Shudder's Creepshow: From Script to Scream E-Book

Dennis L. Prince

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 273

Beschreibung

Shudder's Creepshow: From Script to Scream is the official behind-the-scenes book featuring the spine-tingling stories and tantalizing talent behind The Creepshow series.Shudder's Creepshow: From Script to Scream, produced by AMC Networks Publishing and Creepshow showrunner and executive producer Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), is a coffee-table book which brings fans behind-the-scenes of the acclaimed Creepshow series with deep dives into its riveting origins, gripping development, provocative production, sinister special effects, and much more. Features a foreword by legendary storyteller Stephen King and an afterword by horror aficionado Kirk Hammett, Metallica's lead guitarist. Based on the hit anthology series from Nicotero, Cartel Entertainment, Striker Entertainment, and in partnership with Titan Books, the book is written by Dennis L. Prince, designed by John J. Hill, and co-produced by Julia Hobgood. The series has been heralded as "an irresistibly macabre package," (Slant Magazine) and "an undeniable love letter to all generations of horror fans," (CBR), and over three seasons, has been one of the most watched programs on Shudder.

Leseprobe

Foreword by

STEPHEN KING

Afterword by

KIRK HAMMETT

Executive Producer

GREG NICOTERO

Producer

JULIA HOBGOOD

Writer

DENNIS L. PRINCE

Creative Director & Designer

JOHN J. HILL

Editor

MEREDITH BORDERS

Head of AMC Networks Publishing

MIKE ZAGARI

LONDON

AMC NETWORKS

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MONSTER AGENCY PRODUCTIONS

GREG NICOTERO – President

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JULIA HOBGOOD – Producer

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TAURUS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY

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JORDAN KIZWANI – EVP of Production

PUBLISHED BY TITAN BOOKS

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Standard edition cover

GARY PULLIN

AMC Networks Publishing exclusive edition cover

SANJULIAN

Contributing artists for this book

MICHAEL BROOM, MATTHEW LINEHAM

Special thanks

SHELLEY VENEMANN, MARCEL FELDMAR, STEVE MARTIN,JUSTIN D’ANGELO, PHIL KARNOFSKY, MICHAEL FLEMING, GRACE TYSON,NICK LANDAU, FRANK GALLAUGHER, SOPHIE JUDGE, PHIL NOBILE,VERONICA OWENS, OCTOPIE ANIMATION STUDIO, ISAAC KRAUSS

SHUDDER’S CREEPSHOW: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREAM Published by Titan Books. Copyright © 2022 Cartel Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved. Artwork and Supplementary Materials, including images from the Creepshow television series, are © 2019-2022 Cartel Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved. AMC, AMC Networks, AMC Networks Publishing, and the AMC logo are trademarks of AMC Network Entertainment LLC. SHUDDER is a trademark of Digital Store LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All names, characters, events, and locales in this publication are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, or places, without satirical intent, is coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

Standard edition ISBN: 9781803363066

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eBook edition ISBN: 9781803363387

First printing: OCTOBER 2022

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tABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORDbySTEPHEN KING..........................................................................007

INTRODUCTION: IT’LL ROT YOUR BRAIN! ....................................................009

Get ready for a blood-curdling journey into the realm of modernhorror, one that draws from a deliciously vintage vein...

ONE: LIVING THE SCREAM ............................................................................019

Meet Greg Nicotero (and his pals). He’s got a horrendoushistory of scaring the daylights out of us. Find out why...

