The EC Archives: Shock SuspenStories Volume 1

The EC Archives

by Al Feldstein (Editor), Steven Spielberg (Foreword), William M. Gaines

This beautifully bound hardcover reprints the first six complete issues (24 stories) of the comic book Shock SuspenStories, originally published in 1952. Includes stories by William Gaines & Al Feldstein, with art by Jack Kamen, Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, Graham Ingles, and Wally Wood. Featuring a foreword by Steven Spielberg this book looks back at some of the edgiest and best written stories in comic history.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction, Crime, Fiction

212 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 2016

About the author

Albert Bernard Feldstein was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine Mad. After retiring from Mad, Feldstein concentrated on American paintings of Western wildlife.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how these stories had more variety than most of the EC collections. Shock SuspenStories each had 4 stories, a crime, science fiction, horror, and "shock" story that was typically a social commentary on things like racism. The book looks great too, it's been recolored based on Marie Severin's original colors.

Received a review copy from Dark Horse and Edelweiss.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to review a collection like this. There are so many interesting stories in these pages, and I don't have the time, nor the energy to do each justice. Shock Suspenstories was a sampler comic that pulled stories from different genres into the same magazine. You've got your horror stories, your crime stories, your sci-fi stories, the occasional (but rare) war story, and then you've got your shock stories - a whole new phenonomenon for EC in this mag. I guess I'll limit my little review to the shock stories herein, though the sole war story "Yellow!" was one of my favorites, showing that EC was way ahead of Hollywood, lightyears ahead of television, and probably even tackling more important issues than mainstream fiction at the time. All of that from a comic that was doomed to an early death at the hands of the US government - what a sad affair that all was.

"The Patriot!" the first ever shock story, in issue 2 is a wonderfully ironic tale of patriotism that hits as hard today as it did in the 50s. Who's that commie without the flag lapel pin? Let's beat him up. You know the mentality, and it has existed in this country for some time now.

"The Guilty!" deals with small town racism in a sort of abbreviated To Kill a Mockingbird way. The sheriff's men, so hateful, and the honest reporter so Atticus Finch like in his thick glasses and suit, make this story iconic. To have read this piece when it was published must have been quite a shock.

"Confession" tackles police corruption and shows the brutality, the torture and force the cops can use to get that covetted confession. With Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib fresh in our minds this story bites - in a good way.

"Hate!" is a little less jarring, and a little less realistic. Maybe this kind of anti-semitic activity doesn't happen any more, but I just know if it ever did, not quite like this.

"Under Cover!" was just kind of odd. I guess the KKK is everywhere.

The art by Jack Kamen, Joe Orlando, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, and Graham Ingels is some of the best in comics. Feldstein was always a bit wordy with his writing, but these artists created some of the most evocative images of all time.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

EC really pushed the limits with some of their stories and art. Nice collection of some of their more intense comics. Recommended

[Jammin Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these reprints of those old EC Comic Books. This one focused on Shock SupenStories, one of my favorite genres. I have to find these in print and add them to my Christmas wish list! I received an e-ARC of this book by the publisher via Edelweiss. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid collection. I guess if you know anything about old comics, you should already know about the classic EC comics. It goes without saying that they're great. Not quite timeless, but well written regardless. My biggest problem with Shock Suspenstories is the format. The stories in this magazine run the gamut. All types of stories include horror, crime, social commentary, war stories. Unlike a lot of other magazines in the line, there was no specific theme. So just when you adjust to tone of one story, the next is completely different. Other readers would love this, but the shifting tones made this hard for me to want to keep reading. I like the other titles in the EC line much more.

[Sylvester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shock SuspenStories volume 1 felt more like a social commentary of the 50s. Some of the stories were great but then you get some campy ones about supernatural horrors.

