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Here are a variety of collections or 'archives' of individual characters or popular artists.
Not specific to any one publisher or theme but popular enough to warrant extra attention from fandom. We recommend all of them for excellent entertainment value. |
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Ace Magazines 1940-1956
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Ace Magazines was a comic-book and pulp-magazine publishing company headed by Aaron A. Wyn and his wife Rose Wyn. The Wyns had been publishing pulp fiction under the Periodical House and A. A. Wyn's Magazine Publishers names since 1928, and published comics between 1940 and the end of 1956.
-From GCD and Wikipedia |
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Ajax-Farrell Publications 1951-1958
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Founded and operated by Robert W. Farrell in the 1940s and 1950s, Farrell is particularly known for its pre-Comics Code horror comics, mostly produced by the S. M. Iger Studio. Farrell acted as editor throughout.
In addition to packaging art for Farrell from the beginning, Jerry Iger was the company's art director from 1955–1957.
Also published comics under the names of Ajax, America's Best, American Feature Syndicate, Decker Publications, Excellent Publications, Farrell, Four Star, Kiddie Kapers, Red Top Comics and Steinway Comics. No matter the imprint, most titles had the words "A Farrell Publication."
-From GCD and Wikipedia |
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American Comics Group/ACG 1943-1967
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ACG, from 1946 to 1953, was co-owned by Fred Iger who also owned part of National Periodical Publications. Iger was sole owner from 1953 to the early 1960s, when Harry Donenfeld became co-owner. They were distributed by Independent News Co., which was a sister company to DC comics.
In 1967 the line of newsstand titles was cancelled, but the Custom Comics part of the business lasted until at least the late seventies.
-From GCD
NOTE- due to DCM's rule of Not sharing books post Dec 1959 several American Comics Group/ACG titles are incomplete on DCM |
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Avon Comics, Inc. 1947-1959
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Avon Publications, Inc. was an independent publisher from 1941 to June 1959, when it was bought by the Hearst Corporation. Joseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams were the publishers. Their comics were distributed by ANC (American News Company) up to 1952, and by Hearst after that.
As of 2019, Avon still exists as an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
-From GCD |
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Better/Nedor/Standard/Pines Publications 1939-1959
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In business from 1939 Standard was a prolific publisher during the Golden Age of comic books. Its best-known character, initially published under the Better imprint, is the Black Terror. In June 1949, the Better and Nedor imprints were consolidated as the Standard Comics line, with a "Standard Comics" flag-like cover logo. The titles previously had no publisher logo. In 1956, Standard ended, and only two titles continued, published by Pines Comics. This last venture also incorporated several titles from the defunct St. John Publications. Most titles went to other publishers after the company folded in 1959.
-From Wikipedia |
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1941-1946
During the Second World War there was a foreign-exchange crisis which led to a ban being placed on the importation of U.S. comics. This period, which witnessed an explosion of English-Canadian comic book publishing, is now described as the Canadian Golden Age of Comics.
Featured publishers include - Maple Leaf Publishing in Vancouver and the Toronto-based firms Anglo-American, Hillborough Studios, and Commercial Signs of Canada (later called Bell Features)
You can read more about the history of Canadian Whites at this link -
http://tinyurl.com/noevjz
Ivan Kocmarek has an online index here - http://canadasowncomics.com/ |
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Centaur Publications 1938–1942
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Centaur consisted of Centaur Publications, Inc. and the Comics Corporation of America. Comics published by both of these publishers were advertised together and referred to as being published by the "Centaur Group" in those ads. Later comics by Comic Corporation of America were also advertised together, including Amazing Man Comics which had also been part of the "Centaur Group." Centaur almost never put any brand identification on their covers, and instead used internal ads to connect their titles.
Several additional companies have historically been lumped under "Centaur" on the grounds that the titles they published were later purchased and continued by Centaur Publications, Inc. The earliest of these were the Comics Magazine Company, Inc. and Chesler Publications, Inc., both of which sold titles to Ultem Publications, Inc. Many sources include these predecessors as Centaur issues, but the companies are all distinct, with different ownership.
Ultem in turn sold all four of their titles to Centaur Publications, Inc., which is the proper beginning of this group. Centaur used the former Ultem titles to begin their comic book line, and also drew on the back inventory of stories to fill out the early issues of their new titles with reprints.
