EC Comics
EC Comics (short for "Educational Comics" or "Entertaining Comics") was a New York comic publisher that specialized in the horror and crime genre in the 1940s and 1950s, including the series Tales from the Crypt ( stories from the crypt ), which was implemented in film and television series. Many of these works were censored in accordance with the Comics Code , so that from 1956 the publisher concentrated on the publication of the comic magazine MAD .
development
Maxwell Charles Gaines , founded the publishing house "Educational Comics" in 1945 to publish illustrated Bible stories. The Picture Stories from the Bible became the cornerstone for EC Comics. In the years 1946–1947 some funnies followed , funny children's comics with talking animals such as Dunny The Flying Donkey, Smoky The Snake, Korky Kangroo or Freddy Firefly. The series were titled Tiny Tot Comics , Land of the Lost , Animal Fables , Dandy and Fat and Slat . This orientation received the label "Entertaining Comics", which was retained from now on.
After Maxwell Gaines' death in 1947, his son William Maxwell Gaines took over the publishing house. In the spring of 1948, he began to adapt the program to the zeitgeist and focused on westerns, crime novels and romantic romance. With Johnny Craig , Graham Ingels and Wallace Wood he won new draftsmen and Al Feldstein as the new editor.
The great success came with the renewed program change to the so-called "New Trend" from spring 1950. The goal of EC Comics from then on was intelligent entertainment, professionally written and artistically implemented by the most imaginative cartoonists of their generation. The hallmarks of the “New Trend” were ironic humor and unexpected twists at the end of a plot (so-called “twist”). Film and literary templates were used, including a number of adaptations of Ray Bradbury's short stories .
The EC booklet contained four short stories, including the cover story with eight pages, two stories with seven pages each and one with six pages. Each story was illustrated by a different illustrator. Readers could vote on the stories and contribute their opinions in the form of letters to the editor.
EC was one of the first publishers to publish horror comics and thus entered a market niche. At the same time, comics came into general public discussion in the United States. Popular psychiatrist and author Fredric Wertham alleged a link between comic book consumption and crime. Wertham also used pictures from the EC Comics as evidence. In 1954 the debate escalated and after Senate hearings and state committees of inquiry on the subject of "Comics and Violence" the publisher set up the Comics Code Authority to monitor self-censorship in the comic industry. Drastic depictions of violence and stimulus terms such as “terror” or “horror” were considered taboo. After that, no more horror comics could be sold.
Development of the publishing house
Pre-trend (spring 1948 - summer 1950)
The term "pre-trend" is bulky and simply means everything that appeared before the "new trend". So a term finding in retrospect. This includes the following comic series:
- Gunfighter (10 issues)
- Saddle Justice (6 issues), then renamed Saddle Romances (3 issues)
- Crime Patrol (10 issues)
- War Against Crime (11 issues)
- Moon Girl (6 issues), then renamed Moon Girl Fights Crime (2 issues)
- A Moon, A Girl, Romance ... (4 issues)
- Modern Love (8 issues)
In some cases, the numbering of the following New Trend comics followed the final number of an existing pre-trend issue. Example: War Against Crime became Vault Of Horror at number 12 . Weird Science got the numbering of Saddle Romances, etc. That was for financial reasons. The publishers cut corners and ends. Since the registration of a new title cost money (this had to do with the postal distribution system of the United States), attempts were made to continue titles under other titles. This often sprouted so curiously (a romance turned into a horror magazine) that the post office would sometimes cash in, order a “new start” and therefore the numbering of the magazine changed again. For this reason, this article mentions the sheer number of issues that have appeared.
New Trend (April 1950 - February 1955)
The golden age of EC comics. In 1950 there were still experiments with narrative forms and drawing styles, and then the team and the concept were established. In 1951, 1952 and 1953, Bill Gaines' publishing house was in top form. The following titles were published.
