Dell Publishing
Years of Operation
1921 - 1988
Addresses
- 97 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York (1927),
- 100 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York (1929-32, could be same offices as above),
- 149 Madison Avenue, New York, New York (1934-43),
- 261 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York (1953-57),
- 750 Third Avenue, New York, New York 17 (1962-83),
- 1 Dag Hammarskold Plaza, New York, New York 10017 (1973),
- 235 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10003 (1978),
- 475 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10016 (1992)
Overview
Early imprints:
- I Confess Publications,
- The Corte Publishing Co., Inc.,
- Dell Publishing Co., Inc.,
- Exposed Publishing Co.,
- Film Humor, Inc.
Related Names
Gold Key
Personnel
George T. Delacorte (June 20, 1893 - May 4, 1991)
Comic Book Titles
Earliest title was (The?) Funnies v1#1, 16 January, 1929
Other Publications
Early magazine genres included crime, romance, screen/celebrity. Other magazines included science fiction, mystery, and horoscope. Also published crossword puzzles and mass-market fiction paperbacks.
Distribution
Distributed by ANC until May, 1957, when Dell Distributing Company was formed following an acrimonious split with ANC.
Dell & Gold Key/Whitman Numeric Decoding
Overview of Dell and Western Publishing Relationship Western Publishing Company (also known as Western Printing & Lithography) had been in operation in Racine, Wisconsin since 1907. Western had acquired the franchises for several important entities; including Disney, King Feature Syndicate, Walter Lantz, M.G.M., Leon Schlesinger, Warner Brothers (cartoons) etc, etc. From the late 1930's, Dell was employed by Western to produce comics featuring these franchised characters, which would carry the Dell cover symbol. The arrangement was hugely successful, with Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories alone selling millions of copies each month. These franchises were complemented by several movie cowboy stars and hugely popular network TV shows. However, in 1961 (March to May cover dates), Dell increased the retail cover prices of their comics from 10 to 15 cents. This proved a bold move; one noticeably out of step with the rest of the industry which was still charging 10 cents. Beginning May 1962, Dell introduced an 8-digit scheme, called ‘New Numbering’ here, whilst reducing the cover price on some titles to 12 cents. These complemented the 15 cent issues, still being released. By 1963 all Dell’s cover prices were reduced to 12 cents, which remained the situation until Dell's re-introduction of 15 cent prices, in 1969. (note: ‘New Numbering’ is my own term, in absence of anything found from the companies concerned.)
New Numbering scheme The ‘New Numbering’ was printed on the covers of all Dell comics under its cover symbol, for both regular series and ‘one-shots’ alike. It seems reasonable that the scheme was designed to monitor the effect of both the 12 and 15 cent trial pricing (encoded as part of this number), whilst continuing the ‘Four Color’ (‘one- shot’) tradition, although the numbering is unrelated. However, for many releases the ‘New Numbering’ was shorted lived, because Western switched all their titles to Gold Key; a new imprint launched in opposition to Dell, October 1962 (see below). Irrespective, the ‘New Numbering’ scheme caused the demise of Dell’s ‘Four Color’ series, which had produced around 1,300 ‘one-shot’ issues between 1939 and 1962 (approximately 90 issues in its final 12 months). The missing ‘Four Color’ numbers were almost certainly issued in this new format. The Dell comic lines never recovered from the loss of Western’s franchises and by 1967 had just a handful of reprints, with a final flurry of reprints between 1971-73. The last of these saw prices increase to 20 cents.
Dell used this ‘New Numbering’ system from 1962 until 1971, when 8-digit numbering was supplanted by a 5-digit scheme (04000 series). However, this was a distributor requirement (by Dell’s Distribution wing, who had distributed their titles since 1957); part of an industry-wide initiative by all the major distributors throughout the USA, which would lead eventually to Unique Product/Bar Codes for periodicals. I have an Appendix A to this, which lists the first-known issues where this 8-digit/New Numbering or later 5-digit numbering was used, or where the 2-digit prefix (01 or 12 and hence, price) or title coding (mid 3-digits) changed. For completeness, the 5-digit numbers are also recorded.
