I’m not sure how much play this post will get in the comments, but to me this is a very cool and very important project. Director John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Coming to America) is set to helm a feature biopic on the life of EC Comics publisher and personality Bill Gaines, nicely entitled Ghoulishly Yours, William M. Gaines.
In the early 1950s EC Comics became renown amongst adults, sneaky young people and creative-types for its rebelliously imaginative and professionally illustrated sci-fi, war and horror comics, with landmark titles that included Tales From the Crypt and Weird Science. Of course, EC also birthed Mad magazine, and the influence of that publication on American pop culture can never be overlooked, just like the ears and missing tooth of its prep-addled mascot Alfred E. Neuman. Gaines’s publishing house basically never recovered when Gaines testified, rather bullishly, at a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 1954 on whether or not his comics contributed to juvenile delinquency in America. A national witch hunt, censorship, the Comics Code, and general apathy for what EC stood for notoriously drove it out of business, but Gaines went on to publish Mad until he died in 1992.
Landis has suffered magnificent, almost beautifully so, bombs as a director (Blues Brothers 2000, The Stupids) and then there’s what happened on his segment of The Twilight Zone: The Movie, but I love how he’s stuck to his guns for an entire career. You’ll catch him now and then in an interview and when he discusses his love of the horror genre, I dunno, he’s like that oft-imaginary super cool uncle who’s cooler than you. He’s in it for the love. This material is perfect for him, and I imagine he’s envisioned putting this inspirational life on a film for quite a while.
Joel Eisenberg is penning the screenplay, and no word on a release date or casting. Gaines had the Jerry Garcia look down in his later years, and no specific actor comes to my mind. Maybe…Daniel Day-Lewis, in a million years, I know. Any suggestions?
Source Link: Variety
February 15th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
He’s coming to talk at UM tonight. I’ll try and ask him about it.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
AWESOME!
Let’s not forget his crapfest “Masters of Horror” episode either.
Still, I like the cut of this man’s jib and I hope to God he does this one right. I was OBSESSED with the reprints they did about 20 years ago, not to mention Tales from the Crypt and the Creepshow movies.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
God, this sounds like an awesome project. Color me excited. I can’t imagine any big name for Gaines, though, he was a hell of a eccentric (stubborn, crazy and awesome) guy. His biography’s an excellent read.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
What a great opportunity. Hope he does it justice. Casting Gaines will be the hurdle. Very cool.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Hey Hana,
What’s his biography called? Is it still in print? I’d love to read that. Plus I think it would look great next to my copy of Everything I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger.
February 15th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Just spoke with Landis. He says it’s going to be a very cool movie focusing on Gaines’ dropping out of comic publishing in defiance of censorship and then working on Mad magazine.
February 15th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I read it way, way, way back when Mad Magazine reprint portions of it in their Super Mads. IF I remember right, it was written by one of their usual contributers.
Oh, okay…a little looking around on amazon.com shows it was called ‘The Mad World of William M. Gaines’ and was written by Frank Jacobs. Wow, published in 1972. I’m assuming it’s out of print. Good luck finding a copy, I’d love to reread. Maybe this movie’ll provoke a surge of interest.
February 15th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
A little poking around on amazon.com says the biography’s called ‘The Mad World of William M. Gaines’ and is written by Frank Jacobs. I read most of it a long, long time ago when portions were reprinted in Super MAD. Publishing date is 1972, so I assume it’s out of print now, which is unfortunate, because it was a great read; I’d love to be able to read the entire thing. Maybe this movie’ll provoke a surge of interest? Here’s hoping.
February 16th, 2008 at 12:30 am
@ Alex
Thanks for asking. I’ve heard Landis gives pretty amazing, candid talks at colleges. If he had anything else of interest to share, please let us know here.
Also, which UM are you referring to?
@ All
I am very stoked to see enthusiasm for this film on the Slash. Great comments, and I’ll be looking for that biog as well.
February 16th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Landis is a great choice to direct this story. How about Bill Murray as Gaines?
February 16th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Your alma mater, Hunter. Miami (Coral Gables). His son goes here. They screened American Werewolf and Animal House. He came and spoke in between the two. He just shared stories. Some interesting. Some not. He’s a pretty talkative fellow. He went on and on and around the question. He even managed to talk about how ridiculous he thought religion was when asked how he came up with the idea for Werewolf. BUT he was very nice one-on-one and was excited to talk about the Gaines project. He seemed happy that I knew about it and legitimately interested on how much I knew about the story and my feelings on it.
February 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Ah, so double feature at the Cosford? Cool. Sounds like it was a good night man.
February 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Indeed it was.