TWO: SHUDDER-ING HEIGHTS ....................................................................033

Visit the creepy conglomerate responsible for the shriek-flledshow that delivers non-stop streaming screaming…

THREE: THE WRITERS’ BLOCK .....................................................................041

Meet the wordsmiths who pen Creepshow’s twisted tales. Are theyincurably crazed or just weirdly creative? Maybe both…

FOUR: WEIRD WORLDS & DREADFUL DESIGNS ...................................063

Ever seen a nightmarish setting that later gave you bad dreams? Blame these guys…

FIVE: EYE FOR THE UNNATURAL .................................................................085

He looks through the camera’s lens to focus on your greatest fears. Learn how—and why—he does it…

SIX: CREEPS, CREATURES & ASSORTED ABERRATIONS................101

All the things you wanted to see—plus many you can never un-see—await you here…

SEVEN: THE DIRECTORS’ LAIR .....................................................................145

They don’t wear knickers nor woolen berets, but they do have a flair for classic horror. Meet them now…

EIGHT: UNUSUAL AFTER-EFX .......................................................................161

Post-production polish, illustrated splash pages & transitions, and evenmusical “stingers” give every episode that pulpy pre-code goodness…

NINE: DEVILED EGGS ......................................................................................189

If you love a good egg hunt, keep your eyes peeled for these hidden gems lurking in each episode…

TEN: COVER GHOULS .....................................................................................199

A gallery of the Creepshow comic covers. It’s fiendish fineart that will have you shrieking for the next great issue…

ELEVEN: THE CREEPSHOW COMPENDIUM ..............................................209

[SEASONS1-3]

AFTERWORD byKIRK HAMMETT.......................................................................235

BIOGRAPHIES /INDEX /ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................236

5

foreword

by STEPHEN KING

I got my big break in showbiz from George Romero.

In 1979—maybe it was 1980—he asked if I’d play a rube in Knightriders, and I said yes. You can look me up on IMDb, where I’m listed as “Hoagie Man” (my wife, in her only screen appearance, gets credited as “Hoagie Man’s Wife”). Thus began my career of playing such country-fried assholes as a farmer named Jordy Verrill, a janitor named Johnny B. Goode, and an unnamed trucker with a mouthful of chaw. None of these roles, needless to say, was of Academy Award caliber.

During a break in the filming, George asked me if I’d be interested in working with him again, not as an actor (for which I have little talent) but as a writer (for which I have a little more). As someone who’d never written a screenplay, I was flattered and excited by the possibility of working with such a talented young (he was forty at the time) director. I asked what he had in mind. George shrugged and said, “What do you have in mind?”

After several more hoagie-munching takes while I struggled to get my few lines right, I suggested something I called “the good parts.” It would be, I said, like comedy blackout sketches…only horrifying rather than funny. Maybe even both, because I’ve always believed that humor and horror are fraternal twins. Take the old pie-in-the-face gag. It’s funny when it’s whipped cream, but it’s horrible if the whipped cream is filled with flesh-eating parasites that have human faces.

That wasn’t the example I used with George that day. What I suggested was this: A nasty old woman dies on her birthday, then comes back from the grave to get her cake. Simple. Right to the point, the point being a good scare.

George said it reminded him of the EC horror comics that had been censored out of existence in the ‘50s, and wondered if we could possibly adapt my Good Parts idea into an anthology film that used one of those gory old comic books as a framing device. I wasn’t immediately wowed. I pointed out that many horror movies had been done that way before— Asylum and the extraordinary Dead of Night are just two examples—and none of them had been what you’d call box-office smashes.

George slung an arm around my neck and said, “Steve, that’s because we haven’t done it.”

I had to laugh. George had a wonderful way of making you feel like you were part of the club: his club. I never worked on a project where so many of the crew (all of them, really) were part of the director’s fan club.

“All we need is a title that will sell the project. Can’t use The Vault of Horror or Tales from the Crypt, they’re copyrighted.”

I didn’t even have to think about it. “ Creepshow,” I said.

George grinned. “Beautiful. Now write it.”

I did, in two weeks. George came back with a suggestion for a wraparound story, featuring “something from the funky ads they had in those books.”I thought up a story about a little boy—he ended up being played by my son, Joe Hill—who sticks pins in a voodoo doll to get back at his bad- tempered Dad.

From then on, it was all George Romero. He used the framing device beautifully, and added a riff where each story ended with a freeze frame that morphed into a comic book picture. Each shot in the film looked like a comic book panel, complete with global lighting changes from natural to green or red. Getting those right was a pain in the ass, but he did it.

