atlas comics in australia

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Atlas In Australia

Despite the initial interest in the company’s start up, Atlas was only inexistence for two years, with a publishing history of just over one full year.Martin Goodman wanted a company that could compete with Marvel and feltthat the best way to do this was to steal concepts. Despite some totally

original concepts, characters such as The Brute and The Destructor werethinly disguised steals of The Hulk and Spider-Man respectively, and Ironjaw and Wulf The Barbarian also owed a lot to Conan The Barbarian and Kull,then being published by Marvel. Most issues were retooled after the secondissue (Chaykins character, The Scorpion, would be totally revamped, withoutChaykin’s involvement) and the creative talent were removed. Chaykinclashed with Rovin, resulting in Chaykin leaving the company to be followedby Larry Hama, who was both writing and drawing Wulf The Barbarian, andwho had also clashed with Rovin over direction2. Other creators complainedof late payments and broken promises, resulting in the company being woundup in late 1975. The Goodmans left comic books for good after this debacle,

and Lieber was re-hired at Marvel in a gesture of largess. Other creators alsoreturned to Marvel, and DC, without penalty, and some creators, such asChaykin and Rich Buckler, took their characters with them, adjusted themslightly and continued their stories at other publishers.

The art and stories that Atlas printed were slapdash at best. Despite anamazing array of talent, some issues were poorly drawn or written. Howeverthere were some true gems. The third issue of Morlock featured BernieWrightson inking Steve Ditko. The Destructor also featured Ditko, this timeinked by Wally Wood. Larry Hama and Klaus Janson made Wulf their own,as did Pablo Marcos on The Barbarians. Alex Toth and Russ Heath turned insterling war stories, Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson showed why theywere perfectly in tune with each other, Howard Nostrand drew Targitt, addingto the appeal. Sadly some combinations, such as Sekowsky and AlMcWilliams and Mike Ploog teamed with Frank Springer never rose theheights that all were capable of and others, such as Jim Craig, Leo Summersand Jack Sparling suffered. Some, such as Frank Thorne, Ernie Colon andthe Spanish artist, Romero, did the best jobs they could with mediocrematerial.

The art woes at Atlas are best summed up by issue three of The Brute.

Penciled by Alan Weiss, the story suffers underneath Jack Abels heavyinking. This is made worse when you consider that the story didn’t onlyfeature Weiss’s art. In an email correspondence, Weiss confirmed that theissue in question was his only job for Atlas. Originally Weiss had been askingto draw an issue of Ironjaw, but had been assigned The Brute as a fill-in artist,with a promise of being allowed to draw Ironjaw in the near future. Faced witha tighter than usual deadline, Weiss enlisted the talents of Jim Starlin andFrank Brunner, both of whom assisted him with the art for the last few pages.Sadly this combination is hidden by some very heavy inks, although Weisshas since said, looking back, he was "was less displeased than I thought Iwould be"3.

Daniel Best. Copyright ©2009 ACAB Publishing 2



Atlas In Australia

A SHORT HISTORY OF GREDOWN

The comic book industry in Australia has long relied on both original material

and reprints. Some publishers opted for a combination of the two, but therewere those publishers who found it more cost effective to concentrate solelyon reprinting material sourced cheaply from the USA and Europe, with a focusin the 1970s on Spanish publishers. Publishers such as KG Murray alsoentered the super-hero market in the 1950s and published reprints of popularDC material4 in the form of Superman, Batman, the Justice League andothers. Short lived publishers, such as Newton Comics, focused on Marvel,as did Horwitz, a magazine and book publisher that branched out into comicbooks in the 1960s.

