EC - Destruction of the Earth (Feldstein)

Destruction of the Earth
by Al Feldstein
Weird Science #14[#3] (1950)

A scientist who helped develop the atom bomb approaches some government officials to warn them about the consequences that his calculations show for their upcoming hydrogen bomb test, which you can guess from the title of the story.  They dismiss his concerns and head down to the test in the Bikini Atoll.  Does not go well.

It's a little dry but well illustrated, with some interesting scenes, and a nice little twist in the last panel.

EC - The Sounds From Another World (Kurtzman)

The Sounds From Another World
by Harvey Kurtzman
Weird Science #14[#3] (1950)

Story swiped from a 1949 Roald Dahl short story "The Sound Machine", Kurtzman does a great job bringing the story to life.  It's about a scientist who is obsessed with building a machine that detects sounds beyond the limits of human perception. Hearing mysterious screams he investigates and begins to suspect that the only source must be the suffering plant life. Some great faces on a descent into madness by Kurtzman, and also the framing sequence is an original extrapolation of the Dahl story.

EC - Split Second! (Kamen)

Split Second!
art by Jack Kamen, story by Al Feldstein
Shock SuspenStories #4 (1952)

Steve Dixon, the mean-spirited boss of a remote lumber camp marries beautiful big city singer Liz and brings her to live at the camp, even though he doesn't allow any of the lumberjacks to bring their wives to live there.  She's soon bored and starts to cause trouble, but the lumberjacks know enough to avoid her.  Ted, a new young kid joins the camp, impressing everyone with his chopping skills which they hope will win them the upcoming big lumberjacking tourney.  Liz also sets her sights on him, bringing on the wrath of her husband. This leads to the usual revenge plot from the other lumberjacks.

Pretty story with the usual sexy woman, rugged men and lush backgrounds from Kamen, but the story is a bit cruel and doesn't age too well.

EC - Old Soldiers Never Die (Wood)

Old Soldiers Never Die
art by Wallace Wood, story by Harvey Kurtzman
Two-Fisted Tales #23[#6] (1951)

A story set in France in the last few months of World War I, as veteran American soldier Pappy Davidson tries to impart some of his hard won experience on recent replacement Caruso.  Two page vignettes for each month from August to November as they withstand attacks from air, artillery and gas until they finally get to the end of the war.

Very nice story, Kurtzman and Wood were always a good combination, with good attention to detail, using silent panels and sound effects well and even adding a few touches of humour to the overall messiness of war in the trenches.

EC - Wreck of the Hesperus (Wood)

Wreck of the Hesperus
art by Wallace Wood, story by Harvey Kurtzman
Mad #16 (1954)

For this story Harvey Kurtzman went pretty far afield from his usual parody targets in the movies and comics and took on the mid-19th century narrative poem "The Wreck of the Hesperus" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Most the the poem is presented as written by Longfellow (minus at least one overtly religious verse) as the captions, while Kurtzman and Wallace Wood treat it all with irreverence in the pictures and dialogue.

Among the highlights is the rather goofy look of the captain's daughter,  the "old sailor" being drawn as Popeye and the constant confusion of the word "billows" with "pillows".  Special mention to letterer Ben Oda, who pretty much handles a page and a half solo with mostly sound effects in the panels.

EC - Pirate Gold (Kurtzman)

Back when I used to post more frequently on this weblog, a regular feature was a series of posts about the EC comics of the 1950s.  A listing of those posts is over here (though it looks like some of the image links are broken). Anyway, with the recent news that we're finally going to get a series of EC reprints I can really get behind, creator/genre themed rather than full issue reprints, I thought I might restart them, and see how far I can get before the new reprints start.

Pirate Gold
by Harvey Kurtzman
Two-Fisted Tales #20[#3] (1951)

The first book that the new reprint series will be rolling out will be devoted to Harvey Kurtzman's stories for TWO-FISTED TALES and FRONTLINE COMBAT, specifically those he wrote and drew himself and those drawn artists other than his regulars like Jack Davis, Wallace Wood and John Severin (usually with Will Elder), who will get their own books.  That includes this Kurtzman solo story, "Pirate Gold", an historical adventure set around 1800 about a man found drifting at sea, with only vague memories of who is. Eventually, with great anger and violence he puts it all together and jogs his memory, and heads out in search of vengeance and treasure.