-From GCD |
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Charlton Comics Group 1944-1986
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Charlton began in 1933 with Hit Parader magazine, publishing song lyrics. Charlton Comics published comics from 1944 - 1987. The last of the magazines were published in the mid-1990s.
It was unique among comic book companies in that it controlled all areas of publishing –from editorial to printing to distribution – rather than working with outside printers and distributors as did most other publishers. It did so under one roof at its Derby headquarters.
-From GCD and Wikipedia
NOTE - due to DCM's rule of Not sharing books post Dec 1959 several Charlton titles are incomplete on DCM |
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Harry "A" Chesler Comics 1937-1946
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Chesler (the "A" stood for "Anything") was a comic book packager and publisher. He operated a packaging studio more or less continuously from the mid-30s through 1953, and at times also operated as a publisher.
In 1941 Chesler published with Dynamic Publications, Inc. From this point on, most of Chesler's comics would be branded with a logo proclaiming them the "World's Greatest Comics".
In 1941-1942, this also identified each issue as "A Dynamic Publication". After just over half a year, Dynamic ceased publishing, he continued producing a few books through surrogates.
The surrogate activity picks up dramatically in 1944, leading into Chesler's third major wave of publishing. In place of "A Dynamic Publication" these had "Harry "A" Chesler, Jr.". Junior, however, was the son of Chesler the publisher, a point of much confusion for latter-day comics researchers. This period lasted through 1946, after which the ongoing titles were continued in Canada by Superior Publishers through early 1948.
Chesler continued to run his art shop, but no longer published his own comics after 1946.
-From GCD |
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Columbia Comics Corporation 1940-1949
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Formed in 1940 as a partnership between artist/editor Vin Sullivan, the McNaught Syndicate, and the Frank Jay Markey Syndicate to publish comic books featuring reprints of such McNaught and Markey comic strips as Joe Palooka and Sparky Watts, as well as original features. Other properties published by Eastern Color Printing are also transferred to Columbia Comics.
Charles V. McAdam, president of the McNaught Syndicate, was also publisher of Columbia Comics.
-From Wikipedia |
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Comic Media 1950-1954
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A short-lived comic book company owned by Allen Hardy that existed in the 1950s.
Notable artists included Pete Morisi and Don Heck.
When Comic Media became defunct, the company sold its titles and characters to Charlton.
-From Wikipedia |
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Cupples and Leon Co. 1902-1956
In 1903, Cupples & Leon collected such strips as The Katzenjammer Kids. Alphonse and Gaston, Happy Hooligan, On and Off the Ark, Poor Lil Mose and The Tigers. Their major competitor in books of comic strip reprints was Frederick A. Stokes, who died in 1939.
To reprint comic strips, the company offered, for 25 cents, a square-bound paperback format of 52 pages of black-and-white strips between flexible cardboard covers. Between 1906 and 1934, Cupples & Leon published more than 100 titles in that format. They collected Bringing Up Father, Little Orphan Annie, Reg'lar Fellers, Smitty, Tillie the Toiler and other leading strips of the 1920s and 1930s.[2] They left the comic strip reprint field in 1934, concentrating on their juvenile lines, just as the modern day comic book was introduced that same year with Famous Funnies.
Victor Cupples died in Mount Vernon, New York in July 1941. Arthur Leon, who lived in New Rochelle, New York, died in December 1943, and his wife, Louise Heroy Leon, died five years later in February 1948.
The Platt and Munk publishing firm acquired Cupples & Leon in 1956.
-From GCD and Wikipedia |
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Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1929-1988
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Dell was founded in 1921 and first published comics with 1929's "The Funnies", which looked like a newspaper insert but was distributed on newsstands. Eastern Color Printing Company was involved with several of Dell's earliest comic book ventures, although the exact nature of each partnership is not always clear. The company's comic book division folded in 1973, although Dell continued to publish the occasional book with comics content, including newspaper strip collections. Dell became part of Bantam Doubleday Dell in 1988, ceasing to exist as an independent company.
-"The American Comic Book: The Evolutionary Era, 1884-1939" by Denis Gifford.
NOTE- due to DCM's rule of Not sharing books post Dec 1959 several Dell titles are incomplete on DCM. |
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D.S. Publishing 1947-1951
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D.S. Publishing enters the publishing market around 1941, with several 'song sheets'.
