art by Jack Kamen, story by Al Feldstein
Tales From the Crypt #31[#15] (1952)
An unusual story from the EC line this time, as Kamen draws a (hopefully) fictionalized account of his career at EC, from his initial hiring by Feldstein and Gaines to do romance comics and then his transition to horror comics after the romance books collapsed, and how he really began to live the part of those stories.
A very silly story, which works pretty well. The small touches are nice, like the "Den of Iniquity" logo in place of the usual "Crypt of Terror", with dollar bills spelling out "The Den of", and the cameos by Ingels, Craig and Davis, all doing random violence to little Gaines effigies.
There were a handful of such self-referential stories scattered through the EC books, and this is one of my favorites. It's kind of interesting to see the various ways that EC built up the EC-brand and fan loyalty through such things.
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