KG Murray had branched out into the field of horror and non-super hero

material in the early 1970s and via its Kenmure imprint had decided toproduce straight reprints5 of Warren magazines such as Vampirella, Creepy and Eerie. Also in the mix was the Yaffa Syndicate6, who, via it’s PagePublications7 imprint, were also publishing straight horror comics frompublishers such as Skywald (Scream, Nightmare, Psycho and others), alongwith Charlton and some Marvel material. It’s highly possible that Yaffa, withit’s strong connections to the US marketplace, had initially dealt directly withTransworld Feature Syndicate Inc8. Murray also began to branch out furtherby deciding to publish Spanish and European material in the form of horrorand western stories. The latter had formerly been a strong focus (along withwar titles) for Horwitz, and later Yaffa, via its Page imprint, who acquiredrights and material from Horwitz and merely reprinted their comics,renumbered, but with the same covers and inside stories. Into this marketcame Gredown.

Relatively little is known about Gredown and its origins in comparison to other Australian comic book companies such as KG Murray and Newton Comics.This appears to be due to both the lack of recording and interest in preservingthe history at the time. However in an eerie parallel with Atlas, it appears thatGredown, a Sydney based publisher, came into being when Greg Murray, sonof Kenneth G. Murray, who had established and run KG Murray, was ousted

from KG Murray, along with his father, after Murray was bought by AustralianConsolidated Press (APC) in 19749. Established to compete with KG Murray,Gredown appears to have started publishing shortly after the buy out in late1974 with tabloid style magazines10 (complete with painted covers) beforebranching out into fully blown horror comics, with the first appearing to havebeen the debut issue of Pit Of Evil11. Gredown then appears to have ceasedpublishing in the early to mid 1980s, with a likely ending date of 1984. According to historian Kevin Patrick, “Gredown’s one-time Art Director wasPhil Belbin (1925-1993), a prominent Australian comic artist of the 1940s, whoreportedly painted many of the covers for their inexhaustible supply ofscience-fiction, Western and horror comics.”12




Atlas In Australia

Content for Gredown came from a number of sources. Greg Murray wouldhave brought contacts, staff and an intimate knowledge of sourcing comicbook material with him from KG Murray. As such it would have been simplefor him to begin to acquire the rights to publish American companies such asCharlton, Atlas, Skywald and Eerie Publications via Transworld Feature

Syndicate Inc. As KG Murray had already established contact with theSpanish based Selecionnes Illustradas (SI) agency and Transworld. As a lotof the companies and some content represented in KG Murray comic books inthe early ‘70s were mirrored by Gredown in the mid to late ‘70s, this theory ishighly plausible. Transworld would have supplied Gredown with material fromthe American publishers that it represented, and with the recent demise of Atlas, some of that material clearly included stats13 of unpublished stories thatotherwise came under the Atlas banner, with at least three otherwiseunpublished Atlas stories being published in Australia for the first, and only,time.

In addition to American publishers, Gredown also secured the rights to reprintEnglish language material produced by Spanish comic art agencies, such asSelecionnes Illustradas and Creaciones Editoriales. Spain’s SelecionnesIllustradas, or ‘SI’, as it was known was founded in the mid 1950s in directresponse to the Bruguera publishing house, which held sway over theSpanish comic book/art market. SI managed to bypass Bruguera bysyndicating Spanish drawn material into markets such as Europe, the UnitedKingdom, Australia, New Zealand and to markets as far as South Africa andSouth America, and eventually broke into the lucrative American market in theearly 1970s, by dealing directly with publishers such as Warren and Skywald.Once contact had been established, Gredown branched out and made use ofother Spanish based agencies and publishers such as Norma Editorial, aSpanish comics publisher which was formed 1977, and ‘Editorial Vilmar -Barcelona’, who was yet another comic art agency (or publisher) whichflourished in the 1960s and 70s. The direct contact with Spanish basedagencies and publishers resulted in a wide range of diverse Spanish drawnmaterial such as Peter Hypnos, Hombre, 5 And The Infinite and Prickerix TheGaul to name but four being published in the English language for the firsttime in Australia. The result of this direct dealing means that there wasmaterial published in Gredown that could be considered to be original and notreprints. Once established Gredown soon became the main competition to

KG Murray and Yaffa/Page for the latter part of the 1970s, when it came toreprinting both American and European based comic books, with a heavyfocus on adult orientated material.

