Perhaps the most influential comic book story of all time was published in 1955 by EC Comics, the company that gave the world MAD Magazine. That story? “Master Race,” a haunting postwar parable by one of comics’ most accomplished and enigmatic artists, Bernard Krigstein.
Much like Orson Welles or J.D. Salinger, Bernard Krigstein didn’t leave behind a large bibliography in the medium he worked in, but that small sampling of work wound up influencing nearly everything that came afterwards. After years toiling away on boys' adventure stories for various companies in the Golden Age of Comics, it was at EC where Krigstein’s work truly begins to shine. Known for the more sophisticated stylings of its horror and science fiction titles, EC Comics allowed Krigstein to test the limits of the comic book medium with more adult-oriented stories. Krigstein left comics altogether the following decade, working as a commercial artist and art teacher for the rest of his career.
Written by Al Feldstein and illustrated by Krigstein, “Master Race” appeared in the first issue of Impact. The story concerns Carl Reissman, a German immigrant who survived the horrors of Nazi to start over again in America. This being an EC Comics Horror story, things kick off when Reissman notices a dark figure sitting across from him on the subway, recognizing his face from his past in the concentration camps. Convinced that the mysterious man has followed him to America, Reissman flees the train. In a series of haunting flashback s where Krigstein depicts the rise of the Nazi party, readers learn that Reissman fled at the end of the war due to him being the commandant of a concentration camp. Convinced the mysterious man is a Holocaust survivor who has come to seek revenge on him, Reissman winds up tripping himself up and falling into an oncoming train. Whether or not the mysterious man actually knows Reissman or is just a random erby is left ambiguous, as the man walks away proclaiming of Reissman, “He was a perfect stranger...”
'Master Race' Changed Comic Book Art Forever
At only eight pages, it’s a short piece for EC Comics, but one that Krigstein uses every page to its fullest potential. Krigstein adds in more s than was typically seen in comics at the time, creating the effect of motion on the page. In a 2002 New Yorker profile piece on Krigstein, Maus creator Art Spiegelman describes Krigstein’s groundbreaking technique. “The two tiers of wordless staccato s that climax the story have become justly famous among the comics literate,” Spiegelman writes. “Krigstein condenses and distends time itself...Reissman's life floats in space like the suspended matter in a lava lamp.” This extension of time on the page through multiple was very much intentional - from a 1962 interview also quoted in the New Yorker piece, Krigstein states, "It's what happens between these s that's so fascinating." Instead of using the borders to cut from one scene to the other, Krigstein allows moments to breathe, setting the pace of the story and controlling the reader’s eye throughout "Master Race." It’s a technique that must have had a profound effect on scripter Al Feldstein, who lets the moment of Reissman’s death play out with no captions or dialogue - a rarity in comics at the time.
“Master Race” is also significant for the unblinking approach to its grim subject matter. At the time of its release, it was uncommon for stories in any medium to even acknowledge the horrors of the Holocaust, let alone comic books. For all these reasons and more, EC Comics’ “Master Race” became one of the most influential comic book stories of all time.
Source: “BALLBUSTER” by Art Spiegelman, The New Yorker, July 22 2002 Issue
