The EC Archives: Weird Fantasy Volume 3

Bill Gaines was born in 1922. His impact on American comics and magazines cannot be overstated. After his father, Maxwell Gaines, passed away in 1947, Bill took over running EC Comics and its stable of horror, science-fiction, satire, and war comics. He and Al Feldstein collaborated on Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, and Weird Science. Gaines testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. After EC Comics went out of business, Bill Gaines started Mad magazine, which remained as popular as it was controversial for decades. He passed away at the age of 70 in 1992 and was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.

Al Feldstein was an American writer, editor, and artist best known for his work at EC Comics. He was also editor of the satirical magazine Mad from 1956 to 1985. After retiring from Mad, Feldstein concentrated on American paintings of Western wildlife. Feldstein died in 2014.

Frank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers, and other media. In the early 1950s, he worked for EC Comics, National Comics, Avon Comics, and several other companies. By 1964, one of Frazetta’s magazine ads caught the eye of United Artists studios. He was approached to do the movie poster for What’s New Pussycat? and earned his yearly salary in one afternoon. Frazetta also started producing paintings for paperback editions of adventure books. His cover for the sword-and-sorcery collection Conan the Adventurer by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp caused a sensation—numerous people bought the book for its cover alone. From this point on, Frazetta’s work was in great demand. During this period he also did covers for other paperback editions of classic Edgar Rice Burroughs books, such as those from the Tarzan and Barsoom series. He also did several pen and ink illustrations for many of these books. Frazetta was inducted into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999. He was the subject of a 2003 documentary, Painting With Fire.