Yabba Dabba Voodoo (Tales from the Crypt Series #5) Book

*2.5 stars, only because the stories are more than "just okay" for sick, twisted individuals like me, but the writing in general was simply too atrocious at points to earn a solid 3. Some of it was so bad it was good, which probably bumped up the score a little as well.

I recently snagged this on a whim (along with volumes 6 and 7) from Black Cat Comics in SLC. The wife and I had been in there a week or so prior, but all we did was mess up the shelves before leaving empty handed, so I felt kinda obligated to actually BUY something this time around...

Having such fond memories of EC's vintage Vault of Horror (not to mention the TV series it spawned), I was probably expecting a bit more from this quick little half-hour read, so either my tastes have matured over the years, or it's just plain harder to shock these days. Most likely, it's a combination of the two.

Honestly, I think that part of me supports this kinda stuff just to spite the pricks behind 1953's Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. As if the fucking McCarthy hearings weren't bad enough!

"Yabba Dabba Vodoo" doesn't contain a single Flintstones reference outside its subtitle, but it does open with "Ignoble Rot", a fairly decent revenge piece involving the stereotypical (if effective) misrepresentation of the religion known in Haiti as Voudon. I also really enjoyed the humor and twist ending of "Glass Heads", which closes the collection. Open strong and close strong, I always say, but it's nice to have a little more substance in between as well...

For what it's worth, I am looking forward to reading/reviewing the other two volumes currently in my possession - makes a nice break from some of the higher brow shit I tend to read.