Suspense: Secrets of the Comics Revealed?

Many years ago I wrote a blog post about the first two issues of Marvel's 1949 Suspense comic book series: found here. As I noted in that post, those first two issues were the only issues which featured direct adaptations from Suspense's CBS radio scripts as the series was otherwise comprised of original material.

As I noted in another blog post, there was an odd situation when Marvel - prior to forming that agreement with CBS - adapted the Suspense episode "Can't We Be Friends?" into Amazing Mysteries #32 as "With Intent to Kill." Here's my post on that unusual circumstance along with much speculation on my part.

I suppose this post, then, is my third post on this subject as I found two more stories that were adapted from Suspense -- or, at least partially adapted from Suspense. Let's turn to Private Eye, a detective series Marvel published 1951-1952 and featured detective Rocky Jorden; for the longest time, I thought he was supposed to be the same person as the CBS adventure hero Rocky Jordan (1945-1951) but no, despite very similar names and Marvel's licensing from CBS at the time, they're not related.

Private Eye lasted a mere 8 issues and in that issue there are two different stories with plots very similar to stories heard on Suspense! Note that the 1952 publication date puts this well after the start of Marvel's 1949 deal with CBS. In the story "Nightmare for Two," (drawn by Vern Henkel, no writer credited) Rocky Jorden is riding in an elevator car when the car suddenly plunges to the bottom of the shaft. After workers use a torch to cut their way into the car, Rocky is surprised to discover one of the men who survived the plunge is now dead.

If you know your Suspense, you've already recognized the plot of "the After-Dinner Story" (October 26, 1943). It was adapted from a short story by Cornell Woolrich originally published in 1938. Of course, there's much more to "the After-Dinner Story" than the just the murder aboard the fallen elevator car, it's merely the inciting incident of the drama. Rocky's "Nightmare for Two" only used that particular situation for about 3 of its 7 pages but's it very interesting to see this minor rip-off.

However, that's just the first Suspense rip-off in that issue. The final story of that issue was dubbed "Panic!" (again by artist Vern Henkel with no credited writer) and concerns a woman facing execution who is accused of murdering her lover but she was suffering from a blackout and her memory of the incident was hazy. Rocky clears her and identifies the real killer because his testimony about having his arms raised when the woman shot at him is proven false due to the location of the bullethole on his coat.

Again, all you educated Suspense fans recall these are the details pertaining to John Dickson Carr's script for "the Hangman Won't Wait" (February 9, 1943), of which we only have the first half still in existence (but it was also adapted on Appointment with Fear as "the Clock Strikes Eight"). What's especially odd about this is Marvel had already published an authorized adaptation of this story in the first issue of Suspense (as "Here Comes the Hangman!").

So, what are we Suspense fans left with? A few more questions about why Marvel kept printing unauthorized plots from Suspense, for one thing. I continue to wonder if someone at Marvel had received access to CBS's script archive for Suspense and was surreptitiously filing off the serial numbers in order to make their deadlines.