List of Golden Age of Comics publishers

From Hey Kids Comics

List of Golden Age of Comics publishers. The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s. During this time, modern comic books were first published and enjoyed a surge of popularity; the archetype of the superhero was created and defined; and many of the most famous superheroes debuted.

Comics "packagers" like Harry "A" Chesler (c. 1935), the Eisner and Iger Studio (c. 1936), Funnies, Inc. (1939), the S. M. Iger Studio (1940), the L. B. Cole studio (1942), the Jack Binder Studio (1942), and the Bernard Baily Studio (1943) also formed during this time, to supply cheaply produced material to the burgeoning comics industry.

This is a list of publishers which operated during the Golden Age of Comics, up to 1956, when many publishers went out of business due to the scapegoating of comics by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, Senator Estes Kefauver, and the creation of the self-censoring body the Comics Code Authority. (1956 also saw the debut of the new superhero the Flash, and the start of what is generally considered the Silver Age of Comic Books.)

Timeline[edit | edit source]

The first publisher in this category was Dell Comics, established in 1929 although they started to publish modern comic books in 1935.

Other 1930s establishments were Eastern Color Printing (1933), National Allied Publications (1934), David McKay Publications (1937), All-American Publications (1938), Centaur Publications (1938), Fiction House (1938), Archie Comics (1939), Fawcett Comics (1939), Fox Feature Syndicate (1939), Lev Gleason Publications (1939), Marvel Comics (1939), Nedor Comics (1939), Quality Comics (1939), and Timely Comics (1939).

Establishments during the period 1940–1944 were Ace Comics (1940), Columbia Comics (1940), Farrell Publications (1940), Holyoke Publishing (1940), Novelty Press (1940), Street & Smith Comics (1940), All American Comics (1941), Gilberton (1941), Great Comics Publications (1941), Harvey Comics (1941), American Comics Group (1943), Crestwood Publications (1943), Magazine Enterprises (1943), EC Comics (1944), Humor Publications/Current Books (1944), Rural Home Publications (1944), and Spark Publications (1944).

Establishments during the period 1945–1949 were Cambridge House Publishers (1945), Orbit Publications (1945), Charlton Comics (1946), St. John Publications (1947), Hillman Periodicals (1948), Star Publications (1949), Toby Press (1949), Trojan Magazines (1949), and Youthful (1949).

1950s establishments were Atlas Comics (1951), Ajax/Farrell (1952), Comic Media (1952), and Mainline Publications (1953).

Of the Golden Age publishers in this list, only a handful survived past 1960: American Comics Group, Archie Comics, Charlton Comics, Crestwood Publications, Dell Comics, Gilberton, Harvey Comics, Marvel Comics, and National Allied Publications (DC Comics).

Publishers[edit | edit source]

Packagers[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]