- The Vault Of Horror (29 issues)
- Tales From The Crypt (30 issues, the first three were still called The Crypt Of Terror )
- The Haunt Of Fear (28 issues)
- Weird Science (22 issues)
- Weird Fantasy (22 issues)
- Two-Fisted Tales (24 issues)
- Frontline Combat (15 issues)
- Crime SuspenStories (27 issues)
- Shock SuspenStories (18 issues)
- MAD (23 issues) - MAD converted to MAD Magazine with # 24
- Panic (12 issues)
In the final editions of Crime , Fantasy , Science , Haunt and Crypt there was an EC “Death Notice” - “In Memoriam”. Publisher Gaines and his editor-in-chief Feldstein, visibly annoyed, but still sarcastically, threw the chunks down. “Economically, we are stumbling on the brink. The unfounded, unjustified and hysterical allegations ... which we consider to be total nonsense ... force us to surrender. We're giving up, we're sick of it! However, we trust that fewer crimes will happen from now on. ”All New Trend series have been discontinued.
Exception: Weird Fantasy and Weird Science merged to form Weird Science-Fantasy . After 7 issues the name was changed to Incredible Science-Fiction (another 4 issues). In fact, EC Science Fiction survived the New Trend and was continued parallel to the New Direction.
New Direction (March 1955 - December 1955)
EC tried a relaunch . This newly designed assortment of adventure and thriller stories went through the publisher's own comic book censorship agency CCA in order to be displayed at the kiosk at all. The catch: The EC flair was lost, the fans turned away.
- Impact (5 issues)
- Valor (5 issues)
- MD (5 issues)
- Aces High (5 issues)
- Extra! (5 issues)
- Psychoanalysis (4 issues)
- Piracy (7 issues)
Picto Fiction (September 1955 - May 1956)
Publisher Gaines launched a magazine format priced at 25 cents. Thus, the comic censorship, which did not apply to magazines, could be avoided. The idea of this maneuver and the term "Picto Fiction" are said to come from the draftsman Jack Kamen .
- Shock Illustrated (2 issues)
- Crime Illustrated (2 issues)
- Terror Illustrated (2 issues)
- Confessions Illustrated (2 issues)
"Picto Fiction" are text stories with individual images without speech bubbles. A kind of “graphic novel” ”, or in this particular case,“ graphic short story ”. This last attempt also failed. The last edition ( Shock Illustrated # 3) was destroyed in the printing shop.
Genres from EC
Science fiction
Science fiction was the secret soft spot of the makers Gaines and Feldstein. Although the two booklets Weird Science and Weird Fantasy were not a great success, the publisher never gave up on its favorite children. The other titles pulled these projects through. The cartoonists Orlando and Williamson were recruited for science fiction. EC's science fiction impressed with amusing speculations on the human condition - always peppered with an ironic, sometimes even socially critical punchline.
In "Judgment Day" ( Weird Fantasy # 18) an earthly ambassador, unrecognizable in his spacesuit, examines the progress on the robot planet Cybrinia in order to decide on its acceptance into the galactic republic. However, he discovers that there is apartheid between blue and red robots, has to deny Cybrinias requests and leaves. In the final picture, the person takes off his helmet and we recognize that it is black. The story appeared in March 1953. Dozens of readers congratulated, including Ray Bradbury. Editor Gaines took on the comics censorship for the last time almost three years later - because of the reprint of "Judgment Day" in Incredible Science-Fiction # 33. The black spaceman had sweat on his face and this should be removed, the authorities demanded (they obviously hadn't read the story itself). Gaines threw the "F-word" at his feet, printed it and set all titles except MAD because his horror titles and all comics with the EC logo were no longer delivered to the kiosks. Thanks to MAD, which was changed to a magazine shortly before and was a great success, the publisher survived.
The futuristic satire "A Man's Job" in Weird Fantasy # 12 tells of the United States turning into a society of women in a flash. A role reversal of the sexes, described in great detail. Men are subservient to women, have to run households and cannot drive a car. At the end, the male narrator says goodbye because he is being pushed into the delivery room because his contractions have started.
horror
The horror comics were EC's most successful titles. Although launched with three titles, the horror stories ran from the start. The Vault Of Horror , The Haunt Of Fear and Tales From The Crypt were the publisher's longest-running issues. The EC horror comics used cross-marketing : Each issue had its own "host", its host and presenter, who announced the cover story and the final story. The second and third stories each belonged to a colleague from the two sister magazines. The “Vault Keeper” presided over the Vault Of Horror , the “Crypt Keeper” watched over his Crypt ( Of Terror ), and the “Old Witch” presented their Haunt Of Fear .
