Speaking of dismemberment, The Haunt of Fear #17 (December 1952) also features a story drawn by Jack Davis called “Garden Party!”. A wife is driven insane by her insensitive boob of a husband who tramples her prize petunias during a barbecue – naturally she dismembers him and roasts his bits on the barbecue. EC Comics […]
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The Haunt of Fear #17 (December 1952) continues to showcase Ghastly Graham Ingels‘ artwork with a truly twisted tale called “Horror We? How’s Bayou?”. In this twisted tale, a creepy Sidney, living in the Bayou, lures strangers out to his lonely home so that his insane brother Everett can murder them and dis-member them. After […]
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Apparently EC comics had a bad habit of plagiarizing Ray Bradbury‘s short stories for their comic books. This resulted in the writer sending a letter to EC comics, who decided to credit Ray Bradbury on nearly every cover starting in October 1952. Above is a panel from a 1948 short story called “The Long Years!” […]
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In July 1952, EC Comics debuted a new comic: Mad! Filled with anthological stories from multiple genres with a silly bent, it eventually morphed into a satire magazine, rather than comic book and became the only surviving EC comic in just a few more years. One story is horror, one is crime, one is western, […]
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As with Twilight Zone and Star Trek, the best EC stories had social consciousness as an under-pinning. Shock SuspenStories #5 (July 1952) features just such a tale, titled simply “Hate!”. Written (of course) by William Gaines Jr and Al Feldstein, it features a jew-hating neighborhood in America and focuses on John Smith, the “protagonist”. John […]
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The Haunt of Fear #14 (June 1952) continues EC’s march into gruesome territory. The story “Take Your Pick!” features a cold-hearted, penny-pinching husband who refuses compassion at every opportunity. After turning away beggars and destitute friends, sending a dog to sleep outside in the winter, driving on by someone who was hit by a car, […]
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In Atlas/Marvel’s Mystic Comics #10 (April 1952), it becomes pretty clear that someone over at Atlas (perhaps a Mr. Stan Lee?) is really jealous of the attention that E.C. Comics is getting. Each story features a little blurb that pays homage to an E.C. comic book: Cryptic Tales, Vault of Evil, Crypt of Shadows… I’m […]
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In EC’s Weird Fantasy #12 (January 1952), “A Man’s Job” features an amusing tale from a future in which women and men’s roles are reversed: a woman president, a mostly-women Supreme Court, all women going out to work while the men stay at home and take care of the house. Truly a weird fantasy! I […]
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EC Comics continue to push the envelope of shocking imagery in its latest comic, Shock SuspenStories #1 (November 1951). While “The Neat Job!” is somewhat infamous (having been featured in the 1973 anthology film) and has its own particular grotesque imagery (a neat freak tortures his wife until she snaps and arranges his body parts […]
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In “The Mutants!”, a story in Weird Fantasy #10 (September 1951), the tale is told of a future in which mutants are born on Earth thanks to radioactivity from the hydrogen bomb. These mutants are deformed, but incredibly smart. The people of Earth fear and shun them, kicking them off the planet. However, the mutants […]
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