Shock Illustrated #2

Credits:
Cover dated Winter 1955
Cover by Ruddy Nappi

"The Lipstick Killer" - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Daniel Keyes (credited as A.D. Locke)
"My Brother's Keeper" - Art by George Evans/Story by Jack Oleck
"A Question of Time" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein
"Dead Right" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein (credited as Alfred E Neuman)

Shock Illustrated was one of EC's picto-fiction magazines, which were created after the failure of EC's New Direction line. They featured prose stories, with art from EC's regulars. Unfortunately they were not a commercial success and were soon cancelled. With EC's artists not confined to the small size of a comic book panel for their art, the artwork in these issues is some of the best that EC ever published. In addition, some of the issues featured painted covers, the only such ones done for EC. Rudy Nappi's one for this issue is quite a strong one. In regards to Shock Illustrated in particular, it was the first of the picto-fiction magazines, and began very similar in fashion to the Psychoanalysis comic. Starting with the second issue, it became more like Shock SuspenStories the comic, with the occasional psychiatrist-centric story included, such as the opening story in this issue.

"The Lipstick Killer" - A young man named Lennie has killed a woman in her apartment after she caught him going through his dresser drawers, looking for her makeup and lipstick. Lennie regrets his actions and writes on the mirror in her lipstick. Lennie is caught by the police when he escapes and put on trial, where he is called a sex maniac and is disowned by his parents, who tell him he was adopted. In prison, Lennie meets the prison psychiatrist who goes into his psyche and how he would go through other people's things as a child. He recalls his time at the orphanage, and the nurse who he was very fond of until she caught him in her room and was mean to him afterwards. When Lennie attacks the psychiatrist, he is put into solitary confinement which causes him to go crazy. The psychiatrist meets with him one last time and discovers that the beginning of everything was from when he accidently killed his baby sibling with a pair of scissors, mistakening it for a doll. A sort of holdover from the psychiatrist-themed stories that were prevelant in the first issue. Things drag on for a bit midway through, but the story does have an interesting and surprising ending.

"My Brother's Keeper" - This story features a family that lives on a farm away from town, with two adult sons, Walt and Larry. Larry is large in size, but mentally handicapped, and Walt is fiercely protective of him. When they go into town for groceries, the local kids often make fun of Larry and Walt fights them off. Walt is extremely close to Larry and in addition to bringing him into town every once and a while also plays with him in the local graveyard. The locals from town soon come to talk to Walt and Larry's parents about taking away their son to an institution. This greatly upsets Walt who screams at them and threatens them with a pitch fork. Walt soon realizes that even his parents are on the side of the townfolk and greatly fears what will happen to Larry. Another incident soon happens in the town with Walt and Larry, and they flee to the graveyard. There, Walt realizes that Larry will be taken away for sure this time. He decides it would be best if Larry was saved from this fate through death. Walt bashes Larry's head in with a broken gravestone then buries his body. Upon returning home he finds the townfolk there already and is gleeful that they won't be able to do anything to Larry. But it is Walt himself who is taken away and thrown in the institution. It was always him they were after, due to how violent he would get whenever he felt Larry was threatened. The story ends with Walt screaming maniacally in his padded cell. In my eyes this is arguably the single best EC story of all time. An amazing twist ending and tragic story, with Walt killing the one person who was most important to him. It takes some obvious inspirations from the famous book "Of Mice and Men", and there is an obvious nod to the book with the name of Larry (the name and character inspired by "Lennie" from that book). Apparantely Oleck did other versions of this story that appeared in competitor comics like Black Magic, although I've never been able to come across one of the other tellings. George Evans also turns in some strong artwork.

"A Question of Time" - The local sheriff finds a woman named Lila dead. He goes to see her husband Harry, figuring that he did it. The entire town knew about Lila fooling around with other men, but nobody told him about it. They all assumed he'd find out someday and do something about it. Harry refuses to confess, and the sheriff leaves. Later, Lila, who is still alive comes home, and knowing the truth, he kills her. This story is simply a retelling of the story of the same name from Crime SuspenStories #13. A so-so and confusing at times story, and it would have been good if they could have chosen another story to redo.

"Dead Right" - An older man named Carl is good friends with a man named Joseph who they knew from when they were in medical school together. Both bachelors, the two frequently keep themselves company and are the beneficiaries in each other's wills. The two argue over what happens at death, with Joseph thinking that a person's senses still work while Carl disagrees. One night Joseph tells Carl that he has had some money troubles and has poisoned him. Carl collapses, dead, but still has all the senses he would as if he was still alive. He lays there, unable to do a thing as Joseph closes his eyes then proceeds to have his body taken away, embalmed and buried. It is at that moment that Joseph opens up the coffin and admits to Carl that it was all a gag; he didn't poison him but gave him something that would temporarily paralyze him so as to get him to consider his theory. But Carl doesn't come back to consciousness, as he had died for real at the moment Joseph told him that he poisoned him. A fairly good story, that is a retelling of a story done in Tales from the Crypt #37. Unlike the previous story, this one was drawn by a different artist, Graham Ingels (Jack Davis had done the original story). The original version of the story had been adapted in the Tales from the Crypt TV series.

