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34-458: Shock Illustrated ran for a total of three issues. The Picto-Fiction magazines lost money from the start, and when EC's distributor went bankrupt, the company had no choice but to cancel the prints. The third issue of this magazine is known as the rarest EC publication of all time. Although all 250,000 copies had been printed, publisher Bill Gaines lacked the funds to bind them, and all but 100 copies were destroyed. The editor of Shock Illustrated

68-551: A "living contradiction" in 2011, saying, "He was singularly the cheapest man in the world, and the most generous." Meglin described his experience of asking Gaines for a raise of $ 3 a week; after rejecting the request, the publisher then treated Meglin to an expensive dinner at one of New York's best restaurants. Recalled Meglin: "The check came, and I said, 'That's the whole raise!' "And Bill said, 'I like good conversation and good food. I don't enjoy giving raises.'" (According to veteran Golden Age comics artist Sheldon Moldoff , Gaines

102-621: A buffer between the magazine and its corporate interests. He largely stayed out of the magazine's production, often viewing content just before the issue was shipped to the printer. "My staff and contributors create the magazine," declared Gaines. "What I create is the atmosphere." Around 1964, Premier sold Mad to Independent News , a division of National Periodical Publications, the publisher of DC Comics . In 1967, Kinney National Company purchased National Periodical, and then in 1969, they bought Warner Brothers . In 1972, Kinney became Warner Communications . One of Gaines' last televised interviews

136-459: A densely wooded region. They constructed two earthen runways on 160 acres (0.65 km ) of land leased from the owner. The field was used very little. Barnstorming pilots would occasionally visit and offer rides for $ 2.00. Interest in the military utilization of the airfield increased significantly in 1939 when war began in Europe. The United States needed a training ground for American troops. In

170-682: A metal light beacon tower. The World War II hangar remains in use as the main hangar and terminal of the Beauregard Regional Airport. The concrete vault of the Army Air Base Finance Office is located adjacent to the hangar. The streets as laid out during World War II are still in use and several foundations of original buildings are still intact. Beauregard Regional Airport covers an area of 4,300 acres (1,700 ha) at an elevation of 202 feet (62 m) above mean sea level . It has two runways : 14/32

204-668: A pacemaker. Gaines's first marriage was arranged by his mother. He was married to his second cousin Hazel Grieb. They announced their plans to divorce in August 1947. According to Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine by Maria Reidelbach , Gaines married Nancy Siegel in 1955. They had three children, Cathy (1958), Wendy (1959), and Christopher (1961). They divorced in 1971. In 1987 he married Anne Griffiths. They remained married until his death in 1992. Gaines

238-456: A publisher of satire and enemy of bombast. To celebrate a circulation milestone of 1 million magazines, Gaines took his staff to Haiti. In Haiti the magazine had a single subscriber. Gaines personally delivered his subscription renewal card. Despite his largesse, Gaines had a penny-pinching side. He would frequently stop meetings to find out who had called a particular long-distance phone number. Longtime Mad editor Nick Meglin called Gaines

272-413: Is owned by Beauregard Parish and is located three nautical miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of DeRidder, Louisiana . The airport serves the general aviation community, with no scheduled commercial airline service. The present Beauregard Regional Airport has a long and colorful history, which began prior to its use as an airfield. The airport property includes most of what

306-429: Is your May 22 issue [ Crime SuspenStories No. 22, cover date May]. This seems to be a man with a bloody axe holding a woman's head up which has been severed from her body. Do you think that is in good taste? Gaines : Yes sir, I do, for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding the head a little higher so that the neck could be seen dripping blood from it, and moving

340-654: The Great Depression . To counteract the unemployment caused by the depression, work projects were activated across the country. One such project was begun in 1934, 3 miles (4.8 km) west of DeRidder under the Auspices of the Emergency Relief Authority which later became the WPA. This project in a stump littered field provided employment for about 400 men, who worked to clear what had once been

374-688: The United States Army Air Force for a military airfield to be built on the site. An immediate construction program began to convert the civilian airport into a military airfield and support complex. Construction involved runways and airplane hangars, with three concrete runways, several taxiways and a large parking apron and a control tower. Several large hangars were also constructed. Buildings were ultimately utilitarian and quickly assembled. Most base buildings, not meant for long-term use, were constructed of temporary or semi-permanent materials. Although some hangars had steel frames and

