Friday, June 13, 2008

Crypt of Shadows #4: The Yaffa/Page digest series


This digest-size issue of Crypt of Shadows is a real beauty! It reprints in full the contents of the US Crypt of Shadows series issue numbers 10-12.

This means it contains stories from Atlas/Marvel series such as Adventures Into Terror, Tales to Astonish, Uncanny Tales and Mystic. It also means it contains art from the likes of Gene Colan, Bernard Krigstein, Don Heck and Russ Heath.

The cover to this issue is sourced from Crypt of Shadows #10, May 1974, itself a homage to Joe Maneely's cover to Marvel Tales #129, December 1954. The covers to issue numbers 11 and 12 are not reprinted.

The only fault with this issue is that it omits the first title page to “Dance, You Fool!”, the Heck-drawn story Tales to Astonish #34 - a victim of the page count. The rest of the stories are crammed in by utilising the inner front cover and both sides of the rear cover.

I don’t know how many issues were published in this series, but I expect those that were published all contained complete sequential issues of the US series.

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