The EC Archives: Weird Fantasy Volume 1

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.

Harvey Kurtzman (1924–1993) was a cartoonist, writer, editor, and comics genius. He is probably best remembered for MAD, which he founded in 1952. He created 28 revolutionary issues for E.C. publisher Bill Gaines (for whom he also created Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat) with such talent as Will Elder, Jack Davis, and Wally Wood before leaving in 1956. Kurtzman then created the short-lived satire magazine Trump for Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner in 1957. He followed with the comic-size Humbug in 1958, then Help! magazine. During his Help! tenure he discovered such diverse talent as Terry Gilliam, Gloria Steinem, Gilbert Shelton, and R. Crumb. In 1962 he and collaborator Will Elder began producing the long-running and elaborate Little Annie Fanny comic for Playboy. In the 1970s he became known as the “father-in-law of underground comix” for inspiring a new generation of media-bending cartoonists.