This softcover edition is likely to be the definitive collection of this Atomic Age master's comic book work.  Krigstein was fully conversant in multiple genres and this volume contains a full complement of his best stories.   Many were previously issued in the now out of print 2004 Fantagraphics hardcover, B. Krigstein Comics. Messages includes additional stories, most notably his most famous work, the EC classic, "Master Race", fromImpact #1.  All the artwork has been cleaned up, remastered for truer color reproduction and looks great as a result.  The work on dislay here has exerted – and continues to exert – a tremendous influence on the development of the comics form and language.  Comics apprentices and novices, along with aficionados and conoisseurs, take note.

Finally, B. Krigstein gets the Fantagraphics EC auteur treatment.  This hardcover collection presents his most significant work for EC, including the masterful and immensely influential title story; all in black and white.

The latest oversize, full color, hardcover volume in the Atlas Comics Library being published by Fantagraphics collects ten complete issues from the early 1950s:  Amazing Detective Cases #11-14 and Men’s Adventures #21-26.  These comics offer up a potent mix of crime and horror and are chock full of what-goes-around-comes-around karmic payback tales in the grand EC tradition.  

Fanta sez: 

"The Eerie Escape" by B. Krigstein, "The Torture Master!" by Russ Heath, The Drowning Witch" by Reed Crandall and "The 3rd Corpse" by Bill Everett. Stories by Gene Colan, John Romita, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Jim Mooney, Paul Reinman and George Tuska, all of whom remained through the shift to Marvel Comics, additionally fill out these issues, along with Atlas regulars Fred Kida, Mort Lawrence, Mike Sekowsky and Myron Fass. Notably included is the first appearance of "Gorilla Man" by Robert Q. Sale, a character brought back in Marvel's contemporary Agents of Atlas series, and part of their ongoing continuity.