EC Library #2

Plot

Came the Dawn collects all 26 Wood-drawn horror and crime stories, including the full bakers dozen of EC most courageous and politically charged dramas.

EC Comics LogoTaking its title from one of Wood all-time classics, the evil little paranoid thriller. Came the Dawn, this collection features page after page after page of Wood 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 features extensive essays and notes on these classic stories by EC experts but the real meat of the matter (sometimes literally, in the grislier stories) is supplied by these ofted lurid, sometimes downright over-the-top, but always compelling and superbly crafted, classic comic-book masterpieces.