In 2006, Gemstone began producing a more durable series of hardback reprint collections designed by Michael Kronenberg. Similar to the
DC Archives and
Marvel Masterworks series, the
EC Archives superseded Cochran's original annotated
Complete EC Library (of black-and-white stories) by reprinting sequential compilations of EC titles in a full-color, hardback archival format with new annotations. On January 11, 2011, Cochran looked back on the project, noting the differences between his earlier
Complete EC Library and the later
EC Archives: Each book reprints six issues, for a total of 24 stories. The original coloring by EC's colorist
Marie Severin was used as a guide for
digital re-coloring by Jamison Services, a color separation company in
West Plains, Missouri, the hometown of publisher Cochran. Allen Jamison and Jamison Services had previously done coloring for the
DC Archives. Also contributing to the project at Cochran's West Plains office were operations manager Angela Meyer and production artist Chris Rock. Crediting Kronenberg as "Art Director/Designer and Color Editor" and Marie Severin for "Colors", Cochran explained the digital upgrade given to Severin's coloring; "Most of the original coloring of these stories is the work of EC colorist Marie Severin, and although all of these stories have been re-colored for this new edition, her style of coloring was followed to retain the integrity of the original EC comic books". He later added: Along with the original EC advertisements, editorials and letters pages, the books also feature an introduction by Grant Geissman and forewords by
John Carpenter,
Joe Dante,
Paul Levitz,
George Lucas,
Steven Spielberg,
R. L. Stine, Jerry Weist and others. The entirety of the
New Trend and
New Direction comics are planned for eventual release.
The EC Archives publishing history has been a troubled one. The original run was interrupted after 13 volumes, due to financial difficulties at Gemstone Publishing, in 2008. The line was revived for two more volumes by GC Press LLC, a boutique imprint established by Russ Cochran and
Grant Geissman, in 2011 (both volumes carry 2011 copyrights, the year of their printing, though due to the vagaries of distribution, they were not released until January 2012). Most recently, the line has been taken up by
Dark Horse Comics, who announced plans to resume it with the release of
Tales from the Crypt Volume 4 in October 2013. ==
EC Archives schedule==