EC's Shock Illustrated

[Henson-migration]

Does anyone have any information on the EC Shock Illustrated magazines? I was lucky enough to get #1 and #3 (pic of #3 below). I haven't seen any recent sales on eBay, and I noticed that 2 copies have been graded by CGC (one possibly by fellow board member eccomic).

 

[Bonds25]

Wow, that's in beautiful condition!

[rjpb]

Amazing!!! Is that considered the rarest EC?

[Timely]

That one and those 2 annuals EC put out.

 

Timely

[eccomic]

I have the HIGHEST Graded CGC Copy of Shock Ilustrated # 3 at 6.0

[Bonds25]

I have the HIGHEST Graded CGC Copy of Shock Ilustrated # 3 at 6.0

 

Not if Henson submits his!

[spider9698]

When I was collecting ECs, Shock Illustrated and Tales of Terror Annual 1 were hands down the toughest to find.

[PovertyRow]

Well, as far as information on them: they were EC's attempt to bypass the comic code by using a "magazine format". All were basically 2-color illustrations with the idea of "Picto-Fiction to use captions describing what was going on. I used to have a couple of them and enjoyed them (wish I still had them). Yours is a real beauty! Titles included Shock Illustrated 1-3 and Crime Illustrated 1 and 2. They failed with these titles but succeeded amazingly with MAD when they went from comic to magazine format with issue 24.

[ecfanman]

Don't forget Terror Illustrated 1-2 and Confessions Illustrated 1-2.

[PovertyRow]

Don't forget Terror Illustrated 1-2 and Confessions Illustrated 1-2.

 

I couldn't think of the other two so I whimped out with the "titles included" disclaimer!

[Larryw7]

I'm bumping this thread. Does anyone know of a good source to buy the Picto Fiction books? They're rarer than hens teeth!

[precodekeith]

A ultra-reliable source has told me they will all be reprinted this year.... hang there! (If you don't mind owning reprints, that is!)

[Larryw7]

I don't mind reprints at all, thanks for the info!

[Moondog]

I've owned 3 copies of Tales of Terror Annual # 1, but never a Shock 3...

[spider9698]

The Tales of Terror Annual 1 is a VERY tough find. Heritage has had a couple of Shock Illustrates #3s in their auctions over the years.

[Larryw7]

In the Grant Geisman book TALES OF TERROR, Russ Cochran says that Bill Gaines gave him a copy of SHOCK ILLUSTRATED #3 from his file copies in the late sixties. That was some gift!

[Henson-migration]

Was Shock Illustrated #3 amoung the many issues in Gaines "Vault" collection? I've noticed several high-grade copies are now listed in the CGC census and wondered if these are Gaines File Copies.

[Larryw7]

Yes, I believe Gaines saved 12 copies of SHOCK ILLUSTRATED #3 in his vault.

[Moondog]

Doiby:

 

Do you know this as a fact? I haven't heard this before. The census numbers don't seem to reflect it.

 

I collected EC's from 1976 to 1999. This was always one of those books that I hated paying a big price for - since it's value was based solely on poor distribution rather than important content. When Russ started selling the Gaines copies, I don't recall there being 12 of these available.

 

I could be wrong though...I'm getting up in years...

 

--Gary

[Larryw7]

Do you know this as a fact? I haven't heard this before. The census numbers don't seem to reflect it.

 

I don't know it for a certain fact, but Cochran does mention that Gaines went to his vault and pulled out one copy from his wrapped up stash. I assumed that he had as many SI #3's as he did other books. It's possible that he sold some of them earlier, or gave some away to other collector friends who needed the book(this did happen with an early VOH, which only has one or two file copies as a result).

 

I guess someone could always contact Russ Cochran and ask him.