The stories revolved around decapitated people seeking revenge, ordinary people turned into monsters, legacy sneakers who walked over corpses, zombies who haunted the living, butchers who offered human flesh, and even diabolical siblings who called crippled (quasi Siamese) body part led a life of their own - for example in the story “The Ventriloquist's Dummy” illustrated by Ingels. The horror never happened for the sake of sheer horror, but was mostly the result of a perfidious crime that was avenged in a supernatural way and punished by the same means. This principle of “poetic justice” can be considered the philosophy of the EC universe.
The horror magazines sold so well that a fourth series was planned and announced in 1954: The Crypt Of Terror . It no longer appeared because all horror comics were withdrawn from the market. It was not until the mid-1960s that Warren-Verlag resumed the EC tradition with the comic series Eerie and Creepy .
war
Harvey Kurtzman was responsible for the publication of the two war series . EC recognized the talent of his draftsman, and in the fall of 1950 Gaines asked him to design another issue, the adventure comic Two-Fisted Tales . The stories about conquistadors, pirates and generals were abandoned in the following year in favor of pure war comics.
The plot of the comics took place in the Korean War (1950–1953), which ran along the same political fronts as the later Vietnam War. Kurtzman, who also wrote all of these stories, dealt with this dispute and created an anti-war comic from its fourth issue with Two-Fisted Tales . The sister magazine Frontline Combat, which was launched in the summer of 1951, was also oriented.
The war at EC was dirty, arbitrary, unjust. Soldiers on both sides died senseless and undignified. Other kiosk war comics glorified the American cause and delighted in sadistic and racist fantasies. Not so with Kurtzman and his colleagues. The GIs were often just cogs in the monstrous machinery of war. The collateral damage became visible and many soldiers died in the so-called “ friendly fire ”.
One of the prominent stories is Kurtzman's self-drawn 6-page story Corpse on the Imjin ( Two-Fisted Tales # 25). A lonely GI sits on the banks of the Imjin and eats his lunch ration. He watches a corpse drifting past and ponders how the poor fellow may have died. An enemy soldier jumps at him, both of them engage in a close fight to the death. In the end, a new corpse drifts down the Imjin. The story closes with a humanistic appeal and a lyrical bracket at the beginning: “Have pity… for this man has lost that most precious possession that we all treasure above everything. He has lost his life! - Lightning flashes in the korean hills, and on the rain swollen Imjin, a corpse floats out to sea ". (Have pity, because this person has lost the most precious thing that matters to us. He has lost his life. - Lightning flashes over the Korean hills, and in the rain-swollen Imjin a corpse drifts towards the sea.)
A few individual stories and a total of 3 complete special editions on the subject of "Civil War" were also published in both series. Here anecdotes and key data from the American Civil War (Civil War 1861–1865) were retold with great attention to detail, unadorned and historically accurate . Kurtzman was eaten up by his work for the very successful MAD since 1953 and gradually gave up his war titles. However, the end of the Korean War was pushed forward. Frontline Combat was discontinued at the end of the year and the Two-Fisted Tales changed direction. For the last 6 issues ( The New Two-Fisted Tales ), colleague John Severin took the helm and concentrated on westerns, crime novels and adventure.
tension
With "tension" the German translation of the term "suspense" is meant, for which "thriller" falls short. Because every kind of "thrill" is dealt with. The two EC series are called Crime SuspenStories and Shock SuspenStories (started later, in spring 1952) - "SuspenStory" is a neologism from "Suspense-Story".
