The EC Comics Slipcase - First volume in a collection of the greatest comic books ever published

The EC Comics Slipcase Vol. 1

by Harvey Kurtzman, Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Al Feldstein et al.

Fantagraphics

2014, 842 pages, 7.5 x 10.5 x 4 slipcased box set

$62 Buy a copy on Amazon

In 1933 a man named Max Gaines invented the comic book. Called Famous Funnies, it reprinted Sunday newspaper comic strips. A few years later Gaines founded Educational Comics, publishing titles such as Picture Stories from the Bible and Picture Stories from American History. When he died in a speedboat accident in 1947, his 25-year-old son William took over the company.

William was uninterested in educational comic books. To him EC stood for “Entertaining Comics.” He started publishing horror, science fiction, crime, and humor titles with names like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, Weird Fantasy, Weird Science Fiction, Crime SuspenStories, Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat, and Mad (the only surviving EC publication). They are now considered some of the finest comic books ever published.

Gaines employed first-rate writers (Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison) and the best illustrators (Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Jack Davis, Will Elder) in his comic books and devoted readers published “fan-zines” about the comics, such as the EC Fan-Addict.

Today, old copies of EC comic books are unaffordable, and even reprints are hard to come by (and expensive in their own right). Publisher Fantagraphics is finally making these comics affordable in a series of high-quality slipcase editions. This slipcover set is the first of many in the series to be published over the next few years. — Mark Frauenfelder