Don't Try to Out-Pirate a Pirate

cover art by Wally Wood

 EC's tragically short-lived series titled Piracy wasn't always about traditional pirates and often swerved off into other sorts of sea-going adventures. But that's okay, because (like so many of EC's series from the 1950s) it was packed full of superb stories.

And there were more than enough traditional pirates to satisfy our collective urge to read about them. The first story in the premiere issue (October-November 1954), for instance, is an excellent pirate tale.

The story is titled "The Privateer" and is drawn by the great Reed Crandall. Of course, there is a fine legal distinction between a pirate and a privateer--since the privateer has official permission from a specific government to attack enemy ships and keep a share of any loot captured.

But Captain Ballard, the main character of the story, veers away from legal piracy. He's licenced by the by the English to attack Spanish ships. He's a tad ruthless about it, but more or less sticks to the rules at first.

But, by golly, there's money to be made, isn't there? The narration in the story begins to refer to Ballard's rapid descent into piracy as his education. This is a nice touch, giving both structure and a dry humor to the tale.

When a few weeks go by without sighting a Spanish ship, Ballard attacks a neutral French ship.

Ballard realizes that, as long as he doesn't leave any witnesses, he's free to attack just about any ships he wishes. So his education continues as he captures ships from many nations, including British, and loots a few ports. His wealth continues to grow as he makes plans to hide most of it and tell the British authorities that he actually captured a much smaller amount. Thus he avoid having to pay his agreed upon percentage of all his loot to the British authorities.

But, as the story points out, Ballard's education is completed when he attacks three apparently unarmed merchant ships, only to discover that the ships are actually heavily armed pirates.

So Ballard learns--a little too late--that it doesn't pay to try to out-pirate other pirates.

Crandall's art turning a pretty good script into great story. It was a strong start to what really was a fantastic comic book. That Piracy only ran seven issues really is tragic.

Next week, it's back to visit with Cave Girl again.