Piracy (E.C.)

    (E.C., 1954-1955)
™ and © William M. Gaines, Agent

By late 1954, EC’s William Gaines began exploring other avenues of storytelling which departed from the company’s embattled science-fiction, horror, and crime titles. Among the new titles was Piracy, a series which focused on tales of adventure on the high seas.

Although it ran only seven issues, Piracy turned in some excellent stories. These were suspenseful, ironic, and often brutal tales of piracy from the Colonial to the modern era. The first four issues were the most shocking, unhindered as they were by the need for a Comics Code seal of approval. In them we saw slaves being tied to anchor chains and dumped overboard when a British frigate approached, rats eating pirates alive, and other acts of horror. The Comics Code appeared with issue #5, and the resulting stories were greatly toned down. Like most other “New Direction” books, however, Piracy was canceled in 1955 as Gaines despaired of publishing in the Comics Code era.
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