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E.C. Fan Addict THREAD
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6,315 posts in this topic

2 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

Love the Big 5. Some of the art surpasses EC, like Heath’s “Easy’s First Tiger”. I just prefer the stories without reappearing central characters; those seem less realistic.

Heath only ever did two stories for EC, right?  O.P. in Frontline Combat #1 and Plastic Sam in Mad #14.  And a couple pieces in Mad Magazine #27 and #28, if you count those.  (I think the first 3 or 5 issues of Mad Magazine should count as classic EC's, just not sure if the cut-off should be 26, the last with the EC logo and last to come out concurrent with the comics, or #28 as the last Kurtzman edited issue.)

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2 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

Heath only ever did two stories for EC, right?  O.P. in Frontline Combat #1 and Plastic Sam in Mad #14.  And a couple pieces in Mad Magazine #27 and #28, if you count those.  (I think the first 3 or 5 issues of Mad Magazine should count as classic EC's, just not sure if the cut-off should be 26, the last with the EC logo and last to come out concurrent with the comics, or #28 as the last Kurtzman edited issue.)

I think you're right about Heath's EC contributions.

I take the coward's way out, and count the Mad comics as "classic ECs", and the magazines as a new EC endeavor. 

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1 minute ago, KirbyJack said:

I think you're right about Heath's EC contributions.

I take the coward's way out, and count the Mad comics as "classic ECs", and the magazines as a new EC endeavor. 

I think that's actually the most popular way of doing it.  But part of me just feels the early issues deserve to be included, along with the Picto-Fiction magazines.  Although I don't actually have any of the Picto-Fiction magazines, just the early Mads.

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In addition to Heath, what other creators of note had only a handful or less stories in EC books?

Harlan Ellison had one story in Weird Science-Fiction #24; his first professional sale on a national level by a couple of years.

Ric Estrada had two, one in Two-Fisted Tales #30 and the other in Frontline Combat #11.

Alex Toth had three, in Frontline Combat #8 and #11, and Two-Fisted Tales #22.

I don't want to extend the list to Mad Magazine, there are a lot of big names that popped in for just an issue or so.

Any others come to mind?

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5 hours ago, OtherEric said:

In addition to Heath, what other creators of note had only a handful or less stories in EC books?

Harlan Ellison had one story in Weird Science-Fiction #24; his first professional sale on a national level by a couple of years.

Ric Estrada had two, one in Two-Fisted Tales #30 and the other in Frontline Combat #11.

Alex Toth had three, in Frontline Combat #8 and #11, and Two-Fisted Tales #22.

I don't want to extend the list to Mad Magazine, there are a lot of big names that popped in for just an issue or so.

Any others come to mind?

Joe Kubert Two-Fisted Tales # 33 Pearl Divers!

Edited by Hap Hazard
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7 hours ago, OtherEric said:

In addition to Heath, what other creators of note had only a handful or less stories in EC books?

Harlan Ellison had one story in Weird Science-Fiction #24; his first professional sale on a national level by a couple of years.

Ric Estrada had two, one in Two-Fisted Tales #30 and the other in Frontline Combat #11.

Alex Toth had three, in Frontline Combat #8 and #11, and Two-Fisted Tales #22.

I don't want to extend the list to Mad Magazine, there are a lot of big names that popped in for just an issue or so.

Any others come to mind?

 

2 hours ago, Hap Hazard said:

Joe Kubert Two-Fisted Tales # 33 Pearl Divers!

Gene Colan TFT #30 in "Wake!"

Edited by GomerPyleUSMC
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41 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

You are missing all those great Kelly Freas covers? The Golden Age of MAD my friends...

I don’t doubt it, but I was just about  comics then. Space was a consideration, too. 

You might be happy to know that my older brother, who was a pure jock, has taken to vintage Mad mags. He mostly hunts license plates, but he’s been picking up the odd issue and enjoying them! Big Dave Berg fan!

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23 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

I didn’t know I was a war comics fan until I read ECs. I consider the war books the best stuff EC has ever done.

And no disrespect to the DC Big 5, but Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat are the best war mags ever!

You should also check out the Atlas war titles in the 1951-52 period.  Some stories match Kurtzman in their intensity and cynicism.

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2 hours ago, Hap Hazard said:

Joe Kubert Two-Fisted Tales # 33 Pearl Divers!

I hadn't realized Kubert did anything for EC; which is dumb of me because I have one of his 3 stories.  In addition to the one you mentioned, he had Tide! in TFT 32 and Bonhomme Richard in FC 14.

@GomerPyleUSMC: Colan also ghost penciled "The Secret" in TFT #39, according to Severin. 

Both of them are artists that I'm incredibly happy to include on the list of EC creators!

Another creator who surprisingly slides in at 5 or less EC pieces:  Basil Wolverton.  The fact that two of the 5 pieces are covers probably distorts how little he had.  1 panel in Mad #10, cover & story in Mad #11, story in Mad #17, and cover of Panic #4.

 

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23 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

I hadn't realized Kubert did anything for EC; which is dumb of me because I have one of his 3 stories.  In addition to the one you mentioned, he had Tide! in TFT 32 and Bonhomme Richard in FC 14.

@GomerPyleUSMC: Colan also ghost penciled "The Secret" in TFT #39, according to Severin. 

Both of them are artists that I'm incredibly happy to include on the list of EC creators!

Another creator who surprisingly slides in at 5 or less EC pieces:  Basil Wolverton.  The fact that two of the 5 pieces are covers probably distorts how little he had.  1 panel in Mad #10, cover & story in Mad #11, story in Mad #17, and cover of Panic #4.

 

Jack Davis is also rumored to have ghost penciled "Blockade!" in TFT #31 when Wood fell behind on his heavy workload. It's hard to see because it's completely buried under the lush Wood inks. 

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A question for the EC experts out there.  What unpublished EC stories later popped up, and where?  The most famous is "An Eye for an Eye", which was meant for Incredible Science Fiction #33 and wasn't published until 1970 in Horror Comics of the 50's.  I know there was also "The Planetoid", meant for the 3rd 3-D comic.  I think that first showed up in Squa Tront #5.

Any others people know of off the top of their heads?

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And speaking of the one EC with a Harlan Ellison story...

Cheap due to a split spine on the cover.  Does anybody know why split spines are so common on EC's, particularly the last couple years they were doing comics?  It seems like I see them a lot on otherwise not too bad books, particularly compared to other companies from the same era.

Weird_Science_Fantasy_24.jpg

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