In Crime , EC dealt with the crime sector. The publisher got into great trouble with Johnny Craig's drastic cover pictures: a man puts a bullet through his temple, a madman brandishes a knife, a woman is buried alive, strangled under water, strangled over water, a hanged man swings on a broken neck - and the infamous cover of Crime # 22 features the ax-axed head of a blonde woman. The crimes depicted were almost always exposed, the perfidious plans burst.
In addition to a horror, horror and crime story , the Shock SuspenStories also presented a “shock story” - these were moral parables from the middle of US society. Machinations of the Ku Klux Klan, police violence, corruption, racial hatred, intolerance, sexual crimes and drug addiction ended up in drastic images on the EC pillory.
humor
The general irony at EC was also expressed in insider jokes: EC made itself a topic. Members of the editorial team acted as models for characters, and “Al and Bill” appeared as protagonists in 8 stories. They also wrote touching and funny "Origin Stories" for two of the publishing house's draft horses: the Crypt Keeper and the Old Witch.
In the fall of 1952, the time had come for a really weird “comic” magazine. MAD appeared and was not only a resounding success in the second year of its publication, which made Gaines a millionaire and saved the EC-Verlag from doom, but also a magazine that shaped American society and became what is commonly known as " Institution ".
The talented Harvey Kurtzman was hired to edit MAD. As early as issue # 4, Superman was dragged through the cocoa, followed by parodies of Tarzan, King Kong, Sherlock Holmes, westerns and science fiction. Contemporary radio and television shows were satirically inflated and exposed as shameless commercial events. MAD opened up a different perspective on reality for its readers, spread the seeds of subversion among the people and proved to be a school of humor, without which later comedy formats such as the “ Saturday Night Live ” show might have been unthinkable.
MAD found over a dozen imitators, and at the beginning of 1954 EC brought out the "only authorized imitation of MAD". Panic had 12 issues and was then discontinued because this happened: Kurtzman was fed up with Gaines' publishing management in the spring of 1955, feeling underpaid and not respected. He fled from EC - and took along with him, of all people, Davis and Elder. MAD was on the brink. The tried and tested Al Feldstein acted as a savior in an emergency. He had been dismissed a few weeks earlier (due to the financial misery and the failure of the New Direction) - now Gaines quickly brought him back on board. And Feldstein steered MAD from success to success. Wood and Orlando were still there, and by 1960 new talents such as Don Martin , Bob Clarke, Al Jaffee , George Woodbridge and Mort Drucker followed . Davis also returned to MAD , but not until 1965. Feldstein, by the way, remained editor-in-chief at MAD for a full 30 years .
Reprints
Since the early 1970s there have been several attempts at a new edition of the EC Comics.
The The Complete EC library (1979-1988) all songs of contains 14 slipcases New Trend and New Direction as large-format black-and-white reproductions of original drawings. Almost all of these sheets come from the archive of the EC publisher Gaines. The edition was later supplemented by volumes from the Picto Fiction series and some issues from the Pre Trend era.
In the series The EC Annuals , all New Trend / New Direction issues have been combined into annual editions . Each annual contains five issues. These editions, published in the 1990s, are colored and roughly correspond to the original size and presentation.
Finally, The EC Archives followed as a glossy edition. The repainting in a slightly smaller format than the library volumes has been published since 2006 and will continue to do so.
literature
- Grant Geissman: Foul Play - The Art And Artists Of The Notorious 1950s EC Comics . Harper Design, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-074698-X
- Nicky Wright: The Classic Era of American Comics . Prion Books, London 2000, ISBN 1-85375-336-X
- Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman (eds.): Tales of Terror. The EC Companion . Gemstone Publishing & Fantagraphics Books, Timonium & Seattle 2000, ISBN 1-56097-403-6
- Maurice Horn: The World Encyclopedia of Comics . Chelsea House Publishers, New York 1976, ISBN 0-87754-030-6
- Don Thompson and Dick Lupoff (Eds.): The Comic-Book Book . Rainbow Books, Carlstadt 1977, ISBN 0-89508-001-X
- Russ Cochran: The Complete EC Library [various volumes, supplemented with notes and comments]. Self-published, West Plains, Missouri, 1979–1988. No ISBN.