All throughout April and May, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus quarantine comics reading list. Each weekday for a month, we’ll post a new recommendation from someone in the comics industry to help folks get through the isolation. This includes writers, artists, letterers, editors, comics journalists, publicists, and more…all paired with a local shop that’s currently selling the books via mail order.

Today’s pick comes from editor/writer Tom Peyer…enjoy!

Honestly, all I need for Covid Crisis reading is escapism, ladled on thick. I still read and watch enough news to uselessly ruin my mood, which is stupid, so I try to balance it with stories that are funny, or are set in another time, or trade in the rapidly shrinking list of things that wouldn't ever happen.

The other day, just by chance, I read Crime SuspenStories #17, a 1953 issue of an EC Comics crime anthology. Like all of the great EC Comics it's a piece of beautifully crafted, gloriously uncensored, adult-ish junk––and I mean "junk" in the best sense, of course. Under a tasteless Johnny Craig cover (of a crying man blowing his brains out on camera in front of his startled wife) are four stories of murder, cruelty, and (sometimes) justice, written by Al Feldstein, and drawn by Craig, Jack Kamen, Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, and Bill Elder. It's a great art lineup, and Feldstein's stories are always better than I remember––but that's not why I'm recommending it. I can't tell you the reason, because it's a surprise: something I hadn’t seen before and won't soon forget. Read all four stories in order and you'll know what I'm talking about when you get there. It helps that each story is more than sufficiently entertaining in itself. Crime SuspenStories #17 can be found in The EC Archives: Crime SuspenStories Vol. 3, cheaply available on Kindle, but otherwise out of print. -Tom Peyer

Tom Peyer is the Editor-in-Chief of AHOY Comics and the writer of THE WRONG EARTH, HIGH HEAVEN, HASHTAG: DANGER, and DRAGONFLY AND DRAGONFLYMAN which will be published in book form by AHOY Comics this June.

Crime SuspenStories #17
Writer: Al Feldstein
Artists: Johnny Craig, Jack Kamen, Al Williamson, Frank Fazetta, and Bill Elder
Publisher: EC Comics
Jolting tales of criminals, capers, and tension! Collecting issues #13-#18 of Crime SuspenStories from the twisted artistic talents of Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Bill Gaines, Jack Kamen, Sid Check, Al Williamson, Fred Peters, Graham Ingels, George Evans, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, and more. Featuring a foreword by David del Valle. Crime SuspenStories issues #13-#18 in full color!
Release Date: 1953
Buy It Now: Click here!

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