Two-Fisted Tales #41

Credits:
Cover dated February/March 1955
Cover by Jack Davis

"Code of Honor!" - Art by John Severin/Story by John Severin
"Mau Mau!" - Art by Bernie Krigstein/Story by ???
"Carl Akeley!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Jerry De Fuccio
"Yellow!" - Art by George Evans/Art by George Evans

Today I cover the final issue of Two-Fisted Tales. By this point in the comic's run, it had gone through another stylistic change and featured a variety of war, historical and adventure-type stories. It was a more interesting style than the John Severin/Colin Dawkins heavy presence that dominated the comic for the previous year. Unfortunately sales were not good and it ended up being the final issue.

"Code of Honor!" - A man named Stephen Graves Ashley is a deadly marksman. He is frequently in duels, for which he has never lost. This is largely because he takes offense at the most minor things and forces people to face him on in a duel. When a man named Benton calls Ashley a murderer, he challenges him to a duel. Ashley easily kills him in the duel, as well as another man who tried to convince Ashley to call off the duel and got called into a duel himself. Ashley later travels to Louisiana and encounters a Frenchman at a dance named Jean Le Poer whom he also challenges to a duel after he tries to step in during a dance with a young woman. Being in the New Orleans area, Ashley soon realizes that he will have to duel with swords instead of a gun. Ashley's cousin warns him about dueling Le Poer, which he ignores. Ashley quickly loses his duel to Le Poer and is killed, not knowing that he is the deadliest swordsman in France. A fairly interesting story to start the issue with a lead character who is easy to dislike. It is good to see him get the comeuppance in the end.

"Mau Mau!" - A pair of white men, McBan and Quantock are in Kenya, working on the filming of a movie. They recruit a member of the local Mau Mau tribe, Limuru, who acts as a consultant for them, and immediately pays dividends by killing a Mau Mau terrorist who approaches them. In the camp, they soon meet another Mau Mau tribesman, Hinga, who repairs their power generator for them. Limuru warns McBan and Quantock about Hinga, who he say swill do evil things. When one of the men is killed by a beast, Limuru tells McBan and Quantock that it was actually a Mau Mau ritual murder, and he blames Hinga. Hinga soon escapes. Limuru is used in a scene to play a Mau Mau oath giver, but when he does so, he riles up the Mau Mau tribesman for real, and they attack.  They are saved by the local military, which incidentally is led by Hinga. A so-so art job from Krigstein, and probably the weakest story of the issue, although its not bad.

"Carl Akeley!" - This story is a historical telling of certain events in the life of Carl Akeley. It starts with his childhood, and then moves into his time as a skilled explorer in Africa. During one incident he is charged upon by an elephant and slammed into the ground. He surprisingly survives despite his major injuries. During another expedition he is attacked by a leopard and manages to fight it off with his bare hands. The story ends revealing that his ultimate fate was dying due to a mosquito bite. Two-Fisted Tales featured a number of tales covering particular people from a historical perspective, and this story was similar in vein, but rather than focus on a particular major war figure, it featured an explorer. An interesting take, with some good art from Wood.

"Yellow!" - This story features a pair of plane pilots during World War I, Stone and Curry. Stone is consistently nervous while in flight and becomes a bit obsessed with outdoing Curry. This is particularly the case after Stone makes a call out of someone being yellow after the death of a fellow pilot. Stone becomes obsessed with matching and beating Stone. He soon surpasses Curry in kills, despite how frightened he is and then helps save Curry in battle. Afterwards when Curry thanks him, Stone says that his call out of him caused him to focus so heavily. It is then that Curry reveals that it wasn't Stone he was calling yellow, but himself. One of the better George Evans World War I plane stories, with some characters and a storyline more interesting than the typical historical fare.

Shock SuspenStories #15

Credits:
Cover dated May 1954
Cover by Jack Kamen

"Raw Deal" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Otto Binder
"The Confidant" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Jack Oleck
"For Cryin' Out Loud!" - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Otto Binder
"Well Trained" - Art by George Evans/Story by Carl Wessler

"Raw Deal" - A hospital patient, the sole survivor of a plane that crashed in the Pacific Ocean repeatedly screams out "I hate her!". A couple of doctors try to figure out what is going on with him and by giving him certain medication are able to get him to behave in a normal fashion. They soon find that he is referring to his wife, making them wonder why he hates her so. Through additional medication he eventually tells his story, of how he he met his wife and swiftly within a month they became married. They headed on a plane trip to Hawaii for their honeymoon, but on the way it crashed in the pacific, with them being the only 2 survivors. This surprises the doctors, as the man was the only one found. He recounts the experience of being lost in the middle of the ocean on a raft and how they had no food to sustain themselves on. Eventually his wife started drinking salt water, went crazy and died. The man slips back into his crazed state, but the doctors realize what happened to his wife, since he is not really saying "I hate her!" but rather "I ate her!" A decent start to the issue and the best story here, in an issue that is only so-so at best.

