EC Comics! It's An Entertaining Comic! Issue 64

The EC Reign Month by Month 1950-1956
64: July 1955

Krigstein

Piracy 5

"Jean Lafitte" ★★
Story Uncredited
Art by Reed Crandall

"Rag Doll" ★★
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by Graham Ingels

"Salvage" ★★
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Bernie Krigstein

"The Keg" ★★1/2
Story Uncredited
Art by George Evans

"Jean Lafitte"

The famed pirate "Jean Lafitte" has grown weary of constantly looking over his shoulder and has accepted a deal from the Americans: Lafitte and his men will be granted amnesty for their multitude of crimes on the high seas if they will defend New Orleans from the French. The battle is a bloody one but Lafitte and his men gain glory and freedom from persecution in one fell swoop. But a pirate's life is one that's hard to forget and, soon, Lafitte and his right-hand man, Dominique, tire of farming and assimilating themselves into "society." Lafitte gathers together a new band of pirates and sails after a ship bearing a fortune in gold. The ship taken and the Jolly Roger once more hoisted, Lafitte and his men become pirates again. Much like the mini-documentaries Harvey used to populate Two-Fisted and Frontline, "Jean Lafitte" comes across not so much as a story but a Wikipedia entry and, so, doesn't really float my boat (excuse the pun). Crandall's art is pleasant but obviously inspired by a boatload of Hollywood pirate movies. No, I didn't know Jean personally but a quick look at the internet shows me the guy was a pretty mangy customer rather than the striking, Gable-esque lady killer Reed shows us.

"Rag Doll"

All his life, Flynn has lived with an embarrassing secret: he sleeps with a"Rag Doll"! Now, the other men on his ship, the Northern Star, have discovered Flynn's peccadillo and are exploiting it for their own ends, making the young man's life miserable with their barbs and nasty insinuations. When a pirate ship attacks and its crew boards and pillages the Northern Star, Flynn roars expletives and leads a charge onto the departing pirate ship. The men of the Northern Star kill the pirates, reclaim their booty, and sail on. When Flynn visits the ship's doctor to have a nasty gash stitched up, he asks the doc not to tell the others he led the charge in order to get his rag doll back. The doc consents and hands back Flynn's dolly, its nasty gash sewn up. I'm not really sure what to make of this wonky little "alternate classic" (or whatever you'd label something so dumb it's entertaining) but I'd love to be able to ask Carl Wessler if he was on the level. The final panels are just so amazingly inane (and yet presented so darn seriously), you'd have to doubt the sincerity and question whether Carl wasn't having one over on us. The climax might be memorable for its hilarious punchline but the rest of "Rag Doll" is patented high seas piracy stuff and makes me wonder if the gold bullion in the hull is running low.

EC adds "Chuckle" to its stable of exclamations

"Salvage"

Captain Ebenezer Bryson was a cold man, a man interested in only one thing: profits. When a particularly strong storm hits, Bryson searches for sinking ships to "Salvage," as recovering goods for a company equals large rewards. The crew of said sinking ship is not worth one cent to Bryson, so saving drowning men becomes an afterthought if there's time. Bryson's first mate, Hanson, loathes his captain's dark heart and, after watching an entire crew sucked down into Davy Jones' Locker with its ship, the young man swears Bryson will pay some day. That day does soon come, months later, as Captain Bryson finds his own ship capsizing in a storm and the rescuing ship is owned by none other than (wait for it) his former first mate. How many times in one story can Jack Oleck remind us that some men have a cold, cold heart and "as ye sow . . .?" A multitude of times, actually, and "Salvage" is proof. Six endlessly boring pages made tolerable only by B. Krigstein's nice penciling and cinematic style. Hands up, those of you who didn't guess that Captain Bryson would be the victim of his own villainy and the deliverer of justice would be his long-suffering first mate. You're all required to read this one again.

