(December 1950-January 1951)

EC, 1950 Series
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Volume
1
Price
0.10 USD
Pages
36
Indicia Frequency
bi-monthly
On-sale Date
1950-08-22
Publisher's Age Guidelines
Authorized A. C. M. P. Conforms to the Comics Code
Indicia / Colophon Publisher
L. L. Publishing Co. Inc.
Brand
EC An Entertaining Comic
Editing
Al Feldstein (credited as Albert B. Feldstein) (associate editor); Bill Gaines (credited as William M. Gaines) (managing editor)

Issue Notes

The on-sale date is the publication date reported in U. S. Copyright Office filings. Catalog of Copyright Entries, Periodicals, July-December 1950, page 187, registration number B259141.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents)

cover / 1 page (report information)

Script
Al Feldstein ?
Pencils
Johnny Craig (signed)
Inks
Johnny Craig (signed)
Colors
? (see notes)
Letters
Jim Wroten
First Line of Dialogue or Text
Please... please don't hit me!
Genre
crime
Reprints
Keywords
automatic pistols; blackjacks; bondage; torture

Indexer Notes

Letterer credit by Craig Delich.

Colors were previously attributed to Marie Severin, but it is unlikely that Severin had begun coloring at EC when this issue was colored (Cassell 2012, 33–34 and 171).
_________
Reference:

Cassell, Dewey, with Aaron Sultan. 2012. Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress of Comics. Raleigh: TwoMorrows Publishing.

Cover Thumbnail for Crime SuspenStories (EC, 1950 series) #2
Edit cover
Cover gallery

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 1) (Expand) /

promo (ad from the publisher) / 1 page (report information)

Dead-Ringer (Table of Contents: 2)

comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script
Johnny Craig (signed)
Pencils
Johnny Craig (signed)
Inks
Johnny Craig (signed)
Colors
? (see notes)
Letters
Jim Wroten
First Line of Dialogue or Text
No! No! Don't kill me!
Genre
crime
Characters
Charles Roberts (millionaire, death); Terry Roberts (Charle's wife); Paul (Terry's lover); Charle's law partners; Robert's look-alike (villain, death); trio of crooks (villains)
Synopsis
A petty thief learns that his virtual double, a millionaire, is an amnesia victim residing at a local sanitarium, and plans to somehow get into the sanitarium, dispose of the rich man and take his place, then suddenly come out of his amnesia state, and assume the man's identity. But all is not as rosy as the man supposes......and pays for it with his life!
Reprints
Keywords
Reflector (newspaper)

Indexer Notes

Cover story.

Colors were previously attributed to Marie Severin (see Indexer Notes for this issue’s cover, above).

A Moment of Madness! (Table of Contents: 3)

comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script
Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)
Pencils
Graham Ingels
Inks
Graham Ingels
Colors
? (see notes)
Letters
Jim Wroten
First Line of Dialogue or Text
Read this story, and learn what horrors a man can commit in...
Genre
crime
Characters
Dr. Ralph Bently (brain surgeon, death); Diane Sanger (Bentley's sweetheart); a hobo (death); Cargile (a doctor)
Synopsis
A noted brain surgeon is experiencing blackouts, which cause him to unconsciously commit acts of violence during his blackouts.
Reprints

Indexer Notes

Colors were previously attributed to Marie Severin (see Indexer Notes for this issue’s cover, above).

Perfect Murder! (Table of Contents: 4)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script
Al Feldstein
Pencils
? (spot illustration)
Inks
? (spot illustration)
Colors
?
Letters
typeset
First Line of Dialogue or Text
Flenson twisted the knob in his powerful fingers...
Genre
crime
Characters
Schumacher (villain, partner of Flenson, death); Flenson (villain, partner of Schumacher, death)
Synopsis
Flenson confronts his partner Schumacher, who had been bilking their company out of money for months, and informs the man that he was going to commit suicide. Before that happens, Schumacher dies of a heart attack.......but the dead partner unwittingly gets his revenge!
Reprints
Keywords
Schumacher-Flenson Company

Face-to-Face (Table of Contents: 5)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script
Al Feldstein
Pencils
? (spot illustration)
Inks
? (spot illustration)
Colors
?
Letters
typeset
Genre
crime
Characters
Monsieur Phillipe (death); Haywood; man with a scar (villain)
Synopsis
Haywood is to deliver a brief case of papers to a Monsieur Phillipe, whom he had never seen. When the transfer was to be made, Haywood discovered too late he had made a grievous error!
Reprints
Keywords
Orient Express (train)

The Corpse in the Crematorium (Table of Contents: 6)

comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script
Johnny Craig (signed)
Pencils
Johnny Craig (signed)
Inks
Johnny Craig (signed)
Colors
? (see notes)
Letters
Jim Wroten
First Line of Dialogue or Text
A living man, being carried into the great coke furnace of a modern crematorium...
Genre
crime
Characters
Al Gregory (an artist); Jane Walton (Al's fiancee)
Synopsis
A man subject to cataleptic fits is brought to a crematorium while his wife-to-be searches frantically for him. She fails to find him before he is scheduled for cremation, but what saves him is that the attendant notices beads of sweat forming on his brow before the gaping maw of the blast furnace.
Reprints

Indexer Notes

Story foreshadows a 1955 Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV episode titled "Breakdown," wherein Joseph Cotten plays a paralyzed man lying on a morgue slab mistaken for a dead body (episode directed by Hitchcock).

Colors were previously attributed to Marie Severin (see Indexer Notes for this issue’s cover, above).

Contract for Death (Table of Contents: 7)

comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script
Al Feldstein ?
Pencils
Jack Kamen (signed)
Inks
Jack Kamen (signed)
Colors
? (see notes)
Letters
Jim Wroten
First Line of Dialogue or Text
It was after midnight!
Genre
crime
Characters
Dr. Robert Cordoz (death); Vincent Fenton (suicide prone man, death); Ann (Fenton's girlfriend)
Synopsis
A doctor, conducting experiments on the human brain, comes across a man attempting suicide, and offers him $5000 not to do so........for one month. The contract is signed and money given, and the man goes out and lives it up. But he meets a girl and then Vincent tries to renege on the deal....with dire consequences: for both the man and the doctor!
Reprints
Keywords
The Star-Courier News

Indexer Notes

Plot adapted from Damon Runyon's story, "A Very Honorable Guy," featured as part of the 1989 film "Bloodhounds of Broadway."

Colors were previously attributed to Marie Severin (see Indexer Notes for this issue’s cover, above).

Editing
Issue at my.comics.org
Related Scans
Series Information
Table of Contents
  1. 0. ["Please... please don't hit me!"]
  2. 1. ["Look for this seal..."]
  3. 2. Dead-Ringer
  4. 3. A Moment of Madness!
  5. 4. Perfect Murder!
  6. 5. Face-to-Face
  7. 6. The Corpse in the Crematorium
  8. 7. Contract for Death
This issue was modified by, among others
  • David B
  • Chris Boyko
  • Craig Delich
  • Bill Devine
  • Jerry Hillegas (R.I.P.)
  • Michael Hoskin
  • R. S. Martin
  • Tony R. Rose
  • Jason Sacks
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