Came the Dawn and Other Stories

Came the Dawn and Other Stories by Wallace Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Came the Dawn and Other Stories is a black and white collection of all of Wally Wood's crime and horror stories from EC Comics.

My teaser sums it up pretty well. Came the Dawn presents Wood's crime and horror works in chronological order in stark black and white. While I prefer Wood's science fiction work for EC, it's damn good.

It's interesting watching Wood improve as an artist as the collection rolls forward. The stories all have the trademark EC "bite you in the ass" ending. Some of the stories, particularly the early ones, are only average. The title story is one of the standouts, the tale of a man arriving at his woodland cabin to find the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. But there's also reports of a woman having escaped from an insane asylum nearby...

Some of the stories are a product of their time, with the women being femme fatale liars, but there are a handful of progressive tales that still have an impact today. Bill Gaines wasn't shy about pointing out the evils of racism and ignorance. Anyone who says the comics of yesteryear weren't political needs to read this collection.

I've seen some people put off by the black and white artwork but I think stripping away the color shows how good Wally Wood's artwork was. He was as at home drawing rotting corpses as he was buxom women. His use of perspective was great and he also drew some realistic looking '50s cars. Basically, the man could do it all and did a lot of it in this volume.

Fantagraphics did a great job with this so I'll be seeking out the rest of their EC reprints. Came the Dawn is an easy four star book.

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