Last night I was trying to fall asleep reading golden age horror comics over at furycomics.com. A lot of the stories they have there are really good and in my opinion not inferior to the old E.C. horrors in any way. There really were a ton of horror titles in the '50's and it just got me thinking, why are the E.C. horror titles still famous today when all those other titles faded into complete obscurity? I can think of a few possible reasons, the main one being that I think maybe E.C. was a bit more gory with their covers. Also they definitely had the best "host" characters. Thoughts?
I think it was because they were the focus of those that were trying to show how salacious and violent comics were at that time.
Well for starters they were singled out for "the Seduction of the Innocent", the started the horror movement in comics, the had a great stable of Artist working for them and the stories were top notch. Plus Plus Russ Cochran took a huge interest in them and got them reprinted and the 90's TV show and movies. Were they other comics good? Ya i"m sure there are some good ones but I think for the most part the quality isn't there. DO I collect other old horror comics? Ya when i find them. And that about sums up my thoughts. :)
Weren't they one of the first?! Also they may have had better distribution than other companies!
Quote from: horror1o1 on March 17, 2013, 09:34:00 PM
Well for starters they were singled out for "the Seduction of the Innocent", the started the horror movement in comics, the had a great stable of Artist working for them and the stories were top notch. Plus Plus Russ Cochran took a huge interest in them and got them reprinted and the 90's TV show and movies. Were they other comics good? Ya i"m sure there are some good ones but I think for the most part the quality isn't there. DO I collect other old horror comics? Ya when i find them. And that about sums up my thoughts. :)
I agree. What he said. ;D
Another reason would be that EC went on to launch Mad magazine which was a tremendous publishing success. Moreover, more of the artists who worked at EC went on to have fanbases that survive to the present day, including the incomparable Jack Davis. And it was Jack's work at Mad that was a contributing factor behind him becoming one of the most beloved comic artists of his generation.
:)
Quote from: Hepcat on March 18, 2013, 09:59:14 AM
Another reason would be that EC went on to launch Mad magazine which was a tremendous publishing success. Moreover, more of the artists who worked at EC went on to have fanbases that survive to the present day, including the incomparable Jack Davis. And it was Jack's work at Mad that was a contributing factor behind him becoming one of the most beloved comic artists of his generation.
:)
Nice one. ;D ;D
Quote from: zombiehorror on March 18, 2013, 08:24:17 AM
Weren't they one of the first?! Also they may have had better distribution than other companies!
Actually, EC had much worse distribution than Atlas and many of the other publishers that flooded the market.
At the time, I don't know that ECs were more popular with average readers. EC did, however, purposefully work to build loyalty among their readers, which lasted long after the books stopped being published. And Bill Gaines did all he could to encourage fans and maintain the EC legend until comic fandom really started to pick up steam in the late 60s. Plus, MAD remained, as a constant reminder, not just in the monthly book, but the MAD comics remained in print in the paperbacks. And these were successful enough that Ballantine put out 4 or 5 EC horror/sf paperbacks.
Of course, none of this would've meant anything if ECs weren't of generally high and consistent quality, especially compared to a lot of the competitors. But whether casual readers of the 50s cared... who knows?
The line-up of artists, imo, has never been equalled...
Quote from: jim on April 14, 2013, 09:42:15 PM
The line-up of artists, imo, has never been equalled...
Like Hep pointed out there was Jack Davis. Also the equally great Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, and Graham Ingels. Wood, Crandell, and Davis also contributed to Warren titles.
Quote from: CreepysFan on April 15, 2013, 02:31:59 AM
Like Hep pointed out there was Jack Davis. Also the equally great Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, and Graham Ingels. Wood, Crandell, and Davis also contributed to Warren titles.
Fantastic artists. Jack Davis and Graham Ingels are my favorite.
E.C. comics were/are the best. Over time cream rises to the top. This is not to say the competition wasn't good. On the contrary, many of the other comics of the '50s were very good. They just weren't as good as E.C. This quality led to the reprints: the paperbacks in the '60s, the Horror Comics Of The 1950s hardcover in 1971, the comic reprints from the '70s through the Cochran reprints in the '90s, as well as the movies and HBO TV show. The more people who saw these later reprints/adaptations the more people realized how good E.C. really is. It just snowballs and that explains the popularity.
The stable of artists was unequalled, and will probably remain unequalled. But, also, the vision, commitment, and talent of Gaines and Feldstein should not be underestimated.
Quote from: horrorhunter on April 15, 2013, 08:28:34 PM
E.C. comics were/are the best. Over time cream rises to the top. This is not to say the competition wasn't good. On the contrary, many of the other comics of the '50s were very good. They just weren't as good as E.C. This quality led to the reprints: the paperbacks in the '60s, the Horror Comics Of The 1950s hardcover in 1971, the comic reprints from the '70s through the Cochran reprints in the '90s, as well as the movies and HBO TV show. The more people who saw these later reprints/adaptations the more people realized how good E.C. really is. It just snowballs and that explains the popularity.
The stable of artists was unequalled, and will probably remain unequalled. But, also, the vision, commitment, and talent of Gaines and Feldstein should not be underestimated.
You may be right, sometimes it just is what it is.
I love these comic reader sights, where else can you see the obscure horror in all its glory. Have you found Ditko's 'The Thing' by Charlton, my gosh that was a great horror comic!
I have this book published in Great Britain about horror, with the end papers consisting of an opening page, and a closing page of two seperate stories. I haven't seen a lot on the non E.C. horro comics, but these were honestly way below the quality of what EC was putting out. There may have been some outstanding stories in some of those old horror comics, but I'm going to guess that there was some really bad material when it came to many, if not most. Can anyone name another comic (besides Classics Illustrated) that bragged about a writer on the cover of a comic, like EC did with Ray Bradbury? Gaines and Feldstein made a real effort to improve the quality of their work, and I can't think of a single EC story that I found really awful. Most of what was done, especially when you have artists of the quality of Orlando, Davis(heh heh heh-y'all), Frazzetta, Ingles and the rest I think there's a reason why EC is so well remebered to this day.
Quote from: jimm on April 17, 2013, 08:56:14 AMHave you found Ditko's 'The Thing' by Charlton, my gosh that was a great horror comic!
Yes! Great stuff indeed.
8)
Quote from: Haunted hearse on April 17, 2013, 09:08:03 AM
Can anyone name another comic (besides Classics Illustrated) that bragged about a writer on the cover of a comic, like EC did with Ray Bradbury?
Of course, they only did that because Bradbury caught them ripping off a couple of his stories. But he was nice about it and EC immediately offered to make the relationship official.
Quote from: MDG on April 17, 2013, 11:31:04 AM
Of course, they only did that because Bradbury caught them ripping off a couple of his stories. But he was nice about it and EC immediately offered to make the relationship official.
The fact that they thought of running a Ray Bradbury story (even without the credit), showed that Gaines and Feldstein were trying to bring out a quality product. By the way, Bradbury sent them a friendly message about how nice it would be to recieve credit for his story, and EC quickly moved to make it official that they were adapting his stories. How ever the realtionship between Bradbury and EC started, once it became official, EC used to boldly place on the cover, if they ran one of his stories. Agian, what other horror (or sci-fi) comic of the period promoted that the issued contained a story by a known writer?