"The Confidant" - A mysterious man wearing a trench coat comes to a town where people are in search of a man who raped and murdered a 19 year old woman. The mysterious man claims to be here to see one of his children and takes a taxi ride to the darkest corner of town. The taxi driver follows him and finds him talking in an apartment to a man he believes to be the killer. He summons a number of other people and a mob grows, returning to the apartment. There they only find the mysterious man, who tells them that he can't tell them anything about the killer. The mob starts beating on him, and the man dies as a result. It is then that they find a note from the killer stating that he has to confess his crimes. They remove the trench coat of the mysterious man and realize that he was a priest. Not that good a story in my eyes as you think it would be so simple for the fact that the man was a priest to be made clear to the mob. Couldn't the priest have simply told them that fact instead of taking a beating until he died?

"For Cryin' Out Loud!" - A criminal named Marty steals $40,000 but becomes sloppy while hiding and is found out by a woman he meets at a restaurant. When she demand over half the money, he strangles her in an alley and flees. He repeatedly hears a voice in his head shouting out that he is a murderer. As he walks down the street people look at him in a strange way causing him to run off, thinking they can hear him. This happens repeatedly. Eventually he decides to head into a boiler factory with an extremely loud amount of noise to block out the voice in his head. This results in him going deaf, but the voice still shouts out. He can't take it anymore and says out loud that he is a murderer. As the story ends it is revealed that he had scratches on his face which is why everyone was giving him weird looks. This story was adapted into an episode of the Tales from the Crypt TV series, with some adjustments made to the story. Kudos to Crandall in finding ways to repeatedly cover up half of the protagonist's face until the final panel.

"Well Trained" - A detective named Tom comes home one day and finds his wife murdered, with the killer standing right over her. Tom chases down the killer and viciously beats him, but decides to not kill him and call the cops. Tom is obsessed with ensuring that the killer, who is named Mike, goes to the electric chair. He meets with him daily as he heals from his injuries telling him in great detail the process for him being executed. The daily abuse is enough to cause Mike to run off. Other cops try to shoot him, but Tom always stands in the way, desiring for him to die in the electric chair. Their chase brings them down to the subway where Mike runs on the track but is hit by the subway car as he steps on the third rail. As a result, Tom will never know if he was electrocuted on the third rail or was hit by the train first. A so-so story. I don't really understand what the big deal was at the end as Mike still suffered a rather horrific death. What does it matter if it was by being hit by a subway car instead of being electrocuted?

Shock SuspenStories #8

Credits:
Cover dated April/May 1953
Cover by Al Feldstein

"Piecemeal" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Assault!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Arrival" - Art by Al Williamson/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Seep No More!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

Another strong issue, with no below average stories.

"Piecemeal" - A man named Eric comes to visit his much older brother Sidney and meets his young and very attractive wife, Sally. Once Sidney goes to sleep Sally invites Eric to the pool outside and the two quickly fall in love.  Sidney is a collector of rare marine specimins and the two plot to murder him by getting him to overdose on sleeping pills the night of a big shipment he is expecting. That night the shipment comes but Sally convinces Sidney to go to bed before he can show it to her and Eric. Sally is successful in getting him to overdose on his sleeping pills as planned. She and Eric go outside to the pool to celebrate but Sidney's shipment, a man-eating shark, which he had put in the pool, eats Sally and Eric's arm, killing both of them. This story is a decent start to the issue.

"The Assault!" - Seventeen year old Lucy goes missing for 36 hours then turns up crying, claiming that she has been raped by an old recluse name Hodges who lives in a cabin by the outskirts of town. An angry mob confronts Hodges in his cabin and beats him to death. Days later a man named George shows up at Lucy's home wanting to talk to her about what happened to Hodges and they go to the woods to talk. An extended flashback shows George and Lucy meeting and spending a lot of time together, with her lying to her parents about where she has been. The night she dissappeared she was with George the whole time. George proposed to her, but Lucy claims their entire relationship is just for kicks and she's slept with several other men. She then lied about being raped by Hodges, a good friend of George's to cover up where she had been. George wants to reveal the truth, but she reminds him that she's underage and he'll go to jail if he does so. Knowing how rotten she is, George pulls out a gun and shoots her in the face. As often is the case, the "Shock" suspenstory is the best story of the issue and brought the usual level of controversy a few issues later in the letters column.

