'Foul Play!'

[cyberghostface]

Warning: Gore.

This comes from Haunt of Fear #19.

'Foul Play!' is definitely one of the most notorious stories that EC has ever published, to the point that Fredric Wertham singled it out as an example of how comics were corrupting children.

I'm copying the synopsis from Comicbookresources.

The story opens with the Crypt-Keeper telling us about a mysterious midnight baseball game. We go back in time, then, to a heated pennant race between two teams in the Bush League. A player oddly attempts to steal second base and in the process, cuts the second baseman with his spikes as he is thrown out easily. His manager questions the tactic (as he had not called for a steal) but the player tells him that he has a plan. The second baseman is also the opposing team’s best player, and he is out of sorts after the play…

Comments

[crinos]

Ah yes, this comic.

You know it always gets me that the teams response to a Murder (A murder for which they only have circumstantial evidence that Satten was they guy who did it by the way, since someone could have just put the poison on his cleats without his knowing, or switched his shoes, or any other number of things) is to commit an EVEN MORE GRISLY MURDER. And not just murder him, but also play a game of baseball with his SEVERED BODY PARTS.

I mean Dayum, the Sawyer Family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre would look at this and think you went to far (Or ask if they can sell their "Barbecue" in the stands during the next game).

[donnblake]

Not the worst escalation in EC history... I'm thinking of The Funeral, I think.

[balbanes]

How would you even play baseball with severed body parts. Meat is squishy.

[caivu]

Plus, human limbs are considerably heavier than baseball bats. And hinged.

[alicemacher]

Years later, Jack Davis, who in fact wasn't a horror fan and preferred working on EC's war comics, had this to say about "Foul Play" (as cited in Jack Davis: Drawing American Culture): "I hated to [draw] it, but Al Feldstein was the boss, the editor. Back then, I couldn't feel right to say, 'Wait a minute. I'm not going to do that.'" About his EC horror work in general, he said:

I really got a little—not upset, but [it got] a little gory. And I don't particularly like that. What sells, sells, and at that time I was hungry, I had just married and we were in the apartment and I had to pay the rent. I didn't really enjoy drawing them, especially my wife didn't particularly care for it. I didn't have any children then, so I really didn't feel any responsibility. All I wanted to do then was to make that buck and keep drawing and doing something that I knew I could do.

[donnblake]

"Pack of baseball fans who I've never heard of before wants to brainstorm a plaque honoring me? In the middle of the night on a deserted field? That sounds like exactly the sort of thing that I expected now that I'm famous and beloved! I'm in!"