Once Gredown began to publish comic books it flooded the market. WithBelbin overseeing some of the most inventive fully painted covers ever seenon comics, Gredown began to reprint material from a veritable who’s who of American comic book publishers, including Skywald, Atlas/Seaboard,Charlton, Eerie, Dell, Pacific and Red Circle (Archie), along with Golden Agepublishers, American Comic Group (ACG), Ace, Stanmor, Ajax/Farrel, Media,Fawcett, Ace, Stanley Key and Prize14. The bulk of the Golden Age reprint

material was more than likely sourced when Gredown acquired the rights toreprint Eerie Publications, with some Gredown comics reprinting the entire




Atlas In Australia

contents of titles such as Weird, Tales Of Voodoo, Witches Tales, Tales FromThe Tomb and others. Titles were also structured to feature one character, orbook, such as Skywald’s Hell-Rider by Andru and Esposito, The Fly by JoeSimon and Jack Kirby (which also reprinted at least one story that has neverbeen reprinted in America), Flash Gordon by Al Williamson and Will Eisner’s

The Spirit. Charlton was well represented with volumes of E-Man, The HouseOf Yang and Planet Of Doom, who’s two issues reprinted John Byrne’sDoomsday series. Other issues would feature an unofficial theme, such asCrypt Of Creatures and Creepy Tales being almost totally made up of SteveDitko Charlton material, along with other themed issues. Other issues weresimilarly themed, suggesting that someone with knowledge of comic books,possibly other than Belbin, was responsible for assembling the contents of thetitles with the stories not merely being selected at random. Although a rivalcompany, Yaffa, were reprinting Marvel Comics in Australia via its imprint,Page (after the demise of former Marvel reprinter, Newton Comics), Gredownmanaged to reprint at least one Marvel book, The Golden Voyages Of

Sinbad15. This cross-pollination of publishing wasn’t unusual, as KG Murrayhad also reprinted Charlton and Marvel, and Yaffa would also reprint Skywald,both via its Page imprint and also through the mother company in the early1980s.

At the start of their publishing tenure, Gredown began to publish numbered,sequential titles. As the title count increased, more one-shot, stand alonetitles were produced. By the end of the ‘70s the idea of continuing titles was athing of the recent past and virtually the entire line was one-shot books. In thelate ‘70s/early ‘80s, Gredown was bought by Boraig Pty Ltd, a Sydney basedcompany, who promptly abandoned the concept of continuing titles, resultingin all titles being un-numbered shortly after. Gredown provided value formoney by printing at least 64 pages per issue, in a magazine format. Thispage count increased to some issues being over 100 pages towards the endof the publisher’s life. This was achieved by printing straight from the statsprovided by the art agencies and forgoing any form of colour. As some of theolder material had already been formatted into black and white by publisherssuch as Eerie Publications, the bulk of the work had already been done. Theoffset to this was a price spike that saw the first Gredowns costing $0.45 asopposed to the last Gredowns costing up to $1.20 per issue (the main pricespike came when Boraig entered the picture), which, compared to the

relatively new Federal Publishers

16

was value for money and on an even parwith both KG Murray and Yaffa/Page.

