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'TALES FROM THE CRYPT' GETS A SARAH PALIN COVER
The cult horror comic goes political with a VP candidate who's out for blood on a new cover
By Rachel Molino
Posted 10/3/2008
It's been more than challenging to escape this year's presidential election while trying to enjoy any of your favorite entertainment in any medium. Publishing news site ICV2.com may have said it best regarding the world of comics: "Can anyone remember an election year in which presidential politics intruded any more obviously into the insular world of comic books than it has in 2008?"
In this day in age (or is it a phase?), where comics so often aim to encapsulate ultra-reality in their general ambiance, the presidential election is a perfect thematic fit, not to mention a convenient forum.
There are non-partisan examples—like IDW's John McCain and Barak Obama biographical issues—and there are frank endorsements—like Erik Larsen's Obama-backing Savage Dragon.
Tales From the Crypt's issue #8, shipping later this month, is a slightly more complex (if not obvious) example, depicting Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin wielding a hockey stick at EC Comics' iconic horror narrators the Crypt Keeper, the Old Witch and the Vault-Keeper, while she asks: "Didn't we get rid of you guys in the 1950s?" It’s a sentiment regarding Palin that's expanded on in an interior editorial by Cathy Gaines Mifsud, the daughter of William Gaines—original publisher of EC Comics and Mad Magazine. In the editorial Mifsud links the issue's cover to queries Governor Palin made to a librarian while the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, regarding the possibility of removing controversial books from the public library (no books were actually removed from the library).
Mifsud writes: "Tales from the Crypt is not endorsing any political candidates...nor are we attacking any candidates, but Tales does care about freedom and censorship."
It's undoubtedly a sensitive issue for Mifsud, whose father was forced to quit publishing EC titles because of a wave of censorship during the 1950's (expanded on in David Hajou's "The Ten-Cent Plague"). While she may maintain the book's non-partisan stance, there's nothing cryptic about it's attitude. Choosing Palin's image to express the point may be controversial, but will most likely draw more eyes to the issue, boosting sales for the perpetually cultish comic.
