"The Coffin Maker"

One more story from This Magazine is Haunted. I didn't have the scans clean for the last post, but they are all vividly horror-filled now.

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No artist listed, but I'd hazard a guess it was Sheldon Moldoff. Thoughts are welcome.

Let Doctor Death Tell You a Tale...

Cover of #1 by Sheldon Moldoff

This Magazine is Haunted was Fawcett’s first foray into horror comics. In Alter Ego #4 (Spring 2004), Roy Tomas revels the company’s reluctance to publish horror. Even after finding a sales market Fawcett often left off their logo and rarely went as dark or gruesome as other horror comics.

There was money to be had in the growing horror comics market that Fawcett Comics couldn’t ignore. It was very different brand move for the company, who was known for superheroes and teen humor.

Leading the charge to darker fare for the company was Sheldon Moldoff. According to Moldoff, he approached EC’s comics new owner William M. Gains with the pitches for This Magazine in Haunted and Tales of the Supernatural after Gains expressed a concern over closing the company and Fawcett had already said no to the ideas.


Gains offered a contract for the titles, and took the first issue already produced. Moldoff waited for word on when to started the second issue. In waiting he spotted Tales from the Crypt and other horrors coming from EC.
Gains reneged on the contract, and Moldoff was threaten to be blackballed from the industry if he tried to sue. Meanwhile Gains took the four stories he had from Moldoff and published in other works. Approaching Fawcett again, Moldoff stuck a deal of $100 for the title and all the work he wanted.

Here is a taste from This Magazine is Haunted #1

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Fawcett turned out a string of several titles, staring in 1951 until they stopped publishing comics in 1953. Their titles were then sold to Charlton Comics, who started doing reprints and publishing unused stories (source). When the reprints started in 1954, scholars estimate the horror genre comics market was 1/6, but it quickly died off with the comics code.

The comics received another round of mixed reprints by Gredown in This Comic is Haunted in the 1970s. The comic baned together a lot of pre-code works. It offers especially high amount of Steve Ditko's work. (Find more out about that here.)

Shock SuspenStories

Shock SuspenStories features a mixture of horror, crime, and war stories.

"We've tried to satisfy every one of you readers who have written us insisting that E.C. increase its output! Many of you wanted another science-fiction mag... you horror fans wanted another horror book... and you suspense readers wanted a companion mag to Crime SuspenStories! We decided, therefore, to make this new mag an "E.C. Sampler" ...and to include in it an S-F yard, a horror tale, a Crime SuspenStory, and... for you readers of Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales... a war story! Although there was a wide variance in the types of mags requested, all of you fans seemed to agree on one thing: all of you wanted the stories to have the usual E.C. SHOCK endings! So what could be more natural than to call the magazine SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES?" -- Shock SuspenStories

The war stories don't make it past issue one, but some stories are social issue-based. In fact the comic often tries to teach moral lessons with it's twist endings.

The magazine start in 1952 an ran till 1955, putting out 18 issues in all.

Shock SuspenStories has seen reprints. A black and white collection was put out in the early 1980s. Reprints of all 18 issues were reprinted in the early 1990s. They can still be found running around. Recently, the series has been collected in great full color sets. You'll find links to those below.

If you enjoy shows like Tales From the Crypt, this is a comic for you.

Now for a sneak peek from the individual 90s reprints...

From issues #2 "The Patriots!" by Jack Davis

Page 01 / Page 2 / Page 03 / Page 04 / Page 05 /

Shock SuspenStories #1 "The Rug" by Graham Ingels - [Link Down]

Shock SuspenStories #1 "A Neat Job!" by Jack Kamen - Read it here!

Shock SuspenStories #1 "Yellow" - Read it here

Shock SuspenStories #9 "The October Game" by Jack Kamen - Enjoy it here

Shock SuspenStories #12 "The Monkey" by Joe Orlando -See it here

Shock SuspenStories #15 "Raw Deal" - See it here

Shock SuspenStories #15 "Well Trained" by George Evans. - Read it here

Shock SuspenStories #16 "The Hazing" by Joe Orlando - Read it here (Also see the famous "Are You a Red Dupe?" ad.)

More info....

GCD :: Series - Shock SuspenStories

Shock SuspenStories

The Regular artist/writers...

Comic creator: George Evans

Comic creator: Jack Kamen

Comic creator: Joe Orlando

Comic creator: Wallace Wood (Wally Wood)

Pick it up today!

Gemstone - Shock SuspenStories: Volume One

Shock Suspenstories Vol. 1 : Books from Overstock.com

Ebay is good to check too. Especially if you are only looking for one story, or just want to test them out.

Shock SuspenStories, unlike many EC tittles and comics on the blog, is not in public domain. If you like what you've seen here, be sure to pick it up.

Strange Fantasy #9 (Dec 1953) Highlight Reel

Strange Fantasy 9 has an interesting history to check out.

Story One: "Dream of Horror" by unknown people. Read it here.

Story Two: laserpotato posts "Hair Yee-eeee" by Bruce Hamilton and Steve Ditko

Story Three: A text story called "Magic Formula"

Story Four: " Portrait of Doom" by unknown

Story Five: "Mirror of Death" by unknown