Delightful video! EC was brilliantly responsive to the underlying anxieties of the 1950s. Nowhere (and that includes both academic and fictional works) is there a more fascinating, vibrant and timely response to cold war fears. When worry about "atomic" warfare escalated in 1953 into fear of potentially world-ending "thermonuclear" war EC was on it within weeks. When the soul sickness from delayed stress from WWII and a vague inward 1950s malaise was driving more people to therapy than ever before EC was there with four issues of "Psychoanalysis" in 1955. Compare Allen Ginsburg's masterful 1956 poem "Howl" with EC comics from the same year and you will find an astonishing commonality of concerns . EC was brilliant and your presentation, my friend, was delightful.
EC comics are incredible! My dad used to take me to comic shops and I’d grab every EC comic or reprint I could get my hands on and reread them probably hundreds of times. Johnny Craig is also my favorite! His illustrations are so clean and striking.
I log on after my morning shift every day, looking for something fun to see/hear that's horror-book related, and was delighted to find this video about E.C.! I have the E.C. big book from the early 70s, as well, and I love it. Thanks for being a go-to channel for our edification, and keep up your horror literature presentations. I appreciate it, have a great day!
I feel like EC should have been more a part of my youth than they actually were. Looking forward to checking out some of these reprints and hearing more of your thoughts!
A bunch of old Tales from the Crypt are on RU-vid but for the most part you can really only watch them all if you own stupidly expensive DVDs. Great video!
Oh my! Great one. Thanks for showing all those floppy reprints. I have a couple volumes of the EC Archives. I got many of the Gladstone reprints when they came out but I wish I had gotten more. When I was younger I wasn't so much interested in the horror but that's when I started to be but as a reader I was more into the SF and adventure type of books. Yes the best comics ever published as a body of work.
Wow… who knew that Roger was an EC Comics star?! Every time you talk about EC comics I tell myself I have to go hunt some down. Thanks for showing us all of these covers… so many cool ones!
1. Fortunately for all us fans, EC comics are available today in a range of reprint formats from single issues to the new Dark Horse collections, not to mention Russ Cochran's deluxe "The Complete EC Library" b/w slipcased hardcovers from the 1970s and 80s. I am very fortunate to own four EC comics and they are among the prizes of my comics collection. 2. One of EC's great strengths is the roster of artists they employed: not a bad one among them, every artist a master of pen and ink, several of whom became specialists in a particular genre (Ingels and horror, Evans and war, Wood and SF). But Wally Wood stands out for me, my favourite EC artist and one of my favourite comics creators ever. His autobiographical story "My World" from Weird Science #22 is brilliant. 3. Funny thing about EC and Bradbury: Gaines used two stories without Bradbury's permission or knowledge for his first adaptation; but Bradbury, being the magnanimous soul that he was, wrote to Gaines congratulating him on the adaptation and casually mentioning that the cheque had yet to arrive. Gaines promptly sent Bradbury a cheque and requested permission to adapt further works, which Bradbury supplied, and EC in the end adapted about two dozen Bradbury stories. No lawyers, two gentlemen metaphorically shaking hands and everyone comes away happy, especially us fans. 4. The story title "Horror We? How's Bayou?" still cracks me up, those puns are brilliant. 5. Blobs were definitely big in the 1950s, one even helped launch Steve McQueen's movie career. 6. The cover to Weird Science-Fantasy #7 is indeed Frank Frazetta and it sure is awesome Michael. 8. I'm really looking forward to your EC series, which issues/artists/stories you highlight and why. It will be a very hard job to choose just some though.
I wish I knew about EC Comics back when I first started reading back in the early 80's, I wonder if I could've gotten stuff out of the quarter bins. I did make up for it about 5 years ago, I did my capstone for my history BA on the introduction of the comics code authority and EC's role in it. It was fun researching and reading about the company.
That cover you wondered if was a Frazetta was by him. If I remember the story behind that cover it was originally a Buck Rogers cover he did for someone else that didn't get used and he repurposed it for an EC cover. As I read the Dark Horse archives my fave artist is always changing. Jack Davis is probably my current fave. I was on the wait list at the library but unlike the Pogo hardcover reprints I never got to read what they had. The Gladstone reprints were my first real read of the material. I remember they really stood out because the comic shop I shopped at shelved by publisher so they were surrounded by Disney comics.
A friend of mine collected the original black & white slipcased volumes of the complete EC library. When he emigrated to Australia, he took the horror collections with him, but he left me the science fiction ones, which like you I actually prefer. I was slightly annoyed when they decided to redo them in colour, but I think I actually prefer them in black & white.
That was fun, I didn't know EC had so many titles. Some good comic covers, facsimile comics from across the years when they were just called reprints. The puns with names, I like finding those when I read who worked on the comic. Those silver bullet space ships are so elogant, pure B movie sci fi, just what young me enjoyed watching .. and the Universal monster movies. Was Roger played by Boris Karloff?
My favorite Weird Science story was where the guy gets hit with a shrinking ray and just keeps shrinking and shrinking and shrinking while meeting different races and cultures of people - it tripped me out!
Great stuff! No one approaches Ghastly Graham's art for shear dark horror and repulsiveness except maybe the great Tom Sutton. PS I always thought it was FELDstein with a short E? But what do I know.
