Today in Comics History, March 21: Happy birthday, Al Williamson!

Born on this day in 1931: Al Williamson, comics artist on the Flash Gordon and Secret Agent X-9 strips, EC's Valor, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, Warren's Creepy and Eerie, the Star Wars comic strip and book, and the proverbial many, many more!


text page from Crime SuspenStories (1950 series) #17 (EC, June 1953)

Today in Comics History, October 24: Happy birthday, Al Feldstein!

Born on this day in 1925: comic book writer, editor, artist and cover designer Al Feldstein (Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Weird Science-Fantasy, and many more) and executive editor of MAD magazine from 1956 to 1985. As the kid standing before the poster of superheroes said, wow!


from Crime SuspenStories (1950 series) #10 (EC, April 1952), text by Al Feldstein (signed as Wm. M. Gaines)

Today in Comics History, August 4: Back in the fifties, paneling the living room was more complicated than you think

from "Frozen Assets!" in Crime SuspenStories (1950 series) #18 (EC, August 1953), co-ploy and script by Al Feldstein, co-plot by Bill Gaines, pencils and inks by Jack Kamen, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten

Today in Comics History, February 22: Breathe Deep the Gathering Gloom

"Air-Tight!" in Crime SuspenStories (1950 series) #6 (EC, August 1951), text by Al Feldstein

Today in Comics History, December 5: We now return to Plot Convenience Newspaper, already on sale

from "About Phase" in Crime SuspenStories #19 (EC, October 1953), co-plot by Bill Gaines, co-plot and script by Al Feldstein, pencils and inks by George Evans, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten

Today in Comics History, October 3: Happy birthday, Harvey Kurtzman!

Born on this day in 1924: the great Harvey Kurtzman, cartoonist and editor, founding editor of MAD, Humbug, and Help!, and writer/artist on so many great EC Comics and Timely's "Hey Look!".




from Harvey Kurtzman's Strange Adventures (Marvel/Epic (!), 1990), art by Harvey Kurtzman

Today in Comics History, July 13, 1953: Fight communism! Read comics!

from Crime SuspenStories #25 (EC, October 1954), script by Lyle Stuart and Bill Gaines, pencils and inks by Jack Davis, letters by Ben Oda

Today in Comics History, June 17: Happy birthday, Wally Wood!

Born on this day in 1927: comics artist, writer, publisher Wally Wood, one of EC's greatest creators (Weird Fantasy, Weird Science, Tales from the Crypt, Shock SuspenStories, Two-Fisted Tales, Aces High and others) and a major figure at Marvel (Daredevil, Astonishing Tales, Tower of Shadows, more), DC (All Star Comics, The Unexpected, All-American Men of War, etc.), Warren (Creepy, Ererie, Blazing Combat, Vampirella, others) and in commercial art. He co-created Stilt-Man, THUNDER Agents and NoMan, Tigra, Power Girl, the Ani-Men, Sally Forth and Cannon — plus the famous "22 Panels That Always Work"!


from "Flight into Fear!" in Tower of Shadows #5 (Marvel, May 1970); script, pencils, and inks by Wally Wood; letters by Sam Rosen

Today in Comics History, June 7: Happy birthday, Graham Ingels!

Born on this day in 1915: "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, magazine and comics illustrator, best known for his macabre work on the EC Comics horror books like The Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt, and The Vault of Horror!


from Haunt of Fear #10 (EC, November 1951), text by Al Feldstein

Today in Comics History, April 1: April Fool around and find out

As we saw last night, the night of March 31 (HINT HINT HINT), scientist Victor Gattling has turned himself into the police for murdering his best friend and co-worker Joe, startling all the boys in blue, especially when Vic tells them Joe murdered him first! How could such a thing even be possible?!? Well, first, it's a tale from an EC comic. Second...


from "This'll Kill You!" in Crime SuspenStories #23 (EC, June 1954), script by Otto Binder, pencils and inks by Reed Crandall, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten
Joe fell and accidentally injected Vic with Hypno-Helio-Static-Stasis (containing X-4) Virus Y-44-Gamma, so you'll expect he's about to turn into Victor-Hulk. Sadly, no, it just means what it means in the real world: Vic's gonna die. No antidote, no tomorrow, no picnic in the park this Saturday, no seeing the opening of The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters in a few weeks, even though it's sure to be the #1 box-office draw for the entire summer blockbuster season.

