 | |
| Founded | 1962 |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 1984 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Publication types | Comic books |
| Owner(s) | Western Publishing (defunct) |
Gold Key Comics was an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984.
Gold Key Comics was created in 1962, when its parent, Western Publishing Company, switched to in-house publishing rather than packaging content for branding and distribution by its business partner, Dell Comics. [1] Hoping to make their comics more like traditional children's books, they initially eliminated panel line-borders, using just the panel, with its ink and artwork evenly edged, but not bordered by a "container" line. Within a year, they had reverted to using inked panel borders and oval balloons. They experimented with new formats, including Whitman Comic Book, a black-and-white, 136-page, hardcover series consisting of reprints, [2] and Golden Picture Story Book, a tabloid-sized, 52-page, hardcover containing new material. [3] In 1967, Gold Key reprinted a number of selected issues of their comics under the title Top Comics. They were packaged in plastic bags containing five comics each and were sold at gas stations and various eateries. Like Dell, Gold Key was one of the few major American comic book publishers never to display the Comics Code Authority seal on its covers, trading instead on the reputation of its child-friendly stories. [4]
Gold Key featured a number of licensed properties and several original titles, including a number of publications that were spun off from Dell's Four Color series, or were published as stand-alone titles. Gold Key maintained decent sales numbers throughout the 1960s, due to its offering of many titles based upon popular TV series of the day, as well as numerous titles based on both Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. animated properties. [1] It was also the first company to publish comic books based upon the then current NBC TV series Star Trek . [5] While some titles, such as Star Trek and The Twilight Zone , were published for many years, many other licensed titles were characterized by short runs, sometimes publishing no more than one or two issues. Gold Key considered suing over the similarly themed television series Lost in Space for its resemblance to the preexisting Space Family Robinson , but decided their business relationship with CBS and Irwin Allen was more important than any monetary reward resulting from such a suit; as a result, the Gold Key series adopted the branding Space Family Robinson Lost in Space with issue #15 (Jan. 1966), though its narrative had no connection to the TV series. [6] [7]
Editor Chase Craig stated that Gold Key would launch titles with Hanna-Barbera characters with direct adaptations of episodes of the program because "[t]he studio had approval rights and the people there could get pointlessly picky about the material ... but they rarely bothered looking at any issue after the first few. Therefore, it simplified the procedure to do the first and maybe the second issue as an adaptation. They couldn't very well complain that a plot taken from the show was inappropriate". [8]
Over the years, Gold Key lost several properties, including the King Features Syndicate characters (Popeye, Flash Gordon, The Phantom, etc.), to Charlton Comics in 1966, numerous, but not all, Hanna-Barbera characters also to Charlton Comics in 1970, [9] and Star Trek to Marvel Comics in 1979.
The stable of writers and artists built up by Western Publishing during the Dell Comics era mostly continued into the Gold Key era. In the mid-1960s, a number of artists were recruited by the newly formed Disney Studio Program and thereafter divided their output between the Disney Program and Western. Writer/artist Russ Manning and editor Chase Craig launched the Magnus, Robot Fighter science-fiction series in 1963. [10] [11] Jack Sparling co-created the superhero Tiger Girl with Jerry Siegel in 1968, [12] drew the toyline tie-in Microbots one-shot, [13] and illustrated comic book adaptations of the television series Family Affair and Adam-12 . [14] [15] Dan Spiegle worked on Space Family Robinson , [6] The Green Hornet , The Invaders , Korak, Son of Tarzan , Brothers of the Spear , and many of Gold Key's mystery/occult titles. [16] [17] Among the other creators at Gold Key were writers Donald F. Glut, Len Wein, Bob Ogle, John David Warner, Steve Skeates, and Mark Evanier; and artists Cliff Voorhees, Joe Messerli, [18] Carol Lay, Jesse Santos, [19] and Mike Royer. Glut created and wrote several series including The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor , [20] Dagar the Invincible , [21] and Tragg and the Sky Gods . [22] Also in the 1970s, writer Bob Gregory started drawing stories, mostly for Daisy and Donald. Artist/writer Frank Miller had his first published comic book artwork in The Twilight Zone for Gold Key in 1978. [23]
Diana Gabaldon began her career writing for Gold Key, initially sending a query that stated, "I’ve been reading your comics for the last 25 years, and they’ve been getting worse and worse. I’m not sure if I could do better myself, but I’d like to try." Editor Del Connell provided a script sample and bought her second submission. [24]
According to former Western Publishing writer Mark Evanier, during the mid-1960s, comedy writer Jerry Belson, whose writing partner at the time was Garry Marshall, also did scripts for Gold Key while writing for leading TV sitcoms like The Dick Van Dyke Show . Among the comics for which he wrote were The Flintstones , Uncle Scrooge , Daffy Duck , Bugs Bunny , The Three Stooges , and Woody Woodpecker . [25]
