Shock 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. Specific story influences that have been identified include the following:

• "Just Desserts!" (issue 3) - Ray Bradbury's "The Smiling People"
• "Dead Right!" (issue 6) - John Collier's "In the Cards!"
• "Under Cover!" (issue 6) - Roald Dahl's "Beware of the Dog"
• "Seep No More!" (issue 8) - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• "Fall Guy" (issue 13) - Maurice Level's "The Debt Collector"
• "You, Murderer" (issue 14) - Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Anecdotes from Bennett Cerf's Try and Stop Me were sources for stories, including "Yellow" (issue 1) and "The Patriots" (issue 2).

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 Small Assassin" (issue 7)
• "The October Game" (issue 9)