Tales from the Crypt Comic

Tales from the Crypt Comic 

The stories from the “Tales from the Crypt” Comic are told very much like 50s cinema.  It has the same feel as classic Hitchcock with a touch of B-Movie horror. In the book, there are several short stories that are supernatural as well as tales of madness. The no.2 addition there are five stories. The first is of a man who is being haunted by his past crime that resulted in the death of his fiancée. The comic starts near the end and then you go back to the beginning.  Out running his crime Doctor Emanuel Hellman hides out in a cabin, as he settles into the cabin he begins to recap the horrors of the last few months.  It all started at a theater, that took his beautiful fiancées to see an extremely talented and good-looking artist. To the annoyance of Dr. Hellman his fiancée and the artist hit it off and he is dumped so she can be with her new love.  This enrages Dr. Hellman, who swears to take revenge and get his fiancée back. As luck, would have it the artist came to Dr. Hellman for aid with a cut on his hand, but instead of helping his fiancées new lover he instead cuts off the hand of the artist.  The end result of Dr. Hellman removing the artist's hand, the artist committed suicide as well as his ex-fiancée.  Returning to the original start of the comic in the cabin, Dr. Hellman gets a package.  Within the package it the severed hand of the deceased artist.  He tries to burn the haunted hand, but after an intense struggle the hand ends up straggling the doctor.  The very last panel are the two investigators studying the Dr. Hellman’s death and it is mentioned that he straggles himself to death.  Leaving it up to the reader to come to their own conclusion of was it all in the head of the Doctor as a result of guilt or was her truly murdered by the hand of the died artist. Another part of this tale that is particularly interesting; the narrative starts off with “My story begin” but then by the bottom of the same page the narration starts using the seconded person “You had taken your fiancée”.  The change in point of view is very interesting and adds to the strangeness of the tale.  The oddity of the story telling made the twist and turns of this weird and wonderful tale that much more engaging. 

Little Nemo in Slumberland

Little Nemo in Slumberland

I really enjoyed the whimsical and playful storytelling of Little Nemo. It is fun to fallow the weird and wonderful world of Nero's dreams.  I would not say it is a super funny comic, but it does have a beautiful charm to it.  The charm comes from its whimsical landscape, playful colors and characters . The comic itself is definitely a time capsule from the past.  Of both what is expected of little kids, as well as a racist point of view of the time. They constantly call the only African an “ Imp”, and at one point Flip the clown kidnaps a black kid  from the Canary Islands and tells them that he is the master and the boy must do what he says.  Another peculiar thing that I found was that Nemo would often find himself falling out of bed because there was some debacle in his dream.  Often when this happened his parents would threaten to beat him if he kept that up.  Other than that I really enjoyed the look and overall feel of the comic.  I loved the beautiful nonsensical lands that Nemo explores.   I also found the transitions from what was happening in his dreams to how he woke up very creative and adorable. It is beautifully executed and the stories are charming, no wonder it is considered a classic comic.