The EC Reign Month by Month 1950-1956
24: July 1952
Craig |
"Stiff Punishment!" ★
Story and Art by Johnny Craig
"One Man's Poison!" ★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"Two for One!" ★★ 1/2
"Four for One!" ★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
"A Fool and His Honey are Soon Parted!" ★★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
He went to Jared's! (Again!) "Stiff Punishment!" |
Mary echoes Peter's sentiments about Jack Kamen's stories. ("One Man's Poison!") |
"Two for One!" |
"Four for One!" |
"A Fool and His Honey . . ." |
"No, no Nanette!" Humor in a Jungle Vein. ("A Fool and His Honey . . .") |
"A Fool and His Honey . . ." |
Jack: The splash panel for Johnny Craig's story is fantastic, but the tale goes downhill from there and the twist ending is too little, too late. I chuckled when Fred addressed his boss at the college as "Dean Martin"; the singer was famous enough by then to make me sure that this was an in-joke. The Kamen story is yet another tough dame murders her husband piece and it makes me wonder if one really can build up immunity to ptomaine poisoning with increasing daily doses. I'll let someone else test it out. Jack Davis was a good choice to draw the two quickies and, while I always enjoy a good confidence game, I agree with Peter that the first one seemed more likely to succeed than the second. I got another chuckle out of the Ghastly story when Rudy was described as a "love-pirate"--that sounds like a long lost hit by Duran Duran! While the twist ending was good, I think they missed an opportunity to show something a bit more horrible involving ants devouring a body.
Jose: A fairly average installment of Crime that starts out at a slow, almost grinding chug before managing to pick up a bit of steam (in more ways than one) with the final third. “Stiff Punishment!” is a bill of goods that stiffs the reader on anything engaging or half-way inventive and it shows the usually stellar Craig in pure, unadulterated work mode. The rush job crops up not just in the narrative department but in the artistic department as well. “One Man’s Poison!” looks pretty enough but, boy, is this one loop-de-loop of a plot. This has got to be one of the most befuddling, roundabout routes that someone has taken to murder their spouse. And what exactly happened in the ending there? Why was John planning on killing himself? Because he couldn’t stop himself from arguing with his wife? Not impossible, but the fact that we don’t see the smallest bit of anguish painting John’s demeanor makes the final events of the story feel like a naked bait-and-switch. The two Davis “Quickies” are certainly interesting on an experimental level; I echo the sentiment that the first is the more successful of the two. “A Fool and His Honey…” is a diverting bit of soapy operatics that hinges on a unique twist that finds our cuckolded hubby accepting his remorseful wife back into his arms and having an outside party fulfill his vengeance upon the romantic traitor following a sly bit of deception on his own part. Like Jack, I could have stood to see more nibbly action from the ferocious ants.
Davis |
"Gas-tly Prospects!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
"A Hollywood Ending!" ★★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Orlando
"Auntie, It's Coal Inside!" ★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"Mournin', Ambrose . . ." ★★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
Jeff "Whitey" Whittaker discovers gold in California in 1849 but a stranger with a gun happens along and plants two slugs in his gut. The two men wait each other out until the stranger stabs Whitey to death in his sleep and buries his body in a shallow grave. One night, a week later, a wildcat digs up the corpse and leaves it sitting up against a rock for the stranger to find the next morning. The stranger decides to try tying weights to Whitey's body and putting him at the bottom of a stream. Another week goes by, and the ropes are worn through, allowing the body to bob up to the surface. The stranger decides that burning the body is the only way to get rid of it, but the decaying gases built up inside the corpse contribute to a fire that gets out of control and kills the stranger once and for all.
"Gas-tly Prospects!" |
Hollywood movie producer and all-around man's man Hugh Howards flies up to the Arctic to see what's what and meets Terry Arlen, a certified hottie who was brought there six years before by "Daddy," a doctor who took her in after her father was killed in a car crash. Hugh offers to take the fox to Hollywood and make her a star and he throws a marriage proposal into the bargain. She is completely on board with the plan, despite the protestations of her "Daddy," and she elopes with Hugh. Once she's in the warm California sun, however, she starts to decompose and, when "Daddy" arrives to tell Hugh the sad truth about his new bride, it's too late. It turns out that she was killed in the car crash and revived and that the only way to keep her fresh was to preserve her in the cold arctic air. "A Hollywood Ending!" indeed!