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408-580: The aircraft they trained on were: on 31 March 1944, the II Tactical Air Division of III Tactical Air Command was assigned to DeRidder and conducted replacement training. Training ceased in February 1945 and the airfield was placed in reserve status. DeRidder Army Air Base was declared surplus on October 2, 1946 and transferred to War Assets Administration on April 30, 1947. The Beauregard Parish Police Jury assumed responsibility for

442-441: The airport includes over 4,200 acres (17 km ) and is financially self-supporting. The airport continues to host military exercises which include parachute jumps by Fort Johnson personnel. Today it operates as the largest general aviation facility that is located in the state of Louisiana. The hangar area is essentially unchanged today except that the 75-foot (23 m) control tower has long since been removed and replaced by

476-592: The airport that year. On December 23, 1948 the government deeded the base to the Police Jury under the terms of the Surplus Property Act. A requirement of the deed was that the property had to remain a public airport and all benefits of the property must be used to benefit the airport. In this case the federal government not only gave the parish an airport but also gave a means by which the airport could provide for its own financial self-support. Today

510-446: The body over a little further so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody. Kefauver : You have blood coming out of her mouth. Gaines : A little. Kefauver : Here is blood on the axe. I think most adults are shocked by that. Gaines converted Mad to a magazine in 1955, partly to retain the services of its talented editor Harvey Kurtzman , who had received offers from elsewhere. The change enabled Mad to escape

544-642: The first time, was the fourth issue of the title which had been produced but never printed. Dark Horse reprinted Shock Illustrated as part of the EC Archives series in 2021. William Gaines William Maxwell " Bill " Gaines ( / ɡ eɪ n z / ; March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992) was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics . Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically important line of mature-audience comics. He published

578-660: The first troops arrived at the DeRidder Army Air Base . It housed anywhere from 3000 to 5000 troops at a time. The airfield was assigned to Third Air Force as a training airfield. Initial training was performed by the III Reconnaissance Command , for reconnaissance and observation units. Units assigned to the airfield were: In late 1942, the airfield was reassigned to III Tactical Air Command which performed medium and light bomber tactical bomber training. Units assigned to DeRidder and

612-401: The following exchanges, he is addressed first by Chief Counsel Herbert Beaser, and then by Senator Estes Kefauver : Beaser : Is the sole test of what you would put into your magazine whether it sells? Is there any limit you can think of that you would not put in a magazine because you thought a child should not see or read about it? Gaines : No, I wouldn't say that there is any limit for

646-496: The occasional brick or tile brick building could be seen, most support buildings sat on concrete foundations but were of frame construction clad in little more than plywood and tarpaper. During the war years, the base had what was needed for the welfare of the men: a post exchange, library, chapel, finance building, orderly rooms, headquarters sub-depot, officers and enlisted men's clubs, hospital, theater, swimming pool, shooting range, bowling and billiards. Just before Christmas 1941,

680-531: The pseudonyms Kris Daniels and A.D. Locke). Artists featured in Shock Illustrated included Jack Kamen , Rudy Nappi, Reed Crandall , George Evans , Al Williamson , Angelo Torres and Graham Ingels . Shock Illustrated was reprinted along with the other Picto-Fiction magazines in hardbound volumes by Russ Cochran (and Gemstone Publishing ) for the first time in 2006 as the final part of his Complete EC Library . With these reprints, published for

714-489: The reason you outlined. My only limits are the bounds of good taste, what I consider good taste. Beaser : Then you think a child cannot in any way, in any way, shape, or manner, be hurt by anything that a child reads or sees? Gaines : I don't believe so. Beaser : There would be no limit actually to what you put in the magazines? Gaines : Only within the bounds of good taste. Beaser : Your own good taste and saleability? Gaines : Yes. Kefauver : Here

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748-683: The satirical magazine Mad for over 40 years. He was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame (1993) and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame (1997). In 2012, he was inducted into the Ghastly Awards' Hall of Fame. Gaines was born in Brooklyn , New York , to a Jewish household. His father was Max Gaines , who as publisher of the All-American Comics division of DC Comics

782-537: The site urging that a proposed development be filed as a National Defense Project. The Police Jury and the City of DeRidder agreed to furnish the additional 200 acres (0.81 km ), plus sewage and water facilities, and to remove obstructions to air navigation. The cost to be $ 475,518.85 excluding labor. On 1 July 1941, a contract for Lease was signed between the Beauregard Parish Police Jury and

