Publisher Israel Waldman had a great idea in the late 1950's: He knew there had been a LOT of comic books published, and a LOT of those were by companies no longer in business, so why not reprint the output of those comics companies and foist them on a youthful buying public that hadn't seen them before? Years before today's trend in glossy reprints of public-domain comics, Waldman grabbed work from several defunct publishers (among them the renowned QUALITY Comics, Avon, Fox, Toby, Magazine Enterprises, Harry A. Chesler, and others) and re-issued them with new covers -- and sometimes new titles: The Blue Beetle appeared in a comic book titled "The Human Fly" for just one example-- and at times, without even bothering to receive legal authorization to actually produce those reprints. It seemed a sure-fire way to easy money-- low production costs, low overhead, and, if the covers were appealing enough, an unsuspecting audience eager for new titles.
I.W. and its quickly-created partner company Super Comics, released Westerns, Humor, Funny Animals, Superheroes, Horror, Science Fiction, Romance, War, seemingly anything they could get their hands on. Regardless of the contents of the books, it is often amusing to see what sort of misleading cover has been put on these reprints. It may be rewarding to inspect the publisher's output at The Digital Comics Museum, and a very interesting article on I.W. by T. Casey Brennan appeared in the 57th issue of The Comics Journal from June 1980.
Nevertheless, sometimes a product is seen as what it actually is, and I.W./Super was out of business by 1964. Waldman went on to found the Warren-inspired SKYWALD line of B&W Horror Magazines with Marvel production chief Sol Brodsky.
Log in to comment