William Maxwell "Bill" Gaines (March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992) was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically important line of mature-audience comics. He published the satirical magazine Mad for over 40 years.
He was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame (1993) and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame (1997).
Early life
Gaines was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish household.[2] His father was Max Gaines, who as publisher of the All-American Comics division of DC Comics was also an influential figure in the history of comics. The elder Gaines tested the idea of packaging and selling comics on newsstands in 1933, and Gaines accepted William Moulton Marston's proposal in 1941 for the first successful female superhero, Wonder Woman.[3]
As World War II began, Gaines was rejected by the U.S. Army, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy, so he went to his local draft board and requested to be drafted.[4] He trained as a U.S. Army Air Corps photographer at Lowry Field in Denver.[4][5][6] However, when he was assigned to an Oklahoma City field without a photographic facility, he wound up on permanent KP duty.[4] As he explained in 1976 to Bill Craig of Stars and Stripes, "Being an eater, this assignment was a real pleasure for me. There were four of us, and we always found all the choice bits the cooks had hidden away. We'd be frying up filet mignon and ham steaks every night. The hours were great, too. I think it was eight hours on and 40 off."[4]
Career
Senate Subcommittee investigation
With the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, comic books like those that Gaines published attracted the attention of the U.S. Congress. In 1954, Gaines testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency.[7][8] In the following exchanges, he is addressed first by Chief Counsel Herbert Beaser, and then by Senator Estes Kefauver:
End of EC Comics and conversion of Mad format
Gaines converted Mad to a magazine in 1955, partly to retain the services of its talented editor Harvey Kurtzman, who had received offers from elsewhere. The change enabled Mad to escape the strictures of the Comics Code Authority. Kurtzman left Gaines's employ a year later anyway and was replaced by Al Feldstein
Death
On June 3, 1992, Gaines died in his sleep at his home in New York at the age of 70. He had been in ill health in recent years and used a pacemaker.[17][18]
Personal life
Gaines's first marriage was arranged by his mother. He was married to his second cousin Hazel Grieb. They announced their plans to divorce in August 1947.[19] According to Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine by Maria Reidelbach, Gaines married Nancy Siegel in 1955. They had three children, Cathy (1958), Wendy (1959), and Christopher (1961). They divorced in 1971. In 1987 he married Anne Griffiths. They remained married until his death in 1992.[10]
Gaines was an atheist since the age of 12; he once told a reporter that his was probably the only home in America in which the children were brought up to believe in Santa Claus, but not in God.[20]
External links
- Annotated transcript of the William M. Gaines memorial service
- Transcript of Gaines's 1954 testimony to Congress
- Gaines interviewed by Steve Ringgenberg
- Reason. "The Long, Gory Life of EC Comics"
- Dick DeBartolo's William M. Gaines Memorial Page
- Dick DeBartolo's Daily Giz Wiz podcast
- Los Cómics de Terror de EC Comics (Analysis of EC Comics including Bill Gaines biography. Text in spanish
References
- Inkpot Award^
- Arlen Schumer. The 13 Most Influential Jewish Creators and Execs, PART 3 13th Dimension, September 21, 2015^
- Jill Lepore. The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman Smithsonian Magazine, October 2014, retrieved 14 August 2020^