👻The EC Virus

A dark focus on fearsome comics

Episodes of Into the Storymaze include writing tips or a work-in-progress; a creative something I’m digging; a nod to my comics-writing credits; plus a quote that’s got me 🤔 about what’s next.

Last week to get this bonus…new offer next episode!

---

In the late nineties (1990s, not 1890s) I was honored to get a call from Mort Castle with an invite to share some pages with folks like Joe Lansdale and Stephen King. They wouldn’t know I was lurking…but I certainly got a thrill from having a spot alongside in the pages of this Writing Horror Handbook. As Fall sets in and October approaches, it seems like a good time to revisit my contribution: a “Dark Light Focus,” a mini-feature on the history and influence of EC Comics.

In the 1950s, a virus was unleashed upon the unsuspecting populace of America. It was transmitted through the retinas of direct-contact victims, causing them to see reality in a whole new way.

Some claimed it warped the minds of the young and unraveled the fabric of society. Measures were taken to prevent its spread.

The "virus" was Entertaining Comics, a short-lived but highly influential collection of publications founded by William Gaines. Illustrated in loving, gruesome detail, the hugely popular EC line was fueled by tales of satisfying revenge and O'Henry-from-Hell comeuppance, all executed (ahem) with style.

Gaines and his crew put out titles like The Haunt of Fear and Shock Suspenstories, the success of which spawned truly horrible hack-and-slash gutter-level ripoffs and gave the McCarthy Era censorship hounds more ammo. As a result, the Comics Code was born, which ended the ripoffsn— and EC comics, as well.

Fortunately, the virus had been loosed. Although it lay dormant for a while, microbes with names like Gaines, Craig, Ingels and Feldstein did not completely vanish. The next generation came across the germ in garage sales and paperback collection reprints, and they too suffered similar effects from the Entertaining Comics disease.

EC's viral seed grew the dark garden of the mind that is the contemporary horror field.

I'm not talking the "Tales From the Crypt" aisle at Toys "R" Us! Casual, HBO-approved public acceptance is not the issue. Let the sheep think it's safe pasture. We are the wolves — rabid with the EC viral strain, you betcha — empowered by that legacy in our own explorations in horror, both what we enjoy and what we create.

That's not to say the many approaches to penning a scary story have been supplanted by the "EC formula" or should feature blood in the same wholesale quantities. What Gaines & Co. said — and, I believe, has inspired in each of us dark fiction disciples — was that it was cool to bring terror out of the shadows.

EC proved that in the right set of hands (not necessarily still attached at the wrist), well-done horror still held its unsettling power.

Don't mistake that achievement as the cheap thrill brought on by morbid graphics. Comics can't depend on the visual shock that a movie can get away with. You can flip ahead or back to any comic panel and dwell on every line to your heart's content.

If EC had been built solely on violent imagery, like so many of their cheap mimics, they'd have been gobbled up by the years along with those useless copycats. Their survival — if not as a publisher, then as an icon — after the better part of half a century is due to a foundation of well-crafted horror.

These guys knew how to unravel (okay-shred!) society's safety net. Their brand of rock-'em-sock-'em-robot kidney punches were just not the order of the day, when the suggestion of menace was still the popular, polite tack for sailing the midnight sea. The first "law" of horror remains that what's behind the closed door is the greatest apprehension.

But like some sinister therapist, EC whispered to us, "It's okay to throw open that door and shove people through. And lock it back up behind 'em. It's a good thing. A very good thing."

If you've been exposed, chances are you've made the connection, even if not consciously. If you've never had the pleasure, don't think you're immune. Horror writer, horror reader, trace back your favorites, if you will, your influences, and I'll guarantee not that far along the way one has been touched and has transmitted the condition to you.

In the best tradition of pop culture, EC distilled fear and passed that on to its readers with brazen, garish impact while having a ball doing it. You can feel EC's resonance in the hard-hitting horror that followed, horror that put down a footing of established dread but was no longer afraid to go that grisly step farther to frightening effect.  

In the lingo of the comics that overran the EC empire, it might be called a super-power. Given the nature of our beast, I'd recommend thinking of it as your secret weapon.

The EC infection is clearly a battle cry. Sharpen your pencils, fire up your word processors, and go get 'em. Send the sheep bolting from the pasture.

And spread the virus to tomorrow's pack of wolves.

Curse this marvelous book! I was not familiar with the Flash Forward podcast — but now that I’ve read the comic I am compelled to seek out its audio forebear. Hopefully there’s a future coming in a flash that ekes out another few hours from the day to take in all this good stuff!

Billed as an “an exploration of potential tomorrows from the host of the massively popular and critically acclaimed podcast,” at first glance the comic is a bit of an odd collection: each story in this anthology is then followed by many pages of prose.

But it all makes sense when you realize these futures deserve serious introspection. The essays that cap each imaginative multi-panel journey are entertaining and well-researched mini-reports that dive deeper into what the technology or societal change — these potential possibilities — would mean should it come to pass.

Playing host to both the podcast and this anthology, Rose Eveleth invited in 12 creative teams to answer provocative questions about tomorrow through the power of comic book storytelling. What happens in a future where robots make art — who defines the standards? (Hello Midjourney!) What happens when people don’t have to sleep? What about Robin Hood biohackers stealing code from Big Pharma? 

How about a “pet ownership movement” that challenges the morality and legality of “enslaving” a four legged friend? From the darker side of smart cities, to the peculiarities of living underwater, to the challenges of navigating a society where we can’t lie, it’s diverse science fiction fun told in a diverse range of art and storytelling styles. 

While some of these futures are worrisome, there’s more here than the almost universally bleak projections of a Black Mirror. The future of Flash Forward is messy and complicated — and like the possibilities we may yet encounter, always thought-provoking.

Yowsah, did the writers who followed me on Daredevil hate this outfit! Or maybe it was the clean slate ire of new editorial direction?

I recently had occasion and reason to read these “Matt Murdock identity crisis”  issues, which I’d avoided and/or had no interest in, considering the circumstances of my exit. I get it to some extent — no one was interested in continuing on the directions I’d set in motion, so there was a need to hit reset. But even taking that into account — so many misguided rage captions! (And, for what my not-so-humble-opinion matters…misguided storytelling.)

In any case: makes a fab toy, don’t it?

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” — Ray Bradbury

Amazing Times

Thanks for coming up from the dark web to venture into the Storymaze. I’m D.G. Chichester. If that looks pretentious, feel free to just call me “Dan.”

I earned my storytelling cred writing comic book titles like Daredevil, Terror Inc., Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, along with digital widgets in the world wide web of advertising. What’s next? You’re reading some of that right here! I like weird tales, so if things here bend that way — now you know why!

Folks seem to like the comic book adventures I’ve written, so if you haven’t checked one out — please do. Many are now available in fab collected editions.

For the eager moments between episodes…

@dgchichester — 280 characters from the Twitterverse

@dgchichester — images via Instagramland