Impact #1 ['white' title edition (Charlton printing)]

(March-April 1955)

The Punch Bowl (Table of Contents: 1)

foreword, introduction, preface, afterword / 1 page (report information)

Script

Al Feldstein

Pencils

?

Inks

?

Letters

typeset

First Line of Dialogue or Text

This magazine, "IMPACT," is the first of five E.C. "New Direction" publications.

Reprints

• in Impact (Russ Cochran, 1988 series) (1988)
• in Impact (Gemstone, 1999 series) #1 (April 1999)

Indexer Notes

Message from The Editors.

Tough Cop (Table of Contents: 2)

comic story / 5 pages (report information)

Script

Carl Wessler

Pencils

Reed Crandall

Inks

Reed Crandall

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Massive! That is a classy word for a plainclothes cop I know...

Genre

drama

Reprints

• in Impact (Russ Cochran, 1988 series) (1988)
• in Impact (Gemstone, 1999 series) #1 (April 1999)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #35 - The Bitter End and Other Stories (January 2024) [Reprinted in black and white.]

Indexer Notes

Runyonesque story

Thirty Dollars (Table of Contents: 3)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

?

Inks

?

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

typeset

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Few, if any, fight fans remember Dave Baker.

Genre

drama

Reprints

• in Impact (Russ Cochran, 1988 series) (1988)
• in Impact (Gemstone, 1999 series) #1 (April 1999)

The Diamond Pendant (Table of Contents: 4)

comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

Guy de Maupassant (story); Carl Wessler (adaptation)

Pencils

Graham Ingels (signed as Jig)

Inks

Graham Ingels (signed as Jig)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

There was a time when things were good for us...

Genre

drama

Characters

Larry Horton (death); Millie Horton (Larry's wife); Julia Banfield (Millie's friend); Mr. Allerton (Larry's boss); Alfred Burwell (Larry's uncle); Whitley (jeweler's department head); Mr. Hawley (dress manuafacturer)

Synopsis

Larry and Millie are invited to a posh party at his employers home, but Millie is upset because the couple can't dress than fancy for it. Finally agreeing, she insists on wearing her friend's diamond pendant to the affair and Larry's boss, Mr. Allerton, is very impressed. However, somehow Millie loses the pendant and when the couple go to the jewelers to get a copy made, they discover the copy will cost $17,000. Larry's uncle agrees to loan them the money and they work hard to pay it, only to find out years later that Millie had borrowed a paste imitation!

Reprints

• in Impact (Russ Cochran, 1988 series) (1988)
• in Impact (Gemstone, 1999 series) #1 (April 1999)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #29 - Accidents and Old Lace and Other Stories (January 2021) [Reprinted in black and white.]

Indexer Notes

Adapted from the Guy De Maupassant's 1884 story titled "The Necklace".

Some of the story is told in flashback.

This story was Ingel's first post-horror Ghastly and his first New Direction story.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 5) (Expand) /

promo (ad from the publisher) / 2 pages (report information)

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 6) (Expand) /

advertisement / 1 page (report information)

The Dress (Table of Contents: 7)

comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

Al Feldstein ?

Pencils

George Evans (signed as G. Evans)

Inks

George Evans (signed as G. Evans)

Colors

Marie Severin

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

The other boarders were leaving the room silently...

Genre

drama

Characters

Mr. Kress (coroner); Martin Paulson; Agatha Donald (Janie's aunt); Janie Donald (death)

Synopsis

Martin Paulson tries to convince the coroner that Aunt Agatha was the killer of Janie instead of her dying from over-excitement. From the very beginning, young Janie wanted to wear her grandmother's dress, but Aunt Agatha would not allow her to and punished the young girl, all at the urging of Paulson. Then, after the death of Janie, Agatha revealed the true reason for not allowing Janie to wear the dress.

Reprints

• in Impact (Russ Cochran, 1988 series) (1988)
• in Impact (Gemstone, 1999 series) #1 (April 1999)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #30 - A Slight Case of Murder and Other Stories (April 2021) [Reprinted in black and white.]

Indexer Notes

This story was Evan's first illustrated story to appear on one of EC's "New Direction" magazines.

Some of the story is told in flashback.

Master Race (Table of Contents: 8)

comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

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

Pencils

Bernie Krigstein (signed as B. Krigstein)

Inks

Bernie Krigstein (signed as B. Krigstein)

Colors

Bernie Krigstein ? (see notes); Marie Severin ?

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

You can never forget it, can you, Carl Reissman?

Genre

drama

Characters

unnamed concentration camp survivor; Carl Reissman (villain, Belsen Concentration Camp Commander, death); Adolf Hitler (villain, in flashback); The Nazis (villains, in flashback)

Synopsis

At the end of World War 2, the commander of Belsen Concentration Camp fled across Europe and to America, always fearful of a lone camp inmate who threatened to find Reissman and make him pay for the atrocities that occurred in the camp during the war. His greatest fear is realized while riding a train and coming face to face with that inmate.

Reprints

• in EC Horror Library of the 1950's (Nostalgia Press, 1970 series) (1970)
• in Der beste Horror aller Zeiten (BSV - Williams, 1973 series) (1973)
• in Den store skrækbog (Williams, 1974 series) ([1974])
• in Horreur - une anthologie en bandes dessinées (Williams France, 1974 series) (2e trimestre 1974)
• in EC Portfolio (Russ Cochran, 1971 series) #6 (1977)
• in A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics (Smithsonian Institution / Harry N Abrams, 1981 series) (1981)
• in Impact (Russ Cochran, 1988 series) (1988)
• in From Aargh! to Zap! Harvey Kurtzman’s Visual History of the Comics (Simon and Schuster, 1991 series) (1991) [Pages reduced in size.]
• in Impact (Gemstone, 1999 series) #1 (April 1999)
• in B. Krigstein (Fantagraphics, 2002 series) #1 (2002)
• in Nemi (Hjemmet / Egmont, 2003 series) #23 ([mars] 2005)
• in Beaux Arts hors-série (TTM Editions, 2009 series) #12 (2010)
• in MetaMaus (Flammarion, 2012 series) (janvier 2012) [splash page and page 7]
• in Messages in a Bottle: Comic Book Stories by B. Krigstein (Fantagraphics, 2013 series) (April 2013), (April 2013) [Page 8, panel 11 only]
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #21 - Master Race and Other Stories (March 2018) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in We Spoke Out: Comic Books and the Holocaust (Yoe Books, 2018 series) (2018)
• in Choke Gasp! The Best of 75 Years of EC Comics (Dark Horse, 2019 series) (2019)

Keywords

Belsen concentration camp; Holocaust

Indexer Notes

Script credit from "Tales of Terror!" by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.

Marie Severin stated in a 1986 interview that she didn’t color many of Bernard Krigstein’s stories, and that she thought he colored his own art: http://www.tcj.com/an-interview-with-marie-severin/. But she also talked about the difficulty of coloring Krigstein’s art, which suggests that she did color at least the occasional Krigstein story or cover. GCD’s colors credits reflect that this story may have been colored by Krigstein, or by Severin.

This story was originally a 6-page one, but Krigstein felt that length was inadequate and wanted to expand it to 12 pages. Bill Gaines said no to that, but he eventually agreed (with Feldstein) on 8 pages. Krigstein was paid $43 per page for this story.

Some of the story told in flashback.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 9) (Expand) /

advertisement / 4 pages (report information)