Crime SuspenStories #22

History

The issue was edited by Al Feldstein (credited as associate editor) and published under the managing editorship of William Gaines, with stories co-plotted by Gaines and Feldstein in their standard 'springboard' method — Gaines would absorb existing crime and suspense fiction and propose launching pads from which Feldstein scripted finished stories. The lead story, 'In Each and Every Package,' drawn by Reed Crandall, was adapted from John Collier's 1939 short story 'Back for Christmas,' a practice EC employed throughout the title's run with influences drawn from writers like James M. Cain, Cornell Woolrich, and Jim Thompson. Johnny Craig, who had been the title's primary cover artist and lead interior artist for most of its run, had by 1954 taken on editorial duties at The Vault of Horror, making this one of his final cover contributions to Crime SuspenStories before George Evans, Reed Crandall, and Jack Kamen assumed that responsibility for the remainder of the series. There is a collector-community claim, noted in forum commentary on the original cover art, that EC self-censored an early version of Craig's artwork by masking a more explicit view of the severed neck under the logo — this detail is visible in the original art but cannot be fully corroborated across two independent editorial/historical sources.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Cover artist: Johnny Craig. Interior artists: Reed Crandall, Bernie Krigstein, Jack Kamen, and Joe Orlando. Writers/plotters: Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. Color holds credited to Marie Severin.
• Published April–May 1954 by EC Comics (indicia publisher: L. L. Publishing Co. Inc.); bi-monthly, 36 pages, cover price 10 cents.
• The issue contains four stories: 'In Each and Every Package' (art: Reed Crandall), 'Monotony' (art: Bernie Krigstein), 'Cinder Block' (art: Jack Kamen), and 'Sight Unseen' (art: Joe Orlando).
• 'In Each and Every Package' was adapted from John Collier's 1939 short story 'Back for Christmas,' part of EC's broader pattern of loosely adapting noir and suspense prose fiction.
• The cover was formally entered into evidence by Senator Estes Kefauver during the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings (April 21–22, 1954, New York), and Gaines's response to the 'good taste' question made front-page news in The New York Times.
• The issue is widely credited as a proximate catalyst for the founding of the Comics Code Authority (announced October 26, 1954), whose restrictions banned the words 'crime,' 'horror,' and 'terror' from comic titles and prohibited depictions of vampires, werewolves, and zombies — rules that rendered much of EC's line unprofitable and led Gaines to cancel multiple titles.
• The series was fully reprinted in five black-and-white hardbacks by Russ Cochran as part of The Complete EC Library (1983); this issue was also reprinted individually by Gemstone Publishing (February 1998) and collected in the IDW EC Covers Artisan Edition (May 2024).
• The cover composition has been explicitly homaged by at least three major publishers: Wolverine Vol. 3 #55 (Marvel, 2007, cover by Simone Bianchi, with a Greg Land variant), The Shadow Vol. 3 #18 (DC, 1988, cover by Kyle Baker), and Locke & Key: Head Games #3 (IDW, 2009, cover by Gabriel Rodriguez).

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