View source for William Gaines

{{short description|American publisher}}
{{Other people}}
{{Original research|date=April 2016}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2016}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| image         = William Gaines.jpg
| caption       =
| birth_name    = William Maxwell Gaines
| birth_place   = [[New York City]], US
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1922|03|01}}
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1992|06|03|1922|03|01}}
| death_place   = New York, US
| cartoonist    =
| write         = y
| edit          = y
| publish       = y
| notable works = ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]''<br />[[EC Comics]]<br />"[[Master Race (EC Comics)|Master Race]]"
| awards        = [[Inkpot Award]] (1990)<ref>[https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot Inkpot Award]</ref>
| website       =
}}
'''William Maxwell''' "'''Bill'''" '''Gaines''' ({{IPAc-en|g|eɪ|n|z}}; 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 important line of mature-audience comics. He published the satirical magazine ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]'' for over 40 years.

He was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's [[List of Eisner Award winners#The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame|Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame]] (1993) and the [[List of Harvey Award winners#The Jack Kirby Hall of Fame|Jack Kirby Hall of Fame]] (1997). In 2012, he was inducted into the Ghastly Awards' Hall of Fame.

==Early life==
Gaines was born in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City|New York]], to a [[Jewish]] household.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://13thdimension.com/the-13-most-influential-jewish-creators-and-execs-part-3 |title=The 13 Most Influential Jewish Creators and Execs, PART 3 |first=Arlen |last=Schumer |date=September 21, 2015 |publisher=13th Dimension}}</ref> His father was [[Max Gaines]], who as publisher of the All-American Comics division of [[DC Comics]] was also an influential figure in the history of comics. The elder Gaines tested the idea of packaging and selling comics on newsstands in 1933, and Gaines accepted [[William Moulton Marston]]'s proposal in 1941 for the first successful female superhero, [[Wonder Woman]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lepore |first1=Jill |title=The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/origin-story-wonder-woman-180952710/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=14 August 2020 |language=en |date=October 2014}}</ref>

As [[World War II]] began, Gaines was rejected by the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]], the [[United States Coast Guard|U.S. Coast Guard]] and the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]], so he went to his local [[draft board]] and requested to be drafted.<ref name="memorialmatters">[https://www.memorialmatters.com/memorial-print.php?page=William-Gaines In Remembrance of William Maxwell Gaines] www.memorialmatters.com. Retrieved February 26, 2022.</ref> He trained as an [[United States Army Air Forces|U.S. Army Air Corps]] photographer at [[Lowry Air Force Base|Lowry Field]] in Denver.<ref name="memorialmatters"/><ref name="encyclopediacom">[https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gaines-william-maxwell Gaines, William Maxwell] [[Encyclopedia.com]]. Retrieved February 26, 2022.</ref><ref name="britannica">[https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Maxwell-Gaines William Maxwell Gaines, American publisher] [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. Retrieved February 26, 2022.</ref> However, when he was assigned to an [[Oklahoma City]] field without a photographic facility, he wound up on permanent [[KP duty]].<ref name="memorialmatters"/> As he explained in 1976 to Bill Craig of ''[[Stars and Stripes (newspaper)|Stars and Stripes]]'', "Being an eater, this assignment was a real pleasure for me. There were four of us, and we always found all the choice bits the cooks had hidden away. We'd be frying up [[filet mignon]] and [[Steak#Ham steak|ham steaks]] every night. The hours were great, too. I think it was eight hours on and 40 off."<ref name="memorialmatters"/> Stationed at [[Beauregard Regional Airport|DeRidder Army Airfield]] in Louisiana, he was reassigned to [[Marshall Army Airfield|Marshall Airfield]] in Kansas and then to [[Governors Island]], New York. Leaving the service in 1946, he returned home to complete his chemistry studies at [[New York University Tandon School of Engineering|Brooklyn Polytechnic]], but soon transferred to [[New York University]], intent on obtaining a [[Certified teacher|teaching certificate]].<ref name="memorialmatters"/> In 1947, he was in his senior year at NYU when his father was killed in a motorboat accident on [[Lake Placid (New York)|Lake Placid]]. Instead of becoming a chemistry teacher, he took over the family business, [[EC Comics]].<ref name="memorialmatters"/><ref name="britannica"/>

==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]].) 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}}

==Death==
On June 3, 1992, Gaines died in his sleep at his home in New York at the age of 70. He had been in ill health in recent years and used a pacemaker.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Levy |first1=Claudia |title=Publisher William M. Gaines Dies |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1992/06/04/publisher-william-m-gaines-dies/0c8ba193-ab1e-42a9-ad28-7b4f8826b3ab/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=28 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Barron |first1=James |title=William Gaines, Publisher of Mad Magazine Since '52, Is Dead at 70 |work=The New York Times |date=June 4, 1992 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/04/nyregion/william-gaines-publisher-of-mad-magazine-since-52-is-dead-at-70.html |access-date=28 August 2023}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Gaines's first marriage was arranged by his mother. He was married to his second cousin Hazel Grieb. They announced their plans to divorce in August 1947.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hajdu|first=David|title=The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America|year=2008|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|location=New York, NY|isbn=9780374187675|page=[https://archive.org/details/tencentplaguegre00hajd/page/90 90]|url=https://archive.org/details/tencentplaguegre00hajd/page/90}}</ref> According to ''Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine'' by [[Maria Reidelbach]], Gaines married Nancy Siegel in 1955. They had three children, Cathy (1958), Wendy (1959), and Christopher (1961). They divorced in 1971. In 1987 he married Anne Griffiths. They remained married until his death in 1992.<ref name="Barron"/>

Gaines was an [[atheist]] since the age of 12; he once told a reporter that his was probably the only home in America in which the children were brought up to believe in [[Santa Claus]], but not in [[God]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobs |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Jacobs |title=The Mad World of William M. Gaines |location=Secaucus |publisher=Lyle Stuart |year=1972 |oclc=639071}}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2016}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{gcdb|type=credit|search=William+Gaines|title=William Gaines}}
* {{comicbookdb|type=creator|id=4700|title=William Gaines}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.instantclassics.com/ic_html/gaines1.html Annotated transcript of the William M. Gaines memorial service]
* [http://www.thecomicbooks.com/gaines.html Transcript of Gaines's 1954 testimony to Congress]
* [http://www.comic-art.com/intervws/gaines11.htm Gaines interviewed by Steve Ringgenberg]
* [http://www.reason.com/0506/cr.fh.the.shtml ''Reason''. "The Long, Gory Life of EC Comics"]
* [http://www.williammgaines.com Dick DeBartolo's William M. Gaines Memorial Page]
* [http://www.gizwizbiz.com Dick DeBartolo's ''Daily Giz Wiz'' podcast]

{{eccontribs}}
{{Mad magazine}}
{{madcontribs}}
{{Inkpot Award 1990s}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaines, Williams}}
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century atheists]]
[[Category:American atheists]]
[[Category:American comic book editors]]
[[Category:American magazine publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Artists from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Comic book company founders]]
[[Category:Comic book publishers (people)]]
[[Category:EC Comics]]
[[Category:Inkpot Award winners]]
[[Category:Jewish American comics creators]]
[[Category:Jewish American atheists]]
[[Category:Jewish American military personnel]]
[[Category:Mad (magazine) people]]
[[Category:Military personnel from New York City]]
[[Category:Military personnel from New York (state)]]
[[Category:People from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni]]
[[Category:Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development alumni]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees]]