[Isidore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know we are supposed to genuflect before the EC horror line, but I find Feldstein's predictable, formulaic plotting and overbearing captions (at the top of nearly every panel) very tiresome; believe it or not, I think there is greater variety and imaginative range even in the work of the much-derided writers at Charlton comics. Yes, the EC art is wonderful, but I wonder what reappraisals might result if it were possible to see the work of other artists from other publishers so well-reproduced as here; alas, we'll never know.

[Berna Labourdette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Qué maravilla son estos cómics de EC. No han perdido un ápice de su maravilla, están dibujados de manera excepcional y en breves páginas logran crear historias de terror, ciencia ficción y fantasía inolvidables. Imposible para mí no mencionar mis dos favoritas de esta volumen: la recién casada que debía poner todas las posesiones de su marido en SU lugar y la del ladrón que hace un juego de llaves extra para poder robar una tienda. 

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first six issues, nicely reproduced in a good size in colour--and for once, the new computer colouring shows some respect for the original, making minimal use of the graded tones so currently popular yet so unfitting for meterial not designed for it; it also avoids the muddiness of tone that curses so many computer colour jobs. As always with EC, the real highlight is the art, rather than the generally predictable and wordy stories. There's excellent work here from Jack Davis especially, as well as Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels, Joe Orlando, and Wally Wood (though the colour seems least effective on the Wood, for some reason). Often shocking and cutting-edge at the time--especially the Shock stories specifically, which self-consciously tackled social ills such as racism, police brutality and so on--many of these have not dated terribly well, with their "twist" endings telegraphed and their prose far from subtle. Still, a handsome collection and a good way to access this material, if you've never seen it before.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

More so than anything else I've read, this collection of classic EC tales is an early precursor to the Twilight Zone. Each story is a different genre (war, crime, sci-fi, horror) but all have a twist ending and a clear a moral center from which the story operates. In particular, a few of the stories controversially dealt with various forms of bigotry and hatred as it was fomenting in the United States in the late '50s (where Jim Crow was still alive among other things) and therefore was groundbreaking and revolutionary for a 10 cent comic book. It was an excellent collection to read through and while still enjoyable in the same vein as Tales from the Crypt or Weird Fantasy, there was a greater purpose at work with these stories which makes them valuable entries in the collection of Americana and literature.

[Deacon D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd showcase featuring horror, sci-fi, crime, and war stories, all with those legendary EC twists.

Some decent (if dated) tales.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

EC Comics collects the first 6 issues of Shock SuspenStories, originally published in 1952, as part of its EC Archives editions. Included with the stories are the editor’s columns and letters page as well as the ads that ran in the original editions. The influence of these stories can be seen in so many comics, movies, books and TV over the last 50 years.

Shock SuspenStories served as EC’s “sampler” comic. It contained horror, crime, science fiction, and war stories. In addition, they also included another category: the “shock” story. These tackled social issues from racial injustice in the southern United States to the Red Scare. I’m no comic historian, but these, to me, are eons ahead of their time than other 1950’s comics in the message of tolerance. Of course, to live up to the billing of being a “shock” story, many aspects are bluntly and crudely portrayed, but with only 7 or 8 pages to work with, I’m sure the reading audience didn’t mind the intrusion of a political viewpoint in their horror stories.

Even at it’s silliest – and there are some silly stories in here – there’s always at least one panel of artwork in each story that is just amazingly presented. The larger size of this hardback with glossy paper in full color really brings the artwork home. There’s even a short essay about the innovative lettering style some of the EC artists employed.

Many of the stories rely on the twist or surprise ending, many of which are telegraphed way ahead of time, mostly because in the last 50 years, this method has been copied many times over. Regardless, it’s always fun to get there. This collection is essential reading for any comic book fan.

