The High Cost Of Dying And Other Stories (The EC Comics Library, 15)

Reed Crandall's mastery of fine line detail and expertly nuanced pen-and-ink texture is a perfect fit for EC Comics. This collection of 21 Crandall favorites, delineated in his classically illustrative style, includes “The Silent Towns,†a Ray Bradbury story about the last man and woman on Mars; “Carrion Death,†a stark horror story about a man struggling through the desert with a corpse handcuffed to his wrist as the vultures circle closer; “Sweetie-Pie,†the grisly story of a ghoul who sets up a roadside hazard to procure, um, fresh meat; “The Kidnapper,†about a man who decides to kidnap a baby to replace the baby that had been stolen from him and his wife; “Space Suitors,†a science fiction love triangle that leads to jealously, betrayal, and murder, and “The High Cost of Dying,†the title story, in which a man must make an awful choice between burying his wife and feeding his children …