The numbering of issues gave the line a sense of continuity, however by thetime the 1980s rolled around and numbering ceased, confusion began toreign. At the same time there was a definite shift in the target audience forthe comics as Gredown began to saturate regional and remote markets in theform of newsagents, truck stops, shops and service stations in country areas.The reasons for this shift are largely unknown, again due to the lack ofrecords and solid information, but it could be argued that the shift was toensure that Gredowns were the prominent item on the shelf. By the beginning

of the ‘80s Marvel Comics were beginning to establish a foothold in the Australian market and Gredown found themselves competing with lower




Atlas In Australia

priced, colour comics, as well as competing with the Yaffa and KG Murrayreprints of super-hero, western, war and horror/sci-fi material. While Yaffahad decreased their comic size from magazine format to small, digest sizedissues17, possibly in an attempt to both cut costs and ensure that their stockwould always be at the front of the shelves; Murray had increased the size of

their own comics to magazine to combat Gredown. By removing, or limiting,product from suburban and city outlets, Gredown clearly attempted to extendtheir publishing life. However this made collecting Gredowns near impossibleas some issues may not have ever made it to certain areas, which accountsfor the scarcity value of a lot of the latter issues. Adding to the collectability ofthe comics is the fact that, by their very nature, they were designed to bedisposed of after reading. Gredowns were printed on medium to poor paperstock and easily fell apart and sustained damage. Copies in mint or very finecondition are a premium and, sadly, comic book collecting was a limitedhobby at best in Australia when Gredown was active, and most, if not all,serious collectors focused their attentions on American and older Australian

comics with original, non reprint, material. Gredowns generally were not afactor for collectors. Thus it may never be possible to have a completecollection of the entire output of Gredown, until the entire line has beenaccounted for, but there are a series of good starting points; however withlimited material and solid information, even attempting to identify whatGredown released is difficult to establish.

Gredown ceased publication, again for reasons unknown, in the early to mid1980s. This is confirmed by anecdotal evidence18 along with periodadvertisements and photographs on both Gredown comics and otherpublications. For a publisher that remained in business for an estimated tenyears, Gredown left a lasting legacy as a lot of the material that theypublished has yet to see print again in any other market. This is due tolicensing and copyright issues, along with a perceived lack of interest. Someof the original material printed by Gredown, particularly in the case of thethree (possibly four) otherwise unpublished Atlas stories, have yet to see printin any other market or publication in the world.

THE UNPUBLISHED ATLAS

Atlas had commissioned a number of stories which never saw publication as a

result of the company folding. Three of these stories were published in Australia. ‘The Sun-Spawn Stalks' was drawn by Badia Romero and morethan likely written by Gabriel Levy and would have been slated for Tales OfEvil #4. As the title was cancelled after the third issue, this story was shelvedand presumably sent to Gredown at the same time as the other Bog Beast stories. This story was printed not once, but at least twice by Gredown, in twoseparate comics.

The second and third unpublished Atlas stories are better known. Titled‘Monster X’ and ‘Capital Punishment’, they were designed to be a trilogy.Both stories were written by Gabe Levy, the first story being drawn by Howard

Nostrand and the second by Walter Simonson. This trilogy was documentedby Simonson himself in an on-line interview about his fantasy work. “I did




Atlas In Australia

complete the Monster X/Winged Terror story,” says Simonson, “It was called‘Capital Punishment’ but was never published. Mine was the third chapter ofan ongoing series written by Gabe. The first two were also completed as Iremember seeing them in the office. The first chapter was drawn by Nostrand{Monster X} and the second by Enrique Romero Badia {Winged Terror }.

“I don’t have the originals myself. They were lost when Seaboard/Atlas wentout of business. I do have a set of photostats around somewhere, through thecourtesy of Jeff Rovin who got them to me on what I think was his last day inthe Seaboard offices. But I’ve no idea if they’ll ever see the light of day.”19 Adding to the confusion, another story, also titled Capital Punishment,appeared in a separate Gredown comic, Demon’s Revenge; however this isnot the same story.




