EC Comics: “The Day the Comics Almost Died”
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Tales from the Crypt 39. What do you think these little punks said to set him off?
You know, people can be so sensitive, and it’s not just nowdays with all the stupid politically correct rules wafting through the air, like you can’t say this word, you can’t say that word, trying to pass legislation to call French Fries “Freedom Fries”. Yeah, retarded shit like that. Well, back in the 1950′s (actually starting in the late 1940′s), comic books nearly went the way of color guide artwork, in other words, comics almost became extinct. There isn’t enough time to go into lengthy details, but Dr Frederic Wertham’s book “the Seduction of the Innocent” and the CCA Comics Code Authority almost wiped out (some say it did) an entire genre of comic book stories… the EC Comics horror line. Tales from the Crypt, Crypt of Terror, the Vault of Horror, all nearly as dead as the protagonists in those old EC stories. Of course, did EC and Bill Gaines get any credit for their clever storylines, plot twists, surprise endings, anti racist and other socially ahead of their time stances, and the enormously fantastic artwork from their artists? Oh, of course not, except for the fans, many of which were EC “Fan-Addicts”. I mean, EC had one hell of a stable of artists such as Harvey Kurtzman, Joe Orlando, Jack Davis, Graham Ingels (“Ghastly Graham Ingles”), George Evans, John Severin, Bill Elder, Al Feldstein, Jack Kamen, Wally Wood, and Johnny Craig. Their original art is highly prized and sought after today, as it should be.
Vault of Horror 23: "Reginald, where ARE you? Does this dress make me look.... HOLY SHIT!"
I‘m oversimplifying things here, but all Big Brother cared about how sociopathic our children were definitely going to be if they even read one EC Comic book. I mean, you write just ONE story about a wife having her husband stuffed and taxidermied because he killed and stuffed your cat, and now you’re the bad guy! What’s up with ‘dat, Willis? Or worse, newsstands quit carrying your product just because you feature a few covers showing mundane stuff like a guy laying dead (hopefully) on the ground and on fire, a guy getting his forehead parted like the Red Sea with an ax, undead zombies returning from the dead to have a nooner with their grieving wife, someone getting bludgeoned with an electric toothbrush, torture covers, bondage girl covers, etc. That kind of tame stuff that nobody blinks at in today’s movies. And by the way, EC also had other titles like Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, you know, the kind of war comics where THOUSANDS of people routinely get annihilated by page 2? Did the Comics Code have a problem with that? Ah, maybe they did, I don’t know. Anyway, my point being that people were screwed up LONG before paper was invented to print comics ON, they’re screwed up NOW, and they’ll be screwed up when we’re all reading our comics exclusively on our cellphones someday.
Two-Fisted Tales issue 30: Everybody knows smoking will kill you. Ya think?!?
But since the subject for this Supervator Super-Blog is EC Comics (ie “Entertaining Comics”), I’ve included some pictures of just a few of the many vintage EC Comics cover art posters we have. Just click on the photos to check their current availability. Well, I still very much treasure my EC Comics to this day. The Suspenstories, the shocks, the surprises, the outside the box thinking, the magnificient artwork, the FUN. I think EC catered to our universal fear of death, that “morbid fascination” we have with dying. We want to know more ABOUT it, but we ain’t gonna be volunteering any time soon to put our own toes in the water, so to speak.
Well Dear Monsters, we’re out of time. Thanks a Million for reading the SuperBlog! Click on the pics and check out all the EC posters and see if you think they’re so bad!
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