Shock was launched in 1948 by Popular Publications as a companion magazine to its primary detective pulps, Dime Detective and Black Mask, concentrating on weird-mystery stories. The first issue contains stories by Frederick C. Davis, John D. MacDonald, Robert Turner, D.L. Champion, and Bruno Fischer.
By Frederick C. Davis, John E. Harbaugh, John D. MacDonald, H.C. Malcolm, Robert Turner, D.L. Champion, John Bender, Curt Hamlin, Jack Bennett, and Bruno Fischer; illustrated by Frederick Blakeslee, Everett Raymond Kinstler, and Monroe Eisenberg
Contains the following stories:
- “Death Is a Dame” by Frederick C. Davis
- “Nightmare Man” by John E. Harbaugh
- “Her Black Wings” by John D. MacDonald
- “Skuldugger’s Loot” by H.C. Malcolm
- “Hell’s Belle” by Robert Turner
- “A Century of the Killer Curse” by D.L. Champion
- “The Perfect Gift” by John Bender
- “Strangler’s Moon” by Curt Hamlin
- “Crypt of the Jealous Queen” by Jack Bennett
- “Adventures Into the Unknown: The Secret of Glamis Castle” by Frederick Blakeslee
- Homicidal Homestead” by Bruno Fischer