In late 1947, D.S. begins publishing comic books, which includes Select Detective, now as a comic; with early issues of Underworld and Outlaws being notably violent; by 1949-50, D.S. is publishing its final comic titles, with the juvenile interest Elsie the Cow and Let's Pretend.
Richard Davis is listed throughout as editor, publisher or president, with V.C. Albus listed as vice president 1949-50; the editorial address throughout is 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NYC, which was subsequently used by another comic book publisher, P.L. Publishing (1951); no other connection is known at this time.
-From GCD |
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Eastern Color Printing Company 1933-1955
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At first it was only newspaper comic strip reprints. Eastern incorporated in 1928, and soon became successful by printing color newspaper sections for several New England and New York papers.
In addition to publishing its own comic books during the 40s, Eastern did the printing for the majority of publishers in the comics industry. An article in the Hartford Courant dated Feb. 15, 1954 states that “An executive of one of the largest comic book printing firms in the nation, located in Waterbury, Conn. said 65,000,000 issues are printed each month. Of these 65 million issues, more than 40 per cent are printed in Connecticut.”
Eastern published its own comics until the mid-1950s, and continued to print comics for other publishers until 1973. Eastern struggled financially from the 1970s to 2002, when the business closed, a victim of changing printing technologies.
-From GCD and Wikipedia |
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Fawcett Publications 1940-1954
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Founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940).
It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine Captain Billy's Whiz Bang and expanded into a magazine empire with the first issue of Mechanix Illustrated in the 1920s, followed by numerous titles including True Confessions, Family Circle and Woman's Day.
Fawcett Comics, which began operating in 1939, led to the introduction of Captain Marvel. The company became a publisher of paperbacks in 1950 with the opening of Gold Medal Books.
In 1953, the company abandoned its roster of superhero comic characters in the wake of declining sales and a lawsuit for infringement by the Captain Marvel character on the copyright of the Action Comics character Superman, and ended its publication of comic books. It was purchased by CBS Publications in 1977 and subsequently underwent dismantling and absorption by other companies.
-From GCD and Wikipedia
NOTE - Warner Brothers (current owners of Fawcett copyrights) legal representation has informed us several Fawcett books on DCM were in fact not in the public domain and must come down. You can read more about it on the forums at this link:
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/forum/index.php/topic,8604.msg65581.html#msg65581 |
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Fiction House, Inc. 1938 - 1954
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Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from 1921 to the 1950s.
By the late 1930s, publisher Thurman T. Scott expanded Fiction House into comic books developing its own staff employed either in-house or on a freelance basis such artists as Mort Meskin, Matt Baker, Nick Cardy, George Evans, Bob Powell, and Lee Elias, as well as female artists such as Ruth Atkinson, Fran Hopper, Lily Renée, and Marcia Snyder.
The later-day owner's comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
-From Wikipedia |
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Fox Feature Syndicate, Inc. 1939-1951
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Fox Feature Syndicate (also known as Fox Comics, Fox Publications, and Bruns Publications, Inc.) was a comic-book publisher from the early Golden Age started by Victor S. Fox and business associate Bob Farrell.
For content, Fox contracted with comics packager Eisner & Iger for their first books.
Fox's first publication, Wonder Comics #1 (May 1939) contained a Superman knock-off Wonder Man. DC sued claiming he was an illegal copy of Superman. After losing at trial, Victor Fox dropped Eisner and Iger, and hired his own stable of comic creators. Fox would be known for his low page rate and poor quality control.
Actual years of activity were mid-1939 to early 1942 (mostly as Fox Publications, inc.) and mid-1944 to 1951 (mostly as Fox Feature Syndicate, Inc.), with "Blue Beetle" being published by Holyoke Publishing Co., Inc. in the interim. 1944 and to a lesser extent 1945 saw a great deal of activity through surrogate publishers, mostly in the form of giant-size (128 or 196 page) issues alongside the return of an actual Fox publishing company.
Following the establishment of Comics Code Authority in the mid-1950s, Fox went out of business, selling the rights to the Blue Beetle to Charlton Comics.
