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Ace Comics 1940-1956
Also known as Ace Periodicals Ace Magaizines and Periodical House
Their most successful superhero series was Super-Mystery Comics featuring Magno the Magnetic Man and his boy partner Davey. Horror titles included Baffling Mysteries, Hand of Fate and Web of Mystery. Their contribution to the crime comics genre was Crime Must Pay the Penalty. Some of their longest running series were the four romance titles Glamorous Romances, Love At First Sight, Love Experiences and Real Love. These began in the late 1940's, after the superhero books faded away and continued until the company ceased publishing comic books in 1956. |
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Ajax-Farrell Publications 1952-1958
(a.k.a. Ajax, America's Best, American Feature Syndicate, Decker Publications, Excellent Publications, Farrell, Four Star, Kiddie Kapers, Red Top Comics and Steinway Comics) |
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American Comics Group/ACG 1943-1967
Starting out with Ha Ha Comics and Giggle Comics in Oct 1943, ACG is probably better known for publishing the first ongoing series devoted to the horror genre, Adventures into the Unknown. During the early to mid 1950's the company branched out producing a wide range of titles such as Commander Battle & His Atomic Sub, The Hooded Horseman, Young Heroes, Romantic Adventures, Forbidden World's and others. ACG also published comics as Creston Publishing Co. and B&I Publishing. |
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Avon Publications was a paperback book and comic book publisher. It today exists only as an imprint of HarperCollins.
Avon Books was founded in 1941 by the American News Corporation to create a rival to Pocket Books. They hired Joseph and Edna Meyers to establish the company. They bought out J.S. Ogilvie Publications, a pulp magazine publisher, and renamed it "Avon Publications". They also got into comic books.
Avon was bought by the Hearst Corporation in 1959. In 1999, the News Corporation bought out Hearst's book division, and merged Avon with HarperCollins.
Avon now publishes only historical romance titles, though in the past it has published many genre works.
NOTE - THERE ARE SCANS OUT THERE FOR ISSUES WE ARE MISSING WITH "GM" WATERMARKS IN THE
BOTTOM LEFT OF EACH PAGE - - - - DO NOT UPLOAD THESE! WE CANNOT HOST THEM ON GAC. |
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Better/Nedor/Standard/Pines Publications 1939-1959
Produced three long running Golden Age anthology titles, Thrilling Comics, Exciting Comics and Startling Comics all anchored by super heroes, for a decade these were among the top comics in their field. Other titles published include Black Terror , Fighting Yank, and the much lesser-known anthologies Wonder Comics, Mystery Comics and the largely super hero anthology America's Best Comics, as well as many other titles. Ned Pines and Pines Publication was the Master Publisher taking the name of Pines Comics in 1956 until ceasing comics in 1959.
NOTE - THERE ARE SCANS OUT THERE FOR ISSUES WE ARE MISSING WITH "GM" WATERMARKS IN THE
BOTTOM LEFT OF EACH PAGE - - - - DO NOT UPLOAD THESE! WE CANNOT HOST THEM ON GAC. |
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Centaur Publications (1938–1942) was one of the earliest American comic book publishers.
The company's flagship title, the eponymous Comics Magazine, premiered with a May 1936 cover date. That comic-book series featured the first masked hero in American comics, writer-artist George Brenner's the Clock, in the November 1936 issue.
NOTE - THERE ARE SCANS OUT THERE FOR ISSUES WE ARE MISSING WITH "GM" WATERMARKS IN THE
BOTTOM LEFT OF EACH PAGE - - - - DO NOT UPLOAD THESE! WE CANNOT HOST THEM ON GAC. |
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Please do not upload any new titles till the new section has been sorted out. There are a couple of Charlton Comics which are not public domain, and many are of course not Golden Age comics. |
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Harry "A" Chesler Comics (1937-1948)
Although mostly remembered for the books he published in the early and mid 1940s, the Chesler comic book titles may be broken down into three periods. In the early period of 1937-1939, he produced “funny books” that focused more on humour strips, adventure and western stories. In the pre-war years he joined the super-hero parade with titles such as Dynamic Comics, Yankee Comics, Scoop Comics and Punch Comics, which were short-lived in their first incarnation. The final period was the resurrection of these titles that sported the uniquely macabre covers of Gus Ricca as well as covers drawn by Paul Gattuso and George Tuska. The Chesler string of comic titles ran out as 1947 drew to a close.
