Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Al Feldstein

 
 
 
The Crypt-Keeper Holmes

Al Feldstein is best know for his work with EC Comics dating back to the late 40's.  Starting as an artist, he also wrote stories for many of the EC titles including "Weird Science", "Crime SuspenStories", "The Vault of Horror" and of course "Tales from the Crypt".  Eventually he focused on writing and editing the EC titles and saved his artwork for covers. In 1956, he took over as the editor of "Mad" magazine and continued in that role until the mid 80's.  Since then he has focused his talents on painting landscape and wildlife, and was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2003.

I'm a huge fan of the horror genre, especially of the 50's EC comics and "Tales from the Crypt".  So getting the chance to get a drawing of the Crypt-Keeper as Holmes by his creator was a no-brainer.  The Crypt-Keeper first appeared in an issue of "Crime Patrol" written and drawn by Mr. Feldstein, before the title changed over to "Tales from the Crypt" a few issues later.  Mr. Feldstein did a great job and it was a honour to talk with him when setting up this commission.