Shock Illustrated

Shock Illustrated was an American black and white magazine published by EC Comics from late 1955 to early 1956. Part of EC's Picto-Fiction line, each magazine featured three to five stories.[1] The artists drew one to four panels per page with the text overlaid onto the artwork. The first issue appeared with a cover date of September–October 1955 and featured three psychology-themed stories, similar in theme to the comic Psychoanalysis published by EC in 1955. Starting with the second issue this type of story was generally reduced to one per issue, with the remaining stories being similar in theme to those that appeared in EC's comic Shock SuspenStories.[2]

Shock Illustrated
Rudy Nappi cover, issue #3
Publication information
PublisherEC Comics
ScheduleQuarterly
FormatAnthology
Publication dateSeptember/October 1955 - Spring 1956
No. of issues3
Creative team
Created byWilliam Gaines
Al Feldstein

Shock Illustrated ran for a total of three issues. The Picto-Fiction magazines lost money from the start, and when EC's distributor went bankrupt, the company had no choice but to cancel the prints. The third issue of this magazine is known as the rarest EC publication of all time. Although all 250,000 copies had been printed, publisher Bill Gaines lacked the funds to bind them, and all but 100 copies were destroyed.

Contributors

The editor of Shock Illustrated was Al Feldstein. In addition to those stories credited to him, Feldstein also wrote under the pseudonym Alfred E. Neuman. Feldstein included multiple retellings of previous stories, a move suggested by Gaines. This included "A Question of Time" and "Dead Right" in the second issue and "Curiosity Killed" in the third issue. Contributing writers included Jack Oleck (who had worked as a writer on EC's earlier publications), Robert Bernstein, John Larner, and Daniel Keyes (using the pseudonyms Kris Daniels and A.D. Locke).

Artists featured in Shock Illustrated included Jack Kamen, Rudy Nappi, Reed Crandall, George Evans, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres and Graham Ingels.

Reprints

Shock Illustrated was reprinted along with the other Picto-Fiction magazines in hardbound volumes by Russ Cochran (and Gemstone Publishing) for the first time in 2006 as the final part of his Complete EC Library. With these reprints, published for the first time, was the fourth issue of the title which had been produced but never printed. Dark Horse reprinted Shock Illustrated as part of the EC Archives series in 2021.

Issue guide
#DateCover ArtistStoryStory ArtistStory Writer
1Oct 1955Jack KamenThe NeedleJack KamenKris Daniels
Switch PartyJack KamenRobert Bernstein
The JacketJack KamenA.D. Locke
2Feb 1956Rudy NappiThe Lipstick KillerReed CrandallA.D. Locke
My Brother's KeeperGeorge EvansJack Oleck
A Question of TimeAl Williamson & Angelo TorresAl Feldstein
Dead RightGraham IngelsAlfred E. Neuman
3May 1956Rudy NappiCuriosity KilledReed CrandallAl Feldstein
The DemonGraham IngelsJohn Larner
Sin DollJack KamenKris Daniels
One Man's MeatGeorge EvansJack Oleck

See also

References
  1. Schelly, William (2013). American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1950s. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 137. ISBN 9781605490540.
  2. Cochran, Russ. Complete EC Library: Terror Illustrated. Gemstone, 2006.
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