TARZAN 625
gravedigger walked away on the surface, and the startling cover of issue #41 shows a
knife-thrower’s assistant pinned to a wooden wheel while an ax is depicted inexorably
approaching her horrifi ed face yet never making contact in a dynamic and unsettling
piece of comic art.
Th e visceral and straightforward storytelling of EC Comics as a whole, and Ta l e s f r o m
the Crypt in particular, inspired the subsequent generation of horror writers and directors
including Stephen King, George A. Romero, and John Carpenter, where supernatural
horror tropes often happen against a mundane or modern rather than gothic background.
Bands such as the American punk rock group Th e Cramps, used the distinct cover font
for their band logo and got Feldstein to provide cover art for album Songs Th e Lord Taught
Us (1980). Tales from the Crypt has been adapted into various fi lms, television series
and cartoons. Veteran director Freddie Francis’s fi lm Tales from the Crypt (1972), from
Amicus Productions cast Ralph Richardson as the Crypt Keeper and such actors as Joan
Collins and Peter Cushing. However, only the stories “Refl ection of Death” (issue #23)
and “Blind Alleys” (issue #46, February-March, 1955) by Feldstein and Gaines are actu-
ally from Tales from the Crypt, while the remaining three are from Th e Vault of Terror or
the Haunt of Fear. HBO’s television series Tales from the Crypt (1989–96) featured an an-
imatronic Crypt Keeper, voiced by John Kassir, who introduced each episode with stories
taken from EC’s Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, Vault of Fear, Crime SuspenStories,
and Shock SuspenStories. Th e popularity of the series, which (due to the subscription cable
nature of the cable station) could show more gore and sexual situations, led to two more
theatrically released fi lms: Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight (1995) and Ta l e s
from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood (1996). A third fi lm, Ritual, was released straight
to DVD in non-U.S. markets in 2001 and was not released in America until May 2,
2005, with specially fi lmed Crypt-Keeper segments with Kassir returning to the role. In
the surprising trend of cartoons aimed at younger viewers based on such adult movies
as Th e Toxic Avenger (1984) and Robocop (1987), the cartoon Tales from the Cryptkeeper
lasted for two series from 1993 to 1994, returning as new Tales from the Cryptkeeper in
- Gemstone Publishing, producers of Th e Offi cial Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
currently holds the rights to reprint Tales from the Crypt.
Lorcan McGrane
TARZAN. Tarzan, the Lord of the Jungle, was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs
(1875–1950) and fi rst appeared in All-Story Magazine in 1912. Burroughs created his
feral hero only after having failed at numerous professions. He began his career as a pulp
fi ction writer in 1911 and his fi rst serialized adventure, Under the Moons of Mars, was
published the following year in All-Story Magazine. Th at tale introduced John Carter,
a Civil War veteran who is transported to Mars. Burroughs achieved even greater suc-
cess in 1912 with the publication of Tarzan of the Apes, a serialized adventure that also
debuted in All-Story Magazine. Tarzan soon became one of the most enduring heroes
of 20th-century popular culture as his exploits were seen in a variety of mass media,
including novels, pulp magazines, comic strips, comic books, radio, fi lm, and television.