-From Wikipedia |
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Zoot Comics 014A (cover, ad, & IW-reprint story pgs)(SOTI) -upgrade #2 |
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653 |
| Sub-Categories: |
All Top Comics | Big 3 | Blue Beetle, The | Bouncer, The | Colossal Features Magazine | Cosmo Cat | Crimes By Women | Dagar, Desert Hawk | Eagle, The | Famous Crimes | Fantastic Comics | Flame, The | Green Mask, The | I Loved | Jo-Jo | Judy Canova | Jungle Jo | Junior Comics | Martin Kane | Meet Corliss Archer | Murder Incorporated | My Experience | My Great Love | My Life True Stories In Pictures | My Love Affair | My Love Life | My Love Memoirs | My Love Secret | My Love Story | My Past Thrilling Confessions | My Secret Life | My Secret Story | My Story True Romances in Pictures | My True Love Thrilling Confession Stories | Mystery Men Comics | Nutty Life | Phantom Lady | Ribtickler | Rocket Kelly | Romeo Tubbs | Rulah, The Jungle Goddess | Samson | Science Comics (Fox) | Spectacular Feature, A | Sunny | V...-Comics | Weird Comics | Western Killers | Western Outlaws | Western Thrillers | Western True Crime | Women in Love | Women Outlaws | Wonder Comics | Wonderworld Comics | Wotalife Comics | Zago | Zegra | Zoot Comics | Fox Giants |
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Harvey Comics Group 1941-1994
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Harvey Comics was founded by the Harvey brothers; Alfred, Leon and Robert, in the 1940s after first acquiring Speed Comics from Brookwood Publications.
Harvey began a shift to licensed characters when in 1942 they took over as the radio hero Green Hornet's publisher from Holyoke after six issues. Harvey added additional titles such that most of their titles were licensed.
The company ultimately became best known for characters it published in comics from 1950s onward, particularly those it licensed from the animation company Famous Studios, a unit of Paramount Pictures, starting in 1951.
-From Wikipedia |
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Hillman Periodicals 1940-1953
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Founded in 1938 by Alex L. Hillman, a former New York City book publisher. It is best known for its true confession and true crime magazines; for the long-running general-interest magazine Pageant; and for comic books including Air Fighters Comics and its successor Airboy Comics.
In 1948 Hillman began publishing paperback books. There were several series of abridged mystery and western novels published in the larger 'digest' size. These lasted until 1961.
Hillman's early titles included costumed superheroes. As trends changed, their focus shifted more to crime fiction/detective stories, making Hillman one of the earliest crime comics publishers.
During this time, Hillman often utilized the talents of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
Hillman's most notable character was the Charles Biro, Dick Wood and Al Camy-created aviator-adventurer Airboy in Air Fighters Comics and its successor, Airboy Comics.
Hillman ceased publishing comic books in 1953, while concentrating on magazine publishing.
-From Wikipedia |
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Holyoke Publishing Company 1940-1950
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Imprints - Et-Es-Go Mags, Continental Magazines, HELNIT Publishing Co. and TEM Publishing Co.
Associated publishers Nita Publishing Co., Narrative Publ., Bilbara Publishing Co. and Aviation Press |
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I. W. Publishing / Super Comics 1958 - 1964
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Founded by Israel Waldman.
Reportedly, Waldman came into possession of a printing company and among the assets were the production materials for several hundred comic books previously published by various publishers as well as a limited amount of previously unpublished material. Waldman equated possession of production materials as the right to reprint and I.W. became notable for publishing unauthorized reprints of other company's comics, often with new covers as Waldman's windfall did not often include the production materials for covers. The later half of the company's existence, it published comics under the Super Comics name. Usually these companies were out of business, but not always.
-From GCD
CLICK ON THE DOWNLOAD LINKS TO GET TO THE REAL DOWNLOADS - IGNORE ANY "0 Bytes" MESSAGES. |
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Comics House Publications / Lev Gleason 1939-1956
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Founded in 1939 by Leverett Stone Gleason (1898–1971), was the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, including Daredevil Comics, Crime Does Not Pay, and Boy Comics.
The first and most successful crime comic, Crime Does Not Pay spawned dozens of imitators. Gleason's crime titles (along with horror titles by EC Comics) became targets of increasing criticism of the influence of comic books. This pressure eventually led to the formation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954.
-From Wikipedia |
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Magazine Enterprises 1943-1958
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Published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and children's comics, with virtually no superheroes. It was founded by Vin Sullivan, an editor at Columbia Comics and before that the editor at National Allied Publications, the future DC Comics.
ME's best-known character may be Ghost Rider, a horror-themed Western avenger created by writer Ray Krank and artist Dick Ayers in 1949. Several featured excellent covers by Frank Frazetta.