[Nicholas Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gorgeous, full-color omnibus collects six issues of SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES, hokey thrillers in the inimitable EC style. Each tale comes with a twist ending that might have been original and startling in the 1950s but is now more likely to elicit embarrassed giggles and eye rolls than shivers. Most of the twists come in the form of karmic comeuppance: A bear hunter with a bear skin rug in his cabin is killed by a bear and turned into a human skin rug -- Noooooooo! Some twists, oddly, require no punishable transgression on the part of the characters and seem to come out of the blue just to be mean: A man accidentally contacts a beautiful alien woman on his monitor screen, over time they talk and fall in love, she finally crosses the galaxy to be with him on Earth, and it turns out she's actually 200 feet tall -- Noooooooo! Of more interest are the morality plays that appear in each issue, EC-style, twist-ending examinations of thorny societal topics like police brutality, violent nationalism, and racial and religious bigotry. In one, an anti-Semite and his friends harass, beat up, and ultimately kill a Jewish couple who move into his neighborhood, only to discover he himself is adopted and actually Jewish, at which point his friends turn on him and beat him just like they did to the couple -- Noooooooo! The earnest hokeyness is part of the charm of revisiting these old comics, of course, and fans of the twist-in-the-tale style of suspense and horror will get a kick out of this collection. The introduction by Steven Spielberg, who grew up as a nerdy kid who loved the escapism of reading EC comics, is quite touching.

[Nate]

Shock SuspenStories launched in 1952 when most EC Comics titles had a already been going for a few years. The series was intended as a sampler of different types of stories - crime, sci-fi, horror - all with the usual EC shock endings. Most intriguing about Shock SuspenStories is that for the first time EC tackled subjects like racial prejudice, religious intolerance, and blind nationalism. Those stories are the best here, and the most fascinating (the letters pages are also an illuminating look into how these stories were received). Bill Gaines and co. we’re certainly ahead of their time in confronting these subjects head-on. It’s great stuff.

The rest of the stories are pretty good. There are some wild crime stories here, mostly about murderous spouses, and the horror ones are all solid - that one about the orphanage is legitimately freaky. There’s a single war story, in issue one, that makes me want to check out EC’s war titles. I’m not big on the sci-fi stories, if only because they’re all a bit similar, and rather goofy. One thing I can say is that the art across the board is excellent. Wally Wood (who draws most of the topical stories) and Joe Orlando rise to the top, but every artist delivers. All told, this is one of the more interesting EC titles, because of its variety and topical stories.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Come, now! Remember! This is an E.C. Magazine!"

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some years ago I read the book The Ten Cent Plague, which was all about the history of EC and horror/crime comics and the resulting panic about what these terrible comics were doing to our impressionable youth! I had up until that point read very few of the EC comics proper, let alone the many copycats--my experience was mostly limited to having seen a few episodes of Tales from the Crypt, and I read one reprint of their science fiction stories (a Gladstone reprint).

This summer I decided to take a peek at some of the other titles, and the Shock SuspenStories seemed the best way to go since they were created as a grab-bag to showcase the variety of EC's comics at the time. Thus each issue contains stories from several genres, including one crime SuspenStory, one horror SuspenStory, one science fiction SuspenStory, and sometimes a war SuspenStory. If it doesn't have a war SuspenStory, it will have a "shock SuspenStory"--in the volume I got, these were pedantic tales against bigotry, racism, and etc.

My impressions:

I love the art. It is really detailed and expressive, with fantastic backgrounds and character details. The women tend to look pretty similar, though, and sometimes I kind of wished for the wider set of expressions that can be afforded a more cartoony style, since the art here tends to be of the more realistic mold.

The writing is unfortunately pretty weak in my opinion. Of course as with many comics of this time period, all the stories are heavily narrated, with a focus on dialogue. It's almost like reading short stories rather than comics (and there are some all-text short stories in every issue). Given that each story is very short, and all of them must have a shock/twist ending (that's why they are called SuspenStories!), there is little room usually for interesting characters. Most of the characters are frankly boring, with not much for quirks or humanity since everything is spelled out for us in the narration. Occasionally I found some characters amusing or with bits of personality, but not very often.

