The Comics Cube had a good essay on the whole EC Comics era here, if you want to know more. But one point made there that I want to make here is that EC were as progressive in their tackling of social issues as Moore duplicated in Supreme. There's a famous ending to the story "Judgement Day" in Weird Fantasy where an astronaut refuses to allow a planet of segregated robots into the community of planets. The story ends:
"If there was no point to being offensive (as with a high number of comedians who frequent the average working men's club), then the perpetrator will either be squeezed out of business or be relegated to working in bottom-of-the-heap sleaze pits where nothing more than vulgarity is demanded. Alternately, if there was some integrity behind all the outrage, the perpetrators become persecuted legends with a fanatical cult following and generally exercise tremendous influence upon the artists that come after them. In comedy, Lenny Bruce is an example. In music, perhaps the Sex Pistols. In comic books, EC would fit the bill."
It does make superheroes look small, doesn't it?
