When M.C. Gaines passed the EC Comics publishing house to his 25-year-old son Bill Gaines, no one could have guessed the influence it would have—not only on comics but on global pop culture in general. Inspired by the pulp science fiction stories and quirky fantasy literature of their youth, Bill Gaines and artist Al Feldstein created the first issues of what would later become the first true serialized science fiction magazine. They developed stories, creatures, and worlds that had never existed in this form before.

Very different from the simple space adventures of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, the more sophisticated, morally ambiguous, and often unsettling stories of Weird Science found great favor with readers who grew up in the atomic age. The nuclear threat, the devastating effects of science detached from ethical principles, and the creeping dominance of world governments during the Cold War had begun to overshadow the lives and daily routines of Americans.

The first issue of Weird Science appeared at newsstands in the spring of 1950. The subsequent bimonthly releases took readers on a constantly changing kaleidoscope of “Scientific SuspenStories” featuring Mars invasions, murderous androids, failed time travel, planets inhabited exclusively by women, and much more.

Supported by a growing group of later comic legends like Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, and Joe Orlando, Weird Science shaped the collective imagination of an entire generation. Gaines and Feldstein tackled themes rarely addressed in serialized comics. Visionary artists like Wood defined the aesthetic and social impact of the genre by depicting futuristic perspectives and impossible technologies in such detail that it seemed as if they were not only inventing them but actually looking into the future.

Volume 1 collects the first eleven issues of Weird Science and reproduces the complete comics in their original brilliance. Instead of recoloring the artwork, high-resolution photographs of each individual page were used for this book, just as they were printed more than half a century ago. To correct problems with the cheap, imperfect printing of that time, state-of-the-art retouching techniques were employed. The result is a flawless product that preserves the character and feel of the classic pulp comic magazines but is freshly printed on a world-class press, without the economic or time constraints of the past.

An introductory essay by EC expert Grant Geissman explains the historical, cultural, and artistic context of the stories and their creators. This collection is a must-have for fans of the uncanny, strange, and fantastic.