"The Arrival" - This story takes place on Mars, where one day the Martians see Earth burst into flames. Thousands of years go by and no life from Earth is seen. One day a light is finally seen departing from Earth. The Martians attempt to communicate with the Earthlings on the rocket ship and are able to through the usage of a translation device. The Earthlings tell the Martians about human history and the fact that there was eventually a nuclear war that occurred that resulted in the destruction of the planet. A few managed to survive and rebuilt the planet, building a greater civilization. The rocket ship lands on Mars and its passengers come out to meet the Martians, revealing themselves to be rats. A fun and entertaining story; my only complaint is that Williamson's artwork seems to falter after the first page.

"Seep No More!" - A man named Mr. Finner is questioned about the dissappearance of a young actress named Irene who lived in the same rooming house as him. Finner had murdered Irene after she spurned his advances and stuffed her body in the attic above his room. One day Finner wakes up to see a large splot of blood on the ceiling. He cleans it up, but it reappears even worse later on, forcing him to paint the entire ceiling to cover it. He is also forced to replace his bed sheets after the blood spills all over it. With the blood dripping from the ceiling he puts down a pail to collect it. All of this odd behavior convinces his landlady to call the cops on him and he confesses to the murder. The cops reveal to him however that he was imagining it all and tip over the pail, revealing it to be empty. A good modern retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's the Tell Tale Heart. EC did another Tell Tale Heart inspired story a few months later in The Haunt of Fear #20.

M.D. #1

Credits:
Cover dated April/May 1955
Cover by Johnny Craig

"The Fight for Life" - Art by Graham Ingels
"Janie Some Day" - Art by George Evans
"To Fill the Bill" - Art by Joe Orlando
"The Antidote" - Art by Reed Crandall

The second issue I'll be covering of M.D. is the comic's first. Not much different here than the previous issue I covered (#5) aside from the fact that each story (aside from the first) has a prognosis listed above it. Much like the previous issue I covered, its a rather dull and lifeless issue. The writer for all four stories is unknown.

"The Fight for Life" - Rather than being a traditional fictional story, this story instead provides a brief history of illnesses and attempted cures throughout the ages, starting with cave men, and going through various eras of human history. It shows the various ways in which mankind dealt with illnesses, including some very backwards thinking. It also briefly features Hippocrates and the effect he had on the medical profession. Stories told in this fashion were quite a rarity for EC, particularly for comics not edited by Harvey Kurtzman. It was clearly meant as an introduction to the comic, and a similar approach was taken with Aces High.
"Janie Some Day" - The Janie of the title is an orphan girl with Congenital Osteomyelitis, which forces both of her legs to be in casts. Eventually one of the leg gets better, enabling the removing of the cast, but the other leg gets worse and worse until it has to be amputated. The doctor tells Janie of the new leg she will get to replace her amputated one, but she is horrified when she believes she will be given a wooden leg. The doctor shows her the life-like artificial leg that is ready for her, and she is soon able to walk and play with the other orphans.

"To Fill the Bill" - A man is behind on a number of bills, and whenever he is able to pay some of them always ignores the one from his doctor, despite recommendations from his wife to pay them. One day his son swallows a safety pin and stops breathing. Despite the fact that the man was behind on all his bills, the doctor arrives and is able to save the boy by doing a tracheotomy. The man tells the doctor he will pay all the outstanding bills right away. The protagonist's refusal to pay the doctor bills in this story came off as a bit ridiculous and made it rather obvious what the ending of the story would be.

"The Antidote" - A doctor is about to head to meet with a specialist about something when one of his patients comes, hysteric about his kid. Despite having something to attend to, the doctor goes with him to see the child, who has an appendicitis. The doctor goes ahead and operates on him at the father's pleading, despite his other obligations. Once he is finished, he meets with the specialist, who was examining the doctor's wife. A similar type of story was done in Impact, although with much more tragic results.

Crime SuspenStories #19

Credits:
Cover dated October/November 1953
Cover by Al Feldstein

"The Killer" - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Wined-Up!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Murder May Boomerang" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Johnny Craig
"About Phase" - Art by George Evans/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

Al Feldstein turns in his only cover for Crime SuspenStories, making this the first issue of the comic for which Johnny Craig didn't do the cover (as he did the cover for the concurrent issue of Shock SuspenStories)

"The Killer" - A man named Jonathan grew up always being good at creating things and wanted to be a craftsman. He is unable to get into the guild however due to his family not being into the business. His father keeps trying him to go into his line of business, and wanting to be married, Jonathan accepts. His job, which he keeps secret from his wife, frequently forces him to leave the house at night. One night when he leaves their baby is born dead. His wife starts growing cold towards him after this. One day Jonathan returns from his work and finds his house trashed and his wife gone. He is brought to the authorities who tell him his wife was having an affair and murdered her lover. His wife is sentenced to be hung, and Jonathan finally reveals his job to her, that he's the hangman. A strong way to start off the issue, with a terrific shock ending.

