Forty Whacks and Other Stories

Forty Whacks and Other Stories by Jack Kamen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Forty Whacks and Other Stories collects 24 stories illustrated by Jack Kamen.

The father of the guy that invented the Segway was a prolific artist. I've read two of his previous EC Artist Editions. I'm pretty sure my wife got this for me for some special occasion but that has been lost in the sands of time.

Anyway, this book contains 24 tales, most of them written by William Gaines and Al Feldstein, although Ray Bradbury wrote one. Other than the assist by Johnny Craig on one story, the art is all Jack Kamen.

The tales in Forty Whacks are almost exclusively of the two-timing husband or two-timing wife variety. As such, the stories kind of blend together after a while but there were some standouts. Split Second was adapted for the HBO Tales from the Crypt TV show in the 1990s. People must have bumped their spouses off a lot in the 1950s.

Kamen's art isn't my favorite of the EC crew but the man was consistent. Hell, he's still pretty good. When the top tier is Harvey Kurtzman, Bernie Krigstein, Wally Wood, and Jack Davis, being part of the second line isn't that bad.

Forty Whacks displays the EC reversal of fortune ending at its finest, without supernatural chicanery mucking up the works. Four out of five philandering husbands.

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