witch!", "Head-Room!", "Chop Talk!", "Coffin Spell!", and more, all leavened with the cackling, pun-laced wit of scripter Al Feldstein and illuminated as only the virtuoso brushwork of Jack Davis could present them.

But the standout story has to be "Foul Play," the most infamous of all EC horror stories, in which a baseball team takes revenge on a murderous rival player by, um (spoiler alert), "repurposing" various parts of his anatomy for one final blood-spattered, organ-scattered inning. You'll never see a baseball game the same way again. And as gruesome as that sounds (and is!), Davis deftly pulls it off with aplomb and a mordant sense of absurd humor that will have you cringing and laughing at the same time. Plus, not one, not two, but three Davis-driven adaptations of haunting short stories by Ray Bradbury: "The Coffin!", "Let's Play Poison!", and "The Black Ferris!".

We round out this volume with all three of Davis's EC science-fiction adventures, and all five of his aerial war stories from the legendary EC title, Aces High. 40 stories in all, most scripted by EC legend Al Feldstein, plus in-depth commentary by EC experts Thommy Burns and Grant Geissman.