Brief History Of EC Horror Comics From The Early 1940’s

EC Comics, short for "Educational Comics," was founded by Max Gaines in 1944. While the company originally focused on educational and informational comics, it eventually shifted its focus to horror, science fiction, and crime comics, among others. EC Comics quickly became known for its high-quality writing, artwork, and storytelling, and its impact on the comic book industry is still felt today.

EC's horror comics, in particular, were groundbreaking for their time. Beginning in the early 1950s, EC published a series of horror titles, including Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear. These comics were known for their gruesome and often shocking content, as well as their sophisticated storytelling and artwork.

However, EC's horror comics soon became the target of criticism and controversy. In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published a book called Seduction of the Innocent, which argued that comic books were a corrupting influence on young people and linked them to juvenile delinquency. Wertham specifically singled out EC's horror comics, which he claimed were filled with violence, gore, and sexual innuendo.

The publication of Seduction of the Innocent led to a national outcry against comic books, and EC Comics found itself at the center of the controversy. In response, the company created the Comics Code Authority, a self-regulatory body that set guidelines for the content of comic books. The Comics Code Authority effectively banned EC's horror comics, as they were deemed too violent and obscene.

While EC's horror comics were short-lived, their impact on the comic book industry was significant. The sophisticated storytelling and artwork of EC's horror comics influenced a generation of comic book writers and artists, including Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Miller. The controversy surrounding EC's horror comics also helped to spur the creation of more mature and sophisticated comics, such as the underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in EC's horror comics, and many of the original stories have been reprinted in collections and anthologies. While they may have been controversial in their time, EC's horror comics remain an important part of comic book history and continue to be appreciated by fans and scholars alike.

A Hard Question To Answer What Is Your Favourite Comic Book?

One of the most difficult questions to answer is what is your most favourite comic book? with so many good comics out there, selecting just one is very hard indeed. You might have a favourite artist or writer and this could contribute to any number of comic books that you read on a regular basis, but why are they good?

Are the stories engaging, the art engrossing enough to keep you buying the next one in the saga or mini series? I've often had curent favourites that seem to change over time Sin City, Batman, Spawn, Savage Dragon have all been current favourites at one time or another for me and often it has been the art that has been the main draw and the writing a close second wich compliments each other.

So without dragging this post on, What is your favourite comic book and more importantly why?

I'de be interested to know what and why!

A Most Popular Incredible Hulk Artist

Dale Keown is one of the best artists that I have ever seen draw the hulk, way back in the early 90's was when I used to read "The Incredible Hulk"
written by Peter David at the time, the art was one of the top bonuses for me, of course later on Dale went on to his own comic book creation Pitt, but even after that he still went back to the hulk for more random drawing of this popular Marvel character.

Through Dales art, which brings a sketchy but realistic approach to any comic book, you can see that this is someone who takes his art seriously and applies it to the story likewise.

Comic Book Art Posters

There are many iconic images in comic books, a visual medium in comic books, As a child I used to search for some great comic book posters to put on my wall, and if I found an evil looking one, my mum would throw it in the bin, which was not very nice.

Comic books are best when you can get into the characters adventures and really follow the story along with art that's believeable and doesn't distract from your own imagination of the unfolding story and the possibilities.

How To Make Money With Comic Books

How To Make Money With Comic Books
By: Joe Goertz


In someway or another, we all try to find super hero characters in ourselves. Children love them, and even grown ups go to theatres to watch movies like Spiderman and Fantastic Four.

Fantastic stories are described in comic books, which are just soft cover magazines with pictures and words. The cover is made of glossy paper and the inside is a high quality paper, with its spine held together by staples. Comic books cover everything from horror to sci-fi, from crime to adventure and mystery. Usually there are evil doers and a person or a group to stop them, who become our superheroes.