Other original characters include the jungle goddess Cave Girl, drawn by Bob Powell, who also worked on their superhero title The Avenger.
In late 1947, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster collaborated once again with editor Vin Sullivan, on a new oddball hero book called Funnyman, a slapstick-comedian hero. Both as a comic book and as a comic strip, however, the character failed to find an audience.
Among the company's publications were licensed film and TV comics featuring comedian Jimmy Durante; suave actor Dick Powell; and the CBS television series The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene.
-From Wikipedia |
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M. L. J. Magazines, Inc. 1939-present (as Archie Comics)
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Founded in 1939 by Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater as M.L.J. Magazines, Inc., which primarily published superhero comics but today are best known for their teen humour character Archie and his gang. The initial Archie characters were created in 1941 by publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana, in collaboration with writer Vic Bloom. They first appeared in Pep Comics #22 (cover-dated Dec. 1941). With the creation of Archie, publisher John Goldwater hoped to appeal to fans of the Andy Hardy films starring Mickey Rooney.
Archie was a huge hit which led to the company changing its name to Archie Comic Publications in 1946.
Archie Comics the title of the company's longest-running publication, the first issue appearing with a cover date of Winter 1942. Starting with issue #70, the title was shortened to simply Archie. The flagship series was relaunched from issue #1 in July 2015 with a new look and design suited for a new generation of readers, although after #32 it reverted to its historic numbering with #699. Archie Comics characters and concepts have also appeared in numerous films, television programs, cartoons, and video games.
In November 1939 (with a January 1940 cover date), Pep Comics #1 debuted with the Shield, the first USA patriotic comic book hero, created by writer and managing editor Harry Shorten and designed by artist Irv Novick. The Shield was a forerunner for Simon's and Kirby's Captain America, being published 13 months earlier.
Archie would flirt with superheroes over the decades but their fame will always be for their Archie line of books still being published today.
-From Wikipedia |
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Novelty Press 1940-1949
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(a.k.a. Premium Service Co., Inc.; a.k.a. Novelty Publications; a.k.a. Premier Group) was the comic book imprint of Curtis Publishing Company, publisher of The Saturday Evening Post.
Among Novelty's best-known and longest-running titles were the companion titles Blue Bolt and Target Comics.
During its nine-year run, Novelty had a roster of creators that included Al Avison, Dan Barry, Carl Burgos, L.B. Cole, Bill Everett, Al Gabriele, Joe Gill, Tom Gill, Jack Kirby, Tarpé Mills, Al Plastino, Don Rico, Joe Simon, Mickey Spillane, and Basil Wolverton.
Novelty's first title, Target Comics featured such stars as Bull's-Eye Bill, Lucky Byrd, and The White Streak (Target's first superhero). Material for the book was supplied by Funnies, Inc.
Basil Wolverton's Spacehawk made its Target Comics debut with issue #5, and ran for many issues.
The superhero Target, created by Dick Briefer under the pen name "Dick Hamilton", was introduced in issue #10 (Nov. 1940).
Blue Bolt's title character superhero was created by Joe Simon, and Blue Bolt #2 (July 1940) featured the first pairing of the longstanding and pioneering creative team of Simon and Jack Kirby.
In 1949, due to the growing criticism over violence in comic books, Novelty Press sold its assets to Blue Bolt cover artist L.B. Cole. Using his new assets, Cole began his own company, Star Publications.
-From Wikipedia |
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Orbit Publications 1945 to 1955
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Orbit Pub, also known as Orbit-Wanted, was an American comic book publishing house operated by the female publisher, editor, and cartoonist Ray Herman.
The company's longest-running titles were Wanted Comics, The Westerner and Love Diary; contributing artists included John Buscema, Syd Shores, Bernard Krigstein and Mort Leav.
-From Wikipedia |
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Parents Magazine Institute 1941-1950
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Parents published a line of comic books and magazines heavily featuring comics, including such long-running titles as Calling All Girls, Children's Digest, Polly Pigtails, True Comics, and True Picture-Magazine. Parents also published Humpty Dumpty from the 1950s through the early 1980s, until it and Children's Digest were sold to the Saturday Evening Post company.
-From Wikipedia |
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Prize Comics Group 1940-1963
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Prize Comics also known as Feature Publications, was a subsidiary of Crestwood Publications, operated from 1940 to 1963.