Leo Dorfman, creator of Ghosts for DC Comics, also produced supernatural stories for Gold Key's similarly themed Twilight Zone, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, and Grimm's Ghost Stories. One of Gold Key's editors at the time told Mark Evanier, "Leo writes stories and then he decides whether he's going to sell them to DC [for Ghosts] or to us. He tells us that if they come out good, they go to us and if they don't, they go to DC. I assume he tells DC the opposite." [26]
Editor Frank Tedeschi, who left in 1973 for a job in book publishing, helped bring in such new comics professionals as Walt Simonson, Gerry Boudreau, and John David Warner. [27]
During the 1970s, the entire comics industry experienced a downswing and Gold Key was among the hardest hit. [1] Its editorial policies had not kept pace with the changing times, and suffered an erosion of its base of sales among children, who instead of buying comic books, could now watch cartoons and other entertainment on television for free. It is also alleged by Carmine Infantino that in the mid to late 1960s, DC Comics attempted to pressure Gold Key from the comics business through sheer volume of output. [28] Among the original titles launched by Gold Key in the 1970s were Baby Snoots [29] and Wacky Witch. [30] By 1977, many of the company's series had been cancelled and the surviving titles featured more reprinted material, although Gold Key was able to obtain the rights to publish a comic book series based upon Buck Rogers in the 25th Century between 1979 and 1981. It also lost the rights to publish Star Trek-based comic books to Marvel Comics just prior to the revival of the franchise via Star Trek: The Motion Picture , with the final Gold Key-published Star Trek title being issued in March, 1979. [31]
In this period, Gold Key experimented with digests with some success. In a similar manner, to explore new markets in the mid-1970s, it produced a four-volume series, with somewhat better production values and printing aimed at the emerging collector market, containing classic stories of the Disney characters by Carl Barks and Floyd Gottfredson (Best of Walt Disney's Comics). In the late 1970s, somewhat higher-grade reprints of various licensed characters were also aimed at new venues (Dynabrites), [32] [33] plus Starstream, a four-issue series adapting classic science fiction stories by authors such as Isaac Asimov and John W. Campbell. [34] Golden Press released trade paperback reprint collections such as Walt Disney Christmas Parade, [35] Bugs Bunny Comics-Go-Round, [36] and Star Trek: The Enterprise Logs. [37] [38]
In the late 1970s, the distribution of comic books on spinners and racks at newsstands, drug stores, and supermarkets continued, but Western Publishing also sold packages of three comics in a plastic bag to toy and department stores, gas stations, airports, and bus/train stations, "as well as other outlets that weren't conducive to conventional comic racks". [39] The newsstand comics were returnable; the dealer could return unsold copies to the distributor for a refund, but the bagged comics were not. To discourage unscrupulous dealers from opening the plastic bags and returning the nonreturnable issues, Western published the newsstand versions under the Gold Key Comics label, and put the Whitman Comics logo on the bagged versions, although otherwise the issues were identical. [39]
Western, at one point, also distributed bagged comics from its rival DC Comics under the Whitman logo, as well as that of Marvel Comics, with its diamond (before the direct market even arrived). [40] [41] Former DC Comics executive Paul Levitz stated, "[The] Western program was enormous — even well into the 1970s, they were taking very large numbers of DC titles for distribution (I recall 50,000+ copies offhand)." [39]
In 1979, Western ceased to be an independent company when Mattel Inc. purchased the company. [42] The new management stopped selling returnable comics at newsstands, preferring the nonreturnable bagged comics sold at toy stores. [43]
In a 1993 interview, Del Connell, the managing editor at Western's West Coast office in the late 1970s, recalled,
...the Western comics line was killed by distribution. Perhaps you know that by early 1980 our comics were only being distributed in bagged sets of three. The Whitman label replaced the Gold Key imprint at that time as the comics could no longer be found on the newsstands, but in department, variety, and grocery stores. Our new management assumed that comics could be treated like coloring books or puzzles. That proved an ill-fated decision. The following years were characterized by delays and erratic distribution. [44]
Eventually, arrangements were made to distribute these releases to the nascent national network of comic-book stores. Western also prepared a prospectus in the early 1980s for a deluxe Carl Barks reprint project aimed at the collector market that was never published. [45]
In December 1983, a struggling Mattel sold Western Publishing to real-estate investor Richard A. Bernstein. [46] Bernstein closed Western's comic-book publishing division in 1984. [44]
Three of Gold Key's original characters, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Doctor Solar, and Turok, Son of Stone, were used in the 1990s to launch Valiant Comics' fictional universe. [47]