Harry "A" Chesler Comics includes not only Harry A. Chesler Feature Syndicate comics but also the imprints "Dynamic Publications", "Home Guide Publications" and "Magazine Press" |
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Columbia Comics Corporation 1940-1949
In 1939, the McNaught Newspaper Syndicate hired DC editor Vin Sullivan, who had been responsible for the launch of Action and Detective Comics, and the buying of Superman, to help launch their new comic book line, Columbia Comics Corporation. This new line, would carry a mix of strip reprints, and new material from early luminaries like Gardner Fox, Ogden Whitney, Mart Bailey, Fred Guardineer, and others Sullivan brought from DC.
Sullivan left in 1944 over McNaught's refusal to establish more original features, and formed Magazine Enterprises. McNaught then handed editorial reigns over to Tom De Angelo, writer/artist of Sparky Watts, who helped usher in a period of unparalleled creativity and originality in the company's post-war era utilizing serialized stories, and giving creators more control of their features.
In Columbia's all too brief existence, they published Big Shot Comics (1940-49), Columbia, The Gem of the Comics (1943), Dixie Dugan (1942-49), The Face/Tony Trent (1941, 48-49), Joe Palooka (1942-45), Ken Stuart (1948), Mickey Finn (1943-49), Skyman (1941, 48), and Sparky Watts (1942-49). |
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Comic Media 1950-1954
Short lived publisher owned by Allen Hardy probably best remembered for it graphic horror titles.
Imprints - Allen Hardy Associates, Biltmore Publishing, Artful Publ., Mystery Publ., Harwell |
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Cupples and Leon was founded in 1902 by an Englishman and a German, and grew to be the biggest comic book and juveniles publisher for the early decades of the 20th century.
Cupples and Leon were book salesmen casting about for an opportunity to make real money. They saw other firms selling juveniles at whatever price struck their fancy, all the way from $0.75 to $1.25 a book. C&L produced a juvenile costing fifty cents but looking as if it were worth much more and were hits. |
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Please do not upload any Dell comics for the time being, many are not public domain. |
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D.S. Publishing 1947-1951
[John Giffin, owner & publisher]
Aka D.X. PUBLISHING CO.; P.L. PUBLISHING (Canada)
Aka FAST FICTION; U.S. PUBLISHING; SEABOARD PUBLISHING |
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Eastern Color Printing Company 1933-1955 |
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Fawcett Comics, a subsidiary of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comics publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s. Its most popular character was Captain Marvel (not to be confused with Marvel Comics' character of the same name), the alter ego of boy radio reporter Billy Batson, who transformed into the hero whenever he spoke the magic word "SHAZAM!".
Fawcett Publications began in 1919 with the magazine Captain Billy's Whiz Bang and eventually expanded into a line of periodicals with a combined circulation of ten million a month. The company joined in the explosion of comic book publications in the United States in the late 1930s and early 1940s. |
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Fiction House is a American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
NOTE - THERE ARE SCANS OUT THERE FOR ISSUES WE ARE MISSING WITH "GM" WATERMARKS IN THE
BOTTOM LEFT OF EACH PAGE - - - - DO NOT UPLOAD THESE! WE CANNOT HOST THEM ON GAC. |
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Fox Feature Syndicate (also known as Fox Comics and Fox Publications) was a comic book publisher during the early Golden Age of comic books. Founded by entrepreneur Victor A. Fox, it produced such titles as Blue Beetle, Fantastic Comics and Mystery Men Comics.
NOTE - THERE ARE SCANS OUT THERE FOR ISSUES WE ARE MISSING WITH "GM" WATERMARKS IN THE
BOTTOM LEFT OF EACH PAGE - - - - DO NOT UPLOAD THESE! WE CANNOT HOST THEM ON GAC. |
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The government had a wide variety of public service comics published. Many companies gave away promotional comic books. |
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NOTE - Some Harvey Comics are not public domain.