And I did genuinely enjoy some of the stories for what they were. One of my favorites involved an intergalactic romance between a sort of dorky dude and a space babe that culminates in a ridiculous reveal that the woman is over two hundred feet tall. However, many if not most of the stories follow a pattern, and it becomes easy to guess where the story is going pretty quickly. A dude who likes to skin bears gets skinned by a bear, a dude who pulls the petals from a daisy gets his limbs pulled off by a tree, a bunch of fur traders get captured and skinned by aliens. Most of the stories tended to be grotesque regardless of genre, and even though I have been kind of jaded by the horror films and comics and the like of today, I still found myself cringing sometimes at some of the events of the stories.

The Shock SuspenStories are a bit different from the others in that they often have overt morals which are sometimes even spelled out in the story themselves. So one story deals with prejudice against Jewish people, another with prejudice against blacks, another with the hysteria against communists. The stories still tend to be a bit brutal, but are so simplistic and pedantic that their power as stories felt a little blunted--at least for my tastes. (I got a little tired of the Shock Talk columns patting themselves on the back for their Shock SuspenStories, too, even though they tried to print both positive and negative letters, and most of the letters focused on these "Shock" stories.)

Anyway, while I wish the stories overall could have been a bit more substantial, I definitely still had fun reading through these books and getting a bit more of a taste for the comics of yesteryear. And while I realize that there has been a great deal of inflation since then, it's hard not to wish I could get a full year's subscription to a comic book for seventy five cents today!

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reprints Shock SuspenStories #1-6 (February 1952-December 1952). There are many horrors in the world. While some horrors involve monsters and ghosts, others involve man. From officers afraid to fight in a war to lustful wives with wandering eyes, danger comes in many forms. The horror and fantasy can shock and amaze…but the danger could be right in front of you!

Written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein, The EC Archives: Shock SuspenStories—Volume 1 is a Dark Horse Comics reprint of the classic 1950s EC horror, sci-fi/fantasy series. Featuring art by Jack Kamen, Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, Graham Ingels, and Wally Wood, the issues have been collected multiple times and in multiple forms.

While EC series are iconic, I hadn’t really read any of them. I watched Tales from the Crypt and other similar anthology series (and stories from this volume were featured in the show), but I had never gone back and read the classics…which are arguably comics that changed the direction of comics forever.

While Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror might get more attention because of gore and guts, Shock SuspenStories feels like it could be a bit more important of a title. The series frequently dives in to what would now be labeled as “social justice”, which is ironic since comic books and other mediums are often thrown around as “things that should stay out of politics”. Shock SuspenStories dove right into it in the 1950s despite being a medium for kids.

In general, the books are solid, but the social issues are some of the better and more memorable stories of the collection because they feel just as relevant today. “The Patriots” in Shock SuspenStories #2 (April 1952) has a mob of Americans attacking a man who seems to sneer at Korean War vets. The man is killed for being a Communist but it is revealed that he is a vet himself whose scarring received in fighting for the country didn’t allow him to smile. “The Guilty” in Shock SuspenStories #3 (June 1952) features a Black man accused of killing a White woman. He is presumed guilty, beaten, and eventually shot in the back by the sheriff who forces him to run…only to be proven innocent. Shock SuspenStories #5 (October 1952) features “Hate!” which involves a group of men who end up killing a Jewish family while trying to force them out of the neighborhood. One of the men discovers he is adopted and Jewish himself…and faces the same treatment. The final issue in the collection Shock SuspenStories #6 (December 1952) has a reporter trying to bust the Klan…and failing miserably. What is shocking about these stories is their self-awareness for the time and the fact that the men largely go unpunished for their actions in the course of the story. The collection also smartly includes letter pages which demonstrate how some of the stories were received.

With stories like these and stories which include dirty cops framing innocent people, the stories of gore and more typical horror and serial killers seem to fall by the wayside. These stories probably scared parents more than having their kid see severed heads and guts. Unfortunately, the series also feels just as contemporary today as it felt then. Proving that problems like these don’t just “go away” and often resurface in different forms and different means. Shock SuspenStories is a great read and worth picking up in a great, clean, neat format. The EC Archives: Shock SuspenStories—Volume 1 is followed by The EC Archives: Shock SuspenStories—Volume 2.