Atlas In Australia

THE MAIN TITLES

THE BRUTE #1 $0.40 cover price, reprinted as a $1.00 reprint.Published 1975 and reprinted circa 1980

The Brute reprints the following Atlas stories:Night Of The Brute (Brute; The #1) Attack Of The Reptile Men (Brute; The #2)Live or Let Die (Brute; The #3)The Bog Beast: The Fifty Dollar Body (Tales Of Evil#2)

IRONJAW #1

$0.40 cover price, reprinted as a $1.00 reprint.Published 1975 and reprinted circa 1980

Ironjaw reprints the following Atlas stories:The Saga Of Ironjaw (Ironjaw #1)Ironjaw The King (Ironjaw #2)The Wolf-Cowled Head-Hunters Of Amun-Rak(Ironjaw #3) And Who Will Forge A Jaw Of Iron? (Ironjaw #4)Requiem For A Werewolf! (Tales Of Evil #2)

Ironjaw #1 only reprinted the splash page to the firststory, as the end page for the book. The copy wasaltered to include a blurb for a second issue ofIronjaw. As there were only two, perhaps threestories left it's also possible that a second volume ofIronjaw could have appeared, padded out with other Atlas material. However the Australian Ironjaw did

not reprint the entire first Ironjaw story.




Atlas In Australia

MORLOCK 2001 #1 $0.50 cover price, reprinted as $1.00 reprint.Published 1976 and reprinted circa 1980

Morlock 2001 reprinted the following Atlas stories:The Coming Of Morlock (Morlock 2001 #1)Morlock Must Be Destroyed (Morlock 2001 #2)Then Came The Midnight Man (Morlock 2001 #3)

As with The Brute, this book reprinted the entire runof Morlock with an all new cover based on thestoryline. The book was further padded out with twoCharlton stories.

PLANET OF VAMPIRES #1

$0.40 cover price, this title was not reprinted.Published 1975

Planet Of Vampires contained the following Atlas stories:The Long Road Home (Planet Of The Vampires#1)Quest For Blood (Planet Of The Vampires #2) A Matter Of Breeding (Tales of Evil #1)The Last Train (Tales of Evil #2)The Blood Plague (Planet Of The Vampires #3)

This book reprints the entire Planet Of TheVampires storyline, with all three issues inattendance. Two further reprints from Tales OfEvil complete the issue. There is speculationthat subsequent issues of Planet Of Vampirescontain unpublished Atlas material, but this hasyet to be verified. Issue #3 of Planet OfVampires only has one Atlas reprint (found inthe SECONDARY TITLES section)




Atlas In Australia

THE TARANTULA #nn $0.50 cover price, reprinted as a $1.00 reprint.

Published 1976 and reprinted circa 1980

The Tarantula contained the following Atlas stories:Spawn Of The Devil (Tales of Evil #1)Curse Of The Tarantula (Weird Suspense #1)The Revenge Of The Spider Witch (Weird Suspense#2)Mind Over Matter = Murder (Weird Suspense #3)This book reprints the entire Tarantula storyline, withall three issues of Weird Suspense in attendance.The cover is based in part on Weird Suspense #1

originally drawn by Dick Giordano.

PIT OF EVIL #2$0.45 cover price, this title was not reprinted.Published 1976Contents:The Lost Tomb Of Neferti ( Devilina #1)Vendetta (Devilina #2)Stake Out! (Tales of Evil #1)Satan's Domain (Devilina #1)Curse Of The Ra-Scarab (Devilina #2)The Demon Is Dying (Weird Tales of the Macabre #1)

Pit Of Evil also reprinted two Charlton stories. Pit OfEvil was one of the longest running titles in theGredown line, but only one issue focused on Atlas,issue #2, which reprinted the bulk of the Devilinastories.




Atlas In Australia

FEARFUL SPECTRES #nn

$1.00, this title was not reprinted.Published circa 1980/81Contents:

The Bog Beast (Weird Tales Of The Macabre #2)Vampire Killer Still At Large (Tales of Evil #3)The Sun-Spawn Stalks (unpublished by Atlas)

Fearful Spectres was a reprint of a reprint. Thisissue reprinted material that had earlier been printedin TALES OF HORROR #3. This issue features adifferent cover, however, meaning that two BogBeast covers exist in Australia.