This variation on Lovecraft's "Cool Air" is a lot of fun, especially the hilarious business about Hugh falling for the beautiful gal from the first time he lays eyes on her. He wants her to take off her parka so he can evaluate her figure, which is not a far cry from asking her to join him on the casting couch. Feldstein manages to keep up the suspense for awhile as to just what terrible fate will befall Terry and/or Hugh and, by the time it begins to become apparent what's going on, the story is about over. Joe Orlando turns in a bang up job, drawing both a gorgeous gal and her horrible corpse quite effectively.
Jack Kamen forgot it was Aunt Agnes and not Uncle Agnes. ("Auntie, It's Coal Inside!") |
Al Feldstein must have kept track of the stories he wrote for Jack Kamen, since they seem to go back and forth monotonously from stories about beautiful women with cold hearts to stories about little kids. "Auntie, It's Coal Inside!" is the latter and it's a real dull entry. Feldstein just used the bit about someone putting a lock on the basement door not too long ago. (That'd be "Kickback" from Shock #2, Jackie-Boy! -Jose)
Peter Enfantino, circa 2027. ("Mournin' Ambrose!") |
"Mournin', Ambrose!" features more fine art by Ingels and has a bit more plot than we're used to in the typical Feldstein seven-pager, but the revelation that Uncle Ambrose is a ghoul comes out of left field. Now, I have no problem with an ending that is truly a surprise, but it doesn't go anywhere and just kind of sits there. In the last panel, the police explain to Andrew that he's lucky he didn't become Ambrose's next Happy Meal. It's never good when a story ends with the cops explaining something--it didn't work in Psycho and it doesn't work here.--Jack
Jack Seabrook, circa 2017. ("A Hollywood Ending!") |
Jose: I’ve carried fond memories of “Gas-tly Prospects!” with me since the first time I read the story in middle school, and revisiting it now has only reinforced that fondness. I just love visiting ornery ol’ “Whitey” and seeing his stanking carcass popping up to give his killer a good spookin’. I actually think the story develops quite nicely, with the little detail about “Whitey” stowing the shotgun shells in his pocket evolving organically into a biting, righteous finish for our villain. Though I honestly do have to wonder how those shells didn’t float away when Whitey was dumped in the river … or buried in the ground … or wrestled over by two wildcats. (Whatever! I still like it!) “A Hollywood Ending!” is grand, grim, and gruesome EC at its most prototypical fun. We’ve seen the Valdemar/Cool Air ending before, but melting corpses never get old, and if you think otherwise you should go and get your pulse checked. Orlando has some fantastic work on display here; I especially adore his conception of Dr. Wheems, a bespectacled coot whose horns of white hair seem to anticipate Cain from DC’s House of Mystery of 16 years' hence, and the final panel beautifully pairs the ludicrous (Howard getting ready to eject his lunch) with the grotesquely sublime (Terry’s putrefying corpse clasping the “Desire” perfume to her hollow chest). Now that’s what I’m talking about! Things get decidedly mundane with “Auntie, It’s Coal Inside!” I’ll give Feldstein credit where it’s due for working a neat twist into little Toby’s dissociative voice (Agnes’s blubbering concession that Toby’s father wasn’t a drunkard but was in fact a good man convinces the tyke that what he’s hearing must be his imagination and certainly not his incessant bitch of an aunt), but the rest of the story plods along to a climax that wouldn’t even strike a featherweight as being the least bit terrifying. Ingels is left to ratchet the quality back up a few pegs which he manages to do with the modest Gothic frills of “Mournin’, Ambrose…” I appreciate the unique, somewhat subdued approach that Feldstein is going for here with the familial insecurities and the almost murder-mystery aspect of the entire affair, but the final reveal that Ambrose is a skin-snacking ghoul feels arbitrary by the time we get around to it.
