After more than 62 years in the grave, a long dead comic publication comes back to life in a new exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
The sensational, politically radical and often gruesome works of Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, will be celebrated in Aliens, Monsters, and Madmen: The Art of EC Comics. The exhibit will have its opening ceremony from 6-10 p.m. this Friday, May 13.
Benjamin Saunders, a professor of the University of Oregon English department whose focus is American and British comics and Renaissance literature, has been working on and off since 2010 to organize the exhibit, but he credits its assembly to all those involved in its creation.
“A show on this scale involves a massive amount of work by dozens of people, not just the curator,” Saunders said.
EC Comics had a prolific run during the 1940s and ‘50s. The publication eventually shut down after a lengthy battle against censorship, but its effect on the comics and other media can still be seen today.
(Courtesy of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art)
The exhibit will feature one of the largest collections of original comic artwork on display in an accredited museum in the U.S. Many pieces were obtained via loans from other museums and private collectors. The show will remain at the museum until July 10, with various discussion-based events scheduled to take place throughout its duration.
EC Comics started as Educational Comics and was founded by Max Gaines. It originally produced educational works and Bible stories, but never sold well. After Gaines died, his son William Gaines took over the company and transformed it into the Entertaining Comics we know today.
EC Comics made a name for itself creating some of the era’s most provocative and sensational writings, including the campy horror mag Tales from the Crypt, the political-jabbing MAD Magazine, and the bi-monthly sci-fi serial Weird Science.
From a playing baseball with human organs to a man handcuffed to a corpse, EC Comics reveled in all things gruesome, while still conveying topical and thought provoking messages.
The exhibit will host original artwork from comics like Judgement Day, in which a representative of Earth travels to a planet of robots to see whether they are ready to rejoin their creators — only to find they still divide themselves based on the color of their metallic chassis. After departing the planet, the protagonist removes his helmet and reveals that he is a black man.
“In a relatively short time period, EC published a number of groundbreaking works by some of the most influential American comic book creators who have ever lived,” said Saunders.
Some of the creators include Wallace Wood, best known for his work in MAD Magazine and Marvel’s Daredevil, Harvey Kurtzman, known for his satirical work in MAD and Playboy, and Johnny Craigs, whose artwork was used as evidence in the 1950 Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency by those trying to prove that the graphic violence in comic books was harmful to the country’s youth.
– Benjamin Saunders, UO professor and exhibit curator
During the time of mass-comic hysteria of the ‘50s, EC Comics became the primary target of Comic Codes Authority, an agency formed in 1954 to regulate the comics industry and scrub out explicit material. Comics that passed their standards received a CCA imprimatur, which cleared it for publication. Most comic retailers refused to sell any comic without the CCA stamp of approval.
The CCA’s ethical standards were so strict that Gaines was forced to shut the company down due to comics being constantly rejected by censors. The aforementioned comic Judgement Day was denied the imprimatur from the CCA because the comic featured a black man as its protagonist.
After a heated argument with the censor, Gaines responded by swearing and angrily hanging up the phone. Judgement Day was EC Comics’ last published comic.
MAD Magazine was originally published in EC Comics but eventually changed to the magazine format to escape the comic industry’s rampant censorship. The popular TV series Tales from the Crypt also originated as an EC Comics series of the same name.
(Courtesy of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art)
EC Comics has provided inspiration for many, including fiction authors Stephen King and R.L. Stine and filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
“I was obsessed with Mad comics. They showed me how to be cynical and satirical. And the EC horror comics, Tales From the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. Their combination of humor and horror was later very influential on my writing,” said Stine during an interview with The New York Times.
Members of the student improvisation acting group Absolute Improv will participate in the reception by dressing in full make-up as the only three recurring EC Comics characters — the series’ ghoulish narrators: The Vault-Keeper, The Crypt-Keeper and The Old Witch — to greet guests at the door of the museum. These three characters served as the wisecracking narrators of the Tales From the Crypt series.
“I like that we’ll be able to do improv in a context that we’ve never done it before, which is to stay in the context of one character,” said Charlie Craft, a member of Absolute Improv who will be playing The Crypt Keeper. “We’ll be welcoming people in at the reception by riffing the way the characters introduce the comics.”
The exhibit’s opening ceremony will also mark the release party for the fifth issue of Art Ducko, the campus’ student-run comics magazine. The newest issue of Art Ducko features a spoof of the iconic EC Comic cover of CrimeSuspenstories #22, where the image of a decapitated woman has been replaced by a duck who has met a similar fate.
“Some of the great cartoonists of tomorrow may have already appeared in [Art Ducko’s] pages,” said Saunders. “What better way to draw attention to the continued relevance of EC Comics, and to the creative strength of our own student cartoonists, than by launching the latest issue of the magazine at the opening of the exhibit?”
Both Saunders and Alex Milshtein, Art Ducko’s Editor in Chief, noted that this exhibit is a great opportunity for student comic creators to publicize their work while celebrating one of the most important chapters in comic history.
“I’m really excited, not just to see EC Comics, but to see the growth in comics studies and the comic community on the University of Oregon campus,” said Milshtein.
For a full list of the exhibit’s events, click here.
