Indicias, Insignias, and Statements of Ownership

[gifflefunk]

I finally got around to starting another project I've always wanted to do:

Publisher Insignia and Indicia Data

 

I'm still harvesting Quality Comic Group and Fox indicias (I've got a whole lot of 'em to deal with), but if anyone has any of the missing indicias for the other groups currently listed I'd love to add them to the project. You can post 'em here or PM them to me for inclusion.

[telerites]

Wow - quite a project. So you are wanting an indicia image of any of the books you listed that are not currently linked? If so, I may be to help with some.

[gifflefunk]

For now, any additional inidicas or statements of ownership that I do not have linked to a scan would be appreciated. As I create new publisher pages the list of needed indicias will grow; I just want to limit the scope of needed material at the present time.

[gifflefunk]

I just added the Standard Comics Group (Nedor/Better/Pines) page and I've tried my best to sort out the Youthful Magazines, Story Comics, Trojan Magazines, and Merit Publications mess that has confounded and confused me for a few years.

 

If anyone has any Trojan, Story, Merit data not listed yet I would love to get scans. Every new piece of data helps to clarify what happened with those titles. In particular, I would love to get indicia data and/or ownership statements from the following books:

Dark Mysteries #21

Dark Mysteries #22

Dark Mysteries #23

Romantic Hearts (1953) #9

Romantic Hearts (1953) #10

(to see when Master Comics changed hands from Friedman to Estrow)

 

G.I. Jane #11

Beware #15

(to see if these are Merit issues)

[Forbush-Man]

Here are the only two examples of a Centaur logo, they appeared on Cowboy Comics. These examples came from scans provided be Centaurman (Win).

[gifflefunk]

Very cool. I guess I should do a Centaur page soon.

[gifflefunk]

So far I have pages and data for:

Ace Fiction Group

Argo

Avon Comics Group (Avon/Realistic)

Charlton Comics Group [1944-1949]

Comic Media (Artful/Allen Hardy Associates)

Dearfield (Laue)

Entertaining Comics Group

Fago

Farrell Comics Group (Four Star/Farrell/Ajax/America's Best)

Fox

Medal Comics (Aragon/Gillmor/Key/Stanmor)

Merit

Premier Magazines

Quality Comic Group

Spark (Crossen)

Standard Comics Group (Better/Nedor/Pines)

Sterling (Nesbit)

Story Comics (Master/Mens Publications)

Timor (Accepted Publications)

Trojan Magazines (Ribage/Stanhall/Master)

Universal Comic Group (Croydon/Rewl/Rural Home/L.L. Baird)

Youthful Magazines (Pix Parade/Western Comics/Stamp Comics)

Ziff-Davis Comic Group (Ziff-Davis/Approved Comics)

 

I just started pages (no indicia data posted yet, but soon) for:

Columbia Comics (Publication Enterprises)

Star Comics

 

[gifflefunk]

I did a Centaur page today. It was interesting to see E.L. Angel listed as one of the Centaur owners. I'm guessing this is the same E.L. Angel that turns up later in the early Ace books (along with a number of other Angel family members). Does anyone know anything about Evangeline L. Angel (or the Angel family)?

 

Apparently she died between Sep 30, 1947 and Sep 23, 1948 (based on the Ace statements of ownership).

[gifflefunk]

It has been a few months since I posted any updates.

 

I automated the table generation so I can spend more time harvesting indicias and less time dealing with HTML links, etc. I'm also in a position to quickly add new groups for indicias not currently covered. Indicia scan contributions can be sent to gifflefunk at yahoo.com, gmail.com, or aol.com. I've already got a several hundred, perhaps a few thousand, indicias and statements of ownership online for the following publishing groups:

 

Ace Fiction Group (Ace/Current/Humor/Junior/Periodical House/Unity/Wyn)

American Comics Group (B&I/B&M/Best/Creston/Michel/Preferred/Regis/Scope/Titan)

Archie Comic Group (Archie/MLJ/Radio/Red Circle)

Argo

Avon Comics Group (Avon/Realistic)

Centaur Comic Group (Centaur/Comic Corporation)

Charlton Comics Group (Charles/Charlton/Childrens/Frank Comunale/Special Action)

Columbia Comics (Publication Enterprises)

Comic Media (Artful/Hardy/Harwell)

Crossen (Crossen/Spark)

Croydon

Dearfield (Dearfield/Laue)

D.S. Publishing

Entertaining Comics Group (Educational/Fables/IC/LL/Tiny Tot)

Fago

Farrell Comics Group (Ajax/America's Best/Farrell/Four Star)

Fawcett Publications

Fiction House Magazines (Fight/Flying/Love Romances/Wings)

Fox (Bruns/Fox/Hero Books)

Harvey Comics Group (Family/Harvey/Home/Illustrated Humor/Witches Tales)

Hillman Publications

Holyoke (Continental/Et-Es-Go/Helnit/Holyoke/Nita/Tem)

Lev Gleason Publications

Medal Comics (Aragon/Gillmor/Key/Stanmor)

Merit

National Comics Group (All-American/DC/National/Signal)

Premier Magazines

Prize Comic Group (Crestwood/Feature Publications)

Quality Comic Group (Arnold/Comic Favorites/Comic Magazines)

St. John

Standard Comics Group (Better/Nedor/Pines/Standard)

Star Comics

Sterling (Sterling/Nesbit)

Story Comics (Master/Mens/Story)

Timor (Accepted/Timor)

Toby (Minoan/Toby)

Trojan Magazines (Master/Ribage/Stanhall/Trojan)

Ultem Publications

Universal Comic Group (Baird/Rewl/Rural Home)

Wanted Comic Group (Orbit/Patches/Taffy/Toytown)

Youthful Magazines (Pix Parade/Stamp/Western/Youthful)

Ziff-Davis Comic Group (Approved/Ziff-Davis)

 

[gifflefunk]

More updates...

 

I finally got around to splitting Holyoke (Sherman Bowles) from Continental, et. al. (Frank Temerson). There was not enough evidence to keep everything together. It looks like Holyoke became more than just a printer in 1942 when it acquired and began publishing Catman and Blue Beetle. We know Fox had to fight for its return... perhaps Temerson had to do the same with Catman? Whatever the case, Holyoke Publishing Co., Inc. seems to be a different animal from the group of Temerson entities: Continental Magazines, Inc.; Et-Es-Go Magazines, Inc.; Great Comics Publications, Inc.; Helnit Publishing Co., Inc.; Nita Publishing Co, Inc.; Tem Publishing Co., Inc.;

 

The full list is too long to post here, so you'll have to check out the live page:

Publisher Indicia and Logo project

[Earl Davis]

Hi. Great project as always. What links Accepted and Timor? I always thought (probably wrongly) that Accepted reprinted Star and Timor material in 1958 only and were not part of the Timor company.

 

Earl.

[gifflefunk]

White Rider #6 was a Star publication but the reprint issue gives the 280 Madison Avenue address (as does the reprint of Algie #1). This is the same address used by Timor for Blazing Western #1 and #2 as well as Crime Detector #5. The odd duck so far is Algie #3 which gives the 32 Broadway, New York, address which appears to be the business office of Joseph A. Wolfert and can be found in the 1954 Senate Interim Report.

 

I'm guessing Wolfert found it cheaper to get into the reprint business instead of producing new material, so he reprinted his own material and whatever he could acquire from Star.

 

 

[Earl Davis]

Thanks. I appreciate the clarification.

 

Earl.