10 Greatest Horror Comics You NEED To Read
2. Tales From The Crypt
While not the first of the classic horror titles of the Pre-Comics Code era, Tales from the Crypt has arguably gone on to be the most well-known title due to the three films, HBO television series that ran for seven years, and other media, including a Saturday morning children’s cartoon. The book’s main host, the Crypt Keeper has gone on to become a popular pop culture character. This comic is one of the cornerstones in the origin of comic books.
The 27 issues of Tales from the Crypt ran from 1950 to 1955. The horror comics at this time were geared less toward children and more toward the young adult male audience and toward GIs returning from World War II. William Gaines and Al Feldstein gathered a group of talent that would go on to become legendary, including Wally Wood, Jack Davis, and Harvey Kurtzman, among others to create horror stories to push the limits to the very edge.
Tales from the Crypt, along with its sister titles Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear, were among the titles that were brought before Congress as examples of books that were causing juvenile delinquency in the youth of that time. William Gaines' testimony didn’t help and he was forced to close down his entire run of comic books when the self-governing Comics Code Authority was established in 1954.