List of Entertaining Comics publications

Entertaining Comics|EC Comics was a major publisher of comic books in the 1940s and 1950s. The letters EC stood for the company's name, Educational Comics, although the cover logo was later changed from An Educational Comic to An Entertaining Comic. EC's Pre-Trend titles are those published by Max Gaines and his son William M. Gaines, who took over the family business after his father's death in 1947.

In 1950, with the addition of writer and artist Al Feldstein, EC found success with their New Trend line, including their horror titles Tales From the Crypt The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror. This ushered in a wave of over 150 copycat titles from other publishers, many with little or no standards in their production. A line of science fiction titles soon followed, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, illustrated by the best artists in the business, such as Wallace Wood, Reed Crandall, Johnny Craig, George Evans, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Bill Elder, Joe Orlando, Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta. In addition to original stories, the books also featured adaptations of Ray Bradbury's short stories.

The New Direction group was a response to the Comics Code Authority. Picto-Fiction was a short-lived line of heavily illustrated short story magazines. Beginning in 1958, EC published annual and special editions of Mad.

Pre-Trend

• Animal Fables (1946–1947) #1-7
• Animated Comics (1947) #1
• Blackstone the Magician Detective Fights Crime (1947) #1
• Crime Patrol (1948–1950) #7-16 (continued as The Crypt of Terror)
• Dandy Comics (1947–1948) #1-7
• Fat and Slat (1947–1948) #1-4 (continued as Gunfighter)
• Gunfighter (1948–1950) #5-14 (continued as The Haunt of Fear)
• Happy Houlihans (1947) #1-2 (continued as Saddle Justice)
• International Comics (1947) #1-5 (continued as International Crime Patrol)
• International Crime Patrol (1948) #6 (continued as Crime Patrol)
• Land of the Lost (1946–1948) #1-9
• Modern Love (1949–1950) #1-8
• A Moon, a Girl...Romance (1949–1950) #9-12 (continued as Weird Fantasy)
• Moon Girl (1947–1949) #2-6 (continued as Moon Girl Fights Crime!)
• Moon Girl and the Prince (1947) #1 (continued as Moon Girl)
• Moon Girl Fights Crime! (1949) #7-8 (continued as A Moon, a Girl...Romance)
• Picture Stories from the Bible (1944–1946) #1-3 (New Testament edition, Old Testament edition published by DC Comics)
• Picture Stories from American History (1945–1947) #1-4
• Picture Stories from Science (1947) #1-2
• Picture Stories from World History (1947) #1-2
• Saddle Justice (1948–1949) #3-8 (continued as Saddle Romances)
• Saddle Romances (1949–1950) #9-11 (continued as Weird Science)
• Tiny Tot Comics (1946–1947) #1-10
• War Against Crime! (1948–1950) #1-11 (continued as The Vault of Horror)

New Trend

• The Crypt of Terror/Tales from the Crypt (April/May 1950)
• The Vault of Horror (April/May 1950)
• The Haunt of Fear (May/June 1950)
• Weird Fantasy (May/June 1950)
• Weird Science (May/June 1950)
• Crime SuspenStories (October/November 1950)
• Two-Fisted Tales (November/December 1950)
• Frontline Combat (July/August, 1951)
• Shock SuspenStories (February/March 1952)
• Mad (October–November 1952)
• Three Dimensional E.C. Classics/Three Dimensional Tales from the Crypt of Terror (Spring 1954)
• Panic (February-March 1954)
• Weird Science-Fantasy (March 1954)
• Piracy (October/November 1954)

New Direction

• Impact (March/April 1955)
• Valor (March/April 1955)
• Extra! (March/April 1955)
• Aces High (March/April 1955)
• Psychoanalysis (March/April, 1955)
• M.D. (April/May 1955)
• Incredible Science Fiction (July/August 1955)

Picto-Fiction

• Confessions Illustrated
• Crime Illustrated
• Shock Illustrated
• Terror Illustrated

Mad annuals and specials

• More Trash from Mad, 1958–1969 (12 issues)
• Worst from Mad, 1958–1969 (12 issues)
• Mad Follies, 1963–1969 (7 issues)
• Mad Special, 1970–1973 (10 issues)
• Mad Super Special, 1973–1999 (131 issues)
• Mad XL, 2000–2005 (34 issues)
• Mad Color Classics, 2000–2005 (11 issues)
• Mad Classics, 2005–2009 (25 issues)
• Mad Kids, 2005–2009 (14 issues)

Reprints

Many of these titles were reprinted during the past 30 years by publisher Russ Cochran, both independently and in conjunction with Gladstone Publishing and later with Gemstone Publishing.

Russ Cochran's reprints include The Complete EC Library in black and white but with full-color covers; EC Annuals in full-color, comic-book sized reprints with four to six complete comics in each Annual; and EC Archives full-color hardcover books containing six complete EC comics.

For the Russ Cochran reprints, see Russ Cochran (publisher).

For the Gladstone reprints, see Gladstone Publishing.

For the Gemstone reprints, see Gemstone Publishing.

References

• EC Comics at the Grand Comics Database
• EC Comics at the Big Comic Book DataBase
• EC Comics at the Comic Book DB