Everything about Timely Comics totally explained
Timely Comics is the 1940s
comic-book publishing company that would evolve into first
Atlas Comics, and then
Marvel Comics. During this era, called the
Golden Age of comic books, "Timely" was the umbrella name for the comics division of
pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman, whose
business strategy involved having a multitude of
corporate entities (including
Red Circle Comics) all producing the same product. The company was founded in 1939 as Timely Publications, based at his existing company in the
McGraw-Hill Building at 330 West 42nd Street in
New York City. It later moved to the 14th floor of the
Empire State Building.
Creation
In
1939, with the emerging
medium of comic books proving hugely popular, and the first
superheroes (most notably the
archetypal Superman) setting the trend,
pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman founded Timely Publications, basing it at his existing company. Goodman — whose official titles were
editor, managing editor, and
business manager, with Abraham Goodman officially listed as publisher with
Ben Thompson adapting the story "King of Fang and Claw" by Bob Byrd in Goodman's eponymous pulp magazine
Ka-Zar #1 (Oct. 1936); the non-continuing-character story "Jungle Terror," featuring an adventurer named Ken Masters, written by the quirkily named
Tohm Dixon; "Now I'll Tell One", five single-panel, black-and-white gag cartoons by
Fred Schwab, on the inside front cover; and a two-page prose story by
Ray Gill, "Burning Rubber", about
auto racing. A painted cover by veteran
science-fiction pulp artist
Frank R. Paul featured the Human Torch, looking much different than in the interior story.
That initial comic, cover-dated October 1939, quickly sold out 80,000 copies, prompting Goodman to produce a second printing, cover-dated November 1939. The latter is identical except for a black bar over the October date in the inside-front-cover indicia, and the November date added at the end. That sold approximately 800,000 copies. With a hit on his hands, Goodman began assembling an in-house staff, hiring Funnies, Inc. writer-artist
Joe Simon as
editor. Simon brought along his collaborator, artist
Jack Kirby, followed by artist
Syd Shores.
Golden Age of Comic Books
Marvel Comics was rechristened
Marvel Mystery Comics with issue #2 (Dec. 1939) — the magazine would continue under that title through #92 (June 1949) before becoming
Marvel Tales through #159 (Aug. 1957) — and Timely began publishing additional series, beginning with
Daring Mystery Comics #1 (Jan. 1940),
Mystic Comics #1 (March 1940),
Red Raven Comics #1 (Aug. 1940),
The Human Torch #2 (premiering Fall 1940 with no
cover date and having taken over the numbering from the unsuccessful
Red Raven), and
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). Going on sale in December 1940, a year before the bombing of
Pearl Harbor, and already showing Cap socking
Hitler in the jaw, that first issue sold nearly one million copies., was promoted to interim editor just shy of his 19th birthday. Showing a knack for the business, Lee stayed on for decades, eventually becoming Marvel Comics' publisher in 1972. Fellow Timely staffer
Vincent Fago would substitute during Lee's
World War II military service.
The staff at that time, Fago recalled, was, "
Mike Sekowsky.
Ed Winiarski.
Gary Keller was a production assistant and letterer.
Ernest Hart and
Kin Platt were writers, but they worked freelance; Hart also drew.
George Klein, Syd Shores,
Vince Alascia,
Dave Gantz, and
Chris Rule were there, too".
Funny animals, and people
The superheroes were the products of what Timely referred to as the "adventure" bullpen. The company also developed an "animator" bullpen creating such
movie tie-in and original
funny animal comics as
Terrytoons Comics,
Mighty Mouse,
All Surprise Comics,
Super Rabbit Comics,
Funny Frolics, and
Funny Tunes, renamed
Animated Funny Comic-Tunes. Former
Fleischer Studios animator Fago, who joined Timely in 1942, headed this group, which consisted through the years of such writer/artists as Hart, Gantz, Klein, Platt, Rule, Sekowsky,
Frank Carin (né Carino),
Bob Deschamps,
Chad Grothkopf,
Pauline Loth,
Jim Mooney,
Moss Worthman a.k.a. Moe Worth, and future
MAD Magazine cartoonists
Dave Berg and
Al Jaffee.
Features from this department include "Dinky" and "Frenchy Rabbit" in
Terrytoons Comics; "Floop and Skilly Boo" in
Comedy Comics; "Posty the Pelican Postman" in
Krazy Komics and other titles; "Krazy Krow" in that character's eponymous comic; "Tubby an' Tack", in various comics; and the most popular of these features, Jaffee's "
Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal" and Hart's "
Super Rabbit", the cover stars of many different titles.
In slightly more grownup fare, Timely in 1944 and 1945 initiated a
sitcomy selection of titles aimed at female readers:
Millie the Model,
Tessie the Typist and
Nellie the Nurse. Timely also published one of
humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features,
Powerhouse Pepper. The first issue, cover-dated January 1943, bore no number, and
protagonist Pepper looked different from his more familiar visualization (when the series returned for four issues, May-Nov. 1948) as the bullet-headed bozo in the striped turtleneck sweater.
Time after Timely
Future
Comic Book Hall of Fame artist
Gene Colan, a Marvel mainstay from 1946 on, recalled that, "The atmosphere at Timely was very good, very funny. ... [Iworked in] a big art room and there were about 20 artists in there, all stacked up. was in the last row on my side, and there was another row on the other side.
Dan DeCarlo was there, several other people —
Vince Alascia was an inker;
Rudy LaPick sat right behind me," with
Mike Sekowsky "in another room".
Yet after the wartime boom years — when superheroes had been new and inspirational, and comics provided cheap entertainment for millions of children, soldiers and others — the post-war era found superheroes falling out of fashion.
Television and
mass market paperback books now also competed for readers and
leisure time. Goodman began turning to a wider variety of
genres than ever, emphasizing
horror,
Westerns,
teen humor,
crime and war comics, and introducing female heroes to try to attract girls and young women to read comics.
In 1946, for instance, the superhero title
All Select Comics was changed to
Blonde Phantom Comics, and now starred a masked
secretary who fought crime in an
evening gown. That same year,
Kid Komics eliminated its stars and became
Kid Movie Comics.
All Winners Comics became
All Teen Comics in January 1947. Timely eliminated virtually all its staff positions in 1948.
The precise end-point of the Golden Age of comics is vague, but for Timely, at least, it appears to have ended with the cancellation of
Captain America Comics at issue #75 (Feb. 1950) — by which time the series had already been
Captain America's Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale featuring merely anthological horror/suspense tales and no superheroes. The company's flagship title,
Marvel Mystery Comics, starring the Human Torch, had already ended its run (with #92, June 1949), as had
Sub-Mariner Comics (with #32, the same month). Goodman began using the globe logo of
Atlas, the newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated Nov. 1951.
Selected Timely characters and creators
Further Information
Get more info on 'Timely Comics'.
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