Chamber Of Darkness, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

One of the real legends of EC Comics' horror was illustrator Johnny Craig.  TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE VAULT OF HORROR, his name was synonmous with these classics of twisted morality tales.

Although it was many years before I made the connection, several of Craig's stories were adapted into the Amicus Films horror anthology, TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972), probably the most intense film that tiny studio ever produced.

In the late 60's, Craig did some work for Marvel--mostly on IRON MAN, where he started out inking Gene Colan, then doing full art when Colan departed the series, then, most notably, inking George Tuska when he took over.  All of these issues were written by Archie Goodwin, which has a certain amount of sense to it.  Goodwin made his reputation as both editor and chief writer for Jim Warren's 1960's horror comics revival, in CREEPY, EERIE and later, VAMPIRELLA.

However, the first time I ever laid eyes on Craig's work was when he did full art, illustrating an adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story, "The Music of Erich Zann".  A contemporary of Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft's stories appeared in many pulp magazines in the 1930's, but remained relatively obscure to the general public until Roger Corman decided to adapt his story "The Strange Case Of Charles Dexter Ward" to film, released under the title THE HAUNTED PALACE because American International wanted to market it as part of their "Edgar Allan Poe" series.

All of which is a rather long-winded intro to a very concise 7-page comic-book story.  This is some of the BEST art I've ever seen from Craig, which is why I feel it deserves more exposure.

Finally, I like the fact that for ONCE, someone else's name was lettered in BEFORE and BIGGER than the editor.  ENJOY!

CHAMBER OF DARKNESS 5  /  June 1970
"The Music From Beyond"  /  story by H.P. Lovecraft  /
adaptation by Roy Thomas  /  art by JOHNNY CRAIG

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Artwork (C) Marvel Comics

All scans from my collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

Chamber Of Darkness

My Mom loved horror movies.  Her favorite actors were Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi.  In fact, she had once seen Lugosi in a live stage performance of DRACULA.  And she was the one who introduced me to horror movies.  While my 1st Frankenstein movie was the one with Abbott & Costello (what a place to come in), she once woke me up in the middle of the night so I could come downstairs to see the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN on TV for the first time.

Some of my earliest issues of Marvel Comics were ones that she bought, and I could see they tended to have horror as their theme.  There was NOT BRAND ECHH #11, with its parody of KING KONG.  There was SILVER SURFER #7, "The Heir Of Frankenstein" (my first exposure to John Buscema).  There was AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #102-- "Vampire At Large" (my first exposure to Gil Kane).

And then there was CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #5-- a horror-anthology title.  It was many years before I realized this comic had a special significance for me.  While my first exposure to Jack Kirby was FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3, and my 2nd was FANTASTIC FOUR #71, it turns out the story "...And Fear Shall Follow!" was the first one I ever read where Jack Kirby-- who, as it turns out, wrote ALL of the stories he illustrated for Marvel-- was allowed to write his own DIALOGUE (and get credited and paid for writing AT ALL).  I used to think it was CAPTAIN AMERICA #193, when he returned to Marvel in 1976, but, no, it was this modest little 6-pager, wonderfully inked by John Verpoorten, under a dynamite cover by Kirby & Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett!

Later on, thru some very strange circumstances, Mom also wound up buying my very 1st VAMPIRELLA comic-- but that's another story!

Right now, let's turn back the clock to just before Jack Kirby jumped ship from Marvel to DC, and read a real classic of suspense!

CHAMBER OF DARKNESS 5  / art by Jack Kirby & Bill Everett   (June 1970)

"...And Fear Shall Follow!"  /
story & art by Jack Kirby  /  inks by John Verpoorten

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WOW!

I wanted to wait until after the story to mention this... you might notice the "ghostly" figure on page 1 is identical to the one on page 3, panel 3.  Since this is the sort of thing Jack Kirby NEVER did, it tells me it was probably the work of the production department, on the orders from Kirby's EDITOR.  Since you don't actually find out what's really going on until the end of page 6, you have NO IDEA there's anything "supernatural" in the story until the end.  EXCEPT for the fact that the ending is telegraphed right there on the splash page.  WAY TO GO, "editor"!!!

I'll just add that looking back on this, it also annoys the hell out of me that the "Editor"'s name takes up as much space in the credits box as the guy who was BOTH the writer AND artist. In the words of Spider-Man (from one of the Grantray-Lawrence TV cartoons), "...talk about a king-size EGO!!"

You can SEE, right there, why Kirby left Marvel a few months later.

(Continued in Part 2)


Artwork (C) Marvel Comics

All scans from my collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa