The Mystery of Blue Circle Comics 0

[Robot Man]

Dug these out today. I only have two of them. I know one has variations known but the other seems to be original material.

#3 The cover, of course, is the main attraction. The indicia indicates a 1944 copyright date and it was published by Rewel Publications.

#6 has a copyright date of 1945 and was published by Enwil Associates / Rural Home News. This copy has Murder Inc #14 by Fox inside from 1949. It is also listed as a Gerber no show and at the time he questioned it's existance. A copy sold last night here on the boards and had a Martin Kane notation printed on the cover (also a Fox publication)

Both have 10 cent cover prices and were probably sold on the newstand somewhere. The #6 was from an original owner collection that moved out west from PA.

Are there other issues with different contents? Was it a Victor Fox money grab possibly done regionaly? Was there an "origin" of the Blue Circle? Did he appear elsewhere?

Can anyone explain the mystery of this title?

[Frisco Larson]

I don't have any other information other than that there are MANY copies of issues #4 & #5 on eBay right now, as well as a few of other issues. 

[Scrooge]

The most recent issue of Alter Ego has the most extensive article about these books I have ever read. Let me see if I can pull the relevant pages for you.

https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=1537&zenid=3c58f7771f3108d923da3641f6c62f36

 

[Scrooge]

First, follow the link above and the first 3 pages of the article are presented there, including the first mention of Blue Circle in its first incarnation.

I am adding the other page that deals with the re-emergence of Blue Circle later. Find it below.

Finally, Fox is mentioned in the article later on and his connection to Rural Home is explained there. In particular to your question this passage is the most relevant:

""El Kuraan made one final appearance in 1950. The cover that was intended for Red Circle # 4 featured a beautiful image of El Kuraan drawn by Leonard Starr. Sadly it was used as a cover for various remaindered copies of comicbooks from several different publishers instead - an old Victor Fox trick. Content was from titles as wide-ranging as Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay, the Prize group's Young Love, and Fox's own Women Outlaws. Other unused Rural Home covers intended for Blazing Comics # 6 and Blue Circle # 6 wrapped around similar remaindered material.

Those two covers likely came into the possession of Fox's wholly owned print shop now known as Central Color Press, just before Rural Home's collapse. Victor Fox would have had access to the unused color plate (or the printed-up but unused covers), thus finding one last way to squeeze a few more dollars out of a dying company. Both Fox Features Syndicate and Central Color Press filed for bankruptcy later that same year."

So, since the book was planned for a 1945 pub date never was published due to Rural Home's collapse, the Blue Circle # 6 cover was left unused until Fox used it in 1950 (hence the remaindered issues from 1949 on the inside).

Blue Circle, the hero, appeared in the early issues / run of the title. "The Blue Circle led a group of pardoned criminals who used their intimate knowledge of criminal technique to help stamp out crime. They would all sit around a circular table after being summoned by a slip of paper with a time and - naturally - a blue circle".

[Electricmastro]

I recall that the Blue Circle, possibly created by Ken Battefield and W. M. Allison, was basically part of a company grouped with other companies working together as a partnership, such as in regards to reliably supplying each other with enough paper, and was added up to make up a sort of banner/umbrella publisher that was Rural Home. 

I was exploring the history of Rural Home Publications (1944-1945), specifically with Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego #164, and was surprised to learn that its founder, Lindsay Baird, faced jail time for using too much unauthorized paper, in violation of regulations issued by the War Production Board. It’s probably the earliest case I’ve heard of a comic book company founder being found guilty and put in jail actually.

As for the Blue Circle himself, his real name was Len Stafford, an inventor who decided to use the fortune he inherited from his father to fight crime as the Blue Circle, and arranged a pardon for seven reformed criminals in exchange for their help. The idea of a superhero seeking advice and assistance from former criminals in the cause of wanting to better fight crime is an interesting one, and wish more could have been done with it.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Electricmastro

[sfcityduck]

Check out this old thread I started when I first stumbled across this mystery:

And here's a link to a relevant news article from 1945:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QRxSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rHcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6762,2308741&dq=war+production+board+comic&hl=en

And here's my analysis of the mystery:

 

Quote

 

The reason I think May 1945 issues were seized is threefold:

First, the first article referenced is discussing events that had already happened. This was not the age of the internet and instantaneous stories. What the articles are discussing is a completed operation by the WPB, in which distributors and printers had reported a comic publisher for exceeding quotas. By the time the article had appeared, the WPB had already seized 5,000,000 publications and warehoused them. This strongly suggests that even though the article appeared in mid-May, the events likely occurred several weeks, if not longer, earlier.

Second, it is an article of faith amongst comic book collectors that all publishers issued their comics three months in advance of the date. But, this wasn't always the case for the big publishers whose practices are pretty well known, and many publishers of periodicals did not engage in that sort of dating. It is entirely possible that a small publisher like Rural Home, especially if its main business background was magazines, did not use the big publishers three month lead time dating conventions.

Third, we know that the earlier issues of Rural Home publications cover dated April 1945 made it to the newsstand. As these 5,000,000 comics were seized from the printers and distributors, it seems very unlikely they made it to newsstands. Further, it makes far less sense, given the timing of the articles, that April 1945 comics were seized than May 1945 comics.

Seems very likely to me that Rural Home printed comics that never made it to the newsstands and are now gone forever. Probably no way to confirm that unless the WPB kept records that survived until today.

 

 

[Robot Man]

Thanks for all the info guys. There is a lot here to digest. As I figured, a lot more too it than I thought.

Here is another book I dug out that I think is from the same folks. Only issue I have I think. Red Band Comics #2 with the Bogey Man and his weird, one eyed villian. Dated 1945 and published by Publicaciones Recreativeas / Universal Comics Group. Overstreet lists 4 issues published but this is the only one I've seen. OStreet also lists Red Circle at 4 issues that I have none of.

Seems like these folks snuck in a lot of weird books in a short amount of time.

Anybody have any other ones they can post?

[Electricmastro]

21 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Thanks for all the info guys. There is a lot here to digest. As I figured, a lot more too it than I thought.

Here is another book I dug out that I think is from the same folks. Only issue I have I think. Red Band Comics #2 with the Bogey Man and his weird, one eyed villian. Dated 1945 and published by Publicaciones Recreativeas / Universal Comics Group. Overstreet lists 4 issues published but this is the only one I've seen. OStreet also lists Red Circle at 4 issues that I have none of.

Seems like these folks snuck in a lot of weird books in a short amount of time.

Anybody have any other ones they can post?

That was quite an odd one, just just for the red band that appears in the comics for some reason, but also how issues 1 and 2 have the same contents, which is the same case with issues 3 and 4. The indicias are different though.

[Readcomix]

13 hours ago, Scrooge said:

Other unused Rural Home covers intended for Blazing Comics # 6 and Blue Circle # 6 wrapped around similar remaindered material.

 

Interestingly, Blazing Comics #5 exists as both a regular issue featuring the regular characters from the title (Green Turtle, Jun-Gal, etc) and as a cover wrapped around various, much later, remaindered books. I have to check the cover date; I wonder if it's one of the issues that was seized? Maybe a few got out? The cover wrapped around remaindered books seems far more common, relatively.

@SOLAR BOY finished a Blazing run; he might have some insights. At the least, I'm sure this is of interest to him as background on the title.

[Scrooge]

1 hour ago, Robot Man said:

Here is another book I dug out that I think is from the same folks. Only issue I have I think. Red Band Comics #2 with the Bogey Man and his weird, one eyed villian. Dated 1945 and published by Publicaciones Recreativeas / Universal Comics Group. Overstreet lists 4 issues published but this is the only one I've seen. OStreet also lists Red Circle at 4 issues that I have none of.

All of these are also covered in that Alter Ego issue. IIRC, publishing out of Mexico you did not have to worry about the WPB quotas. Also, the WPB quotas were based on output in 1941 which gave a boost to whomever was active a couple of years ago and still had left over capacity to produce a comic where the profits were nice and easy. The article is very informative … to the extent that information can be tracked at this late date.

[newshane]

15 hours ago, Frisco Larson said:

I don't have any other information other than that there are MANY copies of issues #4 & #5 on eBay right now, as well as a few of other issues. 

Number 6 is the unicorn. The others? Not so much. 

[Frisco Larson]

1 hour ago, newshane said:

Number 6 is the unicorn. The others? Not so much. 

Just letting him know that some where on eBay.  A few #6s have sold on there in the last month or so. 

[Electricmastro]

Also worth noting from Blue Circle Comics is Harold Delay’s art for Maureen Marine, which he drew when he was nearly 70 years old and actually passed away just a few years later.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Electricmastro

[MusterMark]

Umm, I want to read the rest of the story ....  

[Electricmastro]

50 minutes ago, MusterMark said:

Umm, I want to read the rest of the story ....  

Alright, here’s the full story from the first issue then:

[MusterMark]

Love it! 

And thank you!  

[Electricmastro]

On 6/25/2020 at 12:11 PM, Robot Man said:

Seems like these folks snuck in a lot of weird books in a short amount of time.

Anybody have any other ones they can post?

There’s also Patches #1, which includes the character of Jimmie, a black character who isn’t drawn as if to capitalize on Little Black Sambo. I recall that the inker, Ezra Jackson, was black as well.

[N e r V]

26 minutes ago, Electricmastro said:

There’s also Patches #1, which includes the character of Jimmie, a black character who isn’t drawn as if to capitalize on Little Black Sambo. I recall that the inker, Ezra Jackson, was black as well.

He was...

[Electricmastro]

Other artists credited as having worked on Blue Circle Comics material:

Henry Kiefer

Jack Warren

Bill Allison

Leo Morey

Harry Sahle

Pete Morisi