Graham Ingels

Graham Ingels art in The Haunt of Fear

Graham Ingels (June 7, 1915 – April 4, 1991) was a comic book and magazine illustrator best known for his work in EC Comics during the 1950s, notably on The Haunt of Fear and Tales from the Crypt, horror titles written and edited by Al Feldstein, and The Vault of Horror, written and edited by Feldstein and Johnny Craig. Ingels' flair for horror led EC to promote him as Ghastly Graham Ingels, and he began signing his work Ghastly in 1952.

Pulp illustrator

Ingels began working at the age of 14 after the death of his father, and entered 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, and began working that same year for Fiction House Publications, both in their pulp magazines and their comic book division. Black and white illustrations signed G. Ingels appeared in Planet Stories, Jungle Stories, North-West Romances and Wings. He contributed one painted cover to a 1944 issue of Planet Stories as well. Illustrating color stories featuring Hunt Bowman, The Lost World or Sea Devils.

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 Snooks radio program. Artist Howard Nostrand, a friend of Ingels, recalled:

Robby was short for Robespierre. The reason why they called him that was left over from the old Fanny Brice show, Baby Snooks. Baby Snooks had a little kid brother named Robespierre. They called him that when he was a little kid, and the name stuck.^[1]

Ingels was a regular in Planet Comics and Rangers Comics in the mid and late 1940s, and worked for Magazine Enterprises and other publishers of comic books and pulp magazines. He became an art director at Better Publications (Ned Pine's Comics Group later known as Nedor), where he gave early comic book assignments to George Evans, with whom he would form a long friendship, and a young Frank Frazetta, who credited Ingels as the first one in the business to recognize his talent. During this period, Ingels drew a few memorable covers and stories for the company's Startling Comics and Wonder Comics, but these and other BP comics show faces and other parts of stories by less talented artists have been redrawn by Ingels.

Ingels drew crime comics for Magazine Enterprises (Manhunt, Killers) and Westerns for a variety of companies, including ME (Guns), Youthful Magazines (Gunsmoke), Hillman Periodicals (Western Fighters) and D.S. Publishing Co. (Outlaws). D.S. also published some crime stories drawn by Ingels in their titles Underworld, Gangsters Can't Win and Exposed. There were also short stories and one painted cover by Ingels in Dell Comics' Heroic Comics around 1947.

EC Comics

In 1948, Ingels was hired by Al Feldstein, the editor of EC Comics, to provide artwork for their titles which included Gunfighter, Saddle Justice, Saddle Romances, War Against Crime, Modern Love and A Moon, A Girl... Romance. The company's Western and romance comics would later be canceled or converted to horror and science-fiction titles. In Grant Geissman'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 Ingels remained at the company.^[2] When EC 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.^[2]

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.

Graham Ingels' most famous character, the Old Witch, host of "The Witch's Cauldron" lead stories in The Haunt of Fear.

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 SuspenStories and Crime SuspenStories.

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. Ingels' artwork on the eight page lead stories, and his splash pages particularly on issues #14 and 17, set a new standard for horror illustration that have rarely if ever been equaled since. "Poetic Justice" in the twelfth issue, was adapted for the 1972 Tales From the Crypt film from Amicus studios in England, which starred Peter Cushing as the kindly old junk collector. The Ingels drawn "Wish You Were Here" from Haunt #22 was also adapted. "Horror We? How's Bayou?" in issue #17 is considered by many E.C.'s best drawn horror story ever, and perhaps the best by anyone in any era. The homicidal maniac's creepy visage was taken from an old movie still of the 1920 silent film of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring John Barrymore. The story artwork won an award as best E.C. horror art at the 1972 E.C. Fan-Addict Convention.

After EC cancelled its horror and crime comics, Ingels contributed art to the New Direction titles Piracy, 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 Illustrated 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".^[3]

Ingels took a teaching position with the Famous Artists 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.

Tributes

In 2004, the webcomic Is This Tomorrow? featured Ingels in its series of comic book trading cards.

References

1. ^ Stewart, Bhob. "Howard Nostrand Interview," Graphic Story Magazine, Summer 1974.
2. ^ ^{a b} Foul Play. Harper Collins. 2005. p. 93. 
3. ^ Foul Play. Harper Collins. 2005. p. 96. 

External links

• Is This Tomorrow?
• Toonopedia: Tales from the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear

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Name	Ingels, Graham
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Date of birth	1915
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Date of death	1991
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