Already an established pulp magazine publisher, Prize jumped onto the superhero bandwagon with their first title Prize Comics.
In Prize Comics #7 writer-artist Dick Briefer introduced the eight-page feature "New Adventures of Frankenstein". Briefer would continue with a book named for the character starting in 1945. Today it's one of Prize's better known characters.
Simon and Kirby would launch the romance comic genre in late 1947 with their Young Romance title which was a huge success for the publisher and spawned dozens of clones.
Crestwood gave up publishing comics in 1963, selling off some of it's titles to publisher DC Comics. It continued to publish humor magazines, such as Sick, up until 1968.
-From Wikipedia
NOTE- due to DCM's rule of Not sharing books post Dec 1959 several Prize Comics Group titles are incomplete on DCM |
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Quality Comics 1937-1956
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Founded by Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, in 1937 when he formed Comic Favorites, Inc. (in collaboration with three newspaper syndicates: the McNaught Syndicate, the Frank J. Markey Syndicate, and Iowa's Register and Tribune Syndicate).
Comic Favorites, Inc.'s first publication was Feature Funnies, which began primarily with color reprints of hit strips from all three co-owning syndicates alongside a small number of original features.
In 1939 Quality would begin using the Eisner & Iger shop to provide original content for their expanding line of titles. Notable titles included Blackhawk, Feature Comics, G.I. Combat, Plastic Man, Police Comics, Smash Comics and The Spirit.
By the mid-1950s, after a foray into other genres such as war, humor, romance and horror, the company ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956. Many of Quality's character and title trademarks were sold to National Comics Publications (now DC Comics), which chose to keep only four series running.
-From Wikipedia |
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Rural Home 1944-1946
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A group of loosely tied fly-by-night publishers using prepackaged material, many using black market supplies of paper at the end of World War II; mutual tie-ins unclear. Enwil listed as copyright publisher. Some titles continued by Orbit Publications and others by Charlton Comics.
-From Wikipedia |
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Spark Publications 1944-1946
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Established and owned by Ken Crossen, who was the creator and writer of the Green Lama. Most of their comics was produced by a studio run by Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin. Other creators who worked for Spark included Joseph Greene and Mac Raboy. The combination of Robinson, Meskin, and Raboy, using similar styles gave Spark's books a sort of house style.
Solely a publisher of superhero comics, the company was too small to survive the shrinking of the market post-World War II.
-From Wikipedia |
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1951-1972
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Collects the various publishing outfits associated with Stanley P. Morse.
Address:175 Fifth Avenue NY, NY.
1955: 261 Fifth Avenue NY, NY.
Imprints -
Aragon Magazines, Inc. Argyle Magazines, Inc. Gillmor Magazines, Inc. Key Publications
Key Publications, Inc. Media Publications, Inc. S.P.M., Publications, Inc. Stanley Publications, Inc
Stanmor Publications, Inc., Key Publications, Timor Publications
Notable books include notorious horror titles Mister Mystery, Weird Mysteries and Weird Tales of the Future; and their Battle line of war titles.
Readers should be aware they are known for their gory contents. |
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Star Publications 1949-1955
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In 1949, publisher Novelty Press sold its characters and artwork to cover artist L.B. Cole. Using his new assets Cole and lawyer Gerhard Kramer started Star Publications.
Star specialized in horror, crime, and romance comics — but also published funny animal stories.
Star was originally based in New York City before relocating to Buffalo, New York.
Notable creators who contributed to Star titles included Nina Albright, Tex Blaisdell, Frank Frazetta, Milt Hammer, Alvin Hollingsworth, Joe Kubert, Pat Masulli, and Wally Wood.
Co-owner L.B. Cole contributed distinctive and highly collected cover illustrations to many Star books.
Due to the grisly nature of titles like Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror, The Horrors, and Startling Terror Tales, Star Publications was singled out in Fredric Wertham's 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent. Like many comic book publishers of the time, faced with the public outcry against the industry as well as the 1955 death of publisher Kramer — the company shut down shortly thereafter.
-From Wikipedia |
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1954-1955
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Sterling published six titles in various genres.
ALL SERIES COMPLETE! |
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St. John Publications 1947-1958
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Archer St. John, who had a background in journalism and advertising, founded St. John Publications in 1947.
In the early 1950s St. John became friends with artist Matt Baker, who provided most of the book covers for the company.
