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Scott’s Classic Comics Corner: 1958 – A Year in Review Pt. 2

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Here’s the second part of my look at some notable events of 1958:

Aside from the loss of a few horror titles, Harvey Comics seemed unfazed by the CCA and was rolling along. They did produce a number of high quality ‘Horror-Lite’ titles such as Black Cat, Alarming Tales and Man in Black. Their humour books such as Little Dot and Baby Huey maintained their popularity and the only event of note was the inexplicable shift from Casper, the Friendly Ghost to The Friendly Ghost, Casper. In addition, 1958 saw the end of its ‘True Love’ line with the cancellation of some long-running romance titles such as First Romance, First Love Illustrated and the terrific Hi-School Romance. One of the highlights of the Harvey publishing schedule was its anthology series, Harvey Hits, which was entering its second year.

Magazine Enterprises (aka ME) was another superb publisher that left the business in 1958. It was once home to a wide variety of terrific titles such as the original Ghost Rider and Black Phantom and was home to terrific talents like Bob Powell and Dick Ayers. By 1958, they were down to funny animal and humour magazines like Tom Tom and Mighty Atom.

You may have seen comic books with the I.W. or Super Comics logos at conventions or on eBay. What are they exactly? Well, they were essentially unauthorized reprints published by Israel Waldman, who had acquired the plates from various publishers (some defunct and some still ongoing). I’m going to do a piece on these books as some point, but for now I just wanted to noted that these rather unorthodox books first started appearing in 1958 and they can be a fun and relatively affordable way to check out some older material.

In 1958, Atlas Comics was back from the brink of destruction. The so-called Atlas Implosion was behind Goodman, Lee and Company and they were back to producing new stories for 8 to 10 titles per month. Two very notable titles launched that year were Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish, both hitting spinner racks in September. The biggest event, however, at Atlas Comics that year was the death of Joe Maneely, their all-star, workhorse artist. His tragic death left behind perhaps the biggest ‘What If?’ story in Marvel history.

Ajax/Farrel/Steinway was another second (third?) tier publishers of the pre-Code. They produced more than 50 mostly forgettable titles. Apparently, sales were not strong enough to keep its post-Code titles like Strange and Men in Action afloat. They closed up shop before mid-year.

At Archie Publications, 1958 was not a terribly significant year. The superheroes were long gone, and the Riverdale gang wouldn’t get any new members until the likes of Big Ethel and Josie showed up in the early 60s. One long-running series, Life With Archie, did makes its debut that year. Cosmo the Merry Martian was also launched that year. It may not have had a long run, but it is still awesome.

I often forget that Prize actually stuck around into the early 60s. Long running titles such as Black Magic and Young Romance were still ongoing concerns, even if they took the occasional breather. Prize produced some of the nicest looking of the time, with superb artists like Al Williamson and John Severin providing art for Fargo Kid, and Joe Orlando and George Tuska contributing to Black Magic.

For more comic book chat – stop by my blog: Seduction of the Indifferent