[Paul Sutter · Rating 5 out of 5]

EC Comics, while being one of the more controversial comic companies in the world, managed to present many stories that were a cut above the usual. While competitors like DC and Timely (later becoming Marvel) had superheroes as the main selling points for their titles, EC stayed away from the genre. Their lines of comics were focused more on war, horror, science-fiction and fantasy.
But of course most would be familiar that some of the horror titles were deemed far too graphic for youth, and a rebellious audience including a psychologist tried to drum them out of business. There was a U.S. Senate subcommittee that investigated them and pretty well forced them to discontinue many of their titles such as Tales From The Crypt.
In SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES, while the stories are graphic in nature, there is very little actual horror shown. But what makes these comic so relevant, was the fact they were not afraid to tackle popular subjects of the day which included racism and misunderstanding others were Deemed different. The foreword to the book is penned by none other than Steven Spielberg who says that comics and B movies were an important part of his childhood. He loved the escapism that the comics provided. In this first volume, issues 1 through 6 of Shock Suspenstories are presented, with original editorials, reader’s letters and ad for other EC titles. Starting off with the The Neat Job, we meet a rather nasty husband who treats his wife badly by berating her every chance he got. He wanted her to do things according to his rules and if she differed from them, he let her know how useless she was. She gets the last laugh in a most shocking and ghoulish manner.
There are so many standouts here in the book, too many to mention in detail, but they definitely should be read by anyone who loves a vintage series of comics with a moral. The Patriots is another must view, as people viewing a parade start to taunt and then beat up a man at a parade. The man does not smile at the parade nor show any emotion. People in the crowd call him “A Commie,” and think he does not belong. They kill him as his wife arrives, and tells them he was a Korean war veteran, victim of a bomb that disfigured his face and made him blind. It definitely causes a lump in your throat and possibly moisture in your eye.
If you want a quality comic filled with emotion, drama, some violence and horror, this one is definitely an EC Comics treat that you will never forget.

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course I knew the reputation of EC horror comics before I read this. From my first watch of Comic Book Confidential as a kid I knew that these effectively forced censorship onto comics because EC kept pushing the boundaries of what they could get away with. But I was not prepared in any way for quite how extraordinary these stories are

The first issue is pretty standard schlock - some of the stories are genuinely scary, some are absurd and some are just outright daft. The black comedy is the dominant tone for that first issue but then as the six issues contained here keep going you realise that essentially they’re using schlock as a way to get the readers in. Because then EC gets angry. And I mean really angry. At least one story per issue confronts racism or police corruption or anti semitism or blind prejudice face on. And I mean face on. No fannying about with metaphor or euphemism, just full on targeting of hatred. And then, as the real kicker, they out all the readers who are offended by this in the letters pages

I’ve got a bundle of these now to go through and what I’m interested in seeing is how much this tone continues. It’s very cleverly constructed, these absolutely forthright attacks on prejudice or corruption among the daftness. It’s like giggling away at some dumb campfire story and then breaking out the story of Emmett Till and watching the goofy grins drain from the audience. Obviously a great deal of the creative minds behind EC were Jewish, so I think that the intent to confront these things was very deliberate. The question is was the censorship a direct attempt to counter this, under the guise of moral panic? Because if so that’s a narrative that REALLY needs telling

Obviously the writing and art is astounding, and I particularly enjoy the little horror vignettes, but as a whole these things are fucking extraordinary. It’s as if they knew they’d never keep getting away with this so decided to go all out while they could. Extraordinary stuff

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is described as an EC sampler, with four stories - one sci-fi, one horror, one crime and one war. Pretty early on, the war stories are dropped and Al Feldstein, that old lefty, started dishing out the legendary EC "preachies." Although they lack subtlety, it must be considered that in their time, such outrageously racist and bigoted behavior was - if not accepted - certainly more apparent.
They tackle race relations, communist "sympathizers," Jewish neighbors and more. Plus, the the sci-fi, horror and crime stories frequently hinge on the unfairness of man to fellow man.

Great, great stuff, very smartly written, and beautifully illustrated. I've read the claim that most modern comics don't come up to the standards of these 50-year-old gems, and I'm now seeing how true that claim really is.

Highly recommended.

[Joaquin del Villar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se trata de una recopilación de los primeros números de la revista, en general, superior calidad que otras publicaciones de la EC. Especialmente me han gustado las historias terroríficas con trasfondo de ciencia ficción. Respecto a los dibujante, destacaría sobre todo a Wally Wood. De las historias The Patriot es una sorprendente historia donde la amenaza es la muchedumbre que asiste a un desfile, esta historia la he visto publicada bastantes veces en español. The Big Stand up es una historia de ciencia final con un toque romántico, el final realmente sorprendente.Uppercut una historia de boxeo, con un entrenador sin escrúpulos, con un notable dibujo de Jack Davis. En general entretenidas historias, con una pincelada (o un brochazo) de toque bizarro que las hace encantadoras.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's amazing how well these old stories from the 1950s stand up. Just like the old episodes of The Twilight Zone many of these stories are sharp and poignant today. A few fall into the standard tales from the Crypt shlock of an unhappy couple where one of the partners has an obsession with something that drives them near to bankruptcy, then the partner snaps and kills their spouse in some ironic manner. But these are few and far between. Mostly they are hard and brutal, dealing openly with racism and prejudice. The story that the cover relates to takes on the Klan - without naming them. My favorite is "Coward" where an army general has to order the execution of his own son for desertion under fire.

[Brett Feinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better than some of the other EC Collections because it had more of a variety of genres making them seem less formulaic than some of the other collections.

One thing that is eye-opening about this collection is how socially progressive EC was for its time. There are stories that discuss nationalism, racism, anti-semitism and other social ills in ways one might not normally expect for the time of its printing.

Well worth a read if you are interested in short graphic stories with twist endings.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent stories. Not a massive scfi fan but i did enjoy some of these stories. Tales from the crypt is by far the best EC Archives ever did! These are a very good second!!

Some stories are based on the prejudice of race and religion. I hope your not easily offended! Personally i believe that those stories were not only good but i suppose is a bittersweet way more real and believable. Which is scary in itself!

[Wayne Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of stories from the EC archives and featuring a good mix of genres. The most surprising and best of the stories are those tackling subjects like rascism, anti-semitism, police corruption and the KKK - all of which were probably quite controversial at the time they were printed and, sadly, are still relevant today.

[Ezma · Rating 4 out of 5]

EC Comics are always a good time. Each issue shuffles between four genres, which gives you some variety in the ridiculous twists, grisly gore and dark humor. The titular Shock SuspenStories are the standout, though, with blunt social commentary about racism, antisemitism, and police brutality. 70 years later and these still feel relevant.

[thomas wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speaks to the times these stories were written

This vol is more serious than the other series in the collection. Focusing on hate and prejudice along with the red scare. Besides that I recognize two stories that were adapted on the tales from the crypt show.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some of the stories are pretty silly, the social commentary ones; The Patriots, The Guilty!, Confession, Hate!, and Under Cover, hold up really well.
Dealing with topics that America continues to struggle with, the above stories show that EC was way ahead of its time as far as content.

[Davide Pappalardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

These comics are a real treasure. Mature and even confrontational stories for their time dealing with crime, horror, sci-fi, and even social issues. One could find them a bit dated, but to me it’s part of the charme.

[Zebulynn Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

classic EC

These guys do not disappoint. These are definitely stories you wish would go on forever. Its really neat how its not just one genre but a combination of every one.