Shock Treatment And Other Stories

About the Author

The Brooklyn-born Jack Kamen (1920-2008) began his career as a pulp illustrator and spent his last professional decades as an illustrator, but is best remembered for his half-decade at EC (and his 1982 contributions to the EC-inspired movie Creepshow). Reed Crandall (1917-1982) is best known for his art for EC--and later Warren's--horror, crime, war, and adventure comics; he also contributed to Flash Gordon in the 1960s. Some of his more family-friendly work was featured in the Classics Illustrated and Treasure Chest series; he drew the Buster Brown comics for Buster Brown shoe stores for many years. He attended the Cleveland School of Art in Ohio, graduating in 1939, and served briefly in the Air Force during WWII--which served him well as one of the primary artists for the aviator-team comic Blackhawk. Crandall was inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2009. George Evans (1920-2001) worked as a World War II aircraft mechanic, which informed his depiction of all kinds of airplanes in breathtaking aerial acrobatics. He was the regular artist on the newspaper strip Secret Agent Corrigan (a.k.a. Secret Agent X-9) from 1980 until his retirement in 1996. Graham Ingels (1915-1991), began working for EC Comics, drawing Western, romance, and crime stories, in 1948. But it was with the advent of EC's horror titles that "Ghastly" Graham Ingels's detailed work perfectly evoked the proper mood for the kind of wickedly macabre stories EC excelled at, and it made him a fan favorite. Ingels drew the lead feature for every issue of Haunt of Fear starting with #4, but his work, "hosted" by his signature character, the Old Witch, appeared regularly in all three EC horror titles and in Crime SuspenStories. In 1989, Ingels returned briefly to the comics landscape when he created a series of oil paintings featuring the Old Witch. Joe Orlando (1927-1998; Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, 2007) became one of EC's top science fiction/fantasy illustrators in the early 1950s. He freelanced for Mad and Warren Publications in the 1960s. In the 1970s, he edited House of Mystery, Phantom Stranger, Swamp Thing, Plop! and other titles for DC Comics, where he later became a vice president. Robert Bernstein (1919-1988; Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, 2021) is best known for his EC Comics scripts, especially for Psychoanalysis, and his Superman stories for DC Comics. He was also the founder of the Island Concert Hall recital series which ran for 15 years on Long Island from 1964 to 1979. Jack Oleck (1914-1981) worked on multiple titles at EC but really made his mark in the horror titles. After EC, Oleck became a publisher, editor, and acclaimed novelist. He returned to comics in the 1970s for DC Comics, where he became one of the premiere writers for its "mystery" (horror) titles. Carl Wessler (1913-1989) became one of Stan Lee's core writer-editors at Marvel Comics in the 1950s. At EC Comics, he wrote for Tales From the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. For Harvey Comics, he wrote Richie Rich and other children's titles. He also wrote for DC, Charlton, and Warren Comics. Daniel Keyes (1927-2014) was the author of eight books, including Flowers for Algernon, which sold more than five million copies and inspired the Oscar-winning film Charly. He was a university professor at Ohio University, where he was honored as Professor Emeritus in 2000. He won the Hugo and Nebula awards and was chosen as an Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000. Dr. Travis Langley, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, authored the acclaimed book Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight and has edited 16 popular culture books in the Psychology series (Star Wars Psychology, Spider-Man Psychology, et al.) using fiction, especially comics, to discuss real human nature. His commentary and insights have been featured in documentaries such as Necessary Evil, Legends of the Knight, and Batman & Bill. He investigates the nature of good guys and bad guys on his blog, "Beyond Heroes and Villains," at the Psychology Today website.