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 often lurid, sometimes
downright over-the-top, but always compelling and superbly crafted,
classic comic-book masterpieces.
