BILL GAINES - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED - HFSID 227136

WILLIAM GAINES
Card signed "Sincerely yours" by EC Comics and Mad publisher
Autograph Note Signed: "For/J. Weaver/Sincerely yours/Bill Gaines" in blue ink. Pencil notations on verso in unknown hand. 5x3 card. If you grew up in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s and you don't know the name William Gaines (1922-1992, born in Brooklyn, New York City),then shame on you. When Gaines took over the reins of EC Comics after World War II, it was best known for its comic book interpretations of Biblical stories. Gaines changed the company's focus, and EC Comics became known for its horror titles like Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, the brutal war comic Two-Fisted Tales and, needless to say, the strange, subversive, sometimes bizarre and usually funny Mad, which hasn't stopped publishing since premiering in 1952. The comic book industry, and EC Comics' horror and science fiction titles in particular, were hit hard by the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent and investigations by the Senate Subcommitte on Juvenile Deliquency, both in 1954 and both of which claimed to find links between comic books and criminal behavior. EC Comics had to drop most of its titles after the creation in 1954 of the Comics Code Authority (CCA), an self-censoring organization for the comic book industry. Gaines sold EC Comics in the 1960s, but his titles remain popular to this day. Mad, now published by comic book powerhouse DC Comics, still pokes fun at pop culture, and Tales from the Crypt was adapted into a long-running HBO series and several films. Fine condition.