Audiences responded. The movie grossed $21 million, which would equal more than $60 million in 2022 bucks. The screenplay (along with Storm of the Century) remains one of my absolute favorites, and nothing has ever beaten E.G. Marshall’s pitch-perfect, almost Shakespearian reading of my lines. (“Although they’re [i.e., the bugs] essentially brainless, you have to watch ‘em. Because they creep up on you.”)

It wasn’t Shakespeare, but audiences enjoyed the crazed mixture of scares and belly-laughs enough to spawn two sequels and the current TV series, which finally named the host of the fearsome festivities. Calling that guy “The Creep” makes perfect sense; only wish I’d thought of it.

The [Shudder] series has succeeded as other anthology series haven’t, possibly in part because of its brilliant colors and in part because of its goofy, gross-out charm. Produced and often written by Greg Nicotero, who understands the genre and loves it, the stories are allowed to go anywhere. In one, a grouchy hermit spills beer on a severed finger which morphs into a weird lizard-thing he calls Bob. In another, a penniless college kid finds a man in a suitcase who produces gold coins when tortured.

All of them hew closely to the horror comics of the ‘50s, and the production teams of all three films and the TV series—especially the series—have made the most of short money. In fact, the low-budget look seems to be both an emblem of pride and part of the fun. It’s also fun for me to think that what George and I brainstormed on the set of Knightriders between takes is still alive and well and scaring the crap out of people.

STEPHEN KING

MAINE, 2022

7

FOREWORD

welcome toshudDer’s creEpshow!I am the creEp, and I’lLbe your ghoulish guide forthis eye-popPing excursioninto the show that daresto ask--is horRRor badfor ya?

long ago,during the gloriousghoul-den age ofhorRor comics, somepeople screEched atwhat they calLed “theperils of pulp.”

they saida horRor comicwas dangerous toimpresSionableyoung minds. theyeven dared todecreE…

It’s Wednesday, April 21, 1954. Americans are bedeviled by suspicion and awash with worry. Senator Joseph McCarthy continues his commandeering of the broadcast airwaves, warning us that Communism has infiltrated our institutions, even the U.S. Army. Elsewhere, Vice President Richard Nixon has been issuing grim assessments of a potential Russian nuclear attack; it could happen at any moment. And within Room 110 of the United States Courthouse on Foley Square, Lower Manhattan, another televised inquiry is underway, this one desperate to expose and thwart a new and most insidious affront to our American way of life: comic books!!

Chairman Robert C. Hendrickson provides oversight for the Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency, with special focus on Comic Books. The attending lawmakers, squeezed almost shoulder to shoulder in the cramped dais, listen intently to expert witness Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D.— he’s a specialist in psychology, brain pathology, and neural development. Seated at the polished cherrywood table positioned opposite the dais, Wertham unleashes his warning of the dire and irreversible effects brought on by comic books.

“[Why] does the normal child spend so much time with this smut and trash? […] It is my opinion, without any reasonable doubt— and without any reservation—that comic books are an important contributing factor in many cases of juvenile delinquency.”1

Brows furrow with concern. Chins are rubbed, anxiously.

Wertham picks up a comic book from the stack next to him. Yes, issue #19 of The Haunt of Fear will easily demonstrate the deplorable nature of the assault: specifically, a story titled “Foul Play!”2 He points to a page enlargement displayed for the dais’ inspection.

“Mr. Chairman, I can’t explain for the reason that I can’t say all the obscene things that are in this picture for little boys of 6 and 7. This is a baseball game where they play baseball with a man’s head; where the man’s intestines are the baselines. All his organs have some part to play. The torso of this man is the chest protector of one of the players. There is nothing left to anybody’s morbid imagination.”3

ABOVE: A smiling child, her faithful dog, and a selection of entertaining comics. What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing.

[1] Session transcript (afternoon), Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency, April 21, 1954.[2] 1953, The Haunt of Fear #19. Illustrated by Jack Davis. Written by William M. Gaines and Al Feldstein.[3] Session transcript (afternoon), Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency, April 21, 1954.

