Max Gaines

Maxwell Charles Gaines (1894–1947) was an American publisher recognized as a pioneering figure in the development of the modern comic book industry.

Born Maxwell Ginzberg to a Jewish family in New York, Gaines initially worked as a school principal before entering the printing business during the Great Depression. In 1933, while employed as a salesman at Eastern Color Printing Company, he collaborated with Harry L. Wildenberg to conceive the comic book format by reprinting Sunday newspaper strips into a compact, four-color, saddle-stitched newsprint pamphlet. This innovation led to the publication of Famous Funnies in February 1934, the first comic book sold to the general public and a foundational product that launched the industry.

Gaines subsequently secured deals with syndicates, including producing Popular Comics for the McClure Newspaper Syndicate, and was fired from Eastern Color in late 1934 amid industry shifts. In 1938, he co-founded All-American Publications with Jack Liebowitz, with financial backing from entrepreneur Harry Donenfeld—an imprint affiliated with National Allied Publications (later DC Comics)—which introduced iconic superheroes such as Green Lantern, The Flash, and Wonder Woman. He sold his interest in All-American in 1945 but retained focus on educational content, founding Educational Comics (EC) in 1944 to produce titles like Picture Stories from the Bible: A New Approach to the Story of the Old Testament. In 1942, Gaines authored Narrative Illustration: The Story of the Comics, an early scholarly essay defending the medium's value.

Gaines died on August 20, 1947, in a motorboat accident on Lake Placid, New York. His son, William M. Gaines, inherited EC and reoriented it toward entertainment, evolving it into Entertaining Comics and launching groundbreaking series in horror, science fiction, and satire, including Mad magazine, which extended Max Gaines's legacy in American popular culture.