William Maxwell Gaines (March 1, 1922–June 3, 1992), or Bill Gaines as he was called, was the founder of MAD Magazine but he was also noted for his efforts to create comic books of sufficient artistic quality and interest to appeal to adults. March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... MAD is an American humor magazine founded by publisher William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ...

Gaines was the son of Max Gaines, publisher of the All-American Comics division of DC Comics and also an influential figure in the history of comics, having tested the idea of selling comics on newsstands, inspiring the creation of Wonder Woman among other achievements. Max Gaines (Max Charles Gaines) was the most influential figure in the creation of the comic book. ... DC Comics is one of the largest companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superhero. ...

William Gaines became publisher of a small comics publisher called Educational Comics, or EC for short. The company published Bible comics and other educational fare. Gaines changed the name to Entertaining Comics and began searching for a niche among the dozens of comic book publishers who flourished at that time. Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. ...

He found his niche in publishing horror, science fiction and fantasy comics, as well as realistic war comics, and the legendary MAD and Panic satire comics. His books, including Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science and Two Fisted Tales featured stories with content above the level of the typical comic. Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... For other definitions of fantasy see fantasy (psychology). ... For other uses of War, see War (disambiguation). ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations, states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Tales from the Crypt can refer to: the television series Tales from the Crypt the film Tales from the Crypt the comic book Tales from the Crypt, published by EC Comics during the 1950s. ... A pseudoscience is any body of knowledge purported to be scientific or supported by science but which fails to comply with the scientific method. ...

His horror comics were not simply compilations of horrifying visuals, but subtle, satiric approaches to horror with genuine dilemmas and startling outcomes, along with horrifying visual graphics, to be sure, often with stories drawn from classic authors, such as Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. Likewise, his science fiction and fantasy titles dealt with adult issues like racism and the meaning of progress and had stories by, among others, Ray Bradbury. The books also featured artists who came to be among the most prominent commercial illustrators of the 20th century, among them Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, and Bill Elder. Edgar Allan Poe - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890–March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy and horror fiction, noted for giving horror stories a science fiction framework. ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is a science fiction and fantasy writer. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Wallace Wally Wood (June 17, 1927–November 2, 1981), best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad magazine, was an imaginative and prolific writer-illustrator. ... There are several notable people called Jack Davis. ...

MAD was also first a comic book satirizing other comic books. It was so popular that dozens of imitations were published, including EC's own Panic.

Gaines's comics may have appealed to adults, but comic books were considered by the general public to be aimed at children. With the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, comic books in the Gaines style drew the attention of the U.S. Congress and the moralizing classes in general and EC was effectively driven out of business by the Comics Magazine Association of America, an industry group that he had suggested, but lost control of to John Goldwater publisher of the innocuous Archie teenage comics. See Comics Code. Dr. Fredric Wertham (March 20, 1895–November 29, 1981) was a German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of mass media—comic books in particular—on the development of children. ... Seduction of the Innocent was a book by Dr. Fredric Wertham published in 1954. ... Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe Jughead Jones. ... The Comics Code Authority (CCA) is an organization founded in 1954 to act as a de facto censor for American comic books. ...

Gaines converted MAD to a magazine in 1956 in order to retain the services of its talented editor Harvey Kurtzman, who'd received offers from elsewhere. The change enabled "MAD" to escape the strictures of the Comics Code. Kurtzman would leave Gaines' employ a year later anyway, but Gaines went on to a long and profitable career as a publisher of satire and enemy of bombast. Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993), U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ...

Gaines ran his business in an eclectic and sometimes counterintuitive fashion. Although the original comic books ran a few paid ads, the magazine never accepted advertising during Gaines' lifetime. Merchandising was also scarce, and heavily overseen by Gaines, who apparently preferred to forego profit if he risked disappointing MAD's fans with substandard ancillary products. In 1980, following the colossal success of National Lampoon's Animal House, Gaines lent the name of his magazine to the bawdy spoof "Up the Academy." When the movie proved to be a disjointed botch, Gaines paid the film company to remove all references to the magazine from all future prints, and even issued private refunds to fans who wrote complaint letters. The Deltas in front of their house National Lampoons Animal House (also called Animal House) is a 1978 comedy film in which a misfit group of Delta fraternity boys takes on the system at their college. ...

Although MAD was sold for tax reasons in the early 1960s, Gaines remained as publisher until the day he died, and served as a buffer between the magazine and its corporate interests. In turn, he largely stayed out of the magazine's production, often seeing issues just before they were scheduled to be shipped to the printer. "My staff and contributors create the magazine," declared Gaines. "What I create is the atmosphere." This he accomplished through various means, notably the "MAD Trips." Each year, Gaines would pay for the magazine's staff and its steadiest contributors to fly off to some world locale. The first vacation, to Haiti, set the tone. Discovering that MAD had a grand total of one Haitian subscriber, Gaines arranged to have the entire group driven directly to the person's house. There, surrounded by the magazine's editors, artists and writers, Gaines formally presented the bewildered subscriber with a renewal card.

External links

• An Annotated Transcript of the William M. Gaines Memorial Service (http://www.instantclassics.com/ic_html/gaines1.html)