Still very early Kurtzman, I'd say he hadn't quite found his voice yet (and in TWO-FISTED would really find it when doing war stories rather than adventure yarns like this). His art has advanced beyond his writing at this point, especially the layouts which have a few clever bits.

EC - The Thing In the 'Glades (Williamson)

The Thing In the 'Glades
art by Al Williamson, story by Al Feldstein
Tales From the Crypt #31[#15] (1952)

This is an early story from Al Williamson for the EC books, featuring drama deep in the everglades.  It's his only story for CRYPT, as he was mostly in the sci-fi/fantasy books.

A sheriff investigating some bloody bodies found deep in the woods, obviously not killed by an animal.  There are some rumours about the old hermit Ezzard, and some strange noises from his cabin, but no evidence.  With another body comes an eyewitness, enough to get Ezzard to admit to the existence of his secret deformed son.

All that leads to a violent chase, ending sadly in quicksand.  Kind of a sad story, since the kid really is an innocent victim of some horrid parenting.

Some really gorgeous work by Williamson on this one, with the lush setting, especially in the chase on the last few pages (and as previewed in the splash image).

EC - The Hungry Grave (Ingels)

The Hungry Grave
art by Graham Ingels, story by Gardner Fox
Crypt of Terror, The #19[#3] (1950)

Some early EC horror here, one of a handful of stories written for the line by Gardner Fox.

Ida's been out of love with her husband Ed for a while, and been slowly poisoning him with arsenic, but didn't have the nerve to go all the way until Jim came along, with the foolproof idea of emptying out a grave and using it to dispose of the body (I'm not quite clear on why they can't just dispose of the body where they hide the body of the person they take out of the grave, saving a lot of digging if nothing else). Unfortunately for them, Ida's gradual poisoning has built up Ed's immunity to arsenic, so he's still alive. They decide to try again the next day.

When Jim shows up, he finds no one home except for a body in a bag, which he takes and buries, surprised a bit when it starts to moan, but going through with the act of burying it alive. Not surprisingly to anyone who's read more than three EC comics in their life, he gets an unpleasant surprise when he goes back to celebrate with Ida. Two unpleasant surprises if you count the ax...

So, yeah, crime doesn't pay, or something like that.  Some nice early Ingels work here, a little bit rough around the edges compared to his later work (and this particular printing is kind of dark), but the panel of Jim surprised by the moaning body in the grave is an excellent example of his work.

EC - A Little Stranger! (Ingels)

Haven't done one of these in a while...

A Little Stranger!
art by Graham Ingels, story by Al Feldstein
Haunt of Fear #14 (1952)

A nice little bit of horror narrated by the Old Witch, and appropriately (you'll see why by the end of the story) Ingels really goes to town with her opening half-page portrait. In this story some violent deaths show signs of both vampire and werewolf attack, vexing the villagers until they realize that this must be the ultimate horror, the two creatures stalking the night together. And right they are, as we see the couple, Elicia and Zorgo, and we see Zorgo's dreams of their first meeting.

Of course, things can't last forever for the star cross'd lovers, and they're soon captured by the villagers and buried in the Devil's Graveyard. Unfortunately, I guess the villagers weren't up on their monster killer lore, since the creatures are alive as they ever were, and attended by the various ghouls and corpses of the graveyard they wed, and a year later arrives their daughter, who of course would grow up to be the Old Witch.

In 1953 we would find out that the Crypt-Keeper is the child of a mummy and a two-headed corpse who fell in love in a side show. I don't think the Vault-Keeper ever got an origin, did he?

Anyway, a couple of great images by Ingels in this one, in addition to the Witch's portrait opening the story, the wedding scene in the ruined old cemetery is just loaded with atmosphere.

EC - Sinking of the Titanic (Wood)

Sinking of the Titanic
art by Wallace Wood, story by Al Feldstein
Weird Science #6 (1951)

No big surprises in this vintage EC science fiction story. A scientist manages to perfect a time machine, and his thoughts go back to the day when he was six years old...

...and lost his parents on the Titanic, only barely surviving himself thanks to a stranger taking him from his mother and putting him on a lifeboat. Yeah, you know at least one of the twists already. He goes back to 1912 and books a trip on the ship, meeting his parents and his younger self. In trying to prevent the crash into the iceberg, he ends up causing it, and just manages to save his younger self before sinking beneath the waves with his guilt. Wow, both predictable twists in one.

