I’m sure Weird Science must have been an influence on those films. Anxiety about nuclear weapons is a common theme, as it would be in the science fiction cinema that would become increasingly popular as the decade progressed. Previous examples had been Flash Gordon-style adventure stories set in space, but Weird Science dealt with alien invasion, robots and time travel. And, as well as the forward by George Lucas, who read these comics as a child, there is an account by Grant Geissman of how EC Comics and Weird Science came into existence, presented in a number of instalments between the stories.Īccording to Geissman, Weird Science, and its companion Weird Fantasy, are considered the first “true science fiction comics”. The stories are beautifully presented, re-coloured for glossy paper. This volume of the EC Archives contains the first six issues of the Weird Science comic book, originally published in 1950-51. However the brevity of these stories gave them a powerful forward moment on the page, and as Lucas says - they deliver the pay-off! Yes Professor Harlow, the first war probably started when one cave man beat in another cave man’s head for stealing his wife’). Their shortness means the dialogue has to do a lot of explanatory work, which can make it very stilted and declamatory (‘.

There are also tales of extreme individual alienation, such as ‘Lost in the Microcosm’ (about a man who just keeps shrinking to the subatomic level - basically a continuation of the story in the ‘Incredible Shrinking Man’ b-movie) Cold War paranoia (alien infiltration in 'The Flying Saucer Invasion’) and the moral responsibilities of technology (in 'The Micro-Race’ a scientist literally plays God).Īll the characters who drive the stories forward are white males, with women at best supporting players (The only female character with a personality more interesting than a doormat is also a murderer). While there’s an optimism about technological possibility - that is severely tempered by grim visions of future wars and apocalypses (one story is indeed called 'The Destruction of the Earth'). The stories in this volume lay bare the dreams and fears of their era.

In his foreword Star Wars director George Lucas praises Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines for writing what are effectively ‘mini-movies that managed to keep you enthralled and wanting more until the final page, when they would always deliver a big pay-off’. While EC’s bigger sellers were outright horror comics, these science fiction tales were plenty horrific as well, and in subsequent years were enormously influential on popular culture. ‘The Haunted Fifties’ was what journalist IF Stone called the decade in which EC Comic’s ‘Weird Science’ was published.

The EC Archives by Al Feldstein