Publishers

Introduction

This page is intended to preserve information about publishing companies and their relationships and practices that either does not fit into the GCD proper or is not yet understood thoroughly enough to be entered. The data sections after the table should be organized alphabetically by the publishing "group" name (i.e. common names like DC and Marvel that include a number of historical corporations and imprints).

Wherever possible, information here should cite references, even if only to a thread on a mailing list on a particular day.

General Relationships

The following list and table are for listing relationships among publishers, imprints, surrogates, distributors, groups etc. When the new schema is implemented, this will be used in addition to the information that currently fits in our database.

Publisher Groups

• Centaur Group (Name used in ads for magazines from Centaur Publications, Inc. and Comic Corporation of America)

Publication Entity Relationships

Company One	Relationship	Company Two	When	Comments	References
Centaur Publications, Inc.	indicia name of	Centaur Group	03/1938? - 12/1940? (cover dates)	GCD currently lists The Arrow as using this name, but issue #3 (published well after 12/1940) lists Comic Corporation of America. Issues #1 and 2 are unconfirmed. We do not have a cover date for Uncle Joe's Funnies #1 other than the year 1938
Chesler Publications, Inc.	no direct relation to	Centaur Group	N/A	While often considered part of Centaur due to its Star Funnies and Star Ranger titles, these books were in fact sold to Ultem which then sold them to Centaur	needs verification
Chesler Publications, Inc.	sold titles to	Ultem Publications, Inc.	09-10/1937?	There is some confusion as to whether the indicia changes accurately reflect the sale date.	needs verification
Chicago Mail Order Co.	client of	Comic Corporation of America (Centaur)	1942	C-M-O Comics #2's indicia states that it was published exclusively for the Chicago Mail Order Co. by the Comic Corporation of America. The exact nature of this relationship is unclear, as is how Liberty Guards Comics fits in.
Comic Corporation of America	indicia name of	Centaur Group	09/1939 - 01/1942 (cover dates)
Comics Magazine Co., Inc.	no direct relation to	Centaur Group	N/A	While often considered a Centaur imprint, Comics Magazine Co., Inc. in fact sold its titles to Ultem, which in turn sold them to Centaur Publications, Inc.	needs verification
Comics Magazine Co., Inc.	sold titles to	Ultem Publications, Inc.	06-09/1937?	There is some confusion as to whether the indicia changes accurately reflect the sale date.	needs verification
Marvel Publishing, Inc.	subsidiary of	Marvel Entertainment, Inc.	? - present		See current indicia of Marvel comics
Pershing Square Publishing Co.	surrogate for	Dynamic	1945	Carnival Comics seems to be the only title Pershing did as a surrogate for any company	is there evidence is other than the look and feel of the issue?
R. W. Voigt	surrogate for	Fox	1944
Ultem Publications, Inc.	sold titles to	Centaur Publications, Inc.	01-03/1938	Ultem is often incorrectly considered an imprint of the Centaur Group	needs verification
Wm H. Wise & Co., Inc.	surrogate for	Fox	1944 - 1945
Wm H. Wise & Co., Inc.	surrogate for	Ned Pines (Better)	1944?

Ajax/Farrell, Four Star, America's Best, Steinway

• This thread discusses the relationships (or lack thereof) among these publication names and how we should record them.

DC vs National Allied

• DC does not (and never did) own the rights to material published prior to Nicholson's bankruptcy (National Allied Publications; National Allied Newspaper Syndicate; More Fun, Inc.; Nicholson Publishing), as explained by Bob Hughes on gcd-main.

Dynamic (Chesler)

• This thread discusses the various one-shots published by Dynamic/Chesler in terms of which ones are part of the series spanning Scoop Comics #9 and Red Seal Comics #14.

Green Publishing

• Reprint publisher, including some Fox and Nicholson-era DC material, discussed at length in these threads:
  • Sandy Kean and the Radio Squad (gcd-main)
  • Sandy Kean and the Radio Squad (gcd-chat)
  • Green Publishing (gcd-chat, branches from above thread)

Holyoke

• April 14, 2008

contains discussions about Holyoke Publishing Co., Inc. and related companies Et-Es-Go Magazines and Continental and the oddities around the series Sparkling Stars.

Morse

• April 14, 2008

briefly mentions Kable and Morse near the beginning of a long discussion of Holyoke companies and titles.

Timely

• Doc V lays out a timeline of Timely's use of material from Funnies, Inc., Simon & Kirby, and Chessler in this thread on the Timely-Atlas list.

Surrogate Publishers

• This thread contains Frank Motler's list of known / suspected surrogate publishers from the 40's, and some further discussion of the topic.

• Black Market Comics of the Golden Age, a revised version of an article that originally appeared in Comic Book Marketplace #108.