Graham Ingels (June 7, 1915April 4, 1991) was a comic book and magazine illustrator best known for his work at the
EC ComicsEntertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, most notably the Tales from the Crypt series, until censorship...
company during the 1950s, notably on
The Haunt of FearThe Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror are three bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The Haunt of Fear hit newsstands with its May/June 1950 issue and ceased publication with its November/December 1954 issue, producing a total...
and
Tales from the CryptTales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror are three bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s...
, horror titles written and edited by
Al FeldsteinAlbert B. Feldstein is an American painter of Western wildlife and an influential author-editor who wrote, drew and edited for EC Comics, followed by a lengthy career as the editor of Mad...
, and
The Vault of HorrorThe Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, and The Haunt of Fear are three bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The Vault of Horror hit newsstands with its April/May 1950 issue and ceased publication with its December/January 1955 issue, producing a...
, written and edited by Feldstein and
Johnny CraigJohn T. "Johnny" Craig , a.k.a. Jay Taycee and F.C. Aljohn, was an American comic book artist best known for his work with the influential EC Comics line of the 1950s. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2005.-Biography:Johnny Craig studied at the Art Students League of New York...
. Ingels' flair for horror led EC to promote him as
Ghastly Graham Ingels, and he began signing his work
Ghastly in 1952.
Pulp illustrator
With the death of his father, Ingels began working at the age of 14, entering the art field when he was 16. Graham and Gertrude Ingels married when he was just beginning as a freelancer at age 20. He entered the Navy in 1943, doing illustrations in the post-WWII years for
Fiction HouseFiction House is an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.-Jumbo and Jack Kirby:Publisher...
,
Magazine EnterprisesMagazine Enterprises was an American comic book company lasting from 1943 to 1958, which published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and children's comics, with virtually no superheroes...
and other publishers of comic books and pulp magazines. The Ingels had two children, Deanna (born 1937) and Robby (born 1946), who was named after a character created by child impersonator Lenore Ledoux for the
Baby SnooksThe Baby Snooks Show was an American radio program starring comedienne and Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series began on CBS September 17, 1944, airing on Sunday evenings...
radio program. Artist
Howard NostrandHoward Nostrand was an American cartoonist and illustrator.His most notable work was done in the 1950s, working on Harvey titles such as Flip, Witches Tales and Tomb of Terror. With partner Ed Herron, he produced the newspaper comic strip Bat Masterson , on which he was assisted by Neal Adams...
, a friend of Ingels, recalled:
- Robby, his son, was about 12 then... skinny little twirp when I knew him. He's probably flying a jet airplane now or something. That's what always happens with little kids, you know. Robby was short for Robespierre. The reason why they called him that was left over from the old Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances but is best remembered as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...
show, Baby SnooksThe Baby Snooks Show was an American radio program starring comedienne and Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series began on CBS September 17, 1944, airing on Sunday evenings...
. Baby Snooks had a little kid brother named Robespierre. They called him that when he was a little kid, and the name stuck.
EC Comics
In 1948, Ingels began at EC, illustrating Western and romance stories. In
Grant GeissmanGrant Geissman is a crossover jazz, contemporary jazz and new age guitarist and an Emmy-nominated composer for network TV series and TV movies. An in-demand studio musician, he has recorded extensively for several labels since 1976, and he can be heard playing guitar on the theme for Monk and...
's book
Foul Play, Feldstein explained that Ingels' early work for EC was disappointing, but publisher Bill Gaines was fiercely loyal to everybody, which is why he remained at the company.
When E.C. introduced
Tales from the Crypt,
The Vault of Horror and
The Haunt of Fear, it soon became apparent to Gaines that Ingels was an ideal choice as an illustrator of horror.
Ingels' unique and expressive style was well-suited for the atmospheric depiction of Gothic horrors amid crumbling Victorian mansions in hellish landscapes populated by twisted characters, grotesque creatures and living corpses with rotting flesh. A trademark image was a character with a thread of saliva visible in a horrified open mouth.
As the lead artist for
The Haunt of Fear, he brought to life the Old Witch, host of "The Witch's Cauldron" lead story, and he also did the cover for each issue from issue 11 through 28. A prolific artist, Ingels also drew the Old Witch's appearances in
Tales from the Crypt and
The Vault of Horror, plus stories for
Shock SuspenStoriesShock SuspenStories was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The bi-monthly comic, published by Bill Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein, began with issue 1 in February/March 1952...
and
Crime SuspenStoriesCrime SuspenStories was a bi-monthly, anthology crime comic published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The title hit newsstands with its October/November 1950 issue and ceased publication with its February/March 1955 issue, producing a total of 27 issues...
. Because of the many "Witch's Cauldron" stories he drew, he was strongly identified with the character of the Old Witch, an association that continues until the present day.
After EC cancelled its horror and crime comics, Ingels contributed art to the New Direction Titles
PiracyPiracy is an EC Comics title published in the early 1950s. The bi-monthly comic book, published by Bill Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein, began with an issue cover-dated October-November, 1954. It ran for seven issues, ending with the October-November, 1955 issue.Front covers were by Wally Wood,...
,
M.D.,
Impact and
Valor. He also later contributed to EC's short lived Picto-Fiction line.
After EC ceased publication in the mid-1950s, Ingels contributed to
Classics IllustratedClassics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues...
but found little work in comics due to his notable connection with EC's horror comics, as discussed by Nostrand in
Foul Play: "He was kind of a sad case, because when the horror stuff went out, Graham went out with it. His forte was strictly doing horror comics and there weren't any more horror comics being done".
Ingels took a teaching position with the
Famous ArtistsFamous Artists School has offered correspondence courses in art since it was founded in 1948 in Westport, Connecticut, U.S.A. The idea was conceived by Albert Dorne as a result of a conversation with Norman Rockwell...
correspondence school located in Westport, Connecticut. He later left the Northeast and became an art instructor in Florida, refusing to acknowledge his work in horror comics until a few years before he died.
External links