TALES OF HORROR #3

$0.45cover price, this title was not reprinted.Published 1976Contents:The Bog Beast (Weird Tales Of The Macabre #2)Vampire Killer Still At Large (Tales of Evil #3)The Sun-Spawn Stalks (unpublished by Atlas)The Prophesy (Devilina #2)

Tales of Horror also reprinted two Charlton stories.This title is very similar to Pit Of Evil in that it had along run and yet only one issue focused on Atlas,issue #2, which reprinted the Bog Beast stories,including the unpublished Sun-Spawn story whichwas commissioned by Atlas but never published in America




Atlas In Australia

STRANGE EXPERIENCE #4 $0.40, this title was not reprinted.Published 1975

Strange Experience #4 contained the following

Atlas stories:The Devil's Procuress (Devilina #2)Escape from Nine by One (Thrilling AdventureStories #1)The Sting of Death (Thrilling Adventure Stories #1)The Temple of the Spider (Thrilling AdventureStories #2) A Second Life (Weird Tales of the Macabre # 1)Speed Demon (Weird Tales of the Macabre # 1)Time Lapse (Weird Tales of the Macabre # 1)Carrion of the Gods (Weird Tales of the Macabre #2)

STRANGE EXPERIENCE #5

$0.40, this title was not reprinted.Published 1975

Strange Experience #5 contained the following Atlasstories:Dr. Mercurio's Diary (Weird Tales of the Macabre # 2) A Job Well Done (Thrilling Adventure Stories # 1)The Kromag Saga: Kromag The Killer (Thrilling Adventure Stories # 1)The Kromag Saga: The Valley of the Dinosaurs(Thrilling Adventure Stories # 2)

As will be seen some of these stories also appeared inother Australian Gredown comics. The remainder ofthis book consisted of Charlton stories




Atlas In Australia

MONSTERS FROM HELL #2 $0.55, this title was not reprinted.Published 1976/77

Monsters From Hell contained the following Atlasstories:Merchants of Evil (Devilina #1)The Cheese is for the Rats (Weird Tales of the Macabre#1)

This book also contained stories from variousunidentified publishers.

SKULLS OF DEATH #nn $1.00, this title was not reprinted.Published circa 1980/81

Skulls Of Death contained the following Atlas stories:The Demon is Dying (Weird Tales of the Macabre #1)The Staff Of Death (Weird Tales of the Macabre #2) A Job Well Done (Thrilling Adventure Stories #1)

This book also contained stories from Charlton andother unidentified publishers.




Atlas In Australia

CRY OF THE WEREWOLF #1 $0.50, this title was not reprinted.Published 1976/77

Cry Of The Werewolf contained the following Atlasstories:Vendetta (Devilina #2) A Matter of Breeding (Tales of Evil #1)Tour de Force (Weird Tales of the Macabre #1)Requiem For A Werewolf! (Tales of Evil #2)

This book also contained stories from Charlton.

MAZE OF MONSTERS #2 $0.50, this title was not reprinted.

Published 1976/77

Maze Of Monsters #2 contained the following Atlasstories:Monster XCapital Punishment (Unpublished by Atlas)

These stories was commissioned by Atlas and drawnby Howard Nostrand and Walter Simonsonrespectively but were only ever published in Australia.

This title also contained several Charlton stories.




Atlas In Australia

HELL RIDER #2 $0.50 it's possible that this title was reprinted.Published 1976/77

Hell Rider #2 contained the following Atlas story:Tough Cop (Thrilling Adventure Stories #2)

This title contained the contents to Hell-Rider #2 aspublished by Skywald.

MIDNIGHT TERROR #nn

$1.00, this title was not reprinted.

Published circa 1980/81

Midnight Terror contained the following Atlasstories:Lay Of The Sea (Devilina #1)Stake Out (Tales of Evil #1)

This title also contained stories from Charlton, ACG and other unidentified publishers.




