Of the Golden Age comics houses, EC was the greatest

By D.B.

YOU NEED only glance at a list of the top-grossing films worldwide to see the enduring influence of the “Golden Age of Comic Books” on popular culture. In the more than 60 years since that period ended, its foremost surviving publications, Marvel and DC, have grown into entertainment empires, their pages reinvented as cinematic “universes”.

There is a third name missing from this roster. The pomp of EC Comics was brief—lasting less than a decade—and its legacy, while immense and profound, is also diffuse and, crucially, unbranded. Marvel and DC have logos, lawyers and corporate behemoth owners. EC Comics belongs to a collective memory. Its style and ideas live on in a realm beyond copyright, free for all to plunder.