Twisted Tales

Twisted Tales was a horror comics anthology published by Pacific Comics and, later, Eclipse Comics, in the early 1980s. The title was edited by Bruce Jones and April Campbell.

Publication history
Twisted Tales was published on a bi-monthly schedule by Pacific Comics from November 1982 to May 1984, running for eight issues. After Pacific went bankrupt, the titles were taken over by Eclipse. After publishing two further editions, Eclipse announced they wouldn't be continuing Twisted Tales or Jones and Campbell's fellow anthology Alien Worlds, instead replacing them with their own titles, with the sexual content reduced. The replacement for Twisted Tales was Tales of Terror; while Jones occasionally contributed to the new anthology it featured numerous other writers. In August 1986, Blackthorne Publishing released Twisted Tales 3-D #1 (#7 in their 3-D series), with reprints of stories taken from earlier issues; meanwhile Eclipse would publish The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones, reprinting various material.

The title was resurrected as a bi-annual prestige format ongoing by Jones under his Bruce Jones Associates packaging company, to be published once again through Eclipse. The deal also covered a similar format for Alien Worlds, Jones' superhero series Man of War and supernatural detective series Hand of Fate. However, only a single issue of the new Twisted Tales - featuring a cover by Dave Stevens - would appear, in November 1987.

Following Eclipse's bankruptcy in 1995, the company's assets were purchased by Todd McFarlane. Believing that the deal included the names of the Jones/Campbell anthologies, he teased a series called Todd McFarlane's Twisted Tales in the 1998 one-shot Total Eclipse; however, the comic would never appear. In January 2005, McFarlane announced that he was set to produce a half-hour anthology television series for Fox called Twisted Tales, based on the comic book.

Content
With three exceptions (William F. Nolan's "The Party" in Issue # 8, Dennis Etchison's "Wet Season" in Issue #9, and David Carren's "If She Dies" in issue #10, which was later adapted into an episode of the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone), all of the stories in the entire run of Twisted Tales were written by Jones, who had already worked as scripter for Warren Publishings Creepy and Eerie titles. As noted in his editorial in Issue #1, his chief inspiration was the bloody and ironically moralistic tales of the EC horror comics. His work in Twisted Tales, often utilizing twist endings, added huge dollops of graphic violence and sexuality to the EC formula, complete with copious female nudity. Several issues sported a "Recommended For Mature Readers" warning on the cover.

Front covers for the comic were by - among others - Richard Corben, John Bolton, and Bernie Wrightson. Interior artists included Corben, Bolton, Wrightson, Mike Ploog, Val Mayerik, Bill Wray, Tim Conrad, Alfredo Alcala, and Rick Geary, as well as one story written and illustrated by Jones himself.