This original EC cover proof for CRIME PATROL #12 is untrimmed with white borders all around and other than a few ripples in the paper, appears to be in FINE to VERY FINE condition. The colors are vibrant and sharp as it has been stored in the dark for the past 62 years. It is only printed on one side with the opposite side blank. It has been carefully stored for many years by the artist, Johnny Craig, and is now being offered to the public for the first time. These cover proofs offer the chance for a collector to have an EC comic cover image, totally intact and untrimmed. Frame it up in your EC den at home and know that you've got an EC collectible that few others have ever seen or will ever own.
According to BILL GAINES, during the 1940s to 1950s, EC usually had half-a-dozen cover proofs made of any given comic cover. These would be sent to the EC offices where GAINES and editor AL FELDSTEIN would look them over and make any corrections they felt necessary. In my 50 years of collecting ECs and all related memorabilia, I've only seen a few cover proofs turn up. These were saved by GEORGE EVANS, HARVEY KURTZMAN and JOHNNY CRAIG. The only HORROR cover proofs I've ever seen were saved by JOHNNY CRAIG and we only have a few of those available. Most of them were simply thrown out after they had served their purpose. As luck would have it, Johnny saved a few of these proofs, but only ones that represented covers he had created for EC. Our inventory of cover proofs is very limited. Once they are gone, that's it.
Many years ago I contacted Johnny Craig and arranged to do an interview with him in person about his career in comics. It was in 1968 when I visited him and his family at their home in Pennsylvania. Later on that interview appeared in the fanzine called SQUA TRONT. Shortly after that visit, I commissioned Johnny to do a Vault Keeper oil painting for me, which he beautifully executed and sent to me a few months later. That was the beginning of Johnny doing specialty pieces and cover recreations for EC fans who remembered and loved his comic work. Several years later I found out that Johnny, like most professional artists, was in the habit of working up several preliminary pencil drawings (some inked and some in color) before he would start the final painting on canvas. During the 1970s to 1980s Johnny turned out quite a few VAULT KEEPER and DRUSILLA paintings while working his regular job at Krone Art Service in Pennsylvania. He also worked on other horror-related works of art for fans, but held onto most of the preliminary renderings. A few were finally offered and sold to fans privately in the early 90s and most of these have remained buried in collections ever since. The good thing about these originals is that Johnny took the time to sign most of them many years ago when he was thinking of selling them. Besides this cover proof, I am also selling these original drawings by JOHNNY CRAIG on eBay each week at NO RESERVE. Many of these original drawings and cover proofs will be featured in a book that is now in works on the life and career of Johnny Craig.
Johnny Craig (1926-2001) was born in Pleasantville, New York and grew up in New York City. During his youth he was influenced by many artists, including Milton Caniff and Will Eisner. He broke into the comic’s business as an assistant working with Golden Age artist Harry Lambert and went on to become an Assistant Editor to Sheldon Mayer at All American Comics. After serving in the Merchant Marines and the U.S. Army during World War II, he joined up with the EC Educational Comics Company and was soon turning out covers and stories for CRIME PATROL, GUNFIGHTER, MOON GIRL and other titles. In 1950, when Bill Gaines introduced his "New Trend" series of crime and horror titles under the Entertaining Comics seal, Johnny wrote most of his own stories and contributed to CRIME SUSPENSTORIES, SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE HAUNT OF FEAR, THE VAULT OF HORROR and others. After the comic industry implosion of 1956, brought on by the earlier establishment of the Comics Code Association, John retired from comics and went to work for a leading commercial art studio in New York City. During the mid 1960s he free-lanced again in comics, providing mystery stories to the American Comics Group. For Marvel, he worked on IRONMAN and SUB-MARINER, and drew a BATMAN story for DC. During this period, Johnny did some of his best work for Jim Warren’s new CREEPY and EERIE comic-magazine titles. Beginning in the early 1970s, he free-lanced work to various magazines and in his spare time accepted commission work for pen and ink watercolors and oil paintings of The Vault Keeper. He also took on special assignments of painting EC cover recreations. Johnny Craig was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame on July 15, 2005.
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We accept PAYPAL. This cover proof is too large to fit into a Priority shipping envelope and will cost $8.00 to pack and ship properly. If you want something quicker than Priority Mail and don't mind paying for it, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I will combine shipping fees if you win other auctions of mine. Handling time will be three days or less, depending on when payment is made. All foreign orders will be shipped by U.S. First Class International mail. We have over 30 years of packing and shipping experience and have had very few problems getting orders shipped safely to customers.