9

INTRODUCTION

10

INTRODUCTION

Shocking! The senators exchange troubled glances, and, upon additional damning testimony from Dr. Wertham, they unanimously agree with his assertion that these comics are insidiously destructive devices, especially heinous in that they have been disguised as child-friendly “funny books!” Who is responsible for the proliferation of such morally corrosive content?

William M. Gaines, publisher of Entertaining Comics—that’s “EC” for short—had printed the “Foul Play!” story the previous year. His company’s horror and crime comics are wildly popular with kids of all ages. Besides The Haunt of Fear, EC also publishes The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, and Crime SuspenStories. Now it is Gaines who is seated at the cherry- wood table.

The 32-year-old Gaines has a stout presence, though his ill-fitting suitcoat, shirt, and sagging necktie undermine his credibility. His round-framed eyeglasses upon his round face make him appear bookish and a bit mousey…and vulnerable. Nevertheless, he confidently provides his rebuttal.

“What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of our own children? […] We think our children are so evil, simple-minded, that it takes a story of murder to set them to murder, a story of robbery to set them to robbery […] Our American children are, for the most part, normal children […] but those who want to prohibit comic magazines seem to see [children as] dirty, sneaky, perverted monsters who use comics as a blueprint for action.”4

Gaines goes on to explain the obvious morality within each of the stories he publishes. Comeuppance is central to practically every EC story. Acts of greed, graft, and self-aggrandizing abuse of others routinely trigger the most severe types of judgment and punishment…and, yes, the “Foul Play!” midnight baseball game that incorporates the body parts of opposing player Herbie Satten was morally justified. The win-whatever-it-takes pitcher had laced his spiked cleats with lethal poison that killed the opposing team’s star player. He murders his opponent…then he pays a compensatory price. It’s so plain to see, and Gaines contended that his readers, even kids, did see it.

Despite his faithful testimony on that April day, Gaines’ petitions fell on deaf ears. The committee members willfully refusedto hear the truth, appearing almost desperate to bury it. Did the morals of the EC stories hit too close to home in comparison to the lawmakers’ own political ambitions and personal aspirations?

While actual legislation was avoided (the senators feared being accused of censorship in America more than anything they decried within EC’s pages), the Comics Code Authority

(CCA) was established, instead. By that, comic publishers would “voluntarily” submit their content for inspection and approval, hopeful to earn the CCA Seal. Without approval—that is, without presence of the CCA Seal—distribution and sales of any unapproved comic were cut off at the knees. And when use of the words “horror,” “terror,” and “crime” in comic book titles was prohibited, Gaines’ top-selling books were doomed. EC was finished. The “establishment” had won.

Or had they?

EC’s lineup of comics was halted, save for a cleverly reformatted comic-turned-magazine that delivered heavy doses of politically scathing and socially biting humor: Mad Magazine. “Magazines,” by definition and presence of their larger format, weren’t subject to CCA inspection and interference. It proved to be a handy loophole, one that would allow the resurgence of illustrated horror during the 1960s, easily found within new publications like Warren’s Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.

But the original EC horror style—what became of that? In a way, it flourished. In 1972, UK-based Amicus Productions released their EC-leveraged Tales from the Crypt. Lifted directly from the pages of Gaines’ most revered book, the film iconized the portmanteau method of anthology storytelling: a collection of self-standing elements tied together by a connecting narrative (The Crypt Keeper has detained five people and reveals to them, one by one, the heinous deeds they’re capable of committing… and the judgment that awaits them).

Genre afficionados will point to 1945’s Dead of Night film as an early example of the portmanteau method, and they will rightly make mention of Amicus’ previous anthology outings like Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1967), and The House that Dripped Blood (1971). But it was Tales from the Crypt, that fourth film in the Amicus line of horror anthologies, that gained producers Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky their greatest success and highest praise yet. They quickly rushed to release the non-EC Asylum, also in 1972, followed by a second EC adaptation,The Vault of Horror, in 1973. Horror anthologies on the big screen had become big business, in the UK as well as in the US. EC horror had transcended from the printed page to the big screen.

