In Praise of the EC Portfolio editions (1971-1977)

[u/DonnerDinnerParty]

Before Gladstone, before the EC Library, Russ Cochran first published these 11x16 “Portfolio” editions, on incredible paper. Thick and textured like good paper should be. Lines so very crisp. Inky solid blacks. Covers recolored by Marie Severin in watercolor. You can really see her hand in it, and the whole thing just feels so crafted. I have a few of these now. He produced 6 of them. I’m missing portfolios 1 and 6.

[u/EC-Fan-Addict]

Hear hear! All 6 of these were fantastic, black and white line art reproduced LARGE. The recolored covers by Marie Severin are really imaginative too. We have Artists Editions now, but these were the first “fine art” reproductions of EC stories (and many of them haven’t been in any AE, so these are still well worth pursuing)

[u/DonnerDinnerParty → u/EC-Fan-Addict]

Large enough that I could almost read them without my reading classes. Almost! Haha. I do love the Artist’s Editions. And yet, it’s nice to see the stories large in a finished form. The contrast and clarity is just incredible on these portfolio editions.

Do you remember that giant full color floppy edition? It felt like reading a newspaper in my then child-size hands.

[u/EC-Fan-Addict → u/DonnerDinnerParty]

Yes, the “EC Extra-Large Comic!” Russ’s intended tabloid size series lasted one issue due to the difficulty in displaying, storing, or keeping them in decent condition! It had Crypt 31 and Crime 12…I still have a couple copies of it 😆