Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. It was a publisher of comic books specializing in crime, horror, war and science-fiction from the 1940s through the 1950s. It also published Mad and other satire comics which evolved into MAD Magazine. http://www. ... 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. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Events and trends The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. ... Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the... MAD is an American humor magazine founded by publisher William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. ...

The firm, first known as Educational Comics, was owned by Max Gaines, who published Picture Stories from the Bible and biographies of important figures from science and history in comic book form. A decade earlier, Max Gaines had been one of the pioneers of the comic book form by repackaging and distributing comic strips in 64-page pamphlets. Max Gaines (Max Charles Gaines) was the most influential figure in the creation of the comic book. ...

When Max Gaines died in 1947 in a boating accident, his son William inherited the comics company. After four years (1942-46) in the Army Air Corps, Gaines returned home to finish school at New York University, planning to work as a chemistry teacher. He never taught but instead took over the family business. In 1949 and 1950, he began to change titles in order to introduce stories with a focus on horror, suspense, science fiction, war and crime. At the same time, Gaines and his editors, Al Feldstien and Harvey Kurtzman, gave assignments to the best freelance artists working in the field. 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Army Air Corps is a vital component of the British Army. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any media intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. ... One of the premier programs of the Golden Age of Radio (now known as old-time radio), Suspense advertised itself as radios oustanding theater of thrills and was heard in one form or another from 1942 through 1962. ... 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. ... War is a state of widespread conflict between states, organisations, or relatively large groups of people, which is characterised by the use of violent, physical force between combatants or upon civilians. ...

The firm had success with its fresh approach and pioneered in forming relationships with its readers through its letters to the editor and its fan organization, the National EC Fan-Addict Club. While the stories were sensational, the art was highly regarded and the stories always had a certain literary sheen.

EC Comics was unique in a number of ways. They promoted their stable of illustrators, allowing each to sign their art, encouraging them to develop idiosyncratic styles, and by printing one-page biographies of them in the comic books. This was in stark contrast to the industry's common practice, in which credits were often missing and generic "house styles" were the norm. As an example, Donald Duck writer-cartoonist Carl Barks was known for years as the "Good Artist" because his stories stood out from the pack, but readers had no other way of identifying his work. In EC stories, readers could easily identify the signed work of such artists as "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, Bernard Krigstein, Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Feldstein, Jack Kamen, George Evans, Joe Orlando, John Severin and Al Williamson. Other artists of note who worked for EC included Frank Frazetta, Basil Wolverton and Reed Crandall. The comics were generally written by Harvey Kurtzman and Al Feldstein with assistance from Bill Gaines. Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic book character best known for his cartoons from Walt Disney Studios. ... Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was a famous Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck and the Beagle Boys. ... Wallace Wally Wood (June 17, 1927–November 2, 1981), best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad magazine, was an imaginative writer-illustrator who freelanced to a wide variety of markets. ... There are several notable people called Jack Davis. ... William Elder (born 1921) is a comic book artist. ... Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993), U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... Al Feldstein was the editor of EC Comics line of horror, science-fiction, and suspenstories titles in the 1950s. ... There have been a number of prominent people named George Evans: For the American congressman, see George Evans (politician) For the Australian explorer, see George Evans (explorer) For the Sergeant-Major of The Manchester Regiment awarded the Victoria Cross in World War I, see George Evans (VC) For the comic... Joe Orlando was an illustrator and cartoonist who was born April 4, 1927, in Bari, Italy, and died December 23, 1998, in Manhattan. ... John Severin is an American comic book artist most noted for working on the EC Comics line of comic books -- primarily on Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, the companys war comics. ... Al Williamson (March 21, 1931 - ) is an American cartoonist of partly Venezuelan descent. ... Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is one of the worlds most influential fantasy and science fiction artists. ... Basil Wolverton (1909-1978) lived in Vancouver, Washington. ... Reed Crandall (February 22, 1917 - September 13, 1982) was an American illustrator and penciller of comic books and magazines. ... Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993), U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... Al Feldstein was the editor of EC Comics line of horror, science-fiction, and suspenstories titles in the 1950s. ... 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. ...