But…but…comics cause a degeneration of the mind and can only lead to dysfunctional behavior, right?

Time for a bit of our own inquiry.

Many creative talents—artists, writers, filmmakers—have cited EC as a source for their own creative inspiration. Take, for instance, writer/director Joe Dante. He was a New Jersey kid,

OPPOSITE: An efficient executioner does his duty, as seen on the cover of The Haunt of Fear #19 (May-June 1953).

LEFT: In Shudder’s Creepshow, the EC horror style lives on...and on...and on...

[4] Session transcript (afternoon), Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency, April 21, 1954.

11

INTRODUCTION

OPPOSITE: “They won’t stay dead!” ‘Nuff said? Original 1-sheet art for George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968).

[5] Post-Mortem with Mick Garris: Joe Dante. December 26, 2016. Nice Guy Productions, Inc.

[6] Joe Dante on “Matinee.” July 31, 2015, filmSCHOOLarchive.

[7] “Post-Mortem with Mick Garris: John Landis.” September 22, 2014. Nice Guy Productions, Inc.

[8] May 23, 2016, MentalFloss.com: When Mr. Rogers Gave George Romero His First Paying Gig.

[9] 1982, Fangoria magazine, Issue #20: “On (and off) the Set of Creepshow.”

born in 1946. His dad, Joseph James Dante, was a pro golfer, but Joe Jr. loved movies—especially horror and science fiction films. Naturally, when young Joe grew up, he wanted to become a cartoonist. He drew his own comic stories and he read comic books—EC comic books.

“Comic books, of course, because that’s the way kids learn to read. Comic books always get a bad rap but [they’re] a great entrée to getting kids to read.”5

But that comic terror and horror; surely it leaves psychological scars on kids, right? Well, nowhere near as much as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. That was real terror, not at the hands of imaginative writers and illustrators but, rather, at the handsof bickering governments and trigger-ready military forces. Now there’s something to terrify America’s youth, specifically the 16-year-old Dante and his pals who were preoccupied as they wondered what it would be like when the bomb dropped.

“On that fateful weekend […] we literally thought there was going to be no school on Monday, and no school ever again— because the world was gonna end.”6

Thankfully, the world didn’t end but, interestingly, Dante didn’t go on to become a cartoonist; he transitioned to writing. He was published in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine (“Dante’s Inferno”) then served as occasional writer and editor for Castle of Frankenstein magazine. Ready to jump headlong into filmmaking, he went to work for Roger Corman where he was assigned to cut trailers, edit features, and eventually direct (Hollywood Boulevard, Piranha). Later came The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, and, of course, Gremlins. His directing credits stacked up from there—Innerspace, The ‘Burbs, Matinee,and more. He’s well-traveled, well-respected, and well-regarded.Doesn’t sound like much of a comic-poisoned delinquent, does he?

Next, say “hello” to John Landis. Born in Chicago in 1950, he relocated to Los Angeles with his family when he was only four months old. As a filmmaker, he insists that he has far too many influences to single out any one type or genre, and he easily recognizes the similarity between horror and comedy. Wait—what?!

“A tenet of comedy—and horror—is anarchy. The Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy will create anarchy in a social situation, and it’s funny. And in a horror film, [you have] the loss of control, [which] is what anarchy means, and that can be pretty damned scary.”7

The affable Landis says he loves all genres—westerns, musicals, animation—but he’s best known for the laughs he delivers with his comedic gems, including Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Coming to America. Of course, in the horror genre, he’s best known for his horror-comedy, An American Werewolf in London. So, he’s a success, too. He’s had plenty of youthful EC influence, but he goes for the laughs, more often than not. What’s so scary about him?

And then there is Mr. Romero.

