The EC Archives: The Vault of Horror Volume 4

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.

Johnny Craig was an American comic book artist born in 1926. A veteran of World War II, Craig got his start in comics as an assistant to Harry Lampert, cocreator of the Flash. After the war he worked as a penciler and inker at EC Comics. Before EC’s collapse after the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings, Craig was best known for his work on The Vault of Horror and Crime SuspenStories. He passed away in 2001 and was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2005.

Jack Davis was born on December 2, 1924, in Atlanta, Georgia. After serving in the Navy, Davis enrolled in night classes at the Art Students League and began working on The Saint syndicated newspaper strip. It was in 1951 that he began working for EC Comics on their horror, war, and suspense titles. The juxtaposition of Davis’s “cartoony” style with the grim and at times gruesome EC scripts quickly made him one of the line’s most popular artists. Shortly thereafter he began his decades-long association with MAD, where his humorous, over-the-top style meshed perfectly with MAD‘s zany irreverence. Davis has worked in virtually every area of commercial illustration, including movie posters, advertising campaigns, album covers, magazine covers, and illustrations.