EC Comics was arguably the most innovative and controversial company in the history of mainstream comic-book publishing. Although EC thrived for only half-a-decade in the early 1950s, it accounted for a body of comic-book work that shook up the industry and has continued to influence popular culture artists ever since. EC's publications featured some of the cleverest writing and most accomplished artwork ever to appear in comic books, and attracted a fanatically enthusiastic following; but they also provoked harsh criticism from those who charged that they degraded the morals of the nation's youth. Whatever might be said of EC's comic books, they certainly left few readers disinterested.

EC began in 1946 as a company called Educational Comics. Its founder, Max C. Gaines, was one of the original entrepreneurs responsible for the development of comic-book magazines. In 1947 his son William M. Gaines inherited the company and soon thereafter...