"Wined-Up!" - A wealthy man named Charles is paralyzed from the waist down after being in a car accident with his wife Laura. Laura later reveals that she wants to kill Charles, having married him only for his money. She plans on killing him at their summer home by tying a string to his wheelchair and rolling him into the water of the nearby lake. The time comes and Laura pulls the wheelchair into the water as planned. However, Charles reveals that he was never paralyzed after all, having suspected that she was trying to kill him. Laura gets cramps from his tampering with the alcohol she drank prior to heading to the water, and he leaves her to drown. Another strong story with a good art job from Evans, who has 2 stories in this issue.

"Murder May Boomerang" - A man drives through the rain in a car with his father. Flashbacks show the father raising the son alone after his wife died. When the son grows up, he goes to college and becomes a chemist and gets a raise that permits his father to stop working. The two go on a vacation to celebrate where they go hunting, camping, etc... One night when the son leaves his father alone he hears about maniacs that have escaped from a local prison and are where his father is. The son rushes back and finds his father beaten, and that one of the escaped maniacs have stolen some of his hunting clothes. The son heads out and kills the maniac when his father points him out to him. But later when they spot another man in hunting clothes, the father claims he was his attacker. The son realizes that his father has had a nervous breakdown and will point out anyone wearing hunting clothes as his attacker. This story was reprinted from issue 1 and was the only instance in Crime SuspenStories where a story was reprinted. It was used when the story "The Tryst", which was originally meant for this issue, got moved to the concurrent issue of Shock SuspenStories. This occurred when the scheduled 8 page Kamen lead story for that issue, "Three's A Crowd" got reduced to 7 pages, requiring an 8 page story to replace it.

"About Phase" - A man named Wilbur is married to a shrew of a wife who is always complaining and fighting with him. In the local city, a maniac has killed women the night of the full moon multiple times. Wilbur read up on the killer in the newspaper, who is being claimed to have lycanthropy, a mental illness that convinces him that he's a werewolf. Wilbur comes up with a plan to kill his wife the night of the full moon, then confess to it, be sent to an institution and pretend to be cured a few years later. The next full moon Wilbur goes through with it and confesses, but the police do not believe him as there was an eclipse of the moon that night. Wilbur, who had also killed the other women, is jailed and sentenced to be hanged. An average Horror SuspenStory that was originally intended for Shock SuspenStories #11 but was moved here instead as a result of the shuffling mentioned in the previous story.

Shock SuspenStories #18

Credits:
Cover dated December 1954/January 1955
Cover by George Evans

"Cadillac Fever!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Carl Wessler
"The Trap" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Carl Wessler
"In the Bag" - Art by Bernie Krigstein/Story by Carl Wessler
"Rundown" - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Carl Wessler

The final issue of Shock SuspenStories, which was cancelled along with EC's other horror and crime comics in 1954 due to the controversy over such comics at the time. Unfortunately its one of the weaker issues for what was a usually high quality comic.

"Cadillac Fever!" - A young woman named Ruthie's father (called Pa) wants desperately to ride in a Cadillac. He tries to save up the money to rent a ride in it, but his wife, Ma, is constantly finding the money and spending it, telling him what a waste it would be to spend such money to simply have a short ride in a car. One day Ma turns up dead, having been shot. Pa is put on trial, where Ruthie tells the court that Pa murdered her. Pa is executed as a result, and during his funeral is delivered in a Cadillac hearse. Ruthie then admits that she murdered Ma, all so Pa could get that Cadillac ride. As a result, she is jailed as well and sentenced to death, looking forward to her own Cadillac ride.An average story that's similar in theme to the earlier EC story "Fed Up" from The Haunt of Fear 13, with a cadillac ride substituted for what was a sword in that story.,

"The Trap" - A man named Matt Hall is down on his luck in a new town where he and his wife have moved. His wife, Irene, and the local undertaker, Larry Grover convince Matt to fake his own death such that they can get his life insurance money. Matt grows a mustache and starts wearing glasses. Then, months later they fake his own death, convincing the police that he was mugged and stabbed with a knife. At Matt's 'funeral' his coffin is put in the crematory shortly after he comes out of it. Matt heads to South America to hide for a year. When his wife never shows up as expected, Matt returns to the U.S. and his home where his wife, now married to Grover, refuses to acknowledge him. Matt calls the police and reveals the whole scheme, but no one believes him. With his fingerprints on the knife used to fake his own death, Matt is swiftly convicted then executed for his own murder. 8 page stories by Jack Kamen usually led Shock SuspenStories but this story is oddly in the second spot. Its a decent story, the best of the issue, and was later adapted into an episode of the Tales from the Crypt TV show.

"In the Bag" - On a rainy night, a cop named McLeod comes across a man walking with a bag containing a round object and a stain at the bottom. He chases the man, who flees from him, and eventually traps him in an ally. The man starts ranting about his boss and claims to have chopped off his boss's head with an axe, holding it in the bad he has. The maniac is able to overpower McLeod and run away. McLeod spends a while trying to find him and eventually comes across a man carrying a bag with something round in it. He shoots him without a second thought. Minutes later however fellow cops tell him that they already caught the maniac, and the man McLeod shot was an innocent man carrying around a bowling ball. This story was originally intended to appear in the Vault of Horror (likely issue 41) but instead was used here in the final issue of Shock SuspenStories, cut from its original 8 pages to 6. It is one of several Krigstein drawn stories late in EC's run to use his technique of breaking out multiple panels, and at 77 panels contains the most out of any EC story.

