the last laugh

in their relentless pursuit of dramatic irony, the writers at e.c. comics churned out plots that became increasingly contrived, and this 1953 tales of the crypt story about an irrepressible prankster's one joke too far was no doubt written for the sole purpose of illustrating the gory centerpiece gag — which brings crashing down a storyline that could've been written by rube goldberg:

e.c. comic's devotion to the tradition of le théâtre du grand-guignol got them into trouble with the self-appointed moral guardians of the day, but largely because e.c. was the biggest fish, instead of the worst offender. their crimes were often purely gratuitous, like the wholly contrived ending to the previous issue's "strop! you're killing me!", the story of a fire company's ambitious new hire, who pushes out (fatally, of course) his older rival:

ouch! (or as the french say, "aïe!")

(stories by bill gaines and al feldstein; art by bill elder and jack davis)