Final EC comic published, with the exception of Mad Magazine
Considered the rarest EC publication, this issue had an extremely limited circulation of approximately 100 copies, most of which were distributed to staff and subscribers
Due to financial difficulties exacerbated by the widespread adoption of the Comics Code Authority, EC could not afford to bind (staple) the printed pages
As a result, nearly the entire print run of approximately 250,000 copies was destroyed
Although Shock Illustrated #4 was produced, it was never published until 2006, when all four issues (#1–#4) were released in a hardcover collection
