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Fifty years in the past, there was a line of comics so terrifying that it modified the comedian e book business… ceaselessly. EC Comics, like lots of its greatest identified topics, has died and been resurrected a number of instances within the final 5 a long time. EC, initially Instructional Comics, was based within the mid-Nineteen Forties as the house for healthful, academic yarns, typically comedian e book diversifications of Bible tales, earlier than pivoting away from these at first of the ’50s and changing into the premier dwelling for grotesque, surprising horror books.
In truth, these titles (and their typically brilliantly illustrated covers) have been so surprising and grotesque that they performed a task within the ethical panic round comics impressed by Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Harmless, a e book that blamed violent imagery for contributing to juvenile delinquency—that youngsters would learn these books and develop into violent maniacs. This e book and Wertham’s testimony earlier than a congressional listening to about “public morals” ultimately led to the adoption of the Comics Code Authority, a comics business group devoted to self-censorship so the feds wouldn’t do it for them. The primary main impression the CCA had on comics was to successfully finish EC’s run as the perfect horror writer of the Golden Age.
However the enduring attraction of EC’s horror line has stored the corporate popping again up on occasion—first with periodic reprints of the unique materials, after which with a brand new relaunch each few years, most lately in February 2024 as an imprint of Oni Press. EC earned that affection as a result of it employed a number of the greatest creators to ever work in comics—greats like Frank Frazetta, Otto Binder, Al Williamson, Wally Wooden, and John Severin. And since these books are 70 years previous, there are exceedingly few copies left in circulation, which, if you happen to’re a collector, means you need to put together to shell out some severe dough—particularly for high-grade copies.
