 | This article needs to be updated. (February 2024) |
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Genre | |
| Founded | 1944 |
| Founder | Max Gaines |
| Defunct | 1956[a] |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York , U.S. |
Key people | Max Gaines William Gaines |
| Products | Comics |
| Owner | Gaines family[1] |
E.C. Publications, Inc., (doing business as EC Comics) is an American comic book publisher specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series. Initially, EC was founded as Educational Comics by Maxwell Gaines and specialized in educational and child-oriented stories. After Max Gaines died in a boating accident in 1947, his son William Gaines took over the company and renamed it Entertaining Comics. He printed more mature stories, delving into horror, war, fantasy, science-fiction, adventure, and other genres. Noted for their high quality and shock endings,[2] these stories were also unique in their socially conscious, progressive themes (including racial equality, anti-war advocacy, nuclear disarmament, and environmentalism) that anticipated the Civil Rights Movement and the dawn of the 1960s counterculture.[3] In 1954–55, censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate on the humor magazine Mad, leading to the company's greatest and most enduring success. Consequently, by 1956, the company ceased publishing all its comic lines except Mad.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Komassa, Cody. "Tales from EC Comics: Behind the Bend". Bend Goods. Archived from the original on September 15, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
- ^ Groth, Gary (January 23, 2013). "Entertaining Comics". The Comics Journal. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- ^ Duin, Steve (April 30, 2016). "The enduring art of EC Comics". Oregon Live. Retrieved December 7, 2018.