Dell ‘New Number’ Decoding All Dell titles were denoted by an 8-digit number (01-742-209, typical example). Dell used this system first from May-July 1962 onwards on all ‘one-shot’ titles and continuous titles. This numbering was also written in the indicia on early issues. Examples are found on Bonanza and Twilight Zone.
The first two numbers denote company and price.
- 15- and 12- denote Dell 15 cent and 12 cent respectively, used on regulation 36 page issues.
- 02- or 07- denote a Dell Giant.
The middle three numbers relate to an alpha/numeric conversion of the title. They seem to have allocated 000 to 040 for letter A, 041 to 90 for B, 091 to 160 for C, etc., but there are exceptions.
The last three numbers supply the date as follows:
- The first number being the last number of the year: 1962 equates to -2.
- The remaining 2 digits denoting the highest on-sale month: July/September equates to -09.
- Therefore July/September 1962 becomes –209,
- Whilst August 1965 becomes -508.
Gold Key Comics Overview In October 1962, five months after the introduction of the Dell ‘New Numbering’ scheme, Gold Key was launched by a consortium comprising Western Publishing, Golden Books, Inc and Pocket Book, Inc. Gold Key was blessed with all the Western franchise titles, leaving Dell with a just handful of newly acquired TV franchises, movie adaptations or original material. All 36-page titles were priced at 12 cents. In addition, Gold Key released selected titles in 25 cent, 68-page giant format, which lasted for 2-3 issues before dropping back to 12 cent, 36-pages. Like Dell, Gold Key used a similar 8-digit numbering scheme for all titles, but the decoding is different. They also produced ‘one-shots’ of their own. Gold Key ceased publication early 1980 (c February-March), when it was superceded by the Whitman imprint.
Gold Key Number Decoding Gold Key also used an 8-digit numbering system for all titles from launch, but in slightly different format (example: 10235-602). The first 2 numbers again denote price. Initially, 10 was used for Gold Key 36-page issues. Whilst 30 and 35 were reserved for Gold Key Giant issues. The next three numbers relate to a chronological release of titles, therefore 000 was the first title, 001 the second title, etc. The last three numbers are the same as for Dell above. 90 replaced the 10 for all new and existing titles in March 1972 (approximately one decade later).
Normal issues and Giants were numbered independently. When Gold Key was launched, several titles became ‘Giants’ for 2 or 3 issues. These would be issued in 30 format and then renumber to a new 10 series when they reverted to 36-pages. Examples are Boris Karloff, Bugs Bunny and Popeye. When titles were renamed without a format change the numbering scheme was retained. Examples are Lost in Space/Space Family Robinson and M.A.R.S.Patrol/Total War. I have an Appendix B to this, which lists these numbers.
Whitman Overview From 1971, Western released comics in twos or threes in sealed plastic packs, via their Whitman imprint. They also sold comics in decorative boxes, comprising ten different issues. These packs/boxes were issued by Western’s distribution wing to shopping malls etc, outside the newsstand network. Here, they would have a much longer shelf life than the sale-or-return system operating for US newsstand periodicals, which included comics. The Whitman comics complimented the Gold Key releases, by adopting their appearance and numbering scheme but sometimes omitting the last 3 date numbers. The Whitmans also displayed cover branding alterations, in all cases, with indicia variations noted on occasion. This branding was also designed to stop them being confused with sale-or-return copies. Whitman also released variant editions of Marvel and DC/National titles, in similar fashion but unconnected to this numbering scheme. Whitman had been publishing since the 1930s, producing a huge variety of colouring, punch-out, join-the-dots, cut-out-dolls or other one-shot titles, aimed almost exclusively at the juvenile market. Many of these were franchise-related entities, as held by Western. When Gold Key was abandoned in early 1980, the Whitman editions continued exclusively until 1984, when all production ceased. Selected Western franchise titles would be restarted by Gladstone in 1986, but those are outside the scope of this article. As the Whitman titles are variants of Gold Key, only their first exclusive issues are denoted here.
Notes
Most information this page provided by Frank Motler.
References
The 1921 launch is reported in a one-page article, 'Dell Joins the Independents!' (Newsdealer, June, 1957), as 'In 1921 George T. Delacorte founded the Dell Publishing Company.'
Publisher record at the GCD
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