Some pretty good work by Wood, especially in the lush depiction of the sunken ship on the title page and the weird "flashback in the head" like in the panel above.

EC - Horror House (Craig)

Horror House
by Johnny Craig
Vault of Horror #15[#4] (1950)

As part of this seemingly never ending series of posts on EC stories, one of the things I get reminded of is that they aren't all gems. Case in point...

This early little bit by Craig has a writer who, for some reason, finds his house the party destination for all his friends, keeping him from making his deadlines. So he takes off for the country and buys an old house that is rumoured to be haunted. His writing goes great, until his friends track him down, hoping to lure him back to the city. Their logical plan is to convince him his house is haunted by rigging various gimmicks. After he's scared off, his friends encounter the real ghosts, and are either killed or driven crazy. Yeah, definitely not a gem, and Craig's earlier art never knocks me out either.

EC - Custer's Last Stand (Wood)

Custer's Last Stand
art by Wallace Wood, story by Harvey Kurtzman
Two-Fisted Tales #27[#10] (1952)

Kurtzman and Wood present a story from the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, popularly known by the title of the story. The tale is told from the perspective of one of Custer's men, and except for some narration and a word balloon on both the first and last pages it's entirely told in thought balloons presenting the soldier's view of what's happening and why as the story progresses.

Kurtzman does a great job of capturing the frustration of the common soldier swept up in what he knows is a lost cause for sake of the glory of others, doing a great job with the words. Wood meanwhile really seemed to get into the subject matter, and does some of the most lush and detailed illustrations of his early career. When the soldier has to look down at an attack from "all the Indians in North America", that's near to what Wood actually drew. This kind of makes me wish that New Trend era EC had a dedicated western title, instead of scattered stories like this, just so we'd have seen a lot more tales of this kind.

EC - Child of Tomorrow (Feldstein)

Child of Tomorrow
by Al Feldstein
Weird Fantasy #17[#5] (1951)

Post-nuclear funnies provided by Feldstein this time, as Jerry has the luck of spending some time exploring an underground mine as the US faces a saturation attack of nukes (but manage to completely wipe out the enemy). His girl Linda was also among the survivors, but he has to leave her behind, pregnant, when he's sent on job to find uranium in South America. Unfortunately, everyone else quickly starts dying from delayed effects of the nukes, leaving Jerry to make his way back to the US alone, where he finds the city full of strange mutants, where he's the only "pre-Atomic: left alive, and is warned about crazy violent two-headed mutants.

One of those two-headed mutants turns out to be... well, you can figure it out from there, I'm sure. Very clear, straightforward work from Feldstein that gets really creepy in the last few pages.

EC - Starchie (Elder)

Starchie
art by Will Elder, story by Harvey Kurtzman
Mad #12 (1954)

Kurtzman and Elder turn their satirical eye towards the Archie comics line in this issue, playing off the "typical teen-ager" wholesome comics selling point of the line by having the characters engaging in all manner of "typical" behaviour including brutal violence, drinking and crime.

A lot of weird little gags in this one, and Elder really outdoes himself on the background details (including literal "chicken fat". Is this the origin of the term?) and in general combining his style with the Archie house style. Surprisingly that depiction of the girls isn't actually much more exaggerated from how they were often shown in actual Archie comics.

Of course, Kurtzman and Elder would return to the Archie well again a few years later with the even more outrageous Goodman Beaver story "Goodman Goes Playboy" for HELP, and that time it would raise the legal attention of Archie.

EC - Master Race (Krigstein)

Master Race
art by Bernard Krigstein, story by Al Feldstein(?)
Impact #1 (1955)

"Master Race" is one of the most famous EC stories of all. As has been related in many places, Krigstein asked and received permission to expand the original six page story to eight pages (hence CRIME SUSPENSTORIES #26 having a cover clearly meant for this story by Jack Kamen, with another one by Jack Davis for this issue). Krigstein pulls out lots of tricks to make it a more effective story, most notably the unique way of showing movement of the train with a repeated images, and using multiple small panels to control the pacing

The story itself is also very effective. From what I gather, even at this late date a decade after the end of WWII, images of what exactly happened in Europe, the concentrations camps, gas chambers and mass graves, weren't exactly common in American popular culture, so this chronicle of the rise of the Nazis, documenting their crimes and downfall, while still bold and chilling now was much more so then. It's also, if you don't know that much about the story going in, one of the best twist ending reveals in EC history.

