Long before “one giant leap for Mankind,” EC Comics speculated on the wonder—and horror—posed by space travel.

The EC Archives: Weird Science volume 3 features the zenith of these explorations by comics pioneers Al Feldstein, William Gaines, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Joe Orlando and more. This softcover volume collects Weird Science issues #13–#18 with remastered digital color based on Marie Severin’s original tones. Includes the adaptations of two Ray Bradbury tales, “The Long Years” and “Mars is Heaven.”

Foreword by Jerry Weist, comic art historian and author of the Hugo Award-nominated Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life.

Al Feldstein is best known as the main writer/editor of the EC comics line during the first half of the 1950s and then the editor of Mad Magazine for the first three decades of its existence. But what many don t know or remember is that Feldstein was also an accomplished and distinctive cartoonist, whose comics (which he both wrote and drew, a relative rarity in those days) adorned the pages of many of those self same EC comics. His powerfully composed, meticulously inked pages, often featuring grotesque creatures or scenes of ghastly destruction (and some of the greatest stiffly handsome/beautiful specimens of 1950s humanity ever put to paper), were a vital part of the allure of these classic comics. Feldstein s contributions to the first year and a half of EC s two SF titles, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy comprising 16 classic O. Henry-style shock-ending stories with such evocative, vintage title as Things From Outer Space. The Flying Saucer Invasion, Spawn of Venus, Destruction of the Earth, and Am I Man or Machine? will be collected in their integrity in this volume, which will also boast a new interview with Feldstein about his years at EC, focusing in particular in his work on these science fiction titles that were the company s pride and joy (and were killed a few years later by the Comics Code)."

Barely old enough to drink when he joined the EC Comics stable, Al Williamson may have been the new kid on the block, but a lifetime of studying such classic adventure cartoonists as Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) and Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) had made him a kid to reckon with as he proved again and again in the stories he created for EC s legendary New Trend comics, in particular Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. As a result of Williamson s focus, it s possible to compile all of Williamson s New Trend EC work into one book which Fantagraphics is finally doing here. Sci-fi aficionados should note that although most of the stories were written by Al Feldstein, 50 Girls 50 features three of EC s legendary Ray Bradbury adaptations, including I, Rocket and A Sound of Thunder and a unique curiosity, a strip adapted from a short story submitted by a teenage Harlan Ellison. Williamson ran with a gang of like-minded young Turks dubbed the Fleagle Gang, who would help one another out on assignments. Thus this book includes three stories upon which Williamson was joined by the legendary Frank Frazetta, and one story ( Food for Thought ) where Roy Krenkel provided his exquisite alien landscapes, to make it one of the most gorgeous EC stories ever printed. As a supplementary bonus, 50 Girls 50 includes three stories drawn by Fleagles sans Williamson: Frazetta s Shock SuspenStories short Squeeze Play; Krenkel s meticulous Time to Leave; and Angelo Torres s An Eye for an Eye, an EC story that famously fell prey to censorship and was not released until the 1970s. As with other Fantagraphics EC titles, 50 Girls 50 will also include extensive story notes by EC experts."