"Salvage"

"The Keg"

First mate Hurd recalls for a fellow crew-member just what made him a "queer" fellow. Long before, Hurd had been first mate on the China Queen, a ship maimed in a vicious hurricane, and watched as men became animals right before his eyes. The men face a long journey outside of shipping lanes without food or water and their only hope is "The Keg," a barrel of water kept in the Captain's quarters. However, the Captain refuses access to the keg and advises his first mate to keep his crew busy in order to divert their minds from thirst and hunger. Whispers become shouts of mutiny before too long and the men board a longboat in hopes of rescue, leaving the Captain to die aboard a burning ship. First mate Hurd remains on board and he and the Captain (keg in tow) escape in a dinghy before the China Queen sinks. All the while, the Captain refuses to give up his treasure until a half-mad Hurd strangles him and drinks from the keg, only to find it filled with salt water. A nicely ironic twist in the tail and some fabulous George Evans art make this the best story in a very weak issue of Piracy, but you have to wonder how Hurd got out of a conviction for murder. -Peter

Jack: I thought this was a solid issue, with four good stories and very strong art. "Jean Lafitte" is an interesting history lesson with the usual fine work by Crandall, but I found the ending a bit disappointing. "Rag Doll" is a very good story with some of the best Ghastly art I've seen outside the horror titles but, again, the end was something of a letdown. An intriguing moral question is presented in "Salvage" about the value of human life under maritime law; surprisingly, slaves are treated better than free men due to their value as property. Krigstein's art is above average for him and the choice to tell the entire last page of the story without showing any people is unusual. George Evans draws a great, wordless sequence near the end of "The Keg" that makes me realize that the use of color is often a strength of EC Comics and one we never mention.

Craig

M D 2

"The Balance"★★
Story by Al Feldstein?
Art by Reed Crandall

"Different"★★
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by Joe Orlando

"A Case for the Books"★★
Story by Al Feldstein?
Art by Graham Ingels

"Even for a While"★★1/2
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by George Evans

About as exciting as it
gets in "The Balance"

When young Bobby dies of leukemia, Dr. Lesser tells his parents, who are understandably upset. Mom runs down the hospital corridor and falls, causing the early onset of labor. Dr. Lesser rushes her to the operating room and delivers twins--a boy and a girl. He tells the parents that nature has restored "The Balance" to their family. Seriously? Their son just died and now they have twins so all is well? Kind of insensitive, if you ask me. Johnny Craig's cover is shadowy and atmospheric but Reed Crandall seems to have been unable to work up much enthusiasm for the first story in this thrilling issue of MD.

"Different" since birth, Herbie suffers from cerebral palsy and runs away from home. His father struggles to make enough money to meet the family's needs and doesn't understand Herbie's condition. A policeman finds Herbie and he is reunited with his parents. Herbie's father changes his mind about his son after a doctor explains the reason for the boy's condition, and the family moves near to a clinic where Herbie can get therapy and begin to learn to walk and talk more comfortably.

Joe Orlando actually does a good job of portraying the challenges faced by Herbie and his family, and Carl Wessler's script is unusually sensitive. The father at first seems like he'll be a stereotypically mean person but his heart opens to his troubled son once things are explained to him. I did not want to like this story but I ended up giving it some respect, though it's not a particularly good comic book tale.

Yes, he's 52
("A Case for the Books")

Gustaf Swenson is a middle-aged carpenter who suddenly discovers he's losing his sight. The doctor diagnoses ocular hypertension and Gustaf travels to New York, where a specialist does a delicate operation to save his vision. Realizing that his patient cannot pay his fee, the surgeon asks Gustaf to make him a bookcase in payment. "A Case for the Books" has a clever title and is not a bad little story, with art by Ghastly that fits the subject well. If only they didn't portray the 52-year-old Gustaf as if he were about 70!

Augie has a series of tests that reveal he has a brain tumor. His headaches are killing him, but his long-suffering mother stays by his side as they roll him into the operating room. The operation to remove the mass is long and difficult, but it is a success! Augie may have grown up bad, but he'll have some relief now--"Even for a While." Too bad he's scheduled to die in the electric chair in a few weeks!

