Shock SuspenStories #6

Credits:
Cover dated December 1952/January 1953
Cover by Wally Wood

"Dead Right!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Under Cover!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Not So Tough!" - Art by Joe Orlando/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Sugar 'N Spice 'N..." - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

This was my first issue of Shock SuspenStories that I ever read and is one of its stronger issues. Shock SuspenStories for the first half to two thirds of its run was a sort of EC Sampler, featuring a crime story in the lead off spot, a sci-fi story in the third story spot and a horror story in the final story spot. The second story of each issue was entitled a "Shock" SuspenStory and was usually used to tackle subjects such as racism, anti-semitism, corruption and other matters.

"Dead Right!" - A woman named Cathy occasionally meets with a fortune teller who successfully predicts that she will lose her job, then later find another one. The fortune teller predicts that Cathy will marry a man, who will subsequently come into a lot of money and die violently. Cathy is dissappointed to soon find out that the man the fortune teller is speaking of is a morbidly obese man named Charlie Marno who frequently comes to the restaurant she works at. Considering the fortune teller's prediction, Cathy agrees to go out with him, and eventually marry him. After a few months pass, Cathy wins a large sum of money by being the millionth customer at a local restaurant. Thinking that the fortune teller was wrong the entire time, Cathy tries to walk out on Charlie, telling him she never loved him and can't stand him, causing him to murder her. Charlie inherits Cathy's money then dies in the electric chair, fulfilling the fortune teller's prophecy. This is one of the stronger lead stories from Shock SuspenStories and one of my favorites. It also was adapted in a fairly strong episode of the television show, early in the show's run when the episodes were usually very faithful to the original stories.

"Under Cover!" - A newspaper reporter named Sam Roberts watches as a group of masked vigilantes whip a woman until she dies. When the leader of the group takes off his mask to check for sure, Sam is able to see his face and identify him. Sam is found by some of the vigilantees and flees, making his way to a hotel. He calls the FBI but the vigilantees quickly enter and start beating him up, demanding to know if he saw the grand master's face, which he refuses to say. Sam passes out. He later wakes up in the hospital with the FBI watching over him. Sam confirms to the agents that he can identify the grand master. At that moment the agents pull out guns and kill him, as it ends up they were the vigilantees, unmasked. This is a fairly good story, but is not as powerful as many of the so called "preachies" that frequently appeared in this slot in Shock SuspenStories. The masked vigilantees theme would return in issue 14's The Whipping.

"Not So Tough!" - This story takes place on a rocket ship heading through space, commanded by a man named Horace Bergman. Bergman is notoriously hard on his men and demotes his lieutenant/navigator , a man named Arden, when he gets them lost in space. The man who replaces Arden is unqualified for the job, but Bergman doesn't want to appear soft to his men by restoring Arden to his former role. The replacement is demoted himself then has a nervous breakdown as the ship starts to run out of oxygen. Bergman refuses to give him oxygen and use up any of their supply, so he dies. Arden starts screaming at him about it and is shot by Bergman as a result. The ship approaches a planet with oxygen, which they descend to in order to resupply their oxygen, however the gravity on the planet is very intense. Bergman becomes 'soft' literally as his body melts upon impact. Another pretty good story; a bit more telegraphed around building up to the ending than the other stories in the issue. I'm sure they thought of the ending first, then built the entire story around it. Shock SuspenStories' sci-fi stories were a mixed bag at times, but this was one of the better ones.

"Sugar 'N Spice 'N..." - A pair of children, Johnny and Margaret (Hansel and Gretel in German) play in front of an old woman's house that they are frightened of. They lose their ball in her yard and Johnny goes into get it and is scared off by her. The two children plan to play some pranks on her come Halloween, but the old woman has plans of her own. Johnny places an empty bottle filled with water in front of her door and rings the bell, hoping she'll open it and the water will spill all over the foyer. The old woman waits inside and ignores it however, doing so through additional tricks that they try in order to get her to open the door. When they're about to leave the old woman screams out as if she needs help. This convinces Johnny and Margaret to come inside, where they discover the entire house is made of candy. The old woman opens up a roaring oven and reveals that she is a witch, feeding the two to the oven. This is one of two takes that EC had on the Hansel & Gretel story, the other appearing in Haunt of Fear #23. That version, which was part of the Grim Fairy Tale was a lot more comedic in nature where this one did come off as a legitimately scary horror story as well as a bit more realistic in the modern setting. The story was narrated throughout by the old woman and she comes off as if she was one of the ghoulunatics at the end of the story.