Bhob Stewart (b. 1937, Kirbyville, Texas, d. 2014, Plymouth, Massachusetts) divided his time between mass and fan media. He was chiefly a writer and editor, although he also drew and acted. He is best known for founding one of the first comics fanzines, EC Fan Bulletin , in 1953; for coining the term "underground comics"; and for art-directing the Hugo Award-winning science fiction fanzine Xero . Stewart invented the Wacky Packages trading card series for Topps, and wrote comics for clients such as Marvel and Heavy Metal . He worked in Wallace Wood's studio for a time, and became the de facto steward of the influential EC cartoonist's legacy. Co-author of Scream Queens with Calvin Beck, he edited the Mad Style Guide , and co-edited the seminal underground comics tabloid Gothic Blimp Works? .
As an educator, he taught courses in Boston and at the School of Visual Arts in New York. William Maxwell "Bill" Gaines (b. 1922, d. 1992) inherited EC Comics in the 1950s. Under his stewardship, it shifted focus from "educational" to "entertaining." He began publishing and editing (and often, co-plotting the stories in) genre comic books, including Tales from the Crypt , Mad , and more. He hired creators such as Jack Davis, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Feldstein, Wallace Wood, and others; thanks to them, EC comics are considered one of the medium's high water marks. He testified infamously at the Senate Subcommittee for Juvenile Delinquency, which led to the Comics Code and the censorship of many of EC's titles.
In response, Gaines turned Mad into a magazine, and published it for the next forty years. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 1993. Comics her storian Trina Robbins (1939-2024) was an American cartoonist. She was an early participant and one of the first women in the underground comix movement. She co-produced the 1970 underground comic It Ain't Me, Babe , which was the first comic book entirely created by women. She co-founded the Wimmen's Comix collective, wrote for Wonder Woman , and produced adaptations of Dope and The Silver Metal Lover . She was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013 and received Eisner Awards in 2017 and 2021. As a scholar and historian, Robbins researched the history of women in cartooning.
She wrote several nonfiction books including Pretty In Ink (2013), and Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age (2020). Al Williamson (b. 1931, d, 2010) was a comics artist best known for his work on EC's Weird Science and Weird Fantasy comics titles (and, later, Creepy and Eerie , comics magazines that featured EC alumni). He also adapted Star Wars into comics, and worked on the newspaper strips Flash Gordon and Secret Agent X-9 , both creations of Alex Raymond. He also inked various Marvel superhero comics, and was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2000. John Powers Severin (1921-2012), who had a "realistic" comics style, specialized in war, western, and humor comics. One of MAD 's founding artists, he worked for with Cracked magazine for forty-five years. Grant Geissman is the four-time Eisner Award-nominated author of several books related to the EC comics and MAD magazine, the most recent being The History of EC Comics (Taschen).
He is also an Emmy-nominated guitarist and composer (for co-writing the theme to Two and a Half Men ), and his most recent solo album, BLOOZ , was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2022. He lives in Los Angeles.