ate the reader. Gaines both published and edited Picture Stories from the Bible and Picture Stories from World History.
Despite the success of All-American Comics Inc. or perhaps because of it, M. C. Gaines and Jack Leibowitz increasingly found themselves in disagreement. By 1944 the two were so much at odds that All-American Comics Inc. and National Comics . actually broke off relations with each other. For a short time comic books published by All-American Comics Inc. did not bear the DC imprint, but an All-American imprint instead. Even the line up of the Justice Society of America was affected. In All-Star Comics #24, spring 1945, the two members from National, Starman and The Spectre, were temporarily replaced by guest stars from the All-American line, Wildcat and Mr. Terrific. The following issue the two National characters, Starman and The Spectre, would be permanently replaced by two All-American characters, The Flash and Green Lantern. It seems that with the schism between the two companies, the policy that no character with his own title could be a member of the Justice Society of America had been done away with! The disagreement between the two companies was eventually settled when Jack Leibowitz bought M. C. Gaines out for a reported $500,000. Thereafter National and All-American were merged into one company to be called National Periodical Publications Inc.
Although the All-American line was now officially part of National Periodical Publications Inc., M. C. Gaines was not yet finished in the comic book business. In 1945 he founded Educational Comics or E. C. for short. Gaines brought with him Picture Stories from The Bible and Picture Stories from World History from All-American Comics Inc. and continued to publish them under the E. C. imprint. E. C.'s output was not confined to educational comics, however, as it also published funny animal and humour titles as well. Among the titles published by E. C. in its early days were Tiny Tot Comics, Fat and Slat, Animal Fables, and Dandy Comics. Eventually E. C. would even make an attempt at its own superhero. Although Moon Girl was created by one of the legends of the industry, Gardner Fox, she appeared to be a blatant rip off of Wonder Woman (without the feminism and bondage). This hardly pleased M. C. Gaines' former compatriots at National Periodical Publications Inc., who made their displeasure known to him.
Despite M. C. Gaines' previous success in the comic book industry, the titles published by E.C. Comics did not sell well. In fact, by mid-1947 the company was near bankruptcy. Unfortunately, no one will ever know if M. C. Gaines, the man who helped create the American comic book, who recommended Superman to Detective Comics Inc., and founded All-American Comics Inc., could have turned E. C. Comics around. On August 20, 1947 M. C. Gaines died a hero's death worthy of any of the superheroes published in his various magazines. He was killed in a boating accident in which he saved the life of a little boy. The company he founded, E. C. Comics, passed into the hands of his son, William Gaines, who would take it in far different directions than his father had planned.
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