St.John is credited with publishing the the first 3-D comic book, Three Dimension Comics #1 featuring Mighty Mouse. It reportedly was a huge hit.
After the St. John comic books came to an end in 1958, the company continued to publish its magazine line into the next decade.
A Checklist of all St. John ROMANCE comics by John Benson can be found at the following link:
http://www.fantagraphics.com/downloads/stjohnchecklist.pdf |
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Story/Merit/Master group. 1951-1955
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Story came late to the field jumping on the crime and horror comics trend with notorious titles like Dark Mysteries and Mysterious Adventures. |
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Toby Press, Inc. 1950-1955
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Founded by Elliott Caplin, brother of cartoonist Al Capp and himself an established comic strip writer.
Toby published reprints of licensed-character comics including Felix the Cat, Buck Rogers, Li'l Abner and other Al Capp spin offs.
Some of its comics were published under the imprint Minoan.
Toby went out of business in 1955, a victim of the anti-comics sentiment stirred in that era by Dr. Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent
-From Wikipedia |
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Trojan Magazines 1950-1955
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Evolved from 1940s pulp magazine publisher owned by Harry Donenfeld and Mike Estrow.
After closing two of its titles were picked up from Youthful.
Imprints:
Pix-Parade (1949–1952), Ribage (1953–1954), Stanhall (1951–1954) |
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Youthful Magazines, Inc. 1949-1953
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The company was owned by attorney Bill Friedman and his wife Sophie.
Youthful specialized in non-superhero titles, instead focusing on horror, Western, humor, and romance comics.
Doug Wildey was the company's lead cartoonist, with work published in virtually all their titles. Other notable creators associated with Youthful included Bill Fraccio, Harry Harrison, Pat Masulli, Don Perlin, Wally Wood, Graham Ingels, Ed Goldfarb, Henry Kiefer, and Manny Stallman.
Youthful acquired the Pix-Parade title Youthful Hearts in 1952, continuing its numbering under the new title Daring Confessions until 1953. The Youthful titles Attack and Beware were acquired by Trojan in 1952, which continued their numbering. Youthful, in turn, renamed the titles Atomic Attack and Chilling Tales, respectively, also continuing the numbering.
The company was mostly finished by 1953, with only Jackpot continuing until 1954
-From Wikipedia |
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Ziff-Davis Publications 1947-1957
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Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis as a hobbyist print magazine publisher in Chicago, Illinois.
In early 1938 Ziff-Davis acquired Radio News and Amazing Stories magazines which had been started by Hugo Gernsback.
Ziff-Davis started publishing comic books during the early 1950s, operating by their own name and also the name Approved Comics. Eschewing superheroes, they published horror, crime, sports, romance, and Western comics, though most titles didn't last more than a few issues.
Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel was the art director of the comics line; other notable creators who worked for Ziff-Davis included John Buscema, Sid Greene, Bob Haney, Sam Kweskin, Rudy Lapick, Richard Lazarus, Mort Leav, George Roussos, Mike Sekowsky, and Ogden Whitney.
In 1953, the company mostly abandoned comics, selling its most popular titles to St. John Publications. Ziff-Davis continued to publish one title, G.I. Joe, until 1957, a total of 51 issues.
-From Wikipedia |
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Smaller publisher grouped in one area |
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A home for foreign reprints of known US comic titles.
Please do not upload anything printed after 1959 or that contains known non-PD material in these countries. |
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Classic Newspaper comic strips
A variety of strips our members think others might enjoy.
You might try the ILoveComicxArchive site -
http://www.ilovecomixarchive.com/ |
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Giveaway and promotional comics have been around almost as long as comics themselves. Corporations, politicians and governments have used them to convey their messages.
You can find samples of all types, each in their own sub-folder inside this section. |
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Various scans that don't fit into a convenient category. |
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A home for orphaned or 'Grossly Mistreated' (GM) scans. They are small and watermarked. We frankly don't like them but for some they are the only scans available.
These are best thought of as placeholders until hopefully a better scan can be uploaded. Anyone that owns one of these books PLEASE consider scanning and sharing a better scan!
NOTE -
If you have a GM scan of a book ALREADY on the site please don't upload it.
BUT...
If you have a GM scan of something NOT on the site or that ours is incomplete or fiche, please DO upload it to this folder.
NOTE -
Sub-par non GM scans we hope will someday be replaced will also be hosted in this folder. |
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Scans not yet sorted. |
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