Shock SuspenStories #12

(December 1953 - January 1954)

Deadline (Table of Contents: 1)

comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Jack Kamen (signed)

Inks

Jack Kamen (signed)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

You stand and you listen to the din of chattering typewriters...

Genre

crime

Characters

Phil Mason [aka Paul in the opening blurb] (newspaper editor); Annie (Larry's love interest, wife of diner owner); Stan (newspaper reporter); Mike (diner owner); Larry Grieg (villain, ex-newspaper reporter)

Synopsis

An alcoholic ex-reporter tries to get back on his feet after meeting a girl, and his old boss says he can have his job back if he brings in a story. While sitting in a diner he hears violence occuring in the next room, and the diner owner comes out and confesses to murder. Larry thinks he's found his story and takes down all the details, then checks on the girl and discovers two things about her: she is still alive and she is the girl he had met earlier!

Reprints

• in E.C. Classic Reprint (East Coast Comix, 1973 series) #3 (1973)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Russ Cochran, 1981 series) #2 (1981)
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #3/1991 (uke 16 1991)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Gemstone, 1994 series) #12 (June 1995)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #31 - Three for the Money and Other Stories (December 2021) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in The EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Letterer credit per Russ Cochran and added by Craig Delich 2013-12-12. Feldstein reports that Wroten used a K & E Lettering Stylus to do all the lettering with.

Script revisions by Craig Delich.

The Monkey (Table of Contents: 2)

comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Joe Orlando (signed)

Inks

Joe Orlando (signed)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

I sprawl face downward on the sweat-soaked iron bed of a dismal cheap hotel room...

Genre

crime

Characters

Sue Minner (drug user); Mr. Clements (Eddie's boss); Eddie's unnamed father (death); Eddie's unnamed mother; unnamed narcotics officer; Sid Scanlon (villain, drug dealer); Eddie (villain, drug addict)

Synopsis

A drug addict murders his father in order to get his fix.

Reprints

• in EC Lives! (Ron Barlow, 1972 series) (1972)
• in E.C. Classic Reprint (East Coast Comix, 1973 series) #3 (1973)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Russ Cochran, 1981 series) #2 (1981)
• in Les Meilleures Histoires de... (Les Humanoïdes Associés, 1983 series) #[3] - Suspense (1983)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Gemstone, 1994 series) #12 (June 1995)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #19 - The Thing from the Grave and Other Stories (October 2017) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in The EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Drug story.

Letterer credit per Russ Cochran and added by Craig Delich 2013-12-12. Feldstein reports that Wroten used a K & E Lettering Stylus to do all the lettering with.

Script revisions by Craig Delich.

Cover story.

Last Laugh! (Table of Contents: 3)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script

Al Feldstein

Pencils

Marie Severin (spot illustration)

Inks

Marie Severin (spot illustration)

Colors

Marie Severin ?

Letters

typeset

First Line of Dialogue or Text

When the plane reached 70,000 feet...

Genre

crime

Characters

Major Clagg [aka "Chuckles"] (airplane pilot, death)

Synopsis

Major Clagg was a parachute corps pilot that liked to take real risks when parachuting from a plane, and every feat he accomplished was accompanied by a practical joke of some kind. His crowning gag was to drop a life-sized doll from a plane before he himself parachuted out. Unfortunately, the Major forgot one important thing during that final exploit: to don his parachute!

Reprints

• in Shock Suspenstories (Russ Cochran, 1981 series) #2 (1981)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Gemstone, 1994 series) #12 (June 1995)
• in The EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Shock Talk (Table of Contents: 4)

Shock Talk / letters page / 1 page (report information)

Letters

typeset

Reprints

• in Shock Suspenstories (Russ Cochran, 1981 series) #2 (1981)
• in The EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

The Editors publish a series of letters from readers, who responded to the stories found within issue #10.

The Kidnapper (Table of Contents: 5)

comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Reed Crandall (signed)

Inks

Reed Crandall (signed)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Daniel sat nervously upon the bed in their squalid tenement apartment beside his pale smiling wife...

Genre

crime

Characters

Daniel (death); Teresa (Daniel's wife); unnamed son of Daniel and Teresa; Frederick (neighbor of Daniel and Teresa)

Synopsis

A man's baby is kidnapped and when his wife's mental health grows so bad that he desperately attempts to steal another baby, he is beaten to death by a crowd of onlookers for attempting to kidnap...his own son.

Reprints

• in E.C. Classic Reprint (East Coast Comix, 1973 series) #3 (1973)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Russ Cochran, 1981 series) #2 (1981)
• in Gysertimen (Interpresse, 1987 series) #5 (13. november 1987)
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #5 [1988] (uke 29 1988)
which is reprinted
• in Iskalde Grøss pocket (Semic, 1996 series) #2 ([november] 1996)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Gemstone, 1994 series) #12 (June 1995)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #15 - The High Cost of Dying and Other Stories (February 2016) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in The EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Letterer credit per Al Feldstein and added by Craig Delich 2013-12-12. Feldstein reports that Wroten used a K & E Lettering Stylus to do all the lettering with.

Script revisions by Craig Delich.

Fall Guy (Table of Contents: 6)

comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Wally Wood (signed as Wood)

Inks

Wally Wood (signed as Wood)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

The police sirens shrieked to a stop far below in the street canyon...

Genre

crime

Characters

Helen (Danny's girl); unnamed diamond merchant; Danny Jansen [aka Brad Gilbert] (villain, hotel clerk, thief)

Synopsis

A hotel clerk steals $100,000 from a diamond merchant and then rents a safety deposit box years in advance under the name 'Brad Gilbert'. He serves 15 years for the theft, then meets with the girl who promised to wait for him because she wants the money. Unable to remember the name he used, the girl berates his inability to recall the name, and he slashes her face with a steak knife. As the police close in on him, he jumps off a roof, clutching at letters of a sign, and, as he lies dying on the pavement, he sees the remaining neon letters spell out 'Brad Gilbert'.

Reprints

• in E.C. Classic Reprint (East Coast Comix, 1973 series) #3 (1973)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Russ Cochran, 1981 series) #2 (1981)
• in Les Meilleures Histoires de... (Les Humanoïdes Associés, 1983 series) #[3] - Suspense (1983)
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #2/1993 (uke 15 1993)
• in Shock Suspenstories (Gemstone, 1994 series) #12 (June 1995)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #2 - Came the Dawn and Other Stories (August 2012) [black-and-white reprint]
• in The EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Letterer credit per Russ Cochran and added by Craig Delich 2013-12-12. Feldstein reports that Wroten used a K & E Lettering Stylus to do all the lettering with.

Script revisions by Craig Delich.

Loosely based on "The Debt Collector" by Maurice Level.