Wood |
"Just Desserts!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"The Guilty!" ★★★
Story by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
Art by Wally Wood
"The Big Stand-Up!" ★★★ 1/2
Story by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
Art by Joe Orlando
"Stumped!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
Bernard washes his hands in the bathroom and returns to his dinner party, where he proceeds to tell each of his five guests how they've wronged him. His nanny wasn't paying attention and so his son's stroller rolled in front of a truck and the boy was killed. His business partner ran him out of business and his aunt refused to help him financially. His wife had an affair with his best friend. Bernard decided they all needed to be served their "Just Desserts!" so he invited them to dinner and cut off all of their heads.
"The Guilty!" |
A black man named Collins is arrested for killing a white woman and held in a small town jail while the townsfolk gather around, hoping for a conviction for a man who is obviously "The Guilty!" The D.A. tells Sheriff Dawson to move Collins to the county seat to keep him safe but after this is done under cover of darkness the townsfolk begin to worry that the slick defense attorney will get Collins an acquittal, since the only evidence against him is the testimony of a witness named Hank Barker. On the day of trial, the sheriff and his men transport Collins back to town but on the way they force him to make a run for it and shoot and kill him. Returning to town to tell the D.A. that the prisoner was shot trying to escape, they learn that Barker has just confessed to the murder.
"The Big Stand-Up!" |
Television engineer Bart Thompson is working late one night at the studio, trying to adjust the picture on the small screen, when a gorgeous babe starts chatting with him. It turns out she's Lara, from another solar system, and she and Bart hit it off immediately. He convinces her to come to Earth to marry him, but when her ships lands and she emerges, she's 200 feet tall!
Joe Orlando has picked up where Harvey Kurtzman left off with the humorous stories, and this one is a doozy. Basically just two people talking to each other, it has to be jazzed up by funny pics of Bart and sexy poses by Lara. The best thing about "The Big Stand-Up!" is that it reads just like a story of a guy chatting with a girl online and then getting a big surprise when they meet in person. Who knew sci-fi comics were so prescient?
Jose Cruz refuses to read another Jack Kamen story. ("Stumped!) |
Well, yuck! Jack Davis is on his game and the art looks great, but the story is kind of disgusting and the punch line to "Stumped!" isn't that surprising. James Franco would do pretty much the same thing in the 2010 movie, 127 Hours, which was based on a true story, which is disturbing enough.--Jack
The last bare*bones e-zine staff meeting. ("Just Desserts!") |
Jose: “Just Desserts!” is a heaping pile of old news; there isn’t a thing here that we haven’t seen before. (Quite literally, actually: Kamen recycles the old “three-intense-close-ups” of his psychotic characters here that he also put to use in “The Neat Job” [Shock 1] and “Board to Death” [Crypt 29]). Those hoping for a similar triumphant Crime SuspenStory from the artist akin to the former tale will be sorely disappointed. Ol’ Jack shows in the depiction of Bernard’s frosty aunt that the cross-dressing gent posing as Aunt Agnes in “Auntie, It’s Coal Inside!” was not a one-time offender. “The Guilty!” has all the shocks and the fumbles of a ground-breaking piece of art, but even if the final editorial caption, as historian Bill Spicer says in the hardcover reprint of Shock, essentially shoots the story’s morality in the foot by saying it “does not matter” whether Collins was guilty or not, Bill and Al’s “preachie” still packs a wallop as it allows banal, everyday evil to take the stage in a setting uncomfortably close to home. Those worn down by the grim truths of this parable will find a fizzy tonic in “The Big Stand-Up!,” another of EC’s jokey amusements drawn out and fitted with science fiction trappings. You gotta love those exaggerated expressions and contortions Orlando puts his characters through. They almost give Jack Davis’s Snidely Whiplash stand-in from “Stumped!” a run for his money. Jaques is a funky-looking knave if ever there was one, with a mustache that could be mistaken for two frozen icicles of snot hanging from his nose. This story tries to play a straighter hand than the Orlando, at least on the surface, but the sight of a one-legged bandit toting a rifle to the cabin of his tormentor to literally wipe that stupid mustache off his face is one of the most beautifully campy moments we have yet to witness.