"Rundown" - A man named Joe is told by his wife that she's having an affair and only married him thinking he had money, which he doesn't have. Knowing that he'll lose her without having a lot of money, he decides to withdraw his life savings from the bank and gamble it, losing it all at roulette. There, a wealthy man is extremely successful, winning $60,000. Joe follows him as he leaves them holds him at knife point. When the man struggles, Joe stabs him. He tries multiple ways to dispose the body but always finds people nearby. Eventually he is able to dump the body down into the sewer. When a cop spots him and calls for him soon afterwards, Joe flees, getting hit by a car. It ends up the cop was simply following him because he dropped his wallet and the car was driven by his wife and her lover. A rather disappointing end for Shock SuspenStories story-wise; Crandall's art is strong as usual.

Frontline Combat #13

Credits:
Cover by Wally Wood
Cover dated July/August 1953

"Pantherjet!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"War Dance!" - Art by John Severin/Story by Jerry De Fuccio
"Wolf!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Jerry De Fuccio
"Frank Luke!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

"Pantherjet!" - This story takes place on an aircraft carrier in the ocean. The maintenance officer on the ship examines a Grumman F9F jet, which has a damaged nose and can't be repaired since there are no spare noses to use. One of the pilots takes out another one of the jets for a flight and heads over Korea where it is fired on. The tail of the jet is damaged, and the pilot puts in effort to ensure that it makes it back to the aircraft carrier instead of on the land. The maintance officer asks why and he says it was so he could bring him back a spare nose to fix the other jet with. Some interesting coloring on this story, including a page thats almost entirely colored in red to simulate the red lighting under the deck on the aircraft carrier.

"War Dance!" - The Pawnee native american tribe plans to attack the nearby Ponca tribe, led by the warrior Red Knife. Red Knife leads his troops againist the Ponca, but one of them touches him unarmed (known as a "coup"). In order to reclaim his honor Red Knife must battle the man who
touched him. He loses the battle. As a result, the Pawnee must leave and Red Knife is banished from his tribe. This was an interesting story with the concept of the "coup", which on its own was enough to completely turn the tides for the poncas. De Fuccio worked as Kurtzman's assistant and started writing stories later in the war comics' run.

"Wolf!" - This story takes place in 1016 AD in the Schwazwald, the black forest. A teenage boy named Mark Edelblut, son of the local count watches over a herd of sheep along with his hawk. When a wolf attacks, his hawk attacks it and causes it to flee. More animals suddenly pass through, causing Mark to return to his father's castle where he finds it under attack by Baron Von Wolffe, who is leading a large force. The Baron's forces are overtaking the castle but Mark sends his hawk to attack him in the eyes with a knife. This causes the Baron to flee in the opposite direction, and results in confusion among his ranks. As a result, the Baron's forces are driven away. A decent medieval-era story with some good art from Wood.

"Frank Luke!" - This story features the World War I ace pilot Frank Luke and some of his successful battles in Europe during the war, including a record take down of 15 observation balloons and 3 boche planes in a 17 day period. The story which is framed by a pair of French men discussing his accomplishments, focusing on 3 battles in particular. This includes his death when his plane is shot and forced to land and he is shot after getting out of it. This story is one of many George Evans drawn stories featuring World War I aces, a specialty of his (which later resulted in an entire comic, Aces High, built around such a theme). Its a pretty good story with strong artwork, but these types tended to get repetitive after a while.

Tales from the Crypt #32

Credits:
Cover dated October/November 1952
Cover by Jack Davis

"Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Roped In!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Cutting Cards!" - Art by Fred Peters/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Squash... Anyone?" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity!" - A local butcher named Zach Gristle finds his meat in high demand during World War II with the advent of rationing. During the war, red points need to be exchanged for meat, limiting the amount of meat that each customer can buy, as well as Gristle himself. A man named Vandercliff convinces Gristle to sell high quality steaks to him on the black market. This requires Gristle to find substandard meat to sell to his regular customers so as to acquire the red points needed to buy the steak. He descends to horse meat, then stale meat, and finally tainted meat. This makes the townfolks sick and eventually some of them die. Gristle goes to get the money he's saved up so he and his family can go on the run. But when his son dies due to eating the tainted meat at a friend's house, his wife snaps. She kills him, chops his body up then puts it on display at his store. A strong start to what is overall a good issue; this story would end up being used as the title for a recently published book from Fantagraphics publishing various Jack Davis horror stories.

