This Monday, October 24, the Cobb Public Library‘s virtual Graphic Novel Book Club will get into the Halloween spirit by discussing selections from the pioneering horror comic, EC’s Vault of Horror.
The collection we’ll be discussing is Vault of Horror: Volume 1. It can be found on Overdrive at https://cobbcounty.overdrive.com/media/5883877.
Don’t worry if you don’t have time to read the whole collection before the meeting. These are short standalone stories, and reading one or two of them will give you enough to participate in the discussion.
The book club meets the fourth Monday of each month via Google Meet from 6 – 7 p.m.
Registration isn’t required, but if you sign-up at https://forms.gle/7G5zMx9rtwkj2fQd6, you’ll get reminders before each meeting. Anyone may come to the virtual meeting by clicking the link here.
About EC Comics and the Vault of Horror
Vault of Horror, which began publication in 1950, was one of the titles from EC Comics, whose most long-lasting and well-known work was Mad Magazine.
In addition to Vault of Horror, the other well-known horror comic from EC was Tales from the Crypt. Anthology movies and an HBO series were made using selected stories from each of those comics.
EC also published a third, less well known horror series, called Haunt of Fear.
The stories in the three series were introduced by the Crypt-Keeper, the Vault-Keeper and the Old Witch.
The stories featured gruesome artwork and clever plot twists.
The significant work in horror and science fiction comics done by EC spanned the years from when William Gaines took over the company in 1947 after the death of his father, to 1956, after the censorship by the Comics Code Authority prevented EC from the distribution channels necessary to make its horror comics line profitable. At that point EC focused its efforts on Mad Magazine.
EC comics were notable for being on the cutting edge of political topics for the 1950s, including antiracist and antiwar themes, more than ten years before mainstream comic publishers Marvel and DC were willing to tackle social justice and political story lines.
About the Cobb County Public Library
According to the Cobb County Public Library website:
“Cobb County Public Library is a 15-branch system headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, where its staff members serve a diverse population of over 750,000 people.
“Cobb is one of Georgia’s fastest-growing counties, and Cobb County Public Library is dedicated to being a resource center in the community by providing equal access to information, materials, and services.”
History of Cobb’s library system
The first public library in Cobb County was opened in the home of Sarah Freeman Clarke in Marietta. The first standalone library building, opened on Church Street in 1893 and was named for Clarke.
Libraries were opened in Acworth and Austell in subsequent years, and in 1959, the city of Marietta and several other Cobb County libraries combined to form a countywide system that began the Cobb County Public Library as we know it today.
You can read more about the history of the Cobb County Public Library by following this link.