816-539: The strictures of the Comics Code Authority. Kurtzman left Gaines's employ a year later anyway and was replaced by Al Feldstein , who had been Gaines's most prolific editor during the EC Comics run. (For details of this event and the subsequent debates about it, see Harvey Kurtzman's editorship of Mad .) Feldstein oversaw Mad from 1955 through 1986, as Gaines went on to a long and profitable career as

850-481: The summer of 1940 and throughout 1941 the area was used for the "Louisiana Maneuvers". The Beauregard Parish Police Jury bought the previously leased 160 acres (0.65 km ) plus an additional 280 acres (1.1 km ) for $ 11,000. An additional 200 acres (0.81 km ) was later bought to make up 1-square-mile (2.6 km ). In February, 1941, the United States Army Corps of Engineers visited

884-488: Was Al Feldstein . In addition to those stories credited to him, Feldstein also wrote under the pseudonym Alfred E. Neuman . Feldstein included multiple retellings of previous stories, a move suggested by Gaines. This included "A Question of Time" and "Dead Right" in the second issue and "Curiosity Killed" in the third issue. Contributing writers included Jack Oleck (who had worked as a writer on EC's earlier publications), Robert Bernstein, John Larner, and Daniel Keyes (using

918-601: Was also an influential figure in the history of comics. The elder Gaines tested the idea of packaging and selling comics on newsstands in 1933, and Gaines accepted William Moulton Marston 's proposal in 1941 for the first successful female superhero, Wonder Woman . As World War II began, Gaines was rejected by the U.S. Army , the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy , so he went to his local draft board and requested to be drafted. He trained as an U.S. Army Air Corps photographer at Lowry Field in Denver. However, when he

952-628: Was an atheist since the age of 12; he once told a reporter that his was probably the only home in America in which the children were brought up to believe in Santa Claus , but not in God . Beauregard Regional Airport Beauregard Regional Airport ( IATA : DRI , ICAO : KDRI , FAA LID : DRI ) is a public use airport in Beauregard Parish , Louisiana , United States . It

986-567: Was as a guest on the December 7, 1991, episode of Beyond Vaudeville . Circa 2008, director John Landis and screenwriter Joel Eisenberg planned a biopic called Ghoulishly Yours, William M. Gaines , with Al Feldstein serving as a creative consultant. The film, however, did not get past pre-production . On June 3, 1992, Gaines died in his sleep at his home in New York at the age of 70. He had been in ill health in recent years and used

1020-426: Was assigned to an Oklahoma City field without a photographic facility, he wound up on permanent KP duty . As he explained in 1976 to Bill Craig of Stars and Stripes , "Being an eater, this assignment was a real pleasure for me. There were four of us, and we always found all the choice bits the cooks had hidden away. We'd be frying up filet mignon and ham steaks every night. The hours were great, too. I think it

1054-546: Was eight hours on and 40 off." Stationed at DeRidder Army Airfield in Louisiana, he was reassigned to Marshall Airfield in Kansas and then to Governors Island , New York. Leaving the service in 1946, he returned home to complete his chemistry studies at Brooklyn Polytechnic , but soon transferred to New York University , intent on obtaining a teaching certificate . In 1947, he was in his senior year at NYU when his father

Shock Illustrated - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-529: Was killed in a motorboat accident on Lake Placid . Instead of becoming a chemistry teacher, he took over the family business, EC Comics . With the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham 's Seduction of the Innocent , comic books like those that Gaines published attracted the attention of the U.S. Congress. In 1954, Gaines testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency . In

1122-425: Was not too fond of paying percentages, either.) In his memoir Good Days and Mad (1994), Mad writer Dick DeBartolo recalls several anecdotes that characterize Gaines as a generous gourmand who liked practical jokes, and who enjoyed good-natured verbal abuse from his staffers. In 1961, Gaines sold Mad to Premier Industries, a maker of venetian blinds, but remained publisher until the day he died, and served as

1156-645: Was once the Graybow community. In 1912 Graybow was an active community and the location of the Galloway Sawmill as well as the site of the Grabow riot . The sawmill had been built along the Santa Fe Railroad tracks with the planer mill on one side of the tracks and the big mill, commissary, and office on the other side of the tracks. Two decades later the nation was experiencing the effects of

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