Starting her comics career as a colorist, Marie Severin was largely responsible for the distinctive color palette of EC Comics, where her brother Johnny Severin also worked. She later worked in the Marvel Bullpen, drawing just about everything, including many well loved staff caricatures. She turned 80 this year; here are a few of her Marvel covers from the 60s and 70s.
posted by interrobang on Nov 30, 2009 - 18 comments

EC Comics great Jack Kamen (probably best known today as the father of inventor Dean Kamen) has died at 88. [more inside]
posted by kittens for breakfast on Aug 7, 2008 - 11 comments

The pictures that horrified America - how comic books tipped 50s America into a moral panic. [more inside]
posted by Artw on May 8, 2008 - 51 comments

Emergency Kindness -- a new network dedicated to providing emergency contraception for women in need. Members ("Janes") promise to have some Plan B on hand to immediately send to women in need, whether they were denied by their local doctor or pharmacy or couldn't get to one.
posted by amberglow on Oct 22, 2006 - 60 comments

Folks, the condom broke Friday night and I searched all weekend for someone who could prescribe me EC. It is now Monday and I have to report that I have been unable to find anyone who will write me a fucking prescription for EC. None of the hospitals in the surrounding counties would write it for me. I stopped my search at about 100 miles from my home because my telephone book wouldn't take me out any further than that.

I have been asked about my sexual practices. Whether I'm 'monogamous' or 'in a relationship' if I'm married, if I have kids, how many kids I have, if I was raped or 'traumatized' but there wasn’t' ONE question about my health. Not one. The few places that said that they had a doctor who would occasionally write prescriptions for EC told me that I had to ask for that doctor specifically and then they proceeded to tell me that I would be 'interviewed' to see if I meet that doctors 'criteria' and then they proceeded to ask me all the above questions before telling me that I should 'try anyway' and I 'might be able to talk him into it'.

posted by orthogonality on Sep 22, 2006 - 190 comments

In the 1960s, as a response to the Comics Code Authority's attempt to sanitize comic books, Warren Publishing^ created a series of Graphic Magazine style horror books (using the "see, they're MAGAZINES, not comics, so that's why it's okay" defense), picking up the gauntlet from EC's Tales of the Crypt & other 50's era horror comics. The magazines, Creepy (and later) Eerie & Vampirella were rife with sex & gore, and featured full color well illustrated front covers by fantasy artists like Frank ("Conan") Frazetta & H.R. ("Alien") Giger. The Warren Magazine Collection Site (warning: annoying non-skippable flash intro) has put the entire catalog of cover art from the full run of all three magazines online. Skip the flash intro, and go straight to the galleries: Creepy, Eerie & Vampirella.
posted by jonson on Sep 16, 2006 - 13 comments