Saturday, October 19, 2019

Master Race and Other Stories

Master Race and Other StoriesMaster Race and Other Stories by Bernard Krigstein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Master Race and Other Stories collects all 32 EC Comics tales illustrated by Bernard Krigstein.

I've slowly been chewing my way through the Fantagraphics EC Library. I had some Amazon points to burn and snapped this up. It was a winner on every level.

The stories, written by Al Feldstein, Carl Wessler, Johnny Craig, Otto Binder, Jack Olek, and Ray Bradbury, fall into all the classic EC genres. There are horror, science fiction, crime, and war stories. There are no romance stories but Krigstein wasn't with EC all that long before they folded. As usual, the stories are hit or miss, leaning more toward hits, although the war stories weren't really my cup of tea.

Master Race, the title story, had the most impact, but stories like Slave Ship and Pipe Dream will stick with me for a long time, both due to the subject matter and to the way Krigstein put it to the page.

Like Alex Toth, the Krigmeister altered his style to match the subject matter and tone of his stories, making this collection a visual feast. Krigstein used shading and crosshatching much more than other EC artists, making me think black and white is the best way to look at his work. I could see lots of detail being overshadowed when color was added. Some of the stories are drawn in a minimalist style, others have a more photo-realistic look.

While his output wasn't much compared to some of the other EC Artists, Bernard Krigstein was one of the best. 4.5 out of 5 stars.


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