Read more about the story in Martin Jukovsky's essay.

EC - The Escaped Maniac (Roussos)

The Escaped Maniac!
art by George Roussos, story by Al Feldstein
Crime SuspenStories #8 (1952)

This is one of the handful of stories Roussos drew for EC in the early 1950s. It has a story being told by a driver who picks up a hitchhiker in the rain on a lonely road. As they drive, radio alerts come on about a dangerous escapee from a nearby hospital for the criminally insane. The hitchhiker is afraid the driver thinks that he's the maniac, and tries to convince him otherwise.

You know where this is going, of course. One of the weaknesses of reading the stories knowing that there's going to be a twist ending, and there's really only one twist possible. Still, a well told version of a predictable tale.

EC - Things From Outer Space (Feldstein)

Things From Outer Space
by Al Feldstein
Weird Science #12[#1] (1950)

Typical paranoid twist story from Feldstein in this early "New Trend" issue, as a scientist and his assistant go to check out a mysterious crater, where they find traces of radioactivity and a sample of a strange metal. Going to a local farmhouse, the occupant reveals himself to be part of an alien race that's infiltrating humanity.

The alien attacks the scientist, but the assistant gets away. Unfortunately no one believes her story, right up to the Secretary of Defense, and she's declared insane. Of course, we see that the Secretary and other men also have third eyes, and are part of the alien infiltration.

Not one of the greats of the EC line, but a good early effort. Biggest problem was the that visuals were just too bland, nothing really exciting about offices and men in suits, even with three eyes.

EC - Death Stand (Davis)

Death Stand
art by Jack Davis, story by Harvey Kurtzman
Two-Fisted Tales #23[#6] (1951)

A rather downbeat story of the Korean War, as a group of American soldiers see one of their pilots eject just inside enemy territory. They set out in two jeeps, but one of them is quickly knocked out, and there isn't room in the remaining one for all of them, so fatalistic old Joe stays back to give them cover. Unfortunately they're an easy target for an enemy tank, and get knocked off the road, but Joe avenges them.

Only one of the men in the jeep remains alive by the time Joe gets there on foot, and even he dies soon after observing the irony of the situation, just in case you missed it.

One of Kurtzman's lesser stories, but Davis' energetic art is always a pleasure.

EC - Outpost (Severin/Elder)

Outpost
art by John Severin & Will Elder, story by Jerry De Fuccio
Two-Fisted Tales #33[#16] (1953)

De Fuccio just wrote a handful of comic stories for EC back in the comic book days, though he did also write a lot of the text pages, and later became one of the mainstays of MAD MAGAZINE. What I've read of his stories are entertaining, although sometimes, as in this story, he tends to go overboard trying to get accents down on paper. This story is set with the British army on the Afghan border in the late 19th century, and the Sergeant in the story has lines like "Kape out av this lad's way... or git me fist betune the eyes". Kind of hard to read with a straight face sometimes.

Anyway, this story has the tough-as-nails Sergeant being asked to keep an eye on a young private, the son of the friend of his commander, who tries hard but just doesn't seem to have the makings of a soldier thanks to his Oxford eduction. The Sergeant gives him some words of advice on standing his ground, so that when the boy is attacked while on lookout he manages to defeat his opponents.

The story's a bit... gung-ho, I guess might be the word, a marked contrast to Kurtzman's more introspective and humanist approach to war stories that the EC books featured most often, but has some good bits in the script when you get past the accents, and some great artwork.

EC - The Rug (Ingels)

The Rug!
art by Graham Ingels, story by Al Feldstein
Shock SuspenStories #1 (1952)

Rather odd little morality play with a twist ending about an experienced hunter taking his novice friend up on a bear-hunting trip, bragging about his bearskin rug and promising to get his friend one of his own. They're able to kill a large bear, but the non-hunter friend finds it all barbaric.

 
That night, the hunter hears a noise outside, and when he goes to investigate gets attacked by a giant grizzly, and when his friend investigates the noise, he finds the hunter has been skinned and turned into a rug. No real explanation for why a bear would do that, just one of those twists that they needed to finish the story. And bears are godless killing machines.

Not one of the better Ingels horror stories, as there's not much of an opportunity for grotesque horror until the end, and that image doesn't quite have the impact you'd expect from him.