Crime Suspen Stories - Influences and Adaptations

Influences and Adaptations

As with the other EC comics edited by Feldstein, the stories in this comic were primarily based on Gaines reading a large number of suspense stories and using them to develop "springboards" from which he and Feldstein could launch new stories. James M. Cain, Cornell Woolrich, Jim Thompson and radio's Suspense were some of the influences on Crime SuspenStories scripts. Specific story influences that have been identified include the following:

• "Murder May Boomerang" (issue 1) - Samuel Blas' "Revenge"
• "Poison!" (issue 3) - W. W. Jacobs's "Interruption"
• "Blood Red Wine" (issue 3) - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado"
• "The Gullible One" (issue 5) - Cornell Woolrich's "After Dinner Party"
• "A Question of Time" (issue 13) - John Collier's "De Mortuis"
• "From Here to Insanity" (issue 18) - S. R. Ross' "You Got to Have Luck"
• "In Each and Every Package" (issue 22) - John Collier's "Back for Christmas"

After their unauthorized adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury's stories in another magazine, Bradbury contacted EC about their plagiarism of his work. They reached an agreement for EC to do authorized versions of Bradbury's short fiction. These official adaptations include:

• "The Screaming Woman" (issue 15)
• "Touch and Go" (issue 17)