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Holyoke is a Myth...

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JVJ (RIP):
(Edit: I'm just following scra1941's lead by giving the thread a controversial name. The "myth" of Holyoke is that it was a publishing company from 1940 to 1950. See below for (lots) more details.)

I realize that this IS beating a dead horse, guys, but can I possibly make the request ONE more time to abandon the "Holyoke" designation for this group of comics. I know this flies in the face of Overstreet and Bails and fandom as a whole, but it is simply WRONG.

Holyoke was a printing company that published Capt. Aero and Catman for ONE YEAR (2/42-1/43). They published Blue Beetle for maybe 20 months (6/42-2/44. They created Sparkling Stars (6/44) AFTER they lost Blue Beetle back to Fox and published 33 issues (until 3/48)and they released a whole slew of single issue reprints that have been collectively designated Holyoke One-Shots. No dates on these, but assumed to have been 1944, also post-Blue Beetle. That's it. Period, the end - a short stint of publishing other company's books and then a couple of titles on their own.

Et-Es-Go, Helnit, Continental, Bilbara, Tem, and Nita should all be gathered into a "Temerson Publishing" group. Aviation Press and Narrative have only a tenuous connection with Temerson, through L.B. Cole perhaps, but no connection with Holyoke whatsoever.

The Holyoke issues of Capt. Aero and Catman should be lumped into the Temerson category, or, otherwise, just put issues PUBLISHED by Holyoke into the Holyoke section. That's what is done with the Blue Beetle issues. It makes infinitely more historical sense.

I hereby relinquish the soap box and cease flailing at the departed horse-like creature.

my (futile, I'm sure) 2¢

(|:{>

narfstar:
Thanks Jim your information has been added to that section on the GAC homepage

bchat:
I'm curious as to how Bilbara is linked to "Holyoke, etc", since Bilbara had the same editorial address as Worth Publishing (publisher of early Champion Comics issues).  Both Bilbara & Worth operated out of 122 East 42nd Street, New York, NY in 1940, whereas at that same point in time, Nita, Helnit, Tem & Brookwood had their editorial office at 381 Fourth Avenue, NYC NY.

On a related subject, I was also wondering if the Rural Home titles were ever going to be gathered into their own category, away from Croydon?  It doesn't make sense to me to keep two completely unrelated companies grouped together.

JVJ (RIP):

--- Quote from: bchat on April 05, 2010, 09:02:23 PM ---I'm curious as to how Bilbara is linked to "Holyoke, etc", since Bilbara had the same editorial address as Worth Publishing (publisher of early Champion Comics issues).  Both Bilbara & Worth operated out of 122 East 42nd Street, New York, NY in 1940, whereas at that same point in time, Nita, Helnit, Tem & Brookwood had their editorial office at 381 Fourth Avenue, NYC NY.

On a related subject, I was also wondering if the Rural Home titles were ever going to be gathered into their own category, away from Croydon?  It doesn't make sense to me to keep two completely unrelated companies grouped together.

--- End quote ---

I agree with you, bchat. I also do not see the connection between Bilbara, Worth and Temerson - though a coincidental connection may exist since Cyclone (Bilbara) and Whirlwind (Nita) debuted the SAME month and featured some of the same artists and similar characters. Not much to build a case on, but still "interesting".

Worth's Champion Comics shares the distinction of being acquired by the Harveys with Speed (Brookwood) and Green Hornet (Helnit), so again there's this tangential parallelism that one finds interesting, but certainly NOT conclusive.

Others consider it too much of coincidence, but I remain skeptical.

There is no connection between them and Holyoke. Holyoke as a publishing company doesn't exist until Feb. 1942 when it takes over the publication of Capt. Aero and Catman. In 1940 and 1941, the years of Nita, Tem and Brookwood (i.e. the years at 381 4th Ave), Holyoke is at most a printing company.

As for 220 W. 42nd St., I think that address first appears in Great Comics #1 (11/41) and the following month in Choice Comics #1. Then Catman #6, still listed as Helnit Pub. Co. moves to that address in 1/42. And, as you know, that is the editorial address for Holyoke (until 1/43), Et-Es-Go and Continental until the end (Suspense Comics #12, 9/46). I can't navigate the stairs to check on the editorial addresses used by Sparkling Stars, but that comic doesn't come into existence until mid-1944 and probably doesn't (correct me if I err) come out of 220 W. 42nd.

And BOY, do I EVER agree with you regarding Croydon being used as an umbrella name for Rural Home, et al.

(|:{>

bchat:

--- Quote from: JVJ on April 05, 2010, 09:58:13 PM ---Worth's Champion Comics shares the distinction of being acquired by the Harveys with Speed (Brookwood) and Green Hornet (Helnit), so again there's this tangential parallelism that one finds interesting, but certainly NOT conclusive.

Others consider it too much of coincidence, but I remain skeptical.
--- End quote ---

I simply assume (with no facts to base this on, just "thinking out-loud") that Harvey wanted to get out of the gate quickly, and so acquired existing titles from small companies (Speed, Champion) as an easy way to enter comics, and then expanded from there.


--- Quote ---There is no connection between them and Holyoke. Holyoke as a publishing company doesn't exist until Feb. 1942 when it takes over the publication of Capt. Aero and Catman. In 1940 and 1941, the years of Nita, Tem and Brookwood (i.e. the years at 381 4th Ave), Holyoke is at most a printing company.

As for 220 W. 42nd St., I think that address first appears in Great Comics #1 (11/41) and the following month in Choice Comics #1. Then Catman #6, still listed as Helnit Pub. Co. moves to that address in 1/42. And, as you know, that is the editorial address for Holyoke (until 1/43), Et-Es-Go and Continental until the end (Suspense Comics #12, 9/46). I can't navigate the stairs to check on the editorial addresses used by Sparkling Stars, but that comic doesn't come into existence until mid-1944 and probably doesn't (correct me if I err) come out of 220 W. 42nd.
--- End quote ---

Sparkling Stars 10 has Holyoke Publishing Co Inc's address as 1475 Broadway Times Bldg., New York, NY, so you can avoid the stairs for now.



--- Quote ---And BOY, do I EVER agree with you regarding Croydon being used as an umbrella name for Rural Home, et al.

--- End quote ---

Well, I remember the discussion about this on the other board and thought it was worth revisiting here.  Reading everone else's opinions on the matter convinced me that Croydon & Rural Home should be treated as the seperate companies that they are.

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