Crime SuspenStories #14

Credits:
Cover dated December 1952/January 1953
Cover by Johnny Craig

"Sweet Dreams!" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Johnny Craig
"The Perfect Place!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Electric Chair"/"The Hangman's Noose"/"The Guillotine!" - Art by Fred Peters/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Private Performance" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"Sweet Dreams!" - A man is getting annoyed with his wife, who is obsessed with her inability to sleep. When she gets a new set of sleeping pills from her doctor, the man plans on killing her by pouring too many into her drink. She reveals that she spotted him doing so however, and switched cups, getting him to drink it. In a rage, he smuthers her to death with a pillow. The man wakes up, revealing it to all be a dream, but finds his wife dead next to him. He calls the doctor in, claiming she overdosed from the sleeping pills. The doctor reveals that she was a chronic hypochondriac and was given sugar pills, and reports him for murder. Johnny Craig puts in a usual strong art effort although I wasn't much of a fan of the story.

"The Perfect Place!" - A writer named Ernie plans to murder his wife June after becoming successful and falling in love with another writer. Ernie buys a secluded house from a man named Jess who claims his wife left him a few years ago. Ernie brings June out to the house and murders her. He hides her body by bricking her up behind a wall in the basement. On his way out however the sheriff comes by with Jess, who has admitted to murdering his wife and hiding her in the basement, just like what Ernie did to his wife. As a result, June's body is found and Ernie is found guilty of murder. This story seems to be inspired in part by "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe, which featured a murdered wife being hidden behind a brick wall just like in this story. "The Black Cat" had been adapted by EC earlier in the story "The Wall" from the Haunt of Fear #15 (aka #1).

"The Electric Chair/The Hangman's Noose/The Guillotine!" - This story features three tellings of the same tale, taking place in America, England and France. In each the protagonist comes across his wife in the arms of another man. Based on the variation, he kills either the wife, the lover or both. He is set to be executed for his crimes (either the electric chair in America, via hanging in England or the guillotine in France) but escapes on the day of his execution. By trying to escape via the subway system, the protagonist still ends up dying in similar fashion to his planned execution, either by being electrocuted on the third rail, being strangled by getting his tie stuck in a subway door, or being decapitated by the subway car. This is one of several "EC Quickies" that appeared around this time in either Crime SuspenStories or Weird Fantasy. The EC Quickies was an interesting gimmick that they used for a short enough period such that it didn't come off as overused to me. It was used a total of 7 times, primarily in Crime SuspenStories. Along with "Cutting Cards" from Tales from the Crypt #32, this is the only artwork Fred Peters did for EC during the new trend.

"Private Performance" - A crook breaks into a mansion so as to steal from a safe inside. While doing so he hears an argument amongst the elderly husband and wife who own the house. The husband, in a rage, bashes his wife's head in with a small statuette while arguing about being the 'greatest' and 'tops'. The old man spots the crook and chases him around the house. The crook, finding the front door locked, makes his way to the cellar where he hopes to hide in a chest. The old man soon comes down and locks him in the chest. The crook spots a poster on the wall revealing that the old man was a magician responsible for a human pin cushion illusion and he soon finds himself being struck with swords that the old man plunges into the chest. A pretty good story to end the issue, although I do wonder how the crook wasn't able to overpower a man who was probably more than twice his age.

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.