In April of 1954, a United States Senate judiciary committee began to look at comic books, and they did not like what they saw: witchcraft, cannibalism, the walking dead, bug-eyed monsters from outer space--not to mention tales of crime and war in which sometimes the good guy died or the criminal went unpunished. The senators were looking for the cause of juvenile delinquency, and they began to think that they'd found it at the corner newsstand.

Bill Gaines's Entertainment Comics (EC) Publications was not the most outrageous publisher of horror and crime comics, but it may have invented the style. Every other month, EC brought its fans titles like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear and Weird Science, lovingly wrought tales of gore, violence and macabre terror-- the work of artists who could enjoy a good bloody story just as much as kids...