The sheer volume of material required just for Feldstein's titles -- four to five stories per week, every week -- led to a formulaic approach which became EC's trademark for good and for ill. Kurtzman was a slower, more meticulous editor, which is why his comics are more highly-regarded than Feldstein's and why he handled fewer titles. The neverending need for material also led to some humorous incidents, such as when Feldstein and Gaines took an excessive amount of inspiration from some short stories by science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Learning of the stories, Bradbury sent a note praising them, while remarking that he had "inadvertantly" not received payment for their use. Charmed and relieved, EC happily sent a check and began a productive series of Bradbury adaptations. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology upon society and persons as individuals. ... Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is a science fiction and fantasy writer of Swedish descent, known best for his (1953) dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ...

EC published distinct "lines" of titles under its "Entertaining Comics" umbrella. Most notorious were their horror books, Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear. These titles reveled in a gruesome joie de vivre, with grimly ironic fates meted out to many of the stories' protagonists. The company's war comics Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales often featured weary-eyed, unheroic stories that were out of step with the jingoistic times. Many EC tales wrapped up with twist endings, but Crime SuspenStories and Shock SuspenStories positively reveled in them, and they became the comics' hallmark; several of the SuspenStories therein tackled weightier issues such as racism, sex, drug use and the American way of life. EC always claimed to be "proudest of our science fiction titles," and Weird Science and Weird Fantasy were certainly a step up from the standard space opera tales found in Planet Comics. EC's most lasting legacy came with MAD, which started as a side project for Kurtzman before buoying the company's fortunes and becoming the most significant humor publication in history. A sister publication, Panic, was also produced when humor magazines were the industry rage in 1954. MAD is an acronym with several different uses in the English language and in its capitalized form is the name of a magazine which is popular among adolescents. ...

The three horror titles featured stories introduced by a trio of horror hosts. The Crypt-Keeper was the introducer of of Tales from the Crypt, the Vault-Keeper of The Vault of Horror, and the Old Witch of The Haunt of Fear. Besides gleefully recounting the unpleasant details of the stories, the characters squabbled at one another, unleashed an arsenal of puns and even insulted and taunted the readers. This irreverent mockery of the audience also became a trademark of MAD. Such glib, snarky give-and-take was later mimicked by many, including Stan Lee in his Marvel Comics puffery. Stan Lee and his most famous co-creation, Spider-Man. ... Marvel Comics, sometimes called by the nickname House of Ideas, is an American comic book company. ...

In the 1950's the comic book industry imploded in the wake of a mass wave of public and official protest about the nature of much of the matter in the stories, as described in Dr. Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent. Also there was a shakeup in the distribution companies who sold comic books and pulp magazines in America. After that, most of EC Comics' titles were cancelled. Gaines attempted to revive a few of the science fiction based EC comics, watering down the story lines and artwork in order to conform to the newly founded Comics Code. Among the Code's new rules were that no comic book title could use the words "horror" or "terror" or "weird" on its cover; one may judge the linguistic coincidence by looking at a list of EC's top-selling titles. 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. ... Pulp magazines (often referred to as the pulps) were inexpensive text fiction magazines widely published in the 1920s through the 1950s. ... 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. ... The Comics Code Authority (CCA) is an organization founded in 1954 to act as a de facto censor for American comic books. ...

Gaines waged a number of battles with the Comics Code Authority, in an attempt to keep his magazines free of censorship during the later days of EC. One notable incident involved his threatening the members of the Comics Code Authority board with a lawsuit after being ordered to alter the climactic scene of a science fiction story, so that one of the characters would not be seen sweating.

When this approach proved unsuccessful, the company shifted its focus to a line of more realistic comic book titles, including M.D. and Psychoanalysis. This revamp also failed. Some believe that EC's publishing woes in 1955 and 1956 were largely thanks to an unspoken blackballing of EC titles by the industry and its distributors.

Luckily, EC found a large audience embracing its humor comics MAD and Panic. Eventually the company abandoned its other titles and focused exclusively on publishing MAD in magazine form. Although this move was done to placate its editor Harvey Kurtzman (who had received an offer to join the magazine Pageant but preferred to remain in charge of his own), it had the happy result of removing MAD from the Comics Code. While no EC comic book lasted six years, MAD has been published without interruption for over 50 years. Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993), U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ...

The Tales from the Crypt title was licensed for a movie in 1972 and more successfully for a TV series in the 1980s.

See also List of EC Comics publications. EC Comics was a major publisher of comic books in the 1940s and 1950s. ...

External link

• Horror Comics of the 1950s (http://www.sff.net/people/lwe/miscellaneous/articles/SCREAM.HTM)
• 1954 Senate Interim Report: Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/kefauver.html)