Daddy Lost His Head and Other Stories

Daddy Lost His Head and Other Stories by Jack Kamen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Daddy Lost His Head and other stories is a collection of 25 EC comics tales illustrated by Jack Kamen.

Aside from a Ray Bradbury adaptation, all of the stories in this volume were written by Al Feldstein, workhouse of the EC writers. They run the usual EC gamut of cheating husbands, cheating wives, cheating business partners, ghouls, vampires, people being buried alive, and vengeance from beyond the grave.

Of all the tales in the collection, my favorite might be Horror in the School Room, the tale of a boy and his monster. Was the name Ezra popular in the 1950s? I swear every EC collection I've read so far features one Ezra. And a ghoul.

Since Jack Kamen is the artists, most of the stories feature women and kids. Kamen's art reminds me of Jazzy John Romita's in his prime, meaning that Kamen's art is about fifteen years ahead of the curve. It would look right at home in a late 1960s, early 1970s Marvel book. Kamen draws gorgeous women and wide-eyed kids equally well. His style is such that he could draw pretty much any genre with it.

Jack Davis' rotting corpses are light years head of Kamen's but Davis could draw the living shit out of a suburban scene. Even with his clean style, Kamen's use of blacks and perspective really sets the mood.

Daddy Lost His Head is the best collection of comic stories by the father of the inventor of the Segway I've ever read. 4 out of 5 stars.






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