What's the other con reading?
("Even for a While")

Carl Wessler must have realized that straight medical stories without any crime or horror were not going to cut it with the EC readership, so he shoehorned in a couple of panels of flashback to show us how Augie went bad and then he zings us with a pretty good twist ending. It's not enough to save the story (or the issue), but at least it's something different.-Jack

Page 4

Peter: It's a tough task to write a funny book story about diseases (even tougher to illustrate them), so the onus falls on the plot rather than the malady. Can the "sub-plots" and characters carry a story about a little boy afflicted with cerebral palsy? I almost feel like a heartless old codger offering up an emphatic "No, not in the case of MD" (or Empty as I like to think of it), but the yarns Al and Carl spin around their medical textbook research are as maudlin and cliched as a soap opera. All the boxes are ticked and happy endings are the order of the day (even Bobby's father offers up a glow while casting his eyes on his new twins and exclaiming, "A boy . . . to take the place of the one we . . . we lost . . . and the girl we've wanted . . . for so long!") and I have to wonder if I've seen too many episodes of Marcus Welby and Medical Center, or if these stories just suck. Take for example, the mean-spirited "Different," wherein Carl Wessler paints the portrait of a father so evil and cruel, you want to see him drawn and quartered (if only this were Tales from the Crypt!), only to watch in amazement, over the course of three panels, a total transformation into caring dad who will do anything to save his son, who's "been alone too much . . . too long!" What a load of happy horse . . .

um . . . still page 4

Panic 9

"Rx Migraine M.D. ★
Story by Jack Mendelsohn
Art by Bill Elder

"Drive In Movie!" 1/2★
Story by Jack Mendelsohn
Art by Jack Davis

"Zoo Charade" 1/2★
Story by Jack Mendelsohn
Art by Joe Orlando

"Bo Bummel" ★1/2
Story by Jack Mendelsohn
Art by Wally Wood

Soooo funny! ("Zoo Charade")

All that could be said about this issue of Panic has been said before. If I'd been Bill Gaines, I'd have either yanked the title off the schedule or found someone funny to write the damned thing. The parodies are achingly un-hilarious and "Drive-In Movie!," which stands in for the usual "Visit to (a public place)," is no better. By this time, even Bill Elder is being dragged down; his backgrounds and little side-signs are tired and lame. "RX Migraine M.D.," for those wondering, parodies the long-running newspaper strip, "Rex Morgan, M.D.," and "Zoo Charade" is a take on Zoo Parade, an early TV show starring Marlin Perkins, who later went on to fame and fortune on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. "Bo Bummel," of course, is Mendelsohn's variation on the then-recent film, "Beau Brummel," starring Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor. Like Bill Elder, Wally Wood looks like he's had enough of this crap and phones in one of his weakest art jobs ever. Though I'm 99.9% sure the original film had more laughs than Mendelsohn's version, "Bo Bummel" did feature the only panels in the entire issue that actually made me smile (below), and thus warranted my generous star-and-a-half rating. A really bad month for EC. -Patient Peter

"Bo Bummel"

Jack: Certainly a bad month for Panic, but has this dreadful title ever had what could be called a good month? I'm fond of Elder, but "Rx Migraine M.D." is just not funny. Every joke is obvious, like the nurse who is up to her neck in bills. Jack Davis turns in some decent Bigfoot-style art in "Drive In Movie!" and I'm nostalgic for the topic, but other than a return to references to John and Marsha there's not much to see here. More unpleasant art from Joe Orlando is featured in "Zoo Charade" and when the caged coyote asked "So what's so funny?" I could not answer. "Bo Bummel" adds "boring" to the list of adjectives used to describe this issue, and I agree with Peter about the weak job by Wally Wood, who is usually reliable.

"Rx Migraine M.D."

In just seven days . . .
Hard-hittin' battle tales
to wipe the taste of Panic from yer kisser!