Cover for Weird Fantasy 21 by Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta Weird Fantasy was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. The bi-monthly science-fiction comic, published by Bill Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein, replaced romance comic A Moon, A Girl... Romance with the May/June 1950 issue. Although the title and format change took effect with issue 13, Gaines and Feldstein decided not to restart the numbering in order to save money on second class postage. The Post Office took note and, starting with issue #6, all the issues were numbered correctly. Because of this, "Weird Fantasy #13" could refer to either the May/June 1950 issue or the actual 13th issue of the title, published in 1952. The same confusion exists for issues #14-17, #17 being the last issue published before EC reset the numbering. Over a four-year span, Weird Fantasy ran for 22 issues, ending with the November-December 1953 issue. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 411 Ã 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (470 Ã 685 pixel, file size: 136 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Template:Fair use in Weird Fantasy Source: EC Web source: http://www. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 411 Ã 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (470 Ã 685 pixel, file size: 136 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Template:Fair use in Weird Fantasy Source: EC Web source: http://www. ...
Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. ...
William Maxwell Gaines (March 1, 1922 â June 3, 1992) (more frequently referred to as Bill Gaines), was the bearded, bespectacled, overweight publisher of Mad. ...
Al Feldstein (born October 24, 1925) is an American painter of Western wildlife and an influential author-editor who wrote, drew and edited for EC Comics and MAD Magazine. ...
Cover illustrations were by Feldstein with the exception of two by Joe Orlando, one collaboration by Feldstein and Al Williamson, plus another collaboration by Williamson with Frank Frazetta. Artists who drew stories for this EC title were Feldstein, Frazetta, Williamson, Orlando, Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, George Roussos, Harry Harrison, Reed Crandall, Will Elder, Bernard Krigstein, Jack Kamen, John Severin and Mac Elkin. Joe Orlando was an illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist who was born April 4, 1927, in Bari, Italy, and died December 23, 1998, in Manhattan. ...
Al Williamson Al Williamson (March 21, 1931 - ) is an American cartoonist of partly Colombian descent. ...
Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is one of the worlds most influential fantasy and science fiction artists. ...
Wallace Wally Wood (born June 17, 1927, Menahga, Minnesota, United States; died November 2, 1981), was an American writer-artist best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. ...
Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ...
George Roussos a. ...
At the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005 Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey, March 12, 1925 in Stamford, Connecticut) is an American science fiction author who has lived in many parts of the world including Mexico, England, Denmark and Italy. ...
Reed Crandall (February 22, 1917 - September 13, 1982) was an American illustrator and penciller of comic books and magazines. ...
Will Elder self-portrait William Elder (aka Bill Elder) (born September 22, 1921 in the Bronx, New York) is an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art yet is best known for a zany cartoon s tyle that helped launch Harvey Kurtzmans...
Bernard Krigstein, or B. Krigstein, (1919â1990) was an American artist and illustrator best known for his groundbreaking work in comic books. ...
Jack Kamen is an illustrator who was born May 29, 1920 in Brooklyn. ...
John Powers Severin (born December 21, 1921, Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American comic book artist noted for his distinctive artwork with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, and for Marvel Comics, primarily on its war and Western comics. ...
The companion comic for Weird Fantasy was Weird Science. Due to lack of sales, the two titles merged in 1954 to become Weird Science-Fantasy. Weird-Science Fantasy ran for seven issues before a title change to Incredible Science Fiction for the final four issues. Weird Science was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. ...
Weird Science-Fantasy was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s. ...
Incredible Science Fiction #33 (Jan. ...
Stories of note
- Home to Stay in Weird Fantasy 13 was an unauthorized adaptation of two Ray Bradbury stories, The Rocket Man and Kaleidoscope. After Bradbury contacted EC about this, they reached an agreement for EC to do authorized adaptations of Bradbury's short fiction, resulting in "There Will Come Soft Rains" (Weird Fantasy 17), "Zero Hour" (18), "King of the Grey Spaces" (19), "I, Rocket" (20), "The Million Year Picnic" (21) and "The Silent Towns" (22).
- For Weird Fantasy 17, Al Williamson illustrated "The Aliens": Three aliens head for Earth to prevent a nuclear war, but they arrive too late. Amid the devastation they find a copy of Weird Fantasy 17. When they read "The Aliens", they see that it had predicted their arrival. On the last page they see a picture of themselves looking at a comic book with a picture of themselves looking at... ad infinitum.
- Issues 14 and 15 ran EC Quickies, a format featuring two similarly themed stories, each three or four pages, in the space usually devoted to a seven or eight-page story.
- Gaines and Feldstein made cameos in "Cosmic Ray Bomb Explosion" (14, July-August 1950), "7 Year Old Genius" (7) and "The Expert" (14) and "The Ad" (14). In "Cosmic Ray Bomb Explosion," comic book editors Gaines and Feldstein are investigated by the FBI after they publish a comic book story about the destruction of Washington, D.C. by a cosmic ray bomb. Summoned to Washington, they explain it's just a comic book story, so the investigation ends. Foreign agents who purchased the comic book launch an attack on Washington just as Gaines and Feldstein exit FBI headquarters.
Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ...
External links - Weird Fantasy cover gallery
- CBW Comic History
- Horror from the Crypt of Fear 9: "OTR: The Evil Influence Behind EC" by Kurt Kuersteiner
Issue guide |