Notably, Joe's all broken up about it. So, for slightly better reason, is Vic.


Knowing you have only 24 hours to live, what would you do? Make peace with your family? Go speak to a minister? Eat all the cookies you could possibly hold? Naw, not Vic. He goes back later to the lab and murders Joe todeath with a microscope! (A small crime, then. They oughta let him slide for that. certainly none of his actions could magnify his crime. Um...ah...microscope!)


Still, after that amoeba-disturbin' murder, Vic comes to his senses and realizes he's going to have to live the rest of his life (less than 24 hours) with that guilt. He drags Joe's body to the police station — geez, there wasn't a trolley in that lab? — and confesses to the crime. But what can they do to him? Vic will die anyway (checks watch)...slightly less than at the beginning of this paragraph.


Give yerself a gold star or a No-Prize or one of the coverted EC Irony Awards if you, the reader, has sussed out exactly what happened and what day this is happening...


Good Lord! Choke!

Today in Comics History, March 31: Man is clearly unaware of his story's clever twist ending.

It's "the end of March"...begins this EC Comics story with a dead man and his murderer, a man who is about to die! What fresh heck is this?!


from "This'll Kill You!" in Crime SuspenStories #23 (EC, June 1954), script by Otto Binder, pencils and inks by Reed Crandall, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten
We'll find out the rest tomorrow, won't we, boils and ghouls! (cackles evilly like the Crypt-Keeper, begins to choke, coughs for a few moments, clears my throat) I'm so sorry.

Today in Comics History, February 9, 1948: It's a nice day for a FRIGHT wedding

Aw, isn't that lover-ly! Fred and Jo Ann got married today, and surely their love shall last forever...oh, wait, no, because it's an EC Comics story.


from "Stiff Punishment!*" in Crime SuspenStories #11 (EC, June 1952); script, pencils, and inks by Johnny Craig, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten
*Okay, I'll admit it: I'll never come up with a ghoulish pun title as fine as that one.

Well, of course the solution to all that married strife is to murder your bride. Naturally! It's an EC Comic! And of course, Fred has committed the perfect crime! Or so he thinks heh heh heh heh!


Ha ha! It's not only not the perfect crime because it's an EC Comic, it's also an ironic twist of the knife in the back at the end because it's an EC Comic! Happy master planiversary, Fred!


Mind you, I suspected him the first time I saw he was wearing a green suit. All together now: Where do you even get a green suit?

Today in Comics History, January 29, 1953: Oh, blame it on midnight / Ooh, shame on the moon

from "About Phase!" in Crime SuspenStories #19 (EC, October 1953), co-plot by Bill Gaines, co-plot and script by Al Feldstein, pencils and inks by George Evans, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten
Hmm, what a clever idea...blame it on Lon Cheney! There's surely no way this could possibly go worng. Oh, who am I kidding, have you ever read an EC comic book before?


Hoist on his own Farmer's Almanac!

Today in Comics History, January 2, 1953: Serves her right for trying to run on Zip-a-Tone

from "About Phase!" in Crime SuspenStories #19 (EC, October 1953), co-plot by Bill Gaines, co-plot and script by Al Feldstein, pencils and inks by George Evans, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten

Separated at Birth: Getting Ahead

L: Crime SuspenStories #22 (April-May 1954), art by Johnny Craig
R: The Shadow #18 (January 1989), art by Kyle Baker
(Click picture to decapi-size)

The most disturbing comic book cover in the history of the medium.

Some may say it's this one:


Others may say it's this one:


But they're both wrong. For this little bull's money, there's no more disturbing comic book cover in the history of the medium than this: