Shock SuspenStories is an American bi-monthly comic book anthology series that was published by EC Comics from 1952 to 1955 created by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. The magazine began in February/March 1952 and ran for 18 issues until being discontinued after the December/January 1955 issue. It covered a broad range of topics, including crime, science fiction, and horror.[1]
Shock SuspenStories originated in February 1952 as a "sampler" featuring stories of various genres. EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines and his editor, Al Feldstein, explained the comic's origin and the source of its title in the first issue:
We've tried to satisfy every one of you readers who have written us insisting that E.C. increase its output! Many of you wanted another science-fiction mag... you horror fans wanted another horror book... and you suspense readers wanted a companion mag to Crime SuspenStories! We decided, therefore, to make this new mag an "E.C. Sampler"... and to include in it an S-F yarn, a horror tale, a Crime SuspenStory, and... for you readers of Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales... a war story! Although there was a wide variance in the types of mags requested, all of you fans seemed to agree on one thing: all of you wanted the stories to have the usual E.C. shock endings! So what could be more natural than to call the magazine Shock SuspenStories?[2]
The war story would be immediately phased out with the second issue, replaced with a message story—the "Shock SuspenStory". Bhob Stewart discussed the "Shock SuspenStory" in his notes for the EC Library, which reprinted all 18 issues of this title:
It was evident from the cover of #2 that Gaines had conceived this title for matters of deeper concern. With "The Patriots", the "Shock SuspenStory" was born. And far from being just a label of meaningless hype, the concept proved to be a major step for EC, providing Gaines and Feldstein with a forum for expressing their views on the human condition just as Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat were for Harvey Kurtzman. The Shock SuspenStory was characterized by a running theme of mob violence and an art style best described as Heightened Realism. A similarity can be noted between Wood's dramatically effective Shock renderings and the caricatures of corruption in the acclaimed fine art of Jack Levine.[3]
Over the next three years, Shock SuspenStories tackled many controversial issues, including racism ("The Guilty" in #3, "In Gratitude" in #11), mob hysteria ("The Patriots" in #2), police corruption ("Confession" in #4), vigilantism ("Under Cover" in #6), drug addiction ("The Monkey" in #12), and rape ("The Assault" in #8, "A Kind of Justice" in #16). The sampler format remained for the remaining three stories in the title until the end of 1953. With #12, the horror and science fiction stories were phased out, and the comic then focused primarily on shock and crime stories for the remainder of its run.
Issue #14 (April/May 1954) contained two of the title's most controversial stories, "The Orphan", which featured a ten-year-old girl murdering her father and framing her mother, and "The Whipping", in which a bigoted father mistakenly beats his daughter to death under the impression that she was her Hispanic boyfriend. Gaines was questioned extensively about both stories by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in April 1954.[4]
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, comic books came under attack from parents, clergymen, schoolteachers, and others who believed the magazines contributed to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency. In April and June 1954, highly publicized congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken. With the subsequent imposition of a highly restrictive Comics Code, which placed severe restrictions on violent comic book genres, Shock SuspenStories was one of five comics voluntarily discontinued by EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines.[5]
Shock SuspenStories has been reprinted on numerous occasions. Ballantine Books reprinted selected stories in a series of paperback anthologies from 1964 to 1966. The magazine was fully collected in a series of three black-and-white hardbacks by publisher Russ Cochran as part of The Complete EC Library in 1981. Cochran reprinted the entire series with Gemstone Publishing from 1992 to 1996. This complete run was later rebound, with covers included, in a series of four softcover EC Annuals. In 2006, Cochran and Gemstone began to publish hardcover, re-colored volumes of Shock SuspenStories as part of the EC Archives series. Two volumes (of a projected three) were published by Gemstone before their financial troubles left the project in limbo. The third and final volume was published by GC Press, a boutique imprint established by Cochran and Grant Geissman, in 2011. Dark Horse Comics republished the first and third volumes in 2015 and 2016.[6][7] The complete three-volume series was later republished as over-sized trade paperbacks from 2021 to 2023.[8][9]
Front covers were drawn by Feldstein, Wally Wood, Johnny Craig, George Evans, and Jack Kamen. Kamen was the comic's most prolific artist, usually doing the lead eight-page story in each issue. Other stories were illustrated by Craig, Evans, Wood, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Bernard Krigstein, and Frank Frazetta. Writing was handled by Gaines and Feldstein exclusively through the first 12 issues, except for a single story written by Craig. Over the last six issues, other contributing writers included Carl Wessler, Otto Binder, and Jack Oleck.
As with the other EC comics edited by Feldstein, the stories in this comic were primarily based on Gaines using existing suspense stories and films to develop "springboards" from which he and Feldstein could launch new stories. Specific story influences that have been identified include the following:[10]
Anecdotes from Bennett Cerf's Try and Stop Me were sources for stories, including "Yellow" (#1) and "The Patriots" (#2).[11]
After their unauthorized adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury's stories in another magazine, Bradbury contacted EC about their plagiarism of his work. They reached an agreement for EC to do authorized versions of Bradbury's short fiction. These official adaptations include:[12]
Some stories were adapted for the HBO television series Tales from the Crypt, which features John Kassir as the voice of the Crypt-Keeper and included comic book covers designed by Mike Vosburg—with at least one drawn by Shawn McManus—to look like the original 1950s covers. The series ran for seven seasons from 1989 to 1996 and spawned 93 episodes.[13]
The following stories were used in HBO's Tales from the Crypt TV series: "Yellow!" (#1), "Confession" (#4), "Split Second!" (#4), "Dead Right!" (#6), "The Bribe!" (#7), "Came the Dawn!" (#9), "Carrion Death!" (#9), "The Sacrifice" (#10), "...Three's a Crowd" (#11), "Deadline" (#12), "The Kidnapper" (#12), "As Ye Sow..." (#14), "You, Murderer" (14#), "For Cryin' Out Loud!" (#15), "...My Brother's Keeper" (#16), "The Assassin" (#17), "4-Sided Triangle" (#17), and "The Trap" (#18).