EC Comics ("An Entertaining Comic") was never a publisher that I bought comics from (mainly because that company stopped publishing comics well before I was born!). When I would come across titles in the back issue bins of comic stores and at comic conventions, I would see titles such as The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, Crime SuspenStories, Two-Fisted Tales, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Fantasy, and the like. None of these particularly appealed to me, and I viewed the as merely trash comics that could never rate the same as those published by the "big" companies, DC and Marvel. Well, as an adult, I look back and realize those some of those comics I wrote off as garbage were actually not as bad as I thought. Dark Horse publishing has been collecting some of these EC series, and after enjoying the Modern Love collection (Modern Love), I began to seek out some of the other collections.
Psychoanalysis was a four-issue series published bi-monthly in 1955. The book was a result of the shake-up that occurred in the comic industry after the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, which cast a disparaging light on comics at the time, claiming they were contributing to juvenile delinquency. EC ended up canceling a number of its titles and started up a line of new titles referred to as their "New Direction" line. This included the fantasy title Valor, the war title Aces High, the medical title M.D., among others. Psychoanalysis, was one of the five titles that launched this new line under cover date of March/April 1955. Sadly, it was also the first of these titles to end, after only the fourth issue bearing a cover date of September/October 1955.
I have to think the series was geared towards older readers, as I cannot imagine too many pre-teens finding these stories to be interesting. As the editorial said, the patients who come to see the psychiatrist in these stories are dealing with very life-like issues that plague people in society, and even though these comics were published back in the mid-1950s, it is interesting to see how the same issues are still talked about today. Dan Keyes and Robert Bernstein authored the stories, while the very talented Jack Kamen provided both the interior art at the cover art for all four issues. The book was set up so that each issue has three case files - with each patient taking a different number of sessions (issues) to resolve their problems. Case No. 101 (Freddy Carter) took four sessions, while Case No. 102 (Ellen Lyman) only took three sessions and Case No. 103 (Mark Stone) took five sessions. Originally, it was intended that when Ellen's story completed, a new patient would take her place, and then when Freddy's story finished in the next issue, another new patient would take his place, and so on, as patients cycled in and out; however, since the comic was cancelled after only four issues, these original three case files are the only patients we get to read.
The first page of the first issue was devoted to the unnamed psychiatrist. It was an interesting choice of storytelling to leave the pivotal character in all of the stories unnamed - he is merely referred to as "the psychiatrist," and the patients simply refer to him as "doctor." Instead, we get introduced to this ambiguous man who is to be our host through the stories, who will be listening to all of the problems and doling out advice to set his patients on the path to recovery. Each of the three stories begin with a file card at the top, indicating the case number, the gender of the patient, and the subject's name, as well as identifying what number session it is. The formality of it all gives the reader a very real feeling of professionalism and makes the reader think they are actually right there in the office with the doctor and patient!
Case No. 101 - Freddy Carter. Young Freddy is a teenager, fifteen-years old, whose problems clearly stem from his parents (which is made obvious after just the first two pages). A mother who coddles him too much and an overbearing father who expects his son to excel at everything and follow in his footsteps as an engineer. It's even neither parent is really thinking about their son. But Freddy spends all four issues working through his feelings, not only towards his parents, but towards his own goals in life and how he handles his emotions. The time period really shines through here, because the author makes it clear Freddy has to stop being a child and "man-up" - and although the treatment is supposed to be leading Freddy to a place of healing, it reads more like a path to becoming what the 1950s deemed to be a "man."
Case No. 103 - Mark Stone. To me, Mark is probably the most interesting of the three cases (which is why, perhaps, he has the most sessions - a total of five, with one in each of the first three issues, and two in the fourth and final issue). A writer, Mark writes scripts for Hollywood (mostly television shows), but his issues also go back to his parents (see the common theme here?). A son of Jewish immigrants, he resents his mother's needling him to always eat and is angered that he has never been able to meet up to his father's expectations of success. What is interesting about his sessions is that he deals with a lot of internal hatred, not only towards his parents, but towards himself - lashing out at others before they can hurt him, a defense mechanism I've seen in a lot of people (including myself!). This one came across as probably the most realistic, and while the doctor was rather harsh at times, I think a lot of his advice here actually made sense. What was also interesting about this series of sessions is that Mark changed over the course of the four issues. While he started out overweight and rather frumpy, by the end, he was drawn much slimmer and a much sharper dresser. While not addressed in the dialogue, it was a distinction that was clearly drawn to make the reader realize the changes happening to Mark as he continued therapy.
It's actually rather sad this comic did not continued. Perhaps it was ahead of its time. I wonder if, given time, the series might have actually provided a name for our psychiatrist host, and just what other psychological matters would have been addressed. I guess we'll never know...
One thing I do feel I have to mention. The third issue contained the first actual letter column, with thirteen letters from fans of this new series. What I found amusing is that one of the letters came from "Nelson Bridwell" from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I checked, and yes, E. Nelson Bridwell, a rather prolific comic book writer who wrote a number of titles I enjoyed back in the day (Inferior Five, Super Friends, The New Adventures of Superboy, etc.), did reside in Oklahoma City as a young man - he would have been in his early 20s in 1955 when this comic was published. I always find it fun to see future comic writers have letters published in comic books before they eventually entered the industry themselves.
A big thanks to Dark Horse Comics for collecting these EC series, and I look forward to more of them!
RATING: 9 dreams of walled-off gardens out of 10 for daring to publish "an entirely novel and unique kind of reading experience!"
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