William M. Gaines

William Maxwell Gaines was the American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics, and publisher of Mad for over 40 years. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines was arguably the first publisher to oversee a line of comic books with sufficient artistic quality and interest to appeal to adults. Gaines was the son of Max Gaines, who as publisher of the All-American Comics division of DC Comics was also an influential figure in the history of comics. The elder Gaines tested the idea of packaging and selling comics on newsstands in 1933. In 1941, he accepted William Moulton Marston's proposal for the first successful female superhero, Wonder Woman.

Bill Gaines found his niche in publishing horror, science fiction and fantasy comics, as well as realistic war comics and two satirical titles, Mad and Panic. His books, including Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science and Two-Fisted Tales featured stories with content above the level of the typical comic. For a complete roster of titles, see the List of Entertaining Comics publications. Begun in 1952, Mad was the company's biggest and longest-lasting success. It was so popular that dozens of imitations were published, including EC's own Panic.

EC horror comics were not generic compilations of ghoulish clichés, but subtle, satiric approaches to horror with genuine dilemmas and startling "twist" outcomes. Likewise, EC's science fiction and fantasy titles dealt with adult issues like racism and the meaning of progress. In part because of the higher-quality material, EC soon assembled a stable of artists unparalleled in the industry then (and some argue, ever). Regular contributors included Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Will Elder, George Evans, Harry Harrison, Graham Ingels, Al Williamson, Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, Jack Kamen, Bernard Krigstein, John Severin, Joe Orlando, and Frank Frazetta, along with editor/artists Harvey Kurtzman and Al Feldstein. The company also treated its illustrators as selling points, profiling them in full-page biographies and permitting them to sign their work, a rarity in 1950s comic books. EC was notable for its lack of a "house style," as the artists were encouraged to pursue their own distinctive techniques.

All this was promoted with a snappy company attitude, in which the EC readers themselves were regularly tweaked and insulted for their poor taste in having selected an EC product. This only had the effect of attracting an avid fanbase who enjoyed the impudent posturing and in-jokes. Pressed for content, Gaines' company soon began adapting stories drawn from classic authors, such as Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft, and Kurtzman periodically ran humorously illustrated versions of famous poems to fill space in his Mads.