EC ComicsEC Comics was founded in 1945 by M.C. 'Max' Gaines as 'Educational Comics,' and produced titles such as Picture Stories from the Bible, Picture Stories from American History, and Tiny Tot Comics. Max Gaines was killed in a boating accident in 1947, and control of the company passed to his son, William M. 'Bill' Gaines. Bill Gaines was initially reluctant to run the company, but was urged to do so by his mother. Gradually he became more and more interested in the comics industry, and recruited a new and more enthusiastic staff - most notably artist / writers al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman and Johnny Craig - and to introduce a new line of comics to replace his father's somewhat lacklustre ones. Titles such as Gunfighter, Saddle Romances, and Crime Patrol were derivative, but much more dynamic than their predecessors. At about the same time, EC became 'Entertaining Comics.'These early comics are part of what is known in EC history as the 'pre-trend' titles; it is with the later 'new trend' titles that EC comics really found its own identity and rose to notoriety. In the January - February 1950 issue of Crime Patrol, Feldstein introduced a new 'experimental' story - Complete in this issue! An illustrated terror-tale from the Crypt of Terror! The story was introduced by the Crypt Keeper. Similar horror stories were introduced into War Against Crime and these lead the way for the 'new trend' comics: The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, several war titles and ultimately Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. These titles brought EC its greatest success to date. Frederic Wertham began a campaign against horror and crime comics in the early 1950s, his book Seduction of the Innocent claiming that these comics were linked to juvenile delinquency. This campaign eventually led to a full Senate Subcommittee hearing, and Bill Gaines appeared before the committee in 1954 in an attempt to defend the comics industry. Unfortunately the nature of the questioning resulted in a testimony which did more harm than good: when asked whether he believed his cover to Crime SuspenStories #22 was in good taste, Gaines answered: Yes, sir: I do, for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding the head a little higher so that the neck could be seen dripping blood from it and moving the body over a little further so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody. It didn't matter that the link between horror comics and juvenile delinquency was never proved, sales of horror and crime comics plummeted. Gaines introduced a line of 'new direction' comics, but these did not prove popular, and the writing was on the wall for EC comics. All of the company's comics were cancelled, except one: Mad Magazine, which went on to become one of the most famous and popular magazines ever. Harry Harrison's work began to appear in EC comics towards the end of 1949, in the romance titles A Moon, A Girl ... Romance, Saddle Romances - western love stories - and Modern Love. These comics were eventually replaced by the 'new trend' comics Weird Fantasy, Weird Science, Vault of Horror and so on. Often the replacements were direct - Saddle Romance #11 was followed by Weird Science #12; A Moon, A Girl ... Romance #12 by Weird Fantasy #13... The reasoning behind this was simple: every time EC created a new title, they had to deposit $1,500 with the US post office, so if they could convince the postal authorities that a new title was simply a continuation of a previous one, they wouldn't have to pay: this ruse worked only occasionally. Both Harry Harrison and Wally Wood were much more interested in drawing science fiction comics than romance, and Harrison encouraged Bill Gaines to try a science fiction comic, which he eventually did with Weird Fantasy and Weird Science. The story "Home to Stay" in issue 13 of Weird Fantasy was based on two Ray Bradbury short stories - "Kaleidoscope" and "The Rocket Man" - which had been used without the author's permission. Bradbury wrote to Gaines: Dear Sir, Just a note to remind you of an oversight. You have not as yet sent on the check for $50.00 to cover the use of secondary rights on my two stories ... I feel this was probably overlooked in the general confusion of office work, and look forward to your payment in the near future. Bradbury also suggested that EC might want to adapt more of his stories, and at the bargain price of $25 a shot, Gaines took him up on the offer. Harry Harrison and Wally Wood's working partnership came to an end towards the end of 1950. Initially, Harrison kept the EC account, inking and pencilling several stories himself and doing others in collaboration with Jules Feiffer, but - as Harrison himself admits - "without Wally I wasn't a very good inker." This also seems to have been the view of Bill Gaines, quoted in Modern Love, Gemstone Publishing, 1995: Very early Harrison used to do a little work. He did a little work with Wally for a while. There was this combination of Harrison and Wood, and I didn't know who did what. When they broke up, all of a sudden Harrison's artwork wasn't very good any more. [Laughs.] And I found out who did what. Gaines' comments aren't entirely fair, as two of the first stories Harrison sold to EC appear to have been solo efforts, and is probably Harrison who secured the EC work for himself and Wally Wood in the first instance. Harrison also produced a number of excellent black and white illustrations for Damon Knight's Worlds Beyond magazine. The full story of EC Comics is told in Tales of Terror: The EC Companion by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman, Fantagraphics Books / Gemstone Publishing, June 2000. ISBN: 1-56097-403-6.
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