june gloom on 9/12/2010 at 16:45
Apparently (
http://kb-outofthisworld.blogspot.com/2010/02/anti-racism-in-1950s-comics-weird.html) this comic pissed off the Comics Code Authority, everybody's favourite Moral Guardians who determined what was acceptable for comics and what wasn't. Their attempted censorship- on top of everything else EC Comics got into trouble over- drove the publisher to quit the comics business in disgust.
I think what makes the comic special is that while the story may seem quaint today (except it isn't, really) it's most certainly a brave little tale for the time it was released in.
Do yourself a favour and skip over the introductory text. Go straight to the comic. You'll be glad you did.
demagogue on 9/12/2010 at 22:02
Yeah pretty cool coming from 1953, and I'm pretty sure comics in this era were more about establishment-defending superheroes than anything cutting edge ... Though scifi from this era had some edge to it. It says the story is from Bradbury, who liked to push the envelope for his time.
Also contrary to popular belief, the 50s did have a counterculture, the beatniks and public intellectuals (back when we still had public intellectuals). I always liked that scene, more so than the hippies of the 1960s which sort of lost focus of what they were actually fighting for and made it more about themselves.
Mr.Duck on 10/12/2010 at 08:18
Ah, good ol'EC....I'm starting to collect the EC Archives, historically relevant in the form of gorgeously drawn and painted comics with tales that may seem quaint and tame to us nowadays, but were quite the hub-bub in it's heyday (mind you, some stories actually weren't neithet that quaint nor innocent....and I love EC for it...).
Great find, dethy, cheers :)
Nicker on 13/12/2010 at 08:47
Thanks for the find. That is an excellent window into the social politics of the era, not just the comic itself but the uproar it produced. Drugs and Comics - the assassins of youth!
And I love the last panel reveal. Yeah it seems kitschy but I always enjoyed the sci-fi short stories with punchlines.
