My final selection for Banned Comics week is a unique time capsule
of the changes that EC Comics would have to endure after the Juvenile Delinquency
Senate hearings and with the coming of the comic’s code. Sales of comic books
had been plummeting across the board. To spare jobs and to keep from closing,
EC cancelled its horror comics and began to merge other titles together. For
instance, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy were merged together after both
published their final issue #22. The new title was called Weird
Science-Fantasy.
The new title was still
edgy with bizarre aliens, screaming femme fatales and twist endings that
stunned the reader back into reality. But when the CCA formed in 1954 one of
the rules stated the word “Weird” could not be used in the title of a book.
Thus, Gaines and Co. changed the name of the series to Incredible Science
Fiction at issues #30. This book has the distinction of the being the very
first comic to be approved by the CCA (as according to the reprint editors of
this annual.)
ISF is tepid. The stories
are no longer thrilling. The endings still have a twist but EC’s stunning style
had been neutered. Incredible lasted 4 more issues but thanks to an
confrontation with the CCA, Gaines decided to stop publishing comics
altogether.
Before issue 34 was
published, William Gaines sent a reprinted story for approval called “Judgment Day!" (Weird Fantasy #18). This anti-racism
story, was rejected because Judge Charles Murphy, the Comics Code
Administrator, demanded that the star of the story, a black astronaut, be
changed into a white hero. Gaines refused and threatened to take the matter all
the way to the Supreme Court. The CCA, not wanting an early case of more
unwanted publicity, backed down. Gaines went on and printed the story
both without any changes or the CCA approval stamp. It would be the last comic printed by Gaines who would go one to
devote his energies to the now magazine formatted MAD Magazine. Yes Mad would
be just as subversive but because the book was no longer published in the size
of a comic book, it was free from the intrusion of the Comics Code.
I’m not so much a fan of
this treasury of latter day EC reprints. But for their historical value, this
collection is priceless. You can see through volume 1 and later this second
volume how EC’s style was slowly reined in to fit an Ozzie & Harriet
lifestyle. Ultimately, by focusing on MAD, Gaines got the upper hand, thumbing
his nose at American society all the way to the bank.
Worth Consuming.
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars
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