Tales from the Crypt #4

I never read the original 1950s EC comics Tales from the Crypt, but I was a fan of the 1989-1996 HBO series. Crypt, like other anthology series (The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits), has embedded itself in my noggin. One episode, in particular, where a woman’s corpse in various stages of decay continues to haunt the man that (I believe) killed her with the final scene of a snake-like tongue coming outta her skull, is seared in my memory.

In the graphic section of my local Books A Million, I spotted an affordable hard cover of Tales From The Crypt #4. It features the work of Joe R. Lansdale who along with John L.Lansdale (writers), Chris Noeth (artist), and Bryan Senka (letterer) created "Moonlight Sonata" about a mugger who kills a wealthy man in a dark alley with the intention of robbing his house. The thief finds he has bitten off more than he can chew when he encounters two caged werewolves at the eccentric man’s house.

"Jumping the Shark" by Arie Kaplan (writer), Mr. Exes (artist) and Mark Lerer (letterer) is an enjoyably dark tale about a producer’s assistant who gets in over his head after he kills his ruthless boss out of anger and then is given the producers job on a reality show only to discover what it takes to remain #1.

I enjoyed all the stories and artwork in this collection enough that I just may hunt down some of the original comics to see how it all started.