Recommend me an EC collection

The problem w/ all the EC titles is that they are VERY formulaic and VERY overwritten, so are def best read in small doses (tho' of course no comics company has ever had such a superb line-up of artists, so even when the stories start to drag there are lots of purty pics to look at.) As regard the horror comics, my personal pref wld be for the later issues of Vault of Horror (the title edited by Johnny Craig) - as well as the usual E.C. stars, you also get some of Krigstein's best work, which is to say some of the best comics ever drawn (many of these are reprinted in the Krigstein volumes that Fantagraphics brought out - I think these have been reduced to clear, search 'em out.)

Krigstein Comics for $30 off.

As to titles, Shock SuspenStories is a good place to start since most issues contained one horror story, one sf story, one crime story and a 'preachie', or social issue story.

Heads up: if, like me, you haven't yet pulled the trigger on collecting EC stuff because Dark Horse frustratingly lets random volumes of their collections fall out of print, it looks like they're rebooting the line. Softcovers instead of hardcovers this time 'round but I'll takes what I can gets. First volumes of Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Shock SuspenStories all to be released in 2021.

Nice!

i think the fanta "by artist" collection is the right way to buy if you're gonna read them but not if you're a completist

This HUGE new EC history from Taschen is meant to be amazing:

https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/graphic_design/all/01135/facts.the_history_of_ec_comics.htm

I've come round to thinking that the best way to read EC is in the Russ Cochran box sets - great size, superb repro and excellent 'liner notes' for each issue. You can sometimes find them online at surprisingly reasonable prices, too. I'm not a fan of the modern recolouring that Dark Horse have used on those collections; the individual comics reprints that Cochran also issued generally have more appropriate and pleasing colour.

My mother had just started managing a comic book store when the hardcover reprints had pretty much all come out - spent many afternoons and evenings being babysat by EC and Doonesbury collections. Wish they'd just do one big release instead of dripping them out (and focusing mostly on horror, probably).

Dark Horse has run through all the horror reprints at this point so they've actually been releasing HCs of the non-horror stuff for a little while now.

And yes, I'm one of those sick-o completists, is why I'm excited for the rebooted Dark Horse collections.

Earlier this month humblebundle.com had every issue of Eerie for around $20. Today they have every issue of Creepy for the same amount.

Thanks! I'm sorry I missed the Eerie one.