art by Jack Davis, story by Al Feldstein
Shock SuspenStories #2 (1952)
Interesting political story from EC, clearly a response to the whole "Red Scare" of the early 1950s America, as a crowd watches a parade of soldiers just returned from Korea. Some of the crowd react negatively to one man, who seems to have a sneer on his face as the soldiers go by, and then doesn't remove his hat as the American flag goes past. They decide he must be some sort of America hating communist foreigner, and start beating him, proud of their defense of their nation. Unfortunately, the man's wife soon returns and reveals he was an injured member of the army unit that just passed by, whose face was reconstructed so his smile looked like a sneer, and who was blinded in the war so couldn't see the flag.
A well intentioned story, I guess, but it does seem to side step the fact that the crowd would have been just as wrong killing the guy if he had been an America hating communist foreigner.
I think this little sotry i REALLY powerful. I was astounded when I read this...
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