"That's a sore down there..."

When MAD creator Harvey Kurtzman first went to EC Comics he was unaware the name had been changed to Entertaining Comics from its original name, Educational Comics. Maxwell Gaines, who started EC after selling his All American Comics line to National (DC) Comics, died in a boating accident in 1947, and his son, Bill, took over the company.

Kurtzman was partly right, because EC published commercial giveaway comic books. LUCKY FIGHTS IT THROUGH, which was Kurtzman's first work for EC, published in 1949, is a giveaway public health comic book about syphilis, using a cowboy theme. It's Educational Comics, but it's also Entertaining Comics!

The OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE lists the original giveaway of LUCKY FIGHTS IT THROUGH as "very rare," so this printing is from the deluxe EC fanzine, SQUA TRONT #7, published in 1977, the first issue from then new publisher John Benson.

Copyright © 1977 John Benson