Category: Bill Gaines

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Confronting the Ways We Dehumanize Individuals in EC Comic’s 1953 Story “Counter Clockwise”

Writing about the pivotal comic “Judgment Day!”, which debuted in EC Comics’ Weird Fantasy #18, Daniel Yezbick points out that while EC’s works “trafficked in largely repetitive, openly grotesque, and often sexist power fantasies,” they also “became one of the few voices in any medium with the chutzpah to present openly subversive morality plays that regularly questioned concepts of liberty, equality, faith, and justice.” Through this … Read More Confronting the Ways We Dehumanize Individuals in EC Comic’s 1953 Story “Counter Clockwise”

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Contaminated Blood in EC Comics’ “The Green Thing!”

I have always enjoyed reading EC Comics from the 1950s because William Gaines and the crew didn’t shy away from broaching topics such as antisemitism, racism, sexism, and more. Even in stories that seemingly, on the surface, seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with these issues, they expose these issues, specifically the social constructions of race. They do this in horror stories such … Read More Contaminated Blood in EC Comics’ “The Green Thing!”

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Calling Out Racism in EC Comics’ “Shock SuspenStories”

Recently, I’ve started to read a good amount of 1950s era EC Comics. There, I came across the Shock SuspenStories (1952-January 1955). Shock SuspenStories was part of a larger group of books that EC’s Bill Gaines published throughout the era. The other series included Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Weird Science, and Two-Fisted Tales. Each issue of Shock SuspenStories consisted of … Read More Calling Out Racism in EC Comics’ “Shock SuspenStories”