The History of EC Comics Signed

Taschen presents the full, fascinating story of this fabled company, written and designed by EC-expert Grant Geissman. Even the most die-hard EC Fan-Addicts will find something new within these pages, with the Gaines family archives providing over 100 rarities that have never seen print. Cover images are reproduced from Gaines file copies. 1,000 illustrations include the rarest and most notorious covers, interior pages and panels, rare photos, vintage original artwork, and some of the most celebrated stories ever to be printed in four colors. The ultimate EC Comics compendium. In 1947, Bill Gaines inherited EC Comics, a new venture founded by his legendary father M. C. Gaines, who was responsible for midwifing the birth of the comic book as we know it during his tenure at All-American Comics, bringing the likes of Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to the world. Over the next eight years, Bill Gaines and a whos who of the era including Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and Wally Wood would reinvent the very notion of the comic book with titles like Tales from the Crypt, Crime SuspenStories, Weird Science, and MAD. EC delighted in publishing gory, morbid horror and crime comics that had snap, ironic endings — but they also pioneered the first true-to-life war comics, the first real science-fiction stories, and a series of tales about such then-taboo subjects as racism, bigotry, vigilantism, drug addiction, police corruption, and anti-Semitism. Too good to last, they were eventually caught up by various 1950s guardians of morality, who were convinced that ECs often over-the-top content was causing juvenile delinquency. A year or so after a full inquiry investigating horror and crime comics, the incredible EC Comics were no more. Author Grant Geissman was a customer in my San Jose comic book store in 1968-69, long before he became a recording star and EC expert. Grant has written several books on EC and, in my mind, is the foremost authority on both Mad and EC. He generously did a special bookplate for us, which reproduces a “fantasy” cover for Incredible Science Fiction that he commissioned from Angelo Torres. It’s in full color and signed by Grant (he produced 100 also signed by Torres and the Gaines family, but both of these are gone). -Bud Note: This is packed in a cardboard mailing container, essentially a clamshell box, meant to protect the book in transit. Occasionally these boxes will not be perfect and might have a minor bump or scuffs. Please bear in mind these are merely mailing containers to protect the book inside from damage…they are not meant to be “mint.” The best condition boxes will go out to the earliest orders. Call in your order, or add a note at the bottom of your checkout in COMMENTS, if you want us to hand-pick a box for you. First published in 2020 in a limited edition, this is a new 2025 printing with no limitation note. Rush Service and International shipping could require an additional charge.