Shock Illustrated

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title=Shock Illustrated


caption=Rudy Nappi cover, issue #3
schedule=Quarterly
format=Anthology
publisher=EC Comics
date=September/October 1955 - Spring 1956
issues=3
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creators=William Gaines
Al Feldstein

"Shock Illustrated" was a black and white magazine published by EC Comics from late 1955 to early 1956. Part of EC's "Picto-Fiction" line, each magazine featured 3 - 5 stories. The artist would draw 1 - 4 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".

"Shock Illustrated" ended up lasting 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.

The editor of "Shock Illustrated" was Al Feldstein. In addition to those stories credited to him, Feldstein also wrote under the penname 'Alfred E. Neuman'. Feldstein included multiple retellings of previous stories, a move suggested by Gaines. This included issue 2's 'A Question of Time' and 'Dead Right' and issue 3's 'Curiosity Killed'. Other contributing writers included Jack Oleck (who had worked as a writer on EC's earlier publications), Robert Bernstein, John Larner, and Daniel Keyes (under the pennames 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.

"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.

Issue guide