"Roped In" - Donald Morgan, President of a construction company is arrested when concrete at a hospital he was responsible for is found to be substandard, causing many deaths. Morgan is innocent, as his 3 partners were responsible so as to make more money for themselves. Unfortunately for Morgan, they've trapped him in a web of circumstantial evidence by only using substandard material on his jobs. Morgan is found guilty of manslaughter and sent to jail. The other 3 partners go on a plane trip after winning a special job. While flying between two mountains however, they are caught in a gigantic spider web. A giant spider appears which kills the 2 that head outside. The final one locks himself in the plane but goes insane, knowing that he is trapped inside by the spider. An effective story with strong artwork from George Evans. This was Evans' first story for Tales form the Crypt, and one of his earliest stories overall for EC. He was generally given tamer fare, like Jack Kamen, but this story gave him the opportunity to do a monster in the giant spider.

"Cutting Cards!" - Two gamblers, Gus Forney and Lou Crebis hate each other so much that they agree to gamble on each other's lives. They start by drawing a card; he who draws the lowest card dies. They both draw aces and decide to try russian roulette instead, but the bullet is a dud and doesn't go off. They then decide to play chop poker to a finish. The loser of each hand has to lose a limb. They chop each others fingers off as round after round goes by. By the end both are in the hospital, with all their limbs chopped off and are still gambling against each other. Not much of a plot to this story, which is more just a way to show a lot of violence. That said, the story was considered good enough to be adapted into an episode of the Tales from the Crypt TV show. The artist, Fred Peters did only a couple of stories for EC during the new trend (the others appearing around this same time) and was not that good compared to EC's usual artists.

"Squash... Anyone?" - A husband and wife, Milo and Rene, are stars at a circus, using an elephant named Emma which places its foot over Rene during performances. In reality, the two hate each other and Milo is carrying on an affair with a woman named Leeta. Leeta convinces Milo to have Emma step on Rene during a performance, which he does. Emma is considered out of control and is killed. Leeta replaces Rene in the act, with a new elephant. A year passes and the circus comes across the same town. suddenly the decayed corpses of Rene and Emma appear and kill both Milo and Leeta before falling away into a putrid slime. One of EC's better circus-themed stories, with a scary, elephant corpse-filled final page.

M.D. #5

Credits:
Cover dated December 1955/January 1956
Cover by Johnny Craig

"Complete Cure" - Art by Reed Crandall
"Child's Play" - Art by Joe Orlando
"Emergency" - Art by Graham Ingels
"The Right Diagnosis" - Art by George Evans

The writer for all 4 stories is unknown.

This is the first New Direction title I've covered as part of this blog. EC's New Direction comics were brought out after Bill Gaines cancelled all of EC's horror and suspenstory comics due to the horror/crime comic controversy at the time. The New Direction comics tackled various new subjects, some of which hadn't been covered in comics before. M.D. focused in particular on doctors and medical-drama related stories. Essentially a comic book version of E.R., House or other doctor/hospital themed shows. The New Direction comics were commercial failures and were a bit lifeless compared to EC's New Trend horror, crime and sci-fi comics. In addition, starting with the second issue of each the comics were under the Comics Code, resulting in a lot of censorship. Some of the New Direction comics were able to be at least somewhat interesting, even with the censorship, but M.D. was a comic I was never all that into. I can't say the stories are particularly bad, at least in this issue, but its hard to get too much into them or have much to say which is why this will be a rare instance where I won't have individual thoughts on each story. The one big thing that does come across in reading this issue is how different things are today; in "Child's Play", the mother's fear of her son being labeled different due to having a hearing aid, enough so that she doesn't even want him to have it, comes off as particularly ridiculous nowadays. The issue features a lot of extremism from the main characters, not just from that mother, but also central characters from the first and last stories.

"Complete Cure" - A man named Phil is in a car accident in which his legs are severly injured. His wife arrives at the hopsital and agrees to surgery which will save his life, but require the removal of his legs. Phil is extremely negative after waking up, wishing that he had died rather than losing his legs. He is convinced that his life is over and doesn't want to live as a cripple using prosthetics. Eventually he is convinced by his wife to use prosthetics and is able to walk again, but still feels extremely sorry for himself. He decides to leave his wife to spare her the burden of having to support him, but his doctor convinces him to come and see him first at a country club where he introduces him to a well known doctor, who also lost both of his legs. Phil realizes that he can make something of himself despite his handicap.

"Child's Play" - This story features a young boy named Jimmy whose friends stop playing with him and whose grades start suffering. It is soon discovered that Jimmy is going deaf which is the reason for these things. He goes through various tests and the doctor tells his parents that they could operate on him and give him a hearing aid to make things better. His mother is strongly opposed to this, thinking he will be labeled as different. She eventually concedes to having the operation. As it turns out, him having a hearing aid doesn't cause any problems at all; he gets back together with his old friends and they find his hearing aid very interesting.

