So this is an idea that really interests me, but that I don't feel like I have the knowledge to pursue. So I am crowdsourcing ideas out to you guys. 
Now; All-American Publications was a group that would eventually merge with a few other sub companies to form DC Comics. All American had a stable of heroes that included Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern. All American was primarily owned by Max Gaines, with Jack Liebowitz as the minority owner.
While Jack was the minority owner, he was also drawing a salary from DC Comics. This is while the technically separate companies did things like the Justice Society (actually the first intercompany crossover).
Anyways, Max got tired of the superhero business and sold out to Jack in 1944, allowing the eventual merger of DC Comics as we know today. He only retained rights to some bible stories and founded EC Comics : short for Educational Comics.
This ran morality tales and bible stories until Max died in 1947. His son William Gaines, himself studying to become a chemistry teacher, dropped out of college and took over the family business. Educational Comics became Entertaining Comics, a bastion of horror and sci fi that stuck their nose up at the Comics Code Authority brought on by Frederic Wertham.
While Bill's EC Comics was a bastion of free and independent thought and creativity when such was frowned upon, he was pretty much pushed out of the industry (even when he did finally adhere to the Code). EC Comics switched to magazine format in the mid 1950s, becoming what we know of today as Mad Magazine.
EC Comics has influenced a great many seminal creators that we know of today : including most notably Stephen King himself.
My proposition is this; and it necessarily involves killing quite a few butterflies. The WI is that Max Gaines does not sell out his shares of All American to Jack Liebowitz, but instead holds onto this. He dies on schedule in 1947 (a boating accident) and William Gaines takes over a company that has a stable of famous comic book superheroes.
We now have a stable of (at least IOTL) very high profile superheroes, mixed in with a man who has no qualms about standing up to the Comics Code Authority.
Could we see a much earlier maturation of the comic book superhero medium, as Bill Gaines leads a group of famous superheroes into the 1950s and protects them from the temporary Death Knell that the Comics Code Authority provided?
Now; All-American Publications was a group that would eventually merge with a few other sub companies to form DC Comics. All American had a stable of heroes that included Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern. All American was primarily owned by Max Gaines, with Jack Liebowitz as the minority owner.
While Jack was the minority owner, he was also drawing a salary from DC Comics. This is while the technically separate companies did things like the Justice Society (actually the first intercompany crossover).
Anyways, Max got tired of the superhero business and sold out to Jack in 1944, allowing the eventual merger of DC Comics as we know today. He only retained rights to some bible stories and founded EC Comics : short for Educational Comics.
This ran morality tales and bible stories until Max died in 1947. His son William Gaines, himself studying to become a chemistry teacher, dropped out of college and took over the family business. Educational Comics became Entertaining Comics, a bastion of horror and sci fi that stuck their nose up at the Comics Code Authority brought on by Frederic Wertham.
While Bill's EC Comics was a bastion of free and independent thought and creativity when such was frowned upon, he was pretty much pushed out of the industry (even when he did finally adhere to the Code). EC Comics switched to magazine format in the mid 1950s, becoming what we know of today as Mad Magazine.
EC Comics has influenced a great many seminal creators that we know of today : including most notably Stephen King himself.
My proposition is this; and it necessarily involves killing quite a few butterflies. The WI is that Max Gaines does not sell out his shares of All American to Jack Liebowitz, but instead holds onto this. He dies on schedule in 1947 (a boating accident) and William Gaines takes over a company that has a stable of famous comic book superheroes.
We now have a stable of (at least IOTL) very high profile superheroes, mixed in with a man who has no qualms about standing up to the Comics Code Authority.
Could we see a much earlier maturation of the comic book superhero medium, as Bill Gaines leads a group of famous superheroes into the 1950s and protects them from the temporary Death Knell that the Comics Code Authority provided?
