''Panic'' was a bi-monthly humor comic that was published by
Bill Gaines
William Maxwell Gaines (; 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 import ...
'
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, war novel, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through th ...
line during the mid-1950s as a companion to
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...
's '' Mad'', which was being heavily imitated by other comic publishers.
''Panic'' was edited by
Al Feldstein
Albert Bernard Feldstein ( ; October 24, 1925 – April 29, 2014) was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine '' Mad''. After retiring from ''Mad' ...
(who became the editor of '' Mad'' a few years later). Beginning with its first issue (February–March 1954), ''Panic'' had a 12-issue run over two years. Feldstein was the primary cover artist, with stories illustrated by Jack Davis,
Will Elder
William Elder (born Wolf William Eisenberg; September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008) was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped ...
,
Jack Kamen
Jack Kamen (; May 29, 1920 – August 5, 2008) was an American illustrator for books, magazines, comic books and advertising, known for his work illustrating crime, horror, humour, suspense and science fiction stories for EC Comics, for his work in ...
,
Joe Orlando
Joseph Orlando (April 4, 1927 – December 23, 1998) was an Italian American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades. He was the associate publisher of '' Mad'' and the vice president of DC Comics, ...
,
Basil Wolverton
Basil Wolverton (July 9, 1909 – December 31, 1978) at the
Wally Wood
Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as '' Weird Science'', '' Weird Fantasy'', and ''MAD Magazine'' fr ...
. Some story ideas were by
Nick Meglin
Nick Meglin (July 30, 1935 – June 2, 2018) was an American writer, humorist, and artist. He was known for his work as a contributor, comics writer, illustrator and editor for the satirical magazine '' Mad''. He also scripted ''Superfan'', a 1 ...
, later the co-editor of ''Mad''. Scripts were by Feldstein, Elder and
Jack Mendelsohn
Jack Mendelsohn (November 8, 1926 – January 25, 2017) was an American writer-artist who worked in animation, comic strips and comic books. An Emmy-nominated television comedy writer and story editor, he had numerous credits as a TV scripter, ...
, later a co-screenwriter of '' Yellow Submarine'' (1968) and an Emmy-nominated TV comedy writer.
EC dubbed ''Panic'' the "only authorized imitation" of ''Mad'', but ''Mads creator didn't enjoy the joke. Almost thirty years later,
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...
told an interviewer, "''Panic'' was another sore point. Gaines, by some convoluted reasoning, decided to double the profit of ''Mad'' by doing a Feldstein version of ''Mad'' and he just plundered all of my techniques and artists. For this there was a real conflict of interests."
First Issue Controversy
The publication was immediately controversial, as detailed by
Steve Stiles
Stephen Willis Stiles (July 16, 1943 – January 11, 2020) was an American cartoonist and writer, coming out of the science fiction fanzine tradition. He won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist.
Early life and education
Steven Willis Stil ...
in his article,"It's a ''Panic''!":
Steve Stiles
Stephen Willis Stiles (July 16, 1943 – January 11, 2020) was an American cartoonist and writer, coming out of the science fiction fanzine tradition. He won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist.
Early life and education
Steven Willis Stil ...
, "It's a Panic!", online a http://stevestiles.com/panic.htm last accessed 11 June 2010.
Gaines later recalled, "The trouble we had on the Santa Claus story was Bill Elder. He had put a sign on the sleigh of Santa Claus, 'Just Divorced'. Now how do a bunch of iconoclastic, atheist bastards like us know that Santa Claus is a saint and that he can't be divorced and that this is going to offend Boston?" This didn't stop Gaines from later dressing in a Santa suit and posing for a ''Mad'' subscription offer as a benevolent gift giver (because the subscription rate was only a few cents cheaper than buying the issues at cover price).
