We know our would-be popstar is gonna get - and deserves to get - upended for his wicked ways; though when it happens, Jayson's comeuppance doesn't seem as entertainingly grotesque as anything the EC gang would've concocted at their best. If anything, its relative tameness seems more suited to the de-fanged "mystery" comics that the industry attempted to serve to readers after political opportunists and the new-formed Comics Code quashed EC and its imitators. Granted, Papercutz' primary audience is in the pre- and early teen age (as was, of course, the original EC audience), but even primetime TV has more horrific imagery than anything we're served here.

Too, the twenty-plus-page story reads pretty bloated in comparison to the old Tales, which typically clocked six to eight pages. Though the pulpish writing style that writer/editor Feldstein and his later free-lancers used was profoundly text-heavy, it still moved more quickly than "Murderin' Idol." It's not as if the extra pages of story enhance our understanding of the character because Jayson remains a one-note villain throughout. Like the too-long features which pass for movie comedies these days - or your average overblown AmIdol pop performance, come to think of it - the keepers of the new Crypt don't seem to recognize when too much is not enough.