Please DO NOT upload any of the following titles -
Flash Gordon, Green Hornet Comics, Stuntman |
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Hillman Periodicals (1940-1953)
Like many comic book publishers of the day, Hillman's WWII titles included costumed superheroes. As trends in the comic book market changed, the focus shifted more to crime/detective stories and Westerns. Hillman's more successful comic books included the aviator-adventurer Airboy in Air Fighters Comics and Airboy Comics, plus Crime Detective Comics, Real Clue Crime Stories, Dead-Eye Western Comics and Western Fighters. |
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Holyoke was a printing company that published Capt. Aero and Catman for ONE YEAR (2/42-1/43). They published Blue Beetle for maybe 20 months (6/42-2/44. They created Sparkling Stars (6/44) AFTER they lost Blue Beetle back to Fox and published 33 issues (until 3/48)and they released a whole slew of single issue reprints that have been collectively designated Holyoke One-Shots. No dates on these, but assumed to have been 1944
TEMERSON: Imprints include Et-Es-Go, Helnit, Continental, Bilbara, Tem, and Nita. |
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CLICK ON THE DOWNLOAD LINKS TO GET TO THE REAL DOWNLOADS - IGNORE THE "0 Bytes" MESSAGE.
1958 - 1964
Founded by Israel Waldman.
Waldman’s publishing policy was a simple yet effective one; he’d seek out defunct comic book companies, buy up the physical assets (original art and printing plates) and then reprint the comics with new, glossy covers. In this way Waldman able to reprint material that had appeared at companies such as Avon, Toby, Stanley Morse (including Andru and Esposito material), Quality, Novak, Star, Harry A Chessler, Spark, Ajax, Fox, St John, Steinway, Universal Phoenix Features, Nesbit, Cambridge House, Standard, Superior, Stanhall, Ace, Comic Media, Prize, Realistic, Merit, Marvel, EC, Red Top and Fiction House.
Waldman could care less about copyrights and in fact reprinted several titles still owned by others like Atlas, EC and Eisner. He just didn't care!
None of 'his' books were copyrighted.
So only books reprinted by him that are from originals now in Public Domain are allowed on GAC.
I.W. comics were rarely cover dated and the numbering system defied all logical explanation. The comics were then given new covers that often belied the contents inside of them, then packaged in sealed plastic bags and sold in lots of three comics per bag, mainly at grocery stores.
Later Waldman teamed up with Sol Brodsky to form Skywald in the early 1970s producing extremely gory horror titles that were popular at the time.
NOTE - Many of the IW-Super titles are on GAC under the ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S title names.
MOST OF THE DOWNLOAD LINKS HERE SHOW 0 BYTES BUT ACTUALLY WILL TAKE YOU TO THE ORIGINAL TITLE'S PAGE AND NAME AND NOT THE IW TITLE'S NAME.
Also note - any books still under copyright like the Atlas and Spirit books ARE NOT ALLOWED on GAC. Please do NOT upload them.
Thanks! |
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Key Publications 1951-1956
Imprints - Timor Publications, Gillmor Magazines, Stanley P. Morse; Aragon Magazines, Medal Comics, Stanmor Publications |
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Comics House Publications / Lev Gleason 1939-1956
Leverett Gleason and his Comic House publications might not have published many titles, but the ones they did such as Daredevil Comics, Silver Streak Comics, Crime Does Not Pay and Boy comics were all highly popular. Ironically the success of the Crime Does Not Pay series led to the downfall of the company, since it was one of the targets of Frederick Wertham and the Kefauver hearings. |
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Magazine Enterprises (1943-1958)
American company founded by Vin Sullivan which published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and children's comics, with virtually no superheroes.
Notable characters include the jungle goddess Cave Girl, Ghost Rider, a horror fiction-themed Western avenger. Other publications included licensed film and TV comics featuring comedian Jimmy Durante; suave actor Dick Powell and the CBS television series The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene. |
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MLJ Comics, the forerunner of the Archie Series, was an outgrowth of the magazine publishing activities of Morris (sometimes spelled "Maurice") Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater, whose first-name initials gave the company its name.
They entered the comics field in 1939, with what had by then become a standard line of comics — a bunch of monthly anthology titles with superheroes on the covers and a variety of humor and adventure features in the back pages.
