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, March 22: Happy birthday, B. Krigstein!

Born on this day in 1919: the great comics and fine art illustrator Bernard Krigstein, best known by his usual signature B. Krigstein. One of the most lauded and acclaimed comics artists of the 1950s, epsecially for his work on EC Comics. Jorts the Cat, however, would be pleased to know that Krigstein was one of a group to attempt to form a major comics artists unions, "The Society of Comic Book Illustrators," in 1952. I'm pleased, too! Ahead of his time not only in skill but in social progress. It sadly ceased after a year, but while he got fewer assignments from Marvel/Atlas and DC/National because of his labor views, progressive-minded Bill Gaines at EC Comics gave him more work. His work was featured in booiks like Aces High, Mad, Vault of Horror, Impact, Incredible Science Fiction, Valor, Weird Science-Fantasy, and others.

Some portraits of Krigstein in the comics:

from "The Night Before Christmas" in Panic #1 (EC, February 1954), pencils and inks by Will Elder, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten
(Click picture to bowl-full-of-gelignite-size)