Crime SuspenStories
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Crime SuspenStories was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The bi-monthly crime comic, published by Bill Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein, began with an issue cover-dated October-November 1950. Over a four-year span, it ran for 27 issues, ending with the February-March 1955 issue.
Behind attention-grabbing front covers illustrated by Feldstein, Johnny Craig, George Evans and Jack Kamen, each issue contained four stories centering around a wide variety of criminal activities. The stories were illustrated by Craig, Evans, Kamen, Wally Wood, Graham Ingels, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, George Roussos, Sid Check, Al Williamson, Fred Peters, Joe Orlando, Will Elder, Reed Crandall, Bernard Krigstein and Frank Frazetta. Issues 3 through 16 featured a guest appearance from The Haunt of Fear's Old Witch.
Crime SuspenStories displayed a noir-styled approach that differed from other crime comic books of the period. James M. Cain, Cornell Woolrich, radio's Suspense, Jim Thompson and other fiction in that vein were obvious influences on the Crime SuspenStories scripts by Craig, Feldstein, Carl Wessler and others. Two stories were adaptations from Ray Bradbury -- "The Screaming Woman" (issue 15) and "Touch and Go" (issue 17) -- with Bradbury receiving a billboard blurb on the front covers.
Johnny Craig was the lead artist for this title for the majority of its run, doing both the cover and the lead eight-page story. In 1954, Craig became editor of EC's The Vault of Horror. Since Craig was the slowest artist at EC, his new responsibilities forced him to drop his work on Crime Suspenstories. George Evans, Reed Crandall and Jack Kamen assumed the cover and lead story responsibilities for the rest of the run.
This was one of five titles voluntarily killed by publisher Bill Gaines in 1954 due to the increasing controversy surrounding horror and crime comics. Four stories were used in HBO's Tales From The Crypt television series: Two For The Show (Issue 17), In The Groove (Issue 21), This'll Kill Ya (Issue 23), and Maniac At Large (Issue 27).
[edit] Issue guide
| # | Date | Cover Artist | Story | Story Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oct/Nov 1950 | Johnny Craig | Murder May Boomerang | Johnny Craig |
| Death's Double-Cross | Wally Wood | |||
| A Snapshot of Death! | Graham Ingels | |||
| High Tide! | Harvey Kurtzman | |||
| 2 | Dec/Jan 1951 | Johnny Craig | Dead-Ringer! | Johnny Craig |
| A Moment of Madness! | Graham Ingels | |||
| The Corpse in the Crematorium | Johnny Craig | |||
| Contract For Death! | Jack Kamen | |||
| 3 | Feb/March 1951 | Johnny Craig | Poison! | Johnny Craig |
| The Giggling Killer | Harvey Kurtzman | |||
| Faced With Horror! | Wally Wood | |||
| Blood Red Wine! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 4 | April/May 1951 | Johnny Craig | Backlash! | Johnny Craig |
| Premium Overdue! | Jack Kamen | |||
| Conniver! | Jack Davis | |||
| Heads-Up! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 5 | June/July 1951 | Johnny Craig | The Sewer! | Johnny Craig |
| Mr. Biddy... Killer! | Jack Davis | |||
| The Guillible One | Jack Kamen | |||
| Partially Dissolved | Graham Ingels | |||
| 6 | Aug/Sept 1951 | Johnny Craig | A Toast... To Death! | Johnny Craig |
| Out of My Mind! | Jack Kamen | |||
| The Switch | George Roussos | |||
| Jury Duty! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 7 | Oct/Nov 1951 | Johnny Craig | Hatchet-Killer! | Johnny Craig |
| Revenge! | Jack Kamen | |||
| Phonies | Jack Davis | |||
| Horror Under the Big Top! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 8 | Dec/Jan 1952 | Johnny Craig | Out of the Frying Pan... | Johnny Craig |
| A Trace of Murder! | Jack Kamen | |||
| The Escaped Maniac! | George Roussos | |||
| Parnership Dissolved! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 9 | Feb/March 1952 | Johnny Craig | Understudy to a Corpse! | Johnny Craig |
| Medicine! | Jack Kamen | |||
| Cut! | Jack Davis | |||
| A Tree Grows in Borneo! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 10 | April/May 1952 | Johnny Craig | ...Rocks In His Head! | Johnny Craig |
| Lady Killer | Jack Kamen | |||
| Missed By Two Heirs! | Jack Davis | |||
| Friend To 'Our Boys'! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 11 | June/July 1952 | Johnny Craig | Stiff Punishment! | Johnny Craig |
| "One Man's Poison!" | Jack Kamen | |||
| Two For One! | Jack Davis | |||
| Four For One! | Jack Davis | |||
| A Fool and His Honey Are Soon Parted! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 12 | Aug/Sept 1952 | Johnny Craig | The Execution! | Johnny Craig |
| Murder the Lover! | Jack Davis | |||
| Murder the Husband! | Jack Davis | |||
| Snooze To Me! | Jack Davis | |||
| Paralyzed! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 13 | Oct/Nov 1952 | Johnny Craig | Hear No Evil! | Johnny Craig & Jack Kamen |
| First Impulse! | Sid Check | |||
| Second Chance? | Sid Check | |||
| A Question of Time!! | Al Williamson | |||
| Forty Whacks! | Jack Kamen | |||
| 14 | Dec/Jan 1953 | Johnny Craig | Sweet Dreams! | Johnny Craig |
| The Perfect Place! | Jack Kamen | |||
| The Electric Chair | Fred Peters | |||
| The Hangman's Noose | Fred Peters | |||
| The Guillotine | Fred Peters | |||
| Private Performance | Graham Ingels | |||
| 15 | Feb/March 1953 | Johnny Craig | When the Cat's Away... | Johnny Craig |
| The Screaming Woman! | Jack Kamen | |||
| Water, Water Everywhere... | George Evans | |||
| ...And Not A Drop to Drink | George Evans | |||
| Hail and Heart-y! | Graham Ingels | |||
| 16 | April/May 1953 | Johnny Craig | Rendezvous! | Johnny Craig |
| Fission Bait! | Jack Kamen | |||
| COme Clean! | Al Williamson | |||
| Who's Next! | Joe Orlando | |||
| 17 | June/July 1953 | Johnny Craig | Touch and Go! | Johnny Craig |
| One For the Money... | Jack Kamen | |||
| Fired! | Al Williamson & Frank Frazetta | |||
| ...Two For the Show! | Bill Elder | |||
| 18 | Aug/Sept 1953 | Johnny Craig | Fall Guy For Murder | Johnny Craig |
| Juice For the Record! | Bill Elder | |||
| Frozen Assets! | Jack Kamen | |||
| From Here to Insanity | Reed Crandall | |||
| 19 | Oct/Nov 1953 | Al Feldstein | The Killer | Reed Crandall |
| Wined-Up! | George Evans | |||
| Murder May Boomerang | Johnny Craig | |||
| About Phase | George Evans | |||
| 20 | Dec/Jan 1954 | Johnny Craig | Fire Trap! | Johnny Craig |
| The Welchers | Jack Davis | |||
| Double Jeopardy | Jack Kamen | |||
| Plane Murder | Reed Crandall | |||
| 21 | Feb/March 1954 | Johnny Craig | Mother's Day | Reed Crandall |
| In The Groove | Jack Kamen | |||
| Understudies! | Johnny Craig | |||
| Blood Brothers | George Evans | |||
| 22 | April/May 1954 | Johnny Craig | In Each And Every Package | Reed Crandall |
| Monotony | Bernard Krigstein | |||
| Cinder Block | Jack Kamen | |||
| Sight Unseen | Joe Orlando | |||
| 23 | June/July 1954 | George Evans | This'll Kill You! | Reed Crandall |
| Standing Room Only | Jack Kamen | |||
| Return Blow | Reed Crandall | |||
| Last Resort | George Evans | |||
| 24 | Aug/Sept 1954 | George Evans | Double-Crossed | Reed Crandall |
| Crushed Ice | Jack Kamen | |||
| Food For Thought | Joe Orlando | |||
| More Blessed to Give... | Bernard Krigstein | |||
| 25 | Oct/Nov 1954 | Jack Kamen | Three For the Money | Jack Kamen |
| Dog Food | Reed Crandall | |||
| Key Chain | Bernard Krigstein | |||
| The Squealer | George Evans | |||
| 26 | Dec/Jan 1955 | Jack Kamen | The Fixer | Jack Kamen |
| Dead Center | Joe Orlando | |||
| The Firebug | Reed Crandall | |||
| Comeback | Jack Kamen | |||
| 27 | Feb/March 1955 | Jack Kamen | Maniac At Large | George Evans |
| Just Her Speed | Bernard Krigstein | |||
| Where There's Smoke... | Jack Kamen | |||
| Good Boy | Graham Ingels |
[edit] Reprints
Crime SuspenStories has been reprinted in its entireity a couple of times. The series was fully collected in a series of five black-and-white hardbacks (also available together as a slipcased set) by Russ Cochran in 1983 with annotations by mystery writer Max Allan Collins. Between November 1992 and May 1999, Cochran (in association with Gemstone Publishing) reprinted the full 15 individual issues.
In January 2008, as part of Gemstone/Cochran's EC Archives series of hardcover color reprints, the first six issues of saw print as "Crime SuspenStories Volume 1", with a foreword by Max Allan Collins.