History

Comic books were first introduced in the USA in 1896. The idea was to collect all the comic strips from the newspapers and produce and publish a book with them, and the result was the birth of comic books. People loved it, and it got popular rapidly. Because of this, they wanted to produce and reproduce more and more comic books. People wanted new stories, new adventures. This is one version of how comic books were born, although some people believe that comic books existed in some form in the earlier days, such as the Egyptian wall art and prehistoric cavemen paintings.

In the year of 1938, Superman was first introduced, and he became so popular and successful that people wanted to see more of him, and more characters with super powers. That was how characters like Spiderman were born.

The first comic books began as humorous books for children and that is why till now the word comic is used for humour in English. Characters like Popeye the sailor man and Krazy Kat are still loved by all. After that there were characters like Sabrina the teenage witch and Archie, which were introduced for the teenage group, so that they could relate to them. Archie and his group got so popular that they had fan clubs for the readers. There are currently leading stores which sell t-shirts, mugs, diaries and stickers of these comic book characters.

Comic book collectors

The fans of comic books love to collect them, and this becomes their hobby. They want to have all the editions, so they keep buying them more and more. The new ones are usually easy to find, these you can pick up from your local comic book store or toy stores and also some corner markets. The most difficult ones to find are the older issues, but if you are lucky enough, you can find them in comic stores as most of them keep some type of back issues.

Sometimes, people who have collected comic books for a long while decide to sell their personal collection, and you can also do that, incase you make up your mind. First you have to decide where to sell them, if in a comic store or even on auction sites. But you have to be aware that you take full responsibility of the condition and you must know how to protect your comic books during shipment if you want a good price.

Besides selling personal collections, there are other ways of making money with comic books and their characters. The might and mightiest of Hollywood want to make movies on these comic superheroes or want to be a part of it. So, now you know how big comic books can get!

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Read more from this author at: reference-magazine.com

Comic Books - Exploring Your Imagination

Comic Books - Exploring Your Imagination
By: Sue Jan


A comic book, or comics for short, is a magazine or book containing sequential art in the form of a narrative. Since the formulation of the comic book format in the 1930s, young and old alike have enjoyed comics. However, the comic industry lost some of its popularity when it came down with a crash in the mid 1990s.

To promote its popularity once again the comic book industry is producing films based on the comic book stories. This method proved successful for few stories like Sin City, X-men and Spiderman but it failed miserably for other titles that flopped at the box office. So far this approach seems unable to rejuvenate the comic book industry.

Research shows that the main cause of downfall of the comic industry is the removal of comic books from shops and stores. But this cannot be the sole cause since comic books are now easily available on the internet, in movies and animations.

Another question that comes to mind is why Japanese animation or "manga" is doing better then traditional comic books? The answer is simple. The Japanese write a better story line and their animated movies are made for a wider audience. Often, Japanese comic books are framed as graphic novels containing 70 to 220 pages for a mature audience. The manga holds a more important place in Japanese culture, and is both well respected as an art form and also as a form of popular literature. On the other hand, comic books in Western countries are generally geared towards young teenagers rather than adults. This approach has made it tough for the Western comic industry to attain its dominant position.

Create Your Own Web Comic

Common misconceptions regarding comic books turning readers into out-of-touch delinquents have also hurt sale. Many parents fear that comics will brainwash children into believing that supermans and batmans actually exist in the world. For this reason, many parents forbid their children from reading comic books as in their view they carry no ethical or moral values. These attitudes have contributed to the lack of interest in comics as well as its drop in publication.

The comic book price guide also sheds some light on why comics are no longer sold. The price guide reveals that the cost of comic books has soared up with the success of movies like Batman, Spiderman, and Superman etc. making it unaffordable to many. Plus when it comes to buying storybooks parents prefer to buy their children fables or novels that will help them build up their vocabulary and learn proper English.

But these parents fail to realize that without fantasy and imagination as found in comics, a child's creativity cannot develop. Comic books help break the monotony in children's lives and refresh these young minds to face the challenges of daily life.

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For more on Comic Books, visit Comic Book Fan. Susan also enjoys writing on a wide range of topics at Internet and Communications

Reviewing comic books