Six years the elder of Dante and a full ten years senior to kid- Landis, George A. Romero enters this cross-examination analysis, if you will, as our surprise witness, a patriarch among his EC- era peers. He was born and raised in the Bronx, a graduate of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University in 1960, and an aspiring filmmaker right out of the chute who would take most any

project—even Mister Rogers’ tonsillectomy. If you’ve boned up on your Romero history, you’ll probably know that lovable Fred Rogers gave the freshman director his first paying gig. “It was the scariest thing I ever filmed,” Romero laughingly revealed. “I was scared shitless while I was trying to pull it off!”8

Of course, Romero later turned the tables and scared us out of our wits with Night of the Living Dead in 1968. His film exposed raw nerves (literally) as it eviscerated societal and establishment constructs of the day. During the late 1960s, western culture was overwrought with matters of oppositional conflict by way of war, civil unrest, and clandestine government malfeasance. Night of the Living Dead, like the EC stories before it, used horror as a tool—as a mirror—to raise our awareness.

Later came Romero’s follow-up, 1978’s Dawn of the Dead. In it, Romero delivers a terrifying look at rampant consumerism, projecting zombies as shoppers, shoppers as zombies. In a world of mindless consumption, Romero hints at the horrible consequences when gluttonous consumer culture is disrupted… and it sparks a savage turnabout.

Salah Hassanein, whose United Film Distribution Company (UFDC) dared to release Dawn of the Dead in its unrated and explicitly violent form, now sought Romero’s final chapter in his zombie trilogy. Romero would deliver, but only if Hassanein agreed to fund it as part of a three-picture deal. As Hassanein considered the proposal, Romero busied himself with another project, one with horror author Stephen King.

Romero and King first met when Warner Bros. paired them fora theatrical adaptation of King’s second novel,‘Salem’s Lot. But as other directors were also paraded into and out of the project’s development, and many hands attempted and failed to convert the author’s 400-page vampire story into a competent screenplay, the effort failed (it ultimately found success as a two- part television miniseries directed by Tobe Hooper). No matter, King and Romero were now friends and sought to collaborate.

They set their sights on adapting King’s epic post-apocalyptic odyssey, The Stand. Both men were eager to bring the big project to the big screen— their way. They’d need studio involvement, but they didn’t want any creative interference. None. Their stipulation: King, and only King, would write the screenplay. He wouldn’t trust anyone else with his grand work. Romero, of course, would direct.

Its epic scope would require a suitable budget, more than Romero could fully secure. Their solution: they’d do another smaller-budget film together first, earn half or more of what they’d need for The Stand, then visit a backer with one of their pockets already full and a collaborative film success already under their collective belt; they’d just need an advance to fill the other pocket. So, who would finance this first, smaller film? That would be Salah Hassanein of UFDC, under the previously mentioned three-picture deal. Hassanein agreed, and the first picture would be Romero’s Knightriders.

King conjured an idea: fast-hitting vignettes that quickly usher the viewer to “the best parts,” he called them. “I said [to George], ‘What if we did a whole bunch of things of varying lengths— some would be almost like comedy blackouts, only scary, little set-pieces, and some longer ones.’”9

Romero loved the notion and considered mixing film styles: color, black & white, super widescreen, even 3-D. Eventually, they came down to Earth and settled on an EC comic format,

12

INTRODUCTION

[8] May 23, 2016, MentalFloss.com: When Mr. Rogers Gave George Romero His First Paying Gig.

14

INTRODUCTION

as suggested by Romero, blending horror, gore, gallows humor, all seasoned with a satisfying dose of that ol’ comeuppance (audiences love to cheer the unmerciful demise of the bad guy… or girl).

“And because we had talked so much about comic books—EC comic books, particularly,” Romero explained while introducing the film for Cinemax’s 1998 airing, “Steve said, ‘Let’s do a format like that,’ and the next morning he came down to the hotel and said, ‘I’ve got the title—it’s called Creepshow!’”10

As his first-ever screenplay, King delivered “five tales of jolting horror,” each springing from the pages of a young boy’s comic book, much to the ire of his verbally abusive father. To wit: a vengeful patriarch returns from the grave; a reclusive yokel mishandles a strange meteorite; a collegiate thirst for knowledge unleashes a 200-year-old hunger for flesh; the acts of a jealous husband incite a watery retribution; and a germophobe mogul, consumed by his own power over others, will soon be consumed by what he despises most.