My Goodness! What a lovely channel I've just found! Unfortunately I'm not from your country, but the culture of comic books, horror books are awesome! I need to watch all the videos on your channel😂 Thumbs up!!!
Thanks for posting this video Michael. You just inspired me to read my Tales from the Crypt Vol 1 (Dark Horse May 2021). I bought it a couple of years ago and it's just been sitting on my TBR shelf... until now! 😊
While the horror comics may be a bit text heavy for modern readers, the art is amazing. EC science fiction is the height of the comic book form. Kurtzmans' war books were the first American war comics, and the only thing to come anywhere near them is Warren's Blazing Combat, which is a direct copy with almost the same artists. The guys over at Cartoonist Kayfabe have done a number of videos on individual EC artists and the EC "artists editions", so people do still talk about these guys. At least, people with taste do. Look forward to seeing your collection and listening to you talk about them.
I have a few of those. I also have a lot of Tales of the Unexpected and Weird War from DC but my biggest collection by far is Classics Illustrated. I have around 150 of them
The Ten Cent Plague is an excellent history about the comic book bans of the 1950s and the Kefauver hearings. It really shows what those artists and writers went through back then. (Also, it's Al felled-steen).
I’ve never had many EC comics and I don’t know why. I read a book on Harvey Kurtzman by Bill Schelly that talked a lot about the early EC and the people there and that got me interested but I never followed up. Your video has renewed that interest and I’ve already ordered Choke Gasp! So Roger can rest assured you’re still costing me money. Thanks for the great video.
If you had a large EC collection, and none are appraised yet, is it better to pass on the appraisal cost savings to the buyer, or just get them appraised? None are reprints.
Yeah. So cool. I stumbled across Wally Wood in The Spirit reprints and fell in love with his art. And that got me onto EC comics. Mad Magazine too… great vid.
I love those 90s Gemstone reprints (altho the earlier Gladstone ones were cool too). It was so cool seeing those classic EC covers on convince store magazine racks in the 1990s. I was a bit annoyed when they started putting "Tales of the Crypt presents" over all the titles. I guess they were trying to take advantage of the success of the TV show. But imho it diminished otherwise authentic aesthetic of the series
Now I need to do a double-feature of Seduction of the Innocent and Michelle Remembers. Alarmist literature filled with misinformation is quite possibly some of the most disturbing there is.
Just a tip, the last name of the artist at EC Comics was FELDstein, not FIELDStein. It’s an easy mistake to make, but you might want to check Wikipedia on every person you mention and have your browser speak the name. I just watched a video where the creator called Rod Serling, Rod Sterling, which wouldn’t be too bad, but he said it wrong twenty times. Keep in mind that viewers are probably going to know how to pronounce these folks’ names, and mispronouncing the names probably hurts subscription numbers.
They and Will Eisner's "Spirit" were the great comics of the 1950s, if not the greatest ever, as you say. Where would comics have gone If they hadn't been forced to close down, I wonder. There would have been no DC and Marvel as we have come to know them, or Stan Lee. A good or a bad thing? Wally Wood was great. I remember what he did at Marvel. At EC, he was the fans' favourite of his time.
I know everyone knows the HBO show and the 2 movies. Have any of you watched the 70's movies, Tales From The Crypt and Vault Of Horror? Those are pretty good too.
that weird science fantasy 7 which you were unclear regarding the artist of .. is indeed Frank Frazetta... it is the ONLY cover he did for E.C. comics... Frazetta... did not like to work alone... and so... he would often team up with Al Williamson.. doing the penciling and Al doing the art... but I do not believe Frazetta is listed anywhere.. in the credits of any of the stories. .. on the original of that.. comic you show.... which I believe is possibly Weird Science-Fantasy.. either 29 or 30.. ... Frazetta DOES have his name signed.. somewhere below the character in the open area...
I have many of the original E.C. comics... and though the Darkhorse.. reproductions.. may be a little sharper due to the higher quality paper used... the originals were NEVER as muddy or even close to being that way... like the Gladstone copies... You must be confusing them with the Harvey comics of that period.. I'll agree with you regarding Harvey horror comics being "muddy".. but E.C....?.. NOT EVEN CLOSE !!...
I am pretty sure it is pronounced FELD-STEEN...not... FIELD STINE....or were you trying to be funny by insulting one of the greatest people in comic book history?..
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 ok...perhaps I was wrong with stating that this was done purposely... obviously I was wrong... I guess I just could Not believe anyone..(even someone stepping in) trying to talk about something as Great as E.C. comics were... and Not knowing or hearing how his name was pronounced... I guess it was easier for me to think that you were being insulting rather than ignorant.. I could Not imagine anyone NOT knowing how to say his name.. but you are a lot younger than I am so that May explain it... or Maybe you have never heard anyone talk about Al before...... I do not know... you have Not been around as long as I have.... I started collecting E.C.s in the '70's.. and I have Russ Cochran's compete collection of his library..AND Every MAD Magazine..1-550.. also 20 issues of the L.A. batch.. and 1000's of other Mad related objects.. but what I do NOT have....... is access to be able to put videos on ..RU-vid I rely on people like YOU guys to do it.. BTW.. I DID hear someone else pronounce his last name as Feld Stine... so you weren't too far off.... just in the Field..insertion....over the last 50 years though...... I have only heard it pronounced "Steen" ...
