Here’s some great news for EC comics fans, and in particular fans of our late, lamented EC Archives line. To give it some context, we have to go back bit. Forty-two years,in fact.

In 1971, Russ Cochran became a publisher with the publication of EC Portfolio One, a small collection of EC stories reproduced from the original artwork.  At that time, Russ was a professor and Chairman of the Physics Department at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. That first portfolio was followed by five more, plus an original artwork catalog called Graphic Gallery.

Three years later, Cochran resigned his tenured position at Drake in order to become a full-time publisher. He announced his plans to publish the entire EC comics line in a series of boxed sets called The EC Library (a project he eventually completed years later with Gemstone Publishing’s release of The EC Library’s Picto-Fiction edition). 

Over the years, he published specialty editions such as The Edgar Rice Burroughs Library Of Illustration, Star Wars by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, and other projects. And of course he started the full-color EC Archives series with us at Gemstone.

Now he’s continuing the EC Archives line as part of his new association with Dark Horse Comics, where he will package a series of books on comic art.

The first of these will be the next in the series of EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt – Volume 4, which is due to be release in October 2013. It will be followed by EC Archives: Vault of Horror – Volume 3, due out in January.

It will be followed by two large hardcover collections of Sunday pages from Gasoline Alley and Alley Oop, respectively, with each volume starting with the first Sunday page in the series and continuing in chronological order. 

Gasoline Alley: The Sundays – Volume One is scheduled to be released March 5, 2014, and for Alley Oop: The Sundays – Volume One is due May 7, 2014.

“I’ve been a fan, of Russ’s publications since my college days,” said Mike Richardson, President of Dark Horse “His reputation for quality is unchallenged and I am very excited to be teaming up with him to produce a series of great projects.”

EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt – Volume 4 includes work by Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels, George Evans, Reed Crandall, Bill Elder, and Bernie Krigstein from Tales from the Crypt #35-40.

EC Archives: Vault of Horror – Volume 3, due out January 29, 2014, features the work of Bill Gaines, Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Jerry De Fuccio, George Evans, Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, Joe Orlando and Marie Severin.