Atlas In Australia

BLADE OF FEAR #3 $0.50, this title was not reprinted.Published 1976/77

Blade Of Fear #3 contained the following Atlas

story:Tigerman And The Flesh Peddlers (Thrilling Adventure Stories)

This title also contained several Charlton stories.

CHILL FROM THE GRAVE #nn $1.00, this title was not reprinted.Published circa 1980/81

Chill From The Grave #nn contained thefollowing Atlas story:Who Toys With Terror (Weird Tales of theMacabre # 2)

This title also contained stories from ACG andCharlton, along with unidentified publishers.




Atlas In Australia

GRIP OF DEATH #nn $1.00, this title was not reprinted.Published circa 1980/81

Midnight Muse (Devilina #1)


LOATHSOME GHOSTS #nn $1.00, this title was not reprinted.Published circa 1980/81

The Prophecy (Devilina #2)





Atlas In Australia

PLAGUE OF VAMPIRES #nn $1.00, this title was not reprinted.Published circa 1980/81

Plague Of Vampires reprinted the following Atlas story: A Matter Of Breeding (Tales Of Evil #1)

This title also contained stories from ACGand Charlton, along with unidentifiedpublishers.

VOODOO TALES #nn $0.60, this title was not reprinted.Published circa 1977/78

Voodoo Tales reprinted the following Atlasstories:Spawn Of The Devil (Tales of Evil #1)Midnight Muse (Devilina #1)


Voodoo Tales had one of the most adventurousand impressive cover paintings produced for aGredown comic, featuring, as it did, a massivewrap around painting.




Atlas In Australia

THE UNPUBLISHED ATLAS

MONSTER X




Atlas In Australia

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT




Atlas In Australia

THE SUN-SPAWN STALKS




Atlas In Australia


This article copyright ©2009 ACAB Publishing/Daniel Best. Not to bereproduced any way, shape or form, without the express permission of the

author.

If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or thoughts please direct

them to: [email protected]

Many thanks and appreciation to members of the Atlas/Seaboard Yahoo List(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atlasseaboardcomicssociety) for asking me to

write this and asking so many questions. Cheers guys!

NOTES

1 Email correspondence between author and Alan Kupperberg, July 20082 According to Alan Kupperberg, Jeff Rovin also clashed with the Goodmans and Leiber over the

direction that he wanted to take the company.

3 Email correspondence between author and Alan Weiss, June 20084 According to historian Spiros Xenos, KG Murray more than likely dealt with McFadden Publications

International. McFadden syndicated DC Comics’ editorial content to international markets from the1940s onwards.5 A straight reprint: the entire contents of the original magazine, repacked, minus any advertisements

and/or editorial content and with the same cover. In the case of the Skywald and Warren material, the

issue numbers of the Australian reprints did not always correlate with the American original.6 The Yaffa Syndicate was established by David Yaffa in 1928 to sell comic strips, news stories and

other editorial content produced by America’s King Features Syndicate to Australian newspaper andmagazine publishers. By the 1970s that scope was broadened to include reprinting American comic books via an imprint called Page Publishing, which also published magazines. Possibly also throughTransworld, Yaffa acquired the rights to reprint Marvel Comics in Australia from 1976/77 through toapproximately 1982/83 when those rights were taken over by Federal Publishing.7 Page Publications was founded in the early 1960s as a separate publishing entry to the YaffaSyndicate. It began to publish comic books in the mid 1960s and continued until the early 1990s.

