Shock SuspenStories is an American bi-monthly comic book anthology series 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.
Publication history Original run 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:
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:
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.
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.
Reprints 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. The complete three-volume series was later republished as over-sized trade paperbacks from 2021 to 2023.
Production Creative team 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.
Influences and adaptations 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:
"Just Desserts!" (#3): Ray Bradbury's "The Smiling People" "Dead Right!" (#6): John Collier's "In the Cards!" "Under Cover!" (#6): Roald Dahl's "Beware of the Dog" "Seep No More!" (#8): Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" "Fall Guy" (#12): Maurice Level's "The Debt Collector" "You, Murderer" (#14): Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Anecdotes from Bennett Cerf's Try and Stop Me were sources for stories, including "Yellow" (#1) and "The Patriots" (#2).
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:
"The Small Assassin" (#7) "The October Game" (#9)
List of issues +Shock SuspenseStories issuesIssue #DateCover artistStory titleStory artistSummary 1 Feb/Mar 1952 Al Feldstein The Neat Job! Jack Kamen An abused housewife married to a neat freak snaps one day and neatly dices his body into small parts and deposits them in glass jars. Yellow! Jack Davis A colonel's son faces the firing squad for cowardice under fire. He lies to his boy that he will have the rifles loaded with blanks and he will later smuggle the body out so that his son will go to his death like a man. The Monsters! Joe Orlando Aliens deposit their mutant births on Earth, which to them appear as horrible monsters, but appear as regular humans to the people of Earth. The Rug! Graham Ingels