"Emergency" - This story features a doctor traveling in an ambulance with a man with a broken leg. Due to a large storm, a tree blocks the road and he's forced to carry the injured man on a stretcher with the driver. When they get to the hospital they find that the power is completely out, and the backup generator isn't working either. The doctor, as well as the other doctor there and the various other staff work throughout the night to help out their patients, despite the lack of light or electricity, including successfully conducting surgery. By morning the power is back on and the doctors are finally able to take a break.

"The Right Diagnosis" - A man named George Gordon goes to his doctor complaining of severe abdominal pain. His doctor says nothing appears wrong after doing various tests, but George is convinced that he needs his appendix out. The doctor thinks it is more of a psychological disorder due to George's depression and that he has a self-destructive personality making him want to get surgery despite not needing it. George decides to go to another hospital under a fake name to see if they will operate on him, but they refuse as well. This causes George to want to commit suicide by jumping off the side of the building, but the doctor convinces him to not do so and get help.

The Haunt of Fear #27

Credits:
Cover dated September/October 1954
Cover by Graham Ingels

"About Face" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Carl Wessler
"Game Washed Out" - Art by George Evans/Sftory by Carl Wessler
"The Silent Treatment" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"Swamped - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Jack Oleck

Today I'll be covering my first EC horror comic on this blog, one of the very last they ever published.

"About Face" - A husband, Jeff, and his wife, Amy, have twins, but Amy will only show him one of them, Penny, demanding he promise not to see the other one, Olga. Years go by and Amy keeps Olga's existence a secret from everyone, not even letting Jeff see her. Amy dies when the twins are 15 years old and Jeff pesters Penny enough that Olga leaves her room and meets him for the first time. Olga has a hideous deformed face and a dour, cruel personality as well. Jeff tries to be a good father to her and takes her out in public, but he denies Olga is his daughter when the neighbors are horrified at her appearance. This causes Olga to flip out and attack a young child. Jeff becomes convinced that Olga is evil and he and Penny will only be happy if he kills her. One night he barges into the twin's room and shoots Olga despite Penny's protests. As she falls to the ground, dead, Jeff realizes the truth, that Olga's face is on the back of Penny's head and that he's murdered her as well. This is a terrific story to start out the issue, with a great twist ending. Olga has one of the scariest appearances of any character to appear in an EC comic. The story does have some non-believable aspects (such as the fact that Penny had to keep the back of her head covered for her entire life, including all time in her father's presense) but the artwork and concept is strong enough to make you not really notice it. This story would be adapted in the final season of the Tales from the Crypt TV show and was probably the best episode of that very lackluster season. Carl Wessler, who wrote this story was the most prolific of several outside writers that joined EC in 1954. Wessler's original version of this story had Olga killed by police rather than her father, thankfully it was changed to the far superior ending in the published version.

"Game Washed Out" - In a Puritan community, a man named John Talbot carries on an affair with a woman named Becky. His wife Priscilla catches him and refuses to let him go so he murders her and weighs her body down in the nearby lake. He later goes to see Becky in broad daylight and is caught by her husband. As punishment, he is sentenced to three duckings in the lake on a stool.  Realizing its the same lake where he put his wife's corpse, he shouts out for them to stop, but his wife's corpse is able to grab ahold of him and cause him to drown. This is an alright story, but the underwater corpse ending is extremely similar to Tales from the Crypt #40's "Pearly to Dead" which was published earlier in the year and also was drawn by Evans. Warren Publishing's Vampirella magazine featured a story with a very similar ending that was probably inspired by this story in issue #28's "The Power and the Gory!".

"The Silent Treatment" - A king enjoys constant music and partying, but when it distracts him enough such that his daughter dies while trying to rescue her cat, he orders it all to cease. He then demands the entire kingdom go silent, starting with anything in the castle, but moving on to the village itself, including even menial tasks, then talking aloud, writing and even breathing. The townfolk, unable to take it anymore storm the castle and sew a metronome clock into his body that will make noise for hours unless he is absolutely still. The king stays as still as he can, but a spider crawls on him. Swiping it away, the metronome starts up again and the king, unable to take it, throws himself off a cliff. The final Grim Fairy Tale, a regular feature that appeared in the 3 horror comics (as well as a single appearance in Panic) that featured EC-style versions of classic fairy tales. This story was an original story rather than being based on something else. I consider it one of the weaker ones.

"Swamped" - This story is told from the perspective of a cabin build over the Okefenokee Swamp. The cabin was built by a ghoul, who specifically constructed it in quicksand. The ghoul frequently captures campers, hunters and other people in the swamp, eats them, then dumps their remains into the quicksand via a trapdoor in the cabin floor. Anyone who tries to go after him drowns in the quicksand. The cabin is disgusted by its creator's actions but can't do anything about it. Eventually, the enormous amount of corpses under the cabin are able to cause it to collapse, and the ghoul becomes just another corpse in the swamp. A very strong effort from Crandall, in one of his more gruesome stories. Jack Davis, who usually did the Crypt Keeper story in the Haunt of Fear is missing for the first time since issue 3. The story is pretty good too, with the unique perspective from which it is told.