Before the Gladstone/Russ Cochran
reprints of all the classic EC pre-code
horror stuff, there were very few
chances to catch a glimpse of
what that amazing era in
comic publication was
all about...
One source, was the annual
Overstreet Price Guide, which
featured great insightful articles
along with two thick full-color
cover-art sections. Well, this
was more than enough to
spark the imaginations of
a couple of devout comic-
book Geeks like Erik & I.
This was also around the same
time that Alan Moore was busy
resurrecting the Swamp Thing
Mythos~ and Horror comics
were a hot commodity again.
So, anyhow, I spent the night
over @ Erik's house one Friday
night and we did some low-brow
humor stuff with Aliens & cows,
and also, during Late-Nite with
David Letterman, busted out
the One-Page Pin-up of a
loser Gravedigger whom
Erik later named Matt
Crenshaw. The idea
was pretty simple:
Wouldn't it suck
to be doing your
job when all of
a sudden Zombies
rose from the Grave ?
Later, Erik seized the potential
of this tragic, down-on-his-luck figure
and just ran with it, creating another
'Deal-With-The-Devil' concept, with
the unique twist, however, that
Matt was NOT intelligent, and
would be 'reborn' a thousand
times to suffer new, excruciating
ways to die, all, for breaking his
end of the bargain he made with
Satan. If the Devil & Matt Crenshaw
were a comedy team, the Devil would
be the straight man who gets more
laughs than Matt, the buffoon...
Long after Erik & I went separate ways
in life, I decided that Matt Crenshaw
needed a new lease on life and began
new, more detailed origin story. I
hope to finish it and post it here !
Though, I do not know when that
will be :~(
Price Guide that inspired us:
ps: this concept pre-dated the
film Groundhog Day by nearly
a decade. The idea was never
really a new one anyway, just,
hadn't been done in comics.
Now, people would say, "Oh~
it's like a Horror version of
Groundhog Day !" But, now
you know the secret truth.
Shhhhhhh.....
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