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EC Comics

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Name: EC Comics
Date(s): 1944-
Profit/Nonprofit: Profit
Country based in: United States
Focus: publisher
External Links: EC Comics on Wikipedia
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EC Comics is an American comic book publisher founded in 1944 that, due to censorship, ceased publication of all comics in 1956 except for MAD Magazine. In its heyday EC Comics published a number of popular titles, including Tales from the Crypt, and fans created some EC-focused fanzines. A full list of EC's publications can be found on Wikipedia.

History

Founded by Maxwell Gaines as Education Comics in 1944, the publisher focussed on educational and child-oriented stories. When Gaines died suddenly in 1947, his son William Gaines took over and renamed the publisher Entertaining Comics, specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction. EC became known particularly for its high standards in art, with such artists as Wallace Wood, Reed Crandall, Johnny Craig, George Evans, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Bill Elder, Joe Orlando, Al Williamson, and Frank Frazetta. The stories were unique in their socially conscious, progressive themes (including racial equality, anti-war advocacy, nuclear disarmament, and environmentalism), well ahead of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s, there were 14 separate comic titles, including several horror comics and what would become the publisher's flagship, MAD Magazine, which was created by editor Harvey Kurtzman as a side project.

Following Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent (1954) and the creation of the Comics Code Authority, EC's refusal to join the CCA and abide by the Comics Code meant difficulties in finding wholesalers who would ship their books. As a result, they cancelled most of their line-up and focussed on MAD, eventually publishing it as a magazine and thereby avoiding the Comics Code. However this wouldn't save the company and in the 1960s, what was left of EC was sold to the company which later formed DC Comics.

Fandom

Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanart

Gallery

Zines

Meta

  • "An EC Retrospective" by Frank Motler - article on EC Comics. Includes reprints of art for "Food For Thought" by Al Williamson and other EC titles. Chain Reaction Issue #6 (1984/1985)
  • "An Entertaining Comic" by Pete Scott - article on EC which was originally written in May 1985 to be published in Marvel UK's Starburst magazine. Includes reprinted art from EC Comics by George Evans, Jack Davis, Al Feldstein and Graham Ingles. Hellfire Issue #4 (1986)

Conventions and Events

Archives/Websites

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