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.

And far from being just a label of meaningless hype, the concept proved to be a major step for EC, providing Gaines and Feldstein with a forum for expressing their views on the human condition just as Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat were for Harvey Kurtzman.

The Shock SuspenStory was characterized by a running theme of mob violence and an art style best described as Heightened Realism.

A similarity can be noted between Wood's dramatically effective Shock renderings and the caricatures of corruption in the acclaimed fine art of Jack Levine.

[3]Over the next three years, Shock SuspenStories tackled many controversial issues, including racism ("The Guilty" in #3, "In Gratitude" in #11), mob hysteria ("The Patriots" in #2), police corruption ("Confession" in #4), vigilantism ("Under Cover" in #6), drug addiction ("The Monkey" in #12), and rape ("The Assault" in #8, "A Kind of Justice" in #16).

Gaines was questioned extensively about both stories by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in April 1954.

[4] In the late 1940s and early 1950s, comic books came under attack from parents, clergymen, schoolteachers, and others who believed the magazines contributed to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency.

In April and June 1954, highly publicized congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken.

The magazine was fully collected in a series of three black-and-white hardbacks by publisher Russ Cochran as part of The Complete EC Library in 1981.

In 2006, Cochran and Gemstone began to publish hardcover, re-colored volumes of Shock SuspenStories as part of the EC Archives series.

[8][9] Front covers were drawn by Feldstein, Wally Wood, Johnny Craig, George Evans, and Jack Kamen.

Other stories were illustrated by Craig, Evans, Wood, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Bernard Krigstein, and Frank Frazetta.