Weird Fantasy TV Series, Bill Gaines Biopic In Development From EC Comics And Hivemind
by Erik Amaya
It was only a matter of time before EC Comics made the leap to multimedia presentations of their comics and history.
Deadline reports William M. Gaines Agent Inc, the holding company which owns EC, has signed a deal with Hivemind, the company behind The Witcher television series, to bring its Weird Fantasy anthology series to television. Began in 1950, the comic book was part of EC’s collection of horror, war and science fiction titles which helped the company become a leading publisher in the decade. Other titles include Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear.
As other publishers jumped on the horror and twisted tale trend, the success and content of the EC titles led to intense scrutiny of comic books by a Congressional subcommittee looking into the rise in juvenile delinquency at the time. The industry agreed to self-regulate, forming the Comics Code Authority and banning most of the words EC used in their titles. Publisher William M. Gaines pivoted and turned the recently launched Mad into a humor magazine, but he later admitted he was quite mad that his colleagues undercut him by making his better-selling magazines unavailable thanks the self-governing body formed mainly by DC, Marvel and Archie Comics. Eventually, Mad was EC’s only title. Gaines oversaw the book until his death in 1992. DC eventually bought Mad and continues to publish it to this day.
It is a story to be explored in a Gaines biopic Hivemind and EC also plans to develop. Both it and the Weird Fantasy television series will be produced by Gaines descendants Cathy and Corey Mifsud and Hivemind’s Dinesh Shamdasani, Sean Daniel, Jason F. Brown, and Hunter Gorinson.
While Tales from the Crypt previous made the leap to television and feature films, the new deal promises to put EC on the same trajectory as Archie Comics with its television series Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