The five stories are faithfully presented in EC comic style, right down to the flipping comic pages and quick glimpses of cons and come-ons promising X-ray vision, massive muscles, and voodoo vengeance. The live-action stories are infused with deeply saturated colors, mood-setting frame masking, and in-camera background bursts—all that keeps you cheerfully confined within its pulp sensibility.

Creepshow had all the earmarks of a hit—a top writer, a renowned director, and plenty of big-name stars. It prompted big studio Warner Bros. to come crawling to Romero and King to secure a big-money distribution deal. They did, and Creepshow was a hit. Released nationally on November 12, 1982, the film grossed $5.8 million in its opening weekend, pushing First Blood off the No. 1 spot. It would go on to gross over $20 million during its theatrical run. In the following year, it would become a home

video favorite and go on to be hailed as a cult classic in the decades to come.

Creepshow effectively resurrected the anthology format, inspiring additional offshoots and adaptations. Romero’s co- produced Laurel Entertainment television series, Tales from the Darkside, arrived in 1983, a show that ran for four well-received seasons—90 episodes in total. It spawned a film treatment in 1990, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, directed by Creepshow alumni John Harrison. There was Creepshow 2 in 1987 and then Creepshow 3 in 2006. Then, appearing from within the weird world webin 2009, we got an experimental internet webisode ofCreepshow RAW, produced by HDFilms in association with Taurus Entertainment. And…well, by now it’s evident that thisis a healthy bloodline, still pumping and pulsating, which has led us to…

Shudder’s Creepshow!

The EC tradition continues, decades after its presumed demise. Apparently, those on that senate subcommittee didn’t stop anything; they served as pawns in their own game of deceit, deflection, and deplorable demagoguery—and those who partook in the perverted prosecution are now gone. Dust. Their names have long been forgotten, although we pay our proper respects by digging up some of those names, just the same. And the man they pasted up as their poster boy for persecution, William M. Gaines? Well, sadly, he’s gone, too, but his work is iconic. His show of spirit and determination, poured into every story and every issue of his wickedly entertaining comics, continues to inspire new generations of writers and filmmakers.

So, it seems nothing can put a stop to EC influence. Somewhere, even today, a kid is probably hunched over a horror comic, “poisoning” his little mind.

And, exactly, how is that a problem?

OPPOSITE: Step right up for your ticket to terror! Original 1-sheet art for Creepshow (1982). Art by Joann Daley.

THIS PAGE, LEFT: Of corpse! It’s still the most fun you’ll have being scared! Shudder’s Creepshow early mock comic cover.

seE, we alwayssaid horRor is goOd forya…but you already knewthat. now, let’s move on andmeEt a kid who never letbrain rot keEp him from thecreEpy things he’s loved--and I’lL bet you’re gonNalove him, toO!

[10] 1998, Cinemax airing of Creepshow and Dawn of the Dead in a Halloween double-bill.

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INTRODUCTION

CREEPSHOW COMIC ADVERTISEMENTS FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY.

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INTRODUCTION

CREEPSHOW COMIC ADVERTISEMENTS FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY.

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INTRODUCTION

ok, kids--let’s jump intothis jarRing journeyby meEting our owngruesome guarantorof ghoulish delights,greg nicotero.

hesays his strangeundertakings aredesigned to delivereverything thatmakes life worth…leaving!heh-heh

let’s crawlunder his skin, seEwhat makes him tick, anddiagnose what’s drivinghis peculiar pasSions.he’s not worRied--heinsists he’s…

The room is dark, save for a spot of light in the far corner. A boy is seated at a small desk—hunched over, obscuring the view of what he’s secretly doing. He reaches for the knife.

The edge of the No. 11 X-ACTO blade glints momentarily under the desk lamp, then the boy angles its surgically machined tip downward. It’s a delicate procedure. He steadies his hand, and then scrape-scrape-scrape.

The bottom half of the “3” is gone. Easy. He picks up the Flair pen, then carefully inks in the bottom half of a “2.” Perfect.