Maxwell Gaines
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| Born | Maxwell Ginzberg c. 1891 or c. 1895 New York, New York |
| Died | August 20, 1947 (aged 55–56) or August 20, 1947 (aged 51–52) (sources differ) Lake Placid, New York |
| Area(s) | Publisher |
Maxwell Charles Gaines (c. 1891 or c. 1895 – August 20, 1947) (sources differ) was a pioneering figure in the creation of the modern comic book. Born Maxwell Ginzberg, he was also known as Max Gaines, M. C. Gaines and Charlie Gaines.
In 1933, Gaines devised the first four-color, saddle-stitched newsprint pamphlet, a precursor to the color-comics format that became the standard for the American comic book industry. He was co-publisher of All-American Publications, a seminal comic-book company that introduced such enduring fictional characters as Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Hawkman. He went on to found Educational Comics, producing the series Picture Stories from the Bible. He authored one of the earliest essays on comic books, a 1942 pamphlet titled Narrative Illustration, The Story of the Comics.
After Max Gaines' death, Educational Comics was taken over by his son Bill Gaines, who transformed the company (now known as EC Comics) into a pioneer of horror, science fiction and satirical comics.
Born in New York City, New York, Maxwell Charles Gaines was described as a "hard-nosed, pain-wracked, loud aggressive man". (MW pg. 42) At age four, Gaines had leaned out too far from a second story window and fell to the ground, catching his leg on a picket fence. The leg would give him pain and discomfort for the rest of his life, aggravating his disposition. As an adult he developed a vicious temper, and according to his son, William M. Gaines, "expected the worse from his son and was rarely disappointed." Gaines continually reinforced this belief by venting his frustrations on the boy, beating him savagely with a leather belt while shouting, "You’ll never amount to anything!".
Gaines, who bore a strong resemblance to actor Bert Lahr, had been a teacher, an elementary school principal, a munitions factory worker and a haberdasher. In 1933 he had just begun a new job as a salesperson at Eastern Color Printing, when, one day, as the story goes, in the process of throwing out some old Sunday newspapers, Max caught himself re-reading the color comics. It dawned on him that if packaged together they would make an excellent promotional device. Gaines immediately contacted Harry L. Wildenberg, Eastern’s sales manager and his direct superior. The two had been racking their brains trying to think up a promotional gimmick for one of their clients, Procter & Gamble, and a tabloid size book filled with full color Sunday comic reprints available for five cents and a label or coupon off any Procter & Gamble product, seemed like the perfect idea. "Good idea?" Gaines asked the Procter & Gamble representative. "Lousy idea." They told him. "Nobody likes it around here."
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