Of all the pre-Code crime and horror cover images, none could rival the electric chair in creating a visceral and vibrant intimation of impending death. The "hot seat" covers were graphic representations of the destructive power of modern science, and the tingling terror they inspired was like a miniature version of the lethal fury the grim devices delivered. Publisher Bill Gaines summed it up on the inside front cover of Shock Suspenstories #1: "...the cover... has nothing to do with any of the stories in this magazine. Since this was to be the first issue of Shock; we wanted a real shock cover! Know of anything more shocking than an electric chair?" And even without an accompanying story, the Al Feldstein cover manages to explore the tenuous territory between torture and justice.

     Shock Suspenstories #1 (February/ March 1952) offers an admirably varied assortment of stories. Billed as an "EC sampler", the four tales run the gamut of EC's suspense genres, with one crime, one war, one science fiction, and one horror yarn. The crime opener relates the end of a marriage between a tormented young woman and her overbearing perfectionist of a husband. Given that, most EC fans can fill in the plot details... The art was provided by the capable Jack Kamen.

     The war suspense story is more original and packs a solid punch. Colonel Henderson is forced to court martial his son for desertion and when a guilty verdict is delivered must sentence him to death by the firing squad. The interplay between father and son before the execution is intensely emotional, and the Colonel injects a fitting twist to the taut proceedings. The Jack Davis drawings perfectly capture the characters, with a style that's cartoony and ultra-realistic at the same time.

     The sci-fi entry, "The Monsters", is a "first contact" tale designed to make one feel humble about their humanity. The aliens refuse to have anything to do with the Earth people, and their explanation as to why isn't really a surprise but still manages to impart a mild jolt of EC irony. And the smooth surfaces of Joe Orlando's art add to the enjoyment. The horror finale, drawn by "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, is an abomination called "The Rug". Absurd yet predictable, this "biter-bitten" chestnut about a nasty hunter who (spoiler warning - ha!) gets killed and skinned by a bear, is - despite everything - still somewhat amusing. Feldstein's plot formulas were always well-paced and well-turned, however contrived, and Ghastly's art is joyously ghastly.

     Manhunt #2 (November 1947) is the second issue of a title that was structured something like Shock Suspense. There's an urban crime, a nature crime, a gothic crime, a future crime, and Undercover Girl, a sultry secret agent who also stars on the cover. "Dinner Date with Death" is actually a two-page text story that appears on the inside covers and was written by the great Gardner F. Fox. Undercover Girl gets captured by some effete evildoer who forces her to share an elegant meal with him while strapped into an electric chair. Thus, for her, the meal might be eternally interrupted while savoring caviar or just after a sip of 1928 port. It's a clever premise but ends in an anti-climax. It does make an intriguing tie-in with the Ogden Whitney cover that catches the narrative at a peak moment.

     Fallon of the F.B.I. starts off the insides in a so-so episode with Whitney art. This is followed by the Red Fox of the Royal Canadian Northwest Mounted Police, which features appealing art by L.B. Cole. Cole takes an outdoorsy approach with the rugged landscape lovingly detailed, and the characters look good too. The story is just strong enough to hold it together, but that's sufficient to make it a satisfying strip. Kirk of Scotland Yard mixes a bit of London fog into the anthology, and the Paul Parker art is appropriately atmospheric in this tale of murder during a seance where someone gets stabbed while all present are holding hands in a circle. It's modestly entertaining.

     The sci-fi ingredient in the Manhunt recipe was Space Ace, with somewhat flat yet evocative art by Fred Guardineer. This is one of those space-opera strips that manages to transcend its own rococo nonsense as Jet Black "a patrolman of the future, a man with star-tan on his face", fights the interplanetary menace of "The Being in the Box..." Only an artist like Guardineer can make this kind of material flourish, and here the results are delectable.

     Undercover Girl appears again, in a seven-page story that works hard to display the charms of Starr Flagg, the beautiful C.I.A. agent. Ogden Whitney pays some respect to the female form in this strip, but the plot is pretty good too, with some gentle depth of character blended into the action.

     Manhunt was one of the first post-War crime titles, followed by a flood of them in 1948 and 1949. Manhunt was published by Vincent Sullivan's Magazine Enterprises (ME).

     Atlas joins in with an electrocution cover on Suspense #25 (December 1952). "I Died at Midnight" is a fine example of one of Atlas' most beloved plot formulas: the "death row escape". No matter how much the time-travel or alternate world or good old magical second chance seems to help the murderer on the lam evade his fate, at the end, in one way or another (and there were plenty) death deals out the final justice. These stories almost always expand with psychological possibilities - as they could just as easily be hallucinations of the condemned, like in Ambrose Bierce's "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", where a whole escape sequence transpires in the moment between the trapdoor's opening and the rope stretching tight to snap the spinal column and end all dreams.

     "Men with Fangs" tells of were-rats in the sewers beneath the city streets and of the man who goes underground to confront them after they kidnap his wife. Lurid art by fantasy great Joe Sinnott takes an average story and makes it into a superior product with clearly-conceived characters in imaginative and colorful settings.

     There's also a clunky werewolf yam in this ish, a letter column - "Suspense Sanctuary"- where Stan Lee practices his repartee, and "The Man Who Sold His Soul", a six-page wish-fulfillment fantasy gone awry. The story of Enrico, a Mr. Nobody in Spain whose dreams of being a great bullfighter seem impossible until he meets the devil and is offered a deal, is nicely turned, and the art by John Romita is graphic narrative of a high order. Each panel carries the story forward with perfectly distilled images. Much of the tale is told on Enrico's face, as waves of despair are followed by waves of hope, which give way to the greed that jumps to the fatal indiscretion which guarantees the wave of terror when Enrico finds that the bargainer from below has tricked him. It adds up to a worth while issue, with that "demon of death appearing as the electrifying switch is pulled" cover expertly wrapping up the package.

     Before signing off for this issue, I'd like to point out three more great electric chair covers... outside my collection but glimpsed via Gerber's "flying carpet" Photo-Journal. They are Web of Evil #5's Jack Cole shocker, Steve Ditko's emotive masterpiece done for Strange Suspense Stories #19, and L.B. Cole's iconic warning of the law's ultimate retribution on Law-Crime #1. Till the next CBM...

Pat Calhoun has been collecting, researching and appreciating comic books since the early 1960s, and is a nationally recognized comic book historian. Pat resides in Santa Rosa, California.