Comments on: John Landis to Direct Feature About EC Comics Publisher: Ghoulishly Yours, William M. Gaines

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:41:58 +0000

Indeed it was.

By: Hunter Stephenson

Hunter Stephenson — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:38:24 +0000

Ah, so double feature at the Cosford? Cool. Sounds like it was a good night man.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:26:08 +0000

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.

By: Wes F

Wes F — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:16:53 +0000

Landis is a great choice to direct this story. How about Bill Murray as Gaines?

By: Hunter Stephenson

Hunter Stephenson — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:30:59 +0000

@ 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.

By: Hana

Hana — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:45:36 +0000

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.

By: Hana

Hana — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:40:40 +0000

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.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:02:49 +0000

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.

By: Cinemaniac1979

Cinemaniac1979 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:54:07 +0000

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.

By: Drax

Drax — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:58:30 +0000

What a great opportunity. Hope he does it justice. Casting Gaines will be the hurdle. Very cool.

By: Hana

Hana — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:54:40 +0000

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.

By: F5 — John Landis verfilmt das Leben des MAD-Erfinders

F5 — John Landis verfilmt das Leben des MAD-Erfinders — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:45:20 +0000

[...] Das ist doch mal ‘ne Nachricht. John Landis soll bei â€žGhoulishly Yours, William M. Gainesâ€œ Regie fÃ¼hren, ein Biopic Ã¼ber das Leben des Verlegers vom MAD-Magazine und Tales from the Crypt. Eine Art â€žThe People vs. Larry Flynntâ€œ, nur ohne Hustler, dafÃ¼r aber mit Alfred E. Neumann. Toll! 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. Gainesâ€™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. (/Film) [...]

By: Cinemaniac1979

Cinemaniac1979 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:34:49 +0000

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.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:26:13 +0000

He’s coming to talk at UM tonight. I’ll try and ask him about it.