Greetings,
boils and ghouls! This is your old
pal, the
Crypt Keeper, bringing you a
terrifying node on
EC Comics. EC (short for "
Entertaining Comics") was a
publisher of
lurid and
violent comic books in the
1940s and
1950s. They're still best known for their groundbreaking
horror comics, like "
Tales from the Crypt," "
The Haunt of Fear," and "
The Vault of Horror," though they also produced
science fiction,
fantasy,
war, and (eww!)
romance comics.
The
company was driven
out of business by an
anti-comics frenzy, spurred on by
Dr. Fredric Wertham, a
psychiatrist who fraudulently claimed that
horror and
crime comics caused
juvenile delinquency. In fact, the
Comics Code Authority was specifically designed to make it impossible for EC to publish comics. You can still find them available in
reprints -- ask at your local comic shop.
EC Comics were not just
gory and
gruesome -- they are considered some of the
best-produced comics ever, with rock-solid
artwork and
stories that always delivered a
fatal shock. They've been cited as an important
influence by modern horror authors like
Stephen King, and many of the stories have been brought to a larger
audience, thanks to
HBO's "
Tales from the Crypt"
anthology series.
Well, that's all the time we have today,
fear fans. Until next time, pleasant
screams, kiddies!