Dark Horse Comics (and later, Dynamite Entertainment) have published reprints, including several in hardcover collections, of such original Gold Key titles as Magnus, Robot Fighter; Doctor Solar; Mighty Samson; M.A.R.S. Patrol ; Turok: Son of Stone; The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor ; Dagar the Invincible ; Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery; Space Family Robinson; Flash Gordon ; the Jesse Marsh drawn Tarzan ; [48] [49] [50] [51] and some of the Russ Manning-produced Tarzan series. [52] They started several revivals of characters under Jim Shooter, including Doctor Solar, Magnus, Turok, and Mighty Samson . [53] The Checker Book Publishing Group, in conjunction with Paramount Pictures, began reprinting the Gold Key Star Trek series in 2004. [54] Hermes Press reprinted the three series based on Irwin Allen's science-fiction TV series, [55] as well as Gold Key's Dark Shadows , [56] My Favorite Martian , [57] and the Phantom. [56]
Bongo Comics published a parody of Gold Key in Radioactive Man #106 (volume 2 #6, Nov. 2002) with script/layout by Batton Lash and finished art by Mike DeCarlo that Tony Isabella dubbed "a nigh-flawless facsimile of the Gold Key comics published by Western in the early 1960s...from the painting with tasteful come-on copy on the front cover to the same painting, sans logo or other type, presented as a "pin-up" on the back cover". [58]
In June 2001, DIC Entertainment announced they would purchase Golden Books Family Entertainment for US$170 million (equivalent to $293 million in 2023) and take it out of bankruptcy. [59] However, DIC would pass off the purchase due to high costs [60] and instead Golden Books Family Entertainment was eventually acquired jointly by Classic Media, owner of the catalog of United Productions of America, and book publisher Random House in a bankruptcy auction for the lower $84.4 million (equivalent to $145.2 million in 2023) on August 16, 2001. [61] [62] In turn, Random House, and Classic Media gained ownership of Golden Books' entertainment catalog (including the family entertainment catalog of Broadway Video which includes the pre-1974 library of Rankin/Bass Productions and the library of Total Television), as well as production, licensing, and merchandising rights for Golden Books' characters and the Gold Key Comics catalogs, while Random House gained Golden Books' book publishing properties. [63] Random House had previously acquired Dell Publishing through a series of mergers since 1976, effectively reuniting the remnants Gold Key Comics and Dell Comics.
On July 23, 2012, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation for $155 million (equivalent to $206 million in 2023) and renamed DreamWorks Classics. [64] On July 1, 2013, Random House merged with the Penguin Group, forming a new company called Penguin Random House. [65] In April 2016, the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation (owner of DreamWorks Classics) by NBCUniversal was announced. [66]
In 2021, comics creator and hacker Robert Willis obtained a trademark registration for a logo identical to the original Gold Key logo. [67] [68] Later that year the trademark registration was purchased by the newly-formed Gold Key Entertainment LLC. Gold Key Entertainment LLC consists of comic book enthusiasts Lance Linderman, Adam Brooks, Mike Dynes, and Arnold Guerrero. Linderman describes trading a copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 to Willis for the rights to Gold Key, in a YouTube interview with Carlos Collects Comics. Gold Key Entertainment is currently working with creators to produce new titles. [69]
Several classic Gold Key titles have been archived in high quality
Hardcover Collected editions : Beginning with Dark Horse comics in 2007
The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor
Solar is an American fictional comic book superhero created by writer Paul S. Newman, editor Matt Murphy, and artist Bob Fujitani. The character first appeared in Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #1 in 1962 by Gold Key Comics and has since appeared in other incarnations in books published by Valiant Comics in the 1990s, Dark Horse Comics in the 2000s, and Dynamite Entertainment in the 2010s.
Little Lulu is a comic strip created in 1935 by American author Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character, Lulu Moppet, debuted in The Saturday Evening Post on February 23, 1935, in a single panel, appearing as a flower girl at a wedding and mischievously strewing the aisle with banana peels. Little Lulu replaced Carl Anderson's Henry, which had been picked up for distribution by King Features Syndicate. The Little Lulu panel continued to run weekly in The Saturday Evening Post until December 30, 1944.
Russell George Manning was an American comic book artist who created the series Magnus, Robot Fighter and illustrated such newspaper comic strips as Tarzan and Star Wars. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2006.
Nexus is an American comic book series created by writer Mike Baron and penciler Steve Rude in 1981. The series is a combination of the superhero and science fiction genres, set 500 years in the future.
Turok is a fictional character who first appeared in American comic books published by Western Publishing through licensee Dell Comics. He first appeared in Four Color Comics #596. After a second Four Color appearance, the character graduated to his own title – Turok, Son of Stone – published by both Dell and then Gold Key Comics from 1956 to 1982. Subsequently, he appeared in titles published by Valiant Comics, Dark Horse Comics and Dynamite Comics.