Craig |
"Seance!" ★★★ 1/2
Story and Art by Johnny Craig
"Kickin' the Gong a Round!" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
"Practical Yolk!" ★
Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
Art by Jack Kamen
"Collection Completed!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
Art by Graham Ingels
Ben Gantner and George Dent are two slick businessmen who manage to close a deal with wealthy investor John Chalmers and later toast their good luck … in suckering yet another loser into their skin-deep scam! Ben and George have no business to speak of (literally), and so they manage to squeeze every red cent out of Chalmers until the old goat overhears them boasting their fortunes one night. Chalmers swears swift legal action before storming out; Ben and George, desperate to elude the law at any cost, race after Chalmers in their car on a lonely road and send Chalmers careening down an incline to his death. Under the pretense of offering condolences, the two con men visit the Widow Chalmers to gauge what the old broad might know of their operations. Mrs. Chalmers has apprehensions about keeping the business and tells the gentlemen that she’ll have to contact her husband’s spirit through the offices of Madame Gilda, her confidant and personal medium. The boys know a fellow crook when they see one, though, and easily manage to grease Madame Gilda’s palms so that she may go along with the charade wherein George will depart the séance and reappear as Chalmers with the help of stage makeup to make an appearance and advise “his wife” to stay in business with Gantner and Dent. On the evening of the séance everything goes off perfectly. Almost too perfectly, Gantner thinks, as Gilda goes into a very convincing trance and Dent appears as the phosphorous spirit. But the figure makes no move to speak, instead looming right over to Gantner and strangling the man in his seat. The spirit departs, the lights are turned on, and Gilda, in her fright, confesses the whole plot to Mrs. Chalmers. The lady’s anger quickly evaporates when they discover Dent’s corpse behind a curtain, strangled to death and terror frozen on its face. But who could have gotten in when Gilda had the key on her to the only door in the room? Who indeed …?
"Seance!" |
Jack and Peter ask Jose to step outside so they can go over the word count cap for posts again. ("Kickin' the Gong Around!") |
The one aspect that really ends up sinking “Kickin’ the Gong Around!” is the complete disparity and total arbitrariness of the final page compared to the rest of the story. Going through the first few pages, one can’t help but think that Feldstein got his assignments mixed up and started drafting a tale for Crime or Shock SuspenStories but that, upon taking the sixth sheet of copy from his typewriter, was suddenly stricken with the thought, “Oh crap! This is supposed to be a story for Vault of Horror!” And thus, with all the work expended on crafting a fairly decent if completely by-the-numbers melodrama on all the maladies of the boxing life, our intrepid editor busted into the case of go-to endings marked “Break in Case of Emergency,” blew the dust off the file marked “Vengeful Corpse,” slapped it on to the end of this punchy mix and then called it a day. The ending mars what could have been a satisfying conte cruel with a randomly supernatural intervention. The fact that the last page could have been swapped out with literally anything else shows how disconnected the ending presented here is with the remainder of the story. How cool would it have been had both Marko and Houseman kicked the spit bucket somehow and then return from the grave for a final ghoulish showdown? Now that’s a fight I’d get ringside seats to.
This looks like it's going to be a really socially progressive story! |
Your name is Frederick Hamilton, and you’re a cheery, lovable doof just returned from a voyage to the dark heart of Africa with a new manservant in tow. B’uuna acted as your guide during your expedition, and being a cheery, lovable and charitable doof you figure “the least you can do” is to tear this savage away from his home and bring him with you to America where his life will undoubtedly improve now that he has a job saving you from tripping over your own ass and keeping your apartment clean. However, you run into a slight snag in introducing B’uuna to Louise, your beautiful fiancé. (She’s so beautiful, you can hardly tear your glassy eyes away from her.) Though cordial, the two of them don’t seem to know what to make of the other, but thankfully you’re there, Frederick Hamilton, to smooth over any wrinkle with a cheery jest and a puff from your ever-at-hand smoking pipe. Louise makes her own efforts to establish a bond with B’uuna by purchasing him a scenic Easter egg, a delightful little ceramic contraption that comes with a viewing window the onlooker can peer into to see an adorable scene of the Easter bunny with his gaily-colored eggs. But the gift isn’t enough to give B’uuna sudden insight into American sarcasm: listening in on a conversation between you and Louise, he overhears the lady say that she doesn’t think she’ll marry you since you’re intent on keeping her in your sights for all the boring days to come. Being your sworn protector and a practitioner of black magic to boot, B’uuna hands you the egg later and promises that Louise will never leave you now. Looking in, you confirm your worst fears: inside is another cheesy ending to a Jack Kamen story!