By the end of 1940, they had four such titles — Blue Ribbon Comics (with Mr. Justice, a knock-off of DC's Spectre, on the cover), Top-Notch Comics (where The Wizard and The Black Hood shared the cover), Pep Comics (with The Shield, the first of the patriotic-style super guys) and Zip Comics (featuring Steel Sterling, the original so-called "Man of Steel"). In addition, The Shield and The Wizard shared a quarterly, titled, appropriately enough, Shield-Wizard. |
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Novelty Press 1940-1949
In 1940 Curtis Publishing Company publishers of the Saturday Evening Post launched their comic book line Novelty Press. Novelty's early releases were packaged for them by Funnies, Inc. who were the talent who started Novelty Press's Target Comics in Feb 1940, quickly followed by Blue Bolt a few months later. Blue Bolt was created by Joe Simon and with the second issue he teamed up with a young Jack Kirby, and the legendary team of Simon and Kirby was started. In 1949 Novelty Press responding to growing criticism of comic book violence, decided to leave comic book publishing and its assets were sold to cover artist L.B. Cole, who started his own company Star Publications. |
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Parents Magazine Institute 1941-1950 |
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Prize Comics Group
Also known as Crestwood Publications, Feature Publications and Headline was a comic book publisher from the 1940's to 1960's. Probably best remembered for its Frankenstein series, most of their titles were published in the 1950's once Joe Simon and Jack Kirby became editors for the company. They expanding it as Prize Comics and created many new titles such as Black Magic, Fighting American and the first successful romance title Young Romance. which ran for 124 issues before being taken over by DC in 1963 |
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Quality Comics was a U.S.-based company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in the Golden Age of comic books.
The U.S. company was started by Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, a printer who saw the rapidly rising popularity of the comic book medium and decided to join the industry. He began by buying out the title Feature Funnies and added new titles which became the basis of the company.
NOTE - THERE ARE SCANS OUT THERE FOR ISSUES WE ARE MISSING WITH "GM" WATERMARKS IN THE
BOTTOM LEFT OF EACH PAGE - - - - DO NOT UPLOAD THESE! WE CANNOT HOST THEM ON GAC. |
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Croydon Publishing Co
Also known as Rural Home, Enwil Associates, REWL Publications Inc. and Lindsay L. Baird Inc.
Rural Home Publishing is also associated with the following publishers
Almanac, Carlton, Circus Comics, E.R. Ross Publishing,
Farm Women's Publishing, Gail Hillson,
Jay Burtis, Universal Comics Group, Orbit Publications |
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Spark Publications 1944-1946
A short lived publisher, most of their comics were produced by a studio run by Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin. |
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Star Publications 1949-1955
Imprint - Accepted Publications |
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St. John Publications 1947-1958
Publisher of the first 3-D comic book, Three Dimension Comics #1 (Sept. 1953) featuring Mighty Mouse, as well as the first movie-comedian tie-in series, Abbott and Costello Comics. Published one of the first proto-graphic novels, the 25-cent "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust (1950) |
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Story/Merit/Master group. |
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From 1949 until the mid-fifties this company had some notable comics. They were able to obtain the rights to some famous characters including Felix the Cat, Buck Rogers, Li'l Abner and other Al Capp spin offs. Unfortunately those books are probably not PD and should not be directly uploaded. Toby did publish many other books in most genres, except superhero, and most of those should be fine here.
NOTE - the following titles/characters are NOT public domain. Please do NOT upload any -
Buck Rogers
Felix and his friends
Felix the Cat or any other Felix titles
Gabby Hayes
Nothing with King Features material if there are any titles with reprints
Al Capp titles - especially Li'l Abner
Any Terry Toons |
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Ziff-Davis Publications 1947-1957 |
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Here you will find Catechetical Guild, Lafeyette Street, RB Leffingwell, Continental and others with only one or two titles each. |
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Classic Newspaper comic strips |
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UK and Australian copyrights are tricky. They are based on the length after death of the creator. For Australian
> Generally, anonymous works pre 1955 are no longer copyright. If the
> author is known it is 50 years after the author's death if pre 1955 or
> 70 years if post 1955. A site that may provide valuable information
http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/indexaut.html |
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Several Silver Age comics did not have proper original copyright so are public domain. Some Charlton, ACG and Prize may be acceptable. Milson and MF Enterprises are defunct if anyone holds valid copyright to their books and wants scans removed we will do so immediately.Please do not upload any SA books to this directory until Administrator approval. |
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Many thanks to Jean Bails for permission to carry her late husband Jerry's great zines. If you like these visit www.twomorrows.com and www.billschelly.com to buy nice modern reprints of some great znes. |
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Join us for the strange, the unusual, the UNKNOWN. Many comics printed all the info on the cover. A coverless comic can be hard to identify. If you know the identity of any of these please let us know |
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Please ensure that all cartoons are public domain before posting links. Actual files may be too large so please post links only. |
| Latest Download: |
King Joe |
| Files Available: |
2 |
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