You're much better informed than I re the themes of the normal comics. For me, at (whatever age.. maybe 10ish) the fascinating aspect of EC was that - far better than the trite homilies of the popular stuff - each story had a moral of some kind:

The cruel chef who loved killing the lobsters in imaginitive ways, or just broiling them alive.. ends up trapped in his burning car. While I had no concept of 'karma' of course, it was a preparation for my later investigations - since already I'd rejected the standard religiosity or at least the accompanying hypocrisy. (I didn't know those words either.. but I had the ideas)

Later on, when McCarthyism was rampant == the exact cause of the "comics code" - I copped to what realy lies behind all censorship. So my appreciation for EC / William Gaines expanded. And remains.

So yeah, I recall the Capt. Marvel stuff too and would read whatever was lying around. Even the pop ones had their memorable issues (and Issues?) as well.

I *always* recalled a skit with either Superman or Marvel, wherein a kinda greenish alien w/pink? polka dots proved to be the cause of disappearing street signs (!). Hero finally spots him, slugs him, asks "Why, bunky?"

Tearfully he explains that his planet is running out of (steel= iron +). Hero accompanies him back; finds someone using a typewriter as big as a desk..
Hero shows him around Earth - Hey dummy, you people are *wasting* your resources. Polka-dot Gets It. Nice story conclusion; no heaped dead bodies or gunshots.

I was ready for the invention of the word ecology, henceforth. I owe that to that comic, not to some boring logical lecture trying to convince me. (Never mind that we are populated by millions who never saw that issue, still don't Get It -- and It Shows).

Anyway, from my experience: there were 'comics" and Then there was EC, and the quality of writing (and drawing) from Gaines was -- way beyond the usual crap. He invented MAD, etc. Amazingly still around, though I rarely buy a copy. Gaines isn't [still around] :(


Cheers,

Ashton