Editing William Gaines (section)

===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}}