Crime SuspenStories #11
"Stiff Punishment!" is a chilling tale from Crime SuspenStories #11 (1952), a standout in EC Comics' signature crime anthology series. Written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein, with moody art by Jack Kamen and bold inks by the same, the story follows a wife’s meticulously planned murder disguised as an accident—only to find her husband has turned the tables in a way she never expected. The cover, a stark and haunting image by Johnny Craig, perfectly captures the story’s grim tension.
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John and Mary fought tooth and nail all the time, until one evening, Mary decided to kill her husband. However, she had to make it look like an accident. Partially opening a can of beans, then letting it sit out for a week or so, she was sure the contents would provide the food poisoning to do the job. Every day, she would ingest a bean or two and get sick, then recover, figuring that if her husband ate a large portion of the contents one night, he would die. He did, but Mary celebrated the fact by having a glass of wine, not knowing it had been poisoned by her husband.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).