Editing William Gaines (section)

==Career==
===Senate Subcommittee investigation===
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 [[United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency|Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency]].<ref>Kihss, Peter. "No Harm in Horror, Comics Issuer Says". ''New York Times'', April 22, 1954, p. 1.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Nyberg|first1=Amy|title=Seal of Approval: The Origins and History of Code, Volume 1|date=February 1, 1998|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=0-87805-974-1|pages=61–63|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGDschFUKRQC&pg=PA61|access-date=9 November 2016}}</ref> In the following exchanges, he is addressed first by Chief Counsel Herbert Beaser, and then by Senator [[Estes Kefauver]]:

{{dialogue
|Beaser=Beaser
|Gaines=Gaines
|Kefauver=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 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.
}}

{{dialogue
|Kefauver|Here 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 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.
}}

===End of EC Comics and conversion of ''Mad'' format===
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 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|Kurtzman's editorship of ''Mad'']].) Feldstein oversaw ''Mad'' from 1955 through 1986, as Gaines went on to a long and profitable career as a publisher of satire and enemy of bombast.<ref>{{cite news|last=Winn |first=Marie |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0611F93E5F0C768EDDA80894D9484D81&scp=7&sq=childhood%20innocence&st=cse |title=Winn, Marie. "What Became of Childhood Innocence?", ''The New York Times'', January 25, 1981 |work=The New York Times|date=January 25, 1981 |access-date=2011-02-02}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Barron">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/04/nyregion/william-gaines-publisher-of-mad-magazine-since-52-is-dead-at-70.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm | work=The New York Times | first=James | last=Barron | title=William Gaines, Publisher of Mad Magazine Since '52, Is Dead at 70 | date=June 4, 1992}}</ref>

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 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.'"<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/04/us/al-jaffee-mad-magazine/index.html | work=CNN | title=The Mad, mad world of Al Jaffee | date=December 14, 2011}}</ref> (According to veteran Golden Age comics artist [[Sheldon Moldoff]], Gaines 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Good Days and Mad: A Hysterical Tour Behind the Scenes at Mad Magazine |last=DeBartolo |first=Dick |author-link=Dick DeBartolo |year=1994 |publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-56025-077-7 |oclc=30668068 |url=https://archive.org/details/gooddaysmadhyste00deba }}</ref>{{pages needed|date=April 2016}}

===1960–1992===

In 1961, Gaines sold ''Mad'' to Premier Industries, a maker of venetian blinds,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newsfromme.com/2017/06/13/what-he-worry/ | title=News from ME - Mark Evanier's blog }}</ref> but remained publisher until the day he died, and served as 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."<ref>Dick De Bartolo. 1995. Good Days and Mad. Thundermouth Press.</ref> 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 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.<ref>{{cite web|first=Tim|last=Adler|url=https://deadline.com/2010/05/cannes-john-landis-lines-up-biopic-of-ec-comics-creator-41373/|title=CANNES: John Landis Developing Biopic of 1950s EC Comics Crusader William Gaines|publisher=Deadline London|date=May 16, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mania.com/feldstein-consulting-gaines-biopic_article_90874.html |title=Worley, Rob M. Feldstein consulting on Gaines biopic", April 14, 2008. |access-date=February 25, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017054410/http://www.mania.com/feldstein-consulting-gaines-biopic_article_90874.html |archive-date=October 17, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The film, however, did not get past [[pre-production]].{{fact|date=July 2022}}