As a result of the parody, ''Panic'' was ultimately banned from sale in the state of Massachusetts. Gaines puckishly responded by issuing a press release announcing that as a "retaliatory measure," EC was pulling all copies of its ''Picture Stories from the Bible'' comic book out of Massachusetts. It took the newspapers a few days to realize that the discontinued comic hadn't been on sale in Massachusetts, or anywhere else, in five years.
More legal hassles came EC's way because of another story from the first issue, a gory parody of
Mickey Spillane
Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have ...
's '' My Gun is the Jury'' that ended with one of Spillane's bombshell women revealed as a transvestite. A few days after the Santa controversy in Massachusetts, EC's offices were raided by the New York City police. Gaines' associate Lyle Stuart willingly took responsibility and was arrested; the charge was quickly thrown out of court. In the meantime, abrasive gossip columnist
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and ...
reported the story without mentioning that Stuart was released without result, and added, "Attention all newsstands! Anyone selling the filth of Lyle Stuart will be subject to the same arrest!" Winchell may have been motivated by "The Secret Life of Walter Winchell", a negative book based on a series of negative magazine articles about him written by Stuart, but his rhetoric cost him $21,500 after Stuart sued for libel. Stuart used the money to start his own publishing house.
Differing views
''Mad'' was quickly and widely imitated, to the point where creator and editor Harvey Kurtzman mocked his competitors' wave of copycat humor comic books in ''Mads 17th issue. But he was particularly unhappy with EC's own imitation. "I was pretty bitter about it," Kurtzman said in 1965. "The publisher and I got into a series of ever-increasing arguments going around in ever diminishing circles."
Publisher Gaines rejected Kurtzman's complaint, telling an interviewer decades later:
Sometimes Harvey loses sight of the fact that this was my business, that I was publishing these magazines, that one of my magazines was ''Mad'', that I had a lot of other magazines making more or less profits, some of them none, and what's so immoral about me putting out another magazine imitating my own magazine? You see Harvey could never realize that ''Mad'' was mine; he thought it was his. '' aughter.' That was the basic problem. To me ''Mad'' was one of the EC Comics. If we put out ''The Vault of Horror'' and it's successful, what's wrong with putting out ''Tales From the Crypt''? If we put out ''Mad'' and it's successful, what's wrong with putting out — all the time we put out ''Panic'', Harvey felt we were competing with him, and I used to say, "Harvey, we're not competing with you, we're all one company. '' aughter.' The money comes from everywhere and it goes into a pot and from this pot we publish." Why am I competing?
And it was something that Harvey could never understand. He felt it was separate. The fact that 30 to 70 other people were imitating ''Mad'', Martin Goodman had half a dozen, there were 70 titles I understand, my printer once counted them up, because he used to keep a list of all the comics published and he told me there were 70. I think he was wrong, but there were certainly 30, 40, or 50 imitations of ''Mad''. You know, ''Eek, Ecch, Oook, Turn Blue'' was Shelly Mayer's, I can't even remember them all, ''Crazy'', ''Cracked'', ''Nutty'', ''Silly'', ''Woppy'', ''Daffy'', we got all these imitations of ''Mad'', that's OK, but if I put out ''Panic'' it's immoral '' aughter'.
Reprints
''Panic'' has been reprinted by publisher
Russ Cochran
Russell Earl Cochran (born October 31, 1958) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions, having previously been a member on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour. He is one of the few natural left-handed players to win ...
several times. In 1985, it formed part of his '' Complete EC Library'', published (in black and white) as a slipcased hardcover two-volume set. ''Panic'' was also reprinted issue-by-issue between March 1997 and December 1999 by Cochran (in association with
Gemstone Publishing
Gemstone Publishing is an American company that publishes comic book price guides. The company was formed by Diamond Comic Distributors President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Geppi in 1994 when he bought Overstreet.
Gemstone published licen ...
). This complete run was later rebound, with covers included, in three softcover '' EC Annuals''.
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...
subsequently published two hardback volumes of reprints as part of their EC Archives series, with volume 1 (issues 1 to 6) published in 2016 and volume 2 (issues 7 to 12) published in 2017.