During its publishing life, Page reprinted comics from companies as diverse as Marvel, Charlton,Skywald and Archie.8 Transworld Feature Syndicate Inc, run out of New York, initially by Al Landau and then Israel

Waldman, more than likely provided art and the rights to reprint comics to almost all of the Australian publishers at some point, including KG Murray, Gredown, Frew, Newton, Yaffa and possibly Horwitz.9 KG Murray was sold to Kerry Packer’s Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) in 1974. Packer was

more likely after the publishing house’s vast magazine catalogue, the comics would have merely been a bonus.10

Kevin Patrick has dated The Truth Western, published by Gredown, to 1974:http://comicsdownunder.blogspot.com/2009/06/truth-western-early-gredown-bc-before.html11

Pit Of Evil #1 is the only Gredown that I can clearly date to 1975.12 Kevin Patrick’s Blog: http://comicsdownunder.blogspot.com/2006/11/spanish-connection.html13

More evidence has come to light to suggest that Transworld not only sent stats to foreign markets, but also, in rare cases, pages of original art. In an interview with Roy Thomas and Stan lee in ComicBook Artist magazine (http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02stanroy.html), Thomascommented that, “The only time Al (Landau) and I were on the same side (and it took me a minute to

realize why) was when both of us wanted to get back one of the pages of story we had lost in our books. I wanted the page back just because I wanted it back, for better stories-and he wanted it becausethen his company Transworld could sell another page abroad.” If Transworld did indeed send physical pages of original art then this would account for the scarcity of art from certain companies. Transworlddid send stats of art to UK publishers which had been altered (Zip-A-Tone added, spelling changed)and research into Newton Comics shows that stats were also sent to Australia in bulk. At the demise

Newton Comics all of the remaining stats and art were thrown into a dumpster due to they beingworthless to the company. This was more than likely a common practice for other Australian

publishers reprinting non-Australian material.

mailto:[email protected]


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atlasseaboardcomicssociety

http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02stanroy.html

http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02stanroy.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atlasseaboardcomicssociety




Atlas In Australia

14 Although virtually every American publisher was reprinted in Australia at some time or another, in

bulk, one publisher wasn’t. E.C. had only a few single stories reprinted by little known, and shortlived, Australian publisher Calvert. Calvert were known for producing some highly interesting comicsand mixed original material drawn by Australian Moria Bertram along with material from ACG, Delland all too few E.C. stories. An example of Calvert’s oddities lies in the title Western & Adventure

Monster #2 which boasts three EC war stories from Jack Davies, George Evans, John Severin and WillElder, alongside western material from ACG, Beetle Baily stories from Dell and two original Moria

Bertram stories.15 As this book was a licensed product, and not strictly a Marvel originated book, it would more than

likely to have been handed to Transworld for separate syndication away from the usual Marvel deals.16

The Federal Publishing Company (FPC) was a publishing division of Hannanprint, which wasformed as a result of the acquisition of a number of publications from Kerry Packer's ACP Publishing.By proxy Hannaprint’s portfolio also included KG Murray. Federal Publishing would reprint bothMarvel and DC comics, in both colour and black and white, and were one of the last of the majorAustralian reprint companies, winding up in the mid to late 1980s.17

Yaffa had a standing practice of reprinting three Marvel Comics in each reprint comic, and this wascontinued when the size of their comics changed from magazine format to digest. Despite the format

change, the price of Yaffa did not change. It is also possible that Yaffa sourced their material directly

from Marvel, and not Transworld, by the early 1980s as some of their comics featured alternateartwork in the form of covers, and pin-ups consisting of cover art sans logo and cover copy.18 For instance: my uncle was a long distance truck driver who used to bring Gredown’s back with himafter interstate road trips. As late as 1983 he was bringing back new issues for me to read. Other people have told me how, again, on long distance trips, parents would often stop and buy a handful of

comics, usually Gredowns, at country service stations and truck stops during the mid 1980s. InAustralia comic books often remained on the shelves for months, if not years, after their ‘expiry’ datesas it was cheaper to leave them on display than it was to send them back to the distributer.19

Walter Simonson interview; http://www.enjolrasworld.com/20 Charlton continued to be reprinted in various KG Murray publications in the early to mid 1980s.

atlas comics in australia

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