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium. In 1953, Dell claimed to be the world's largest comics publisher, selling 26 million copies each month.
Doctor Spektor is a fictional comic book "occult detective" that appeared in Western Publishing's Gold Key Comics. Created by writer Donald F. Glut and artist Dan Spiegle, he first appeared in Mystery Comics Digest #5.
Tales of Sword and Sorcery Featuring Dagar the Invincible is a comic-book series created by writer Donald F. Glut and artist Jesse Santos for Western Publishing's Gold Key Comics line.
Arnold Drake was an American comic book writer and screenwriter best known for co-creating the DC Comics characters Deadman and the Doom Patrol, and the Marvel Comics characters the Guardians of the Galaxy, among others.
Paul S. Newman was an American writer of comic books, comic strips, and books, whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s. Credited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific comic-book writer, with more than 4,100 published stories totaling approximately 36,000 pages, he is otherwise best known for scripting the comic-book series Turok for 26 years.
Jesse Marsh was an American comics artist and animator. His main claim to fame is his work on the early Tarzan and related books for Western Publishing that saw print through Dell Comics and later Gold Key Comics. He was the first artist to produce original Tarzan comic books. Up to that time, all Tarzan comics were reprints from the newspaper strips. He also worked on the Gene Autry comic book for many years.
Space Family Robinson was an original science-fiction comic-book series published by Gold Key Comics. It predates the Lost in Space television series. Both are loosely based on the 1812 novel by Johann David Wyss The Swiss Family Robinson.
Mighty Samson was a comic book series published Gold Key Comics. A post-apocalyptic adventure, it was set in the area around New York City, now known as "N'Yark", on an Earth devastated by a nuclear war. The series was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Frank Thorne.
John Carter, Warlord of Mars is a comics series published from 1977 by American company Marvel Comics. Created by Marv Wolfman (writer) and Gil Kane (penciller), it was based on the Barsoom series of Edgar Rice Burroughs and featured the eponymous character.
Vulcan was a British weekly boys' comic published by IPC Magazines from 1 March 1975 to 3 April 1976, when it merged with Valiant. The comic was unusual among IPC's weeklies for several reasons - it used a much smaller format than most of the company's weeklies and featured more colour; until September 1975 the title was only available in Scotland as the format was tested; and it consisted entirely of reprints of extant material. It was also published simultaneously in German as Kobra.
John Edmond Sparling, was a Canadian comics artist.
Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in 23 sequels. The character proved immensely popular and quickly made the jump to other media, including comics.
The Owl is a fictional superhero that first appeared in Dell Comics' Crackajack Funnies #25, continuing until #43.
Johnny Hazard is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Frank Robbins for King Features Syndicate. It was published from June 5, 1944, until August 20, 1977, with separate storylines for the daily strip and the Sunday strip.
Alden Spurr McWilliams generally credited as Al McWilliams and A. McWilliams, was an American comics artist who co-created the first African-American lead character of a comic strip. He won the National Cartoonists Society's 1978 award for Comic Book: Story.
Gold Key didn't sue, because it had some very lucrative licensing deals going with various TV producers and didn't want to upset any apple carts.
After abandoning licensing for a decade or so, Charlton re-entered that field in 1967, by picking up the titles of King Comics — Flash Gordon, Popeye, The Phantom, Blondie, Jungle Jim, and Beetle Bailey...In 1970, most of the Hanna-Barbera characters, including Yogi Bear and The Flintstones, went from Gold Key to Charlton.
Russ Manning also created...Magnus, Robot Fighter (1963-68) for the Gold Key comic books. Especially Magnus, stood out for its excellent artwork.
Tiger Girl's comic was drawn by Jack Sparling...The writer was no less a personage than Jerry Siegel, who co-created Superman himself.
He also did fillers and issues of Space Family Robinson, Magnus Robot Fighter, Maverick, Tarzan, Brothers of the Spear, Flipper, and Lassie. When Russ Manning left Dell in 1967, Spiegle took over the Korak title.
He began an association with Western Publications in 1970...and illustrated Gold Key titles like Brothers of the Spear, Dagar, Dr. Spektor, and Tragg.
Dr. Adam Spektor, a researcher of the supernatural, was introduced in Mystery Comics Digest #5 (July, 1972)...The story was written by Don Glut...and drawn by Dan Spiegle.
Dagar started as a non-series character, the hero of a story that writer Don Glut...wrote for Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest.
Writer Don Glut...and artist Jesse Santos...supplied the comic, in which aliens from interstellar space had a profound effect on a tribe of Stone Age people.
Baby Snoots, a Gold Key original launched with an August, 1970 cover date, was a young elephant...Snoots lasted a respectable 22 issues.
Wacky ran 21 issues, ending with a December, 1975 cover date.
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