Digital Comic Museum
General Category => Comic Related Discussion => Topic started by: bminor on July 27, 2016, 08:50:13 AM
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What are peoples thoughts on the Cochran EC black and white Library?
I remember stumbling on ad for them way back in 1980, and purchasing Weird Science and Tales from the Crypt while I was in college.
I just loved them and imagined someday owning them all.
Alas life went on, I needed some cash and had to sell them.
Just two years ago I stumbled on someone selling them on Ebay. I realized I could still get them!
So began my quest in the beginning of 2014. Now two and a half years later I am awaiting the arrival of the final set in the mail.
B.
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So how much do Cochran sets cost today? A couple of years ago I found one of the horror sets in a thrift store and was surprised to learn that it was a reprint. Not that I care; I bought them for the art. I just didn't know there were any reprints. When the Library first came out I could only afford two of the smaller sets. I chose Two Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, not because I like war comics (I don't) but because they had the highest percentage of my favorite artists (Severin, Wood, Evans, Toth, Kubert, Colan etc etc). Had I had more dough I would have bought Weird Science Fantasy next, but 'twas not to be.
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I bought Weird Science and Weird Fantasy when they first came out in color, so I have all the issues of both series.
Geo
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They are my Holy Grail!
As a schoolboy I started saving pennies and got me VAULT, CRYPT, CRIME and TWO-FISTED.
Six years ago I had the money to complete the New Trend books.
Ordered them from a guy in New Mexico.
Had to wrestle them out of German custom office at Cologne airport. Worth the hassle.
I now went a step further:
The IDW Artists Editions of original art scans of EC artists.
Rrrrrrrrrrr.
Missed the Wood (aaarggh), but got the gorgeous rest: Davis, Ingels, Best of 1+2.
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Congrats on those T!
I hear they are a sight to behold! :)
-Yoc
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I really prefer them to the color reprints. The art is gorgeous.
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Well The Haunt of Fear has just arrived and I have eagerly torn into the box.
The set is now complete!
From 1980 to 2016 to complete the entire library, only 36 years! Not to bad!
Satisfied sigh.....
Now to somehow get a hold of those 3D issues they made:
Three Dimensional EC Classics
Three Dimensional Tales From The Crypt Of Terror
Three Dimensional Weird Science-Fantasy (never printed to all the work was done except for the cover)
From what I have heard the artwork on these three books were entirely redrawn by the artists for 3D reproduction.
I am graphic designer and printer and would love to print these books out for myself and then hard cover bind them (complete with slip case) in the large format of the Cochran EC Library!!! Book binding is not really that difficult and would be a fun project! I have dabbled in it a bit before.
B.
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Congrats B!
Must be very satisfying in deed.
My my, nobody can say you aren't ambitious either. Good luck with those 3D books too.
;)
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I'm old (or is that ancient?) enough to have started getting the Cochran EC reprint sets when they first started up. Early on I subscribed for the whole library, set by set, as they came out. I opted for the MAD set in color, as I already had the old Ballantine MAD paperback reprints in B&W. The whole library fills out a 56" shelf. I've enjoyed them over the years, but in the next few years I will probably be looking to sell them all off as a set. Russ really did right by the series. And those were the days before Chinese printing!
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I have this collection and love the EC tradition with living in the U.K I grew up buying the old black and white reprints of most of the major titles. Maybe that's why I appreciate the artwork more without the colour, from the Alan Class titles to the British weeklies I was hooked. However I do have a great fondness for the way some artist's work stands out without the colour. Again my love is the EC titles in this library collection and to a lesser degree the Marvel / DC Showcase volumes, Tomb of Dracula by Gene Colan is outstanding. In fact I'm drooling waiting on a IDW artist edition of his Dracula work if ever there's one published (I'm getting two, one for framing and one to drool over LOL). As for the EC team they were the cream of the crop and produced a lot of classic stories it was a shame that they were cut off in their prime.