AAAAAH!
A hare-brained tale indeed. ("Practical Yolk!") |
Anita and Jonah Tillman are a middle-aged couple living a blessed and blissful life in suburbia, doting on each other to no end and generally enraptured in their mutual love for one another. Wait, that’s not right. This is an EC story. These two hate each other’s guts! Anita, a childless nurturing type, is forever tending to the stray and wounded animals of the neighborhood while Jonah, a card-carrying member of the He-Man Animal Haters Club, can’t stand the furry beasts. When Anita suggests her husband take up a hobby to filter his impotent rage, Jonah delightedly takes her up on the offer and returns the next day from the store with all the tools of his new trade: sewing thread, knives, and formaldehyde! (Oh my!) That’s right: Jonah’s new hobby is taxidermy! The old bastard wastes no time luring and trapping every critter he can lay his greasy mitts on, turning out perfectly rendered replicas all stuffed, mounted, and ready to make Anita vomit in her mouth. The last straw comes when the basement-dwelling sadist lays claim to Anita’s adopted kitten “Mew-Mew,” and Jonah only has a few seconds to gloat before Anita turns his own knife on him and shows him that he’s not the only one with a hand for taxidermy.
Portrait of the prime EC family. ("Collection Completed!") |
The vitriolic husband and wife were no strangers to the pantheon of stock EC characters, but “Collection Completed!” is so steeped in venom that it becomes an almost wearying experience just trying to finish the tale. Whereas similar stories drafted by Jack Kamen would be leavened by a dose of sardonic humor, this Feldstein script fleshed out with the considerable talents of Graham Ingels is practically pure hatred from Caption 1. For all we can tell, Jonah and Anita have been living in this Hell since approximately the minute Jonah proposed. There’s not a shade of affection past or present in the narrative; it seems at times that these two people were brought together in unholy wedlock for the sole purpose of getting under each other’s skin, as it were. The fact that Jonah’s hobby of choice is so upsetting in and of itself—at one point he lures a sad-eyed dog down into his den of horrors after finding it on the street without a collar—makes that development just another dollop of depression on this I-scream sundae. By the time we get to the final panel, the feeling we have is not one of catharsis but one of exhaustion. We’ve seen insidious mental torture, the wanton slaughter of harmless animals, and finally the gibbering descent of an innocent woman into the depths of madness. In the ken of all-consuming horror, few tales from any of EC’s other terror titles can hold a candle to “Collection Completed!” --Jose
Peter Enfantino expresses his eye-re. ("Collection Completed") |
Jack Seabrook knows wart it's all about. ("Seance!") |
Next Week! In Our Double-Sized 97th Issue of Star Spangled DC War Stories: Jack and Peter Once Again Argue Over The Best Stories of the Year! |
This is an interesting write-up. I know EC mainly through its history and the tv-series. So this is all news to me. The difference between books like Shock SuspenStories and Vault of Horror or Tales from the Crypt seems to be a bit random. The one-noteness of many stories, especially of the hating old couple, is surprising. But the art seems wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAndy, you are so right. The art is wonderful! We're very glad to hear from you and we hope you keep reading!
ReplyDeleteI have one big question about "Hollywood Ending." Presumably movie producer "Hugh Howard" is Howard Hughes fictionalized, but is "Terry Arlen" Terry Moore? If so, it's a pretty weird thing to do with those two people in a fictional story.
ReplyDeleteI totally missed that, Grant, but you're probably right. Terry Moore was certainly in the public eye around this time.
ReplyDelete