Lev Gleason Title List

[Shadow_cpg]

Hmmmm....

 

You look vaguely familiar...Sir Earl....

 

and after having just finished Gerard Jones' new book "Men of Tomorrow...Gangsters, Geeks and the Birth of the Comic Book"...I fear if our generation doesn't gather all the info we can...even more will be lost of the publishing morass they built during the 1940's and 50's...

[mmiichael]

Just joined and spotted this thread

 

Many of the titles listed as Gleason in Overstreet are not.

 

A number are war-time surrogate comics from other publishers sometimes using Gleason material. Your Guide who first published SILVER STREAK and the company New Friday are not Gleason. Nor are News Book and a number of other comany names.

 

Prestty much anything that doesn't say Lev Gleason or Magazone House isn't.

 

 

MF

[adamstrange]

Just joined and spotted this thread

 

Many of the titles listed as Gleason in Overstreet are not.

 

A number are war-time surrogate comics from other publishers sometimes using Gleason material. Your Guide who first published SILVER STREAK and the company New Friday are not Gleason. Nor are News Book and a number of other comany names.

 

Prestty much anything that doesn't say Lev Gleason or Magazone House isn't.

 

 

MF

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Do you know anything about when/why/how Silver switched over to be a Gleason book?

 

Welcome to the boards!

[mmiichael]

A couple years ago I wrote an article on Gleason for COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE in which I explain it.

 

Arthur Bernhard(t) and Morris Latzen started SILVER STREAK in 1939 as a Your Guide title. They were publishers of various Astrology mags. In 1940 they sold the title to New Friday who were publishing a pro-Communist version of LIFE called FRIDAY. Gleason worked for the company and takes over when there's a bankruptcy in 1941. That's a broad outline.

 

Technically I don't think there's a Lev Gleason comic dated before 1942.

 

 

Mike Feldman

[Scrooge]

Mike,

 

thank you for the information and welcome to the boards. We are familiar with your excellent article. Earlier we all mentioned that your piece was the best coverage of Lev Gleason that we had collectively ever seen. Accept my / our belated direct kudos for the good work you put in for that article and all other comic history efforts of yours.

 

Scrooge

[dgillock]

Mike-

Welcome to the Boards and thanks for the additional info!

I haven't posted much recently and someone posting to one of my old threads seems like a good excuse to get back in the mix. Thanks for the reminder on your article. I'm going to have to dig through my back issues of CBM and re-read it. It will probably answer most of the remaining questions I have of LG's publishing history.

[adamstrange]

Thanks for the info. I have that CBM at my desk as one of my next things to read. Just hadn't gotten to it yet but I'm looking forward to it after the very positive recommendations I have received.

[mmiichael]

Thanks for the positive feedback. That Gleason piece was hastily assembled and I have learned a lot more since including contact with Gleason's family.

 

Anything from Your Guide or Newsbook is not Gleason but in fact from the same company that did SILVER STREAK originally as well as that 197-9 TRUE CRIME from Magazine Village. Partners Bernhard and Latzen did lurid True Crime mags and went onto to porny paperbacks in the late 40s. They occassionally dabbled in comics.

 

During WW2 a lot of reprints come out from what are called surrogate publishers - companies that let others use their paper allowances during the wartime restrictions. So William H. Wise, for example, is an old art book publisher who is only lending his name to the comics under his imprint.

 

And again, SILVER STREAK is from Your Guide and New Friday as are the first DAREDEVIL issues and the first two CAPTAIN BATTLE. These are not Gleason. Generally anything without his name on it isn't his.

 

Those 1955-6 Charles Biro products are separate from Gleason.

 

From your list the ones below I don't consider Gleason titles.

 

Mike Feldman

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Silver Streak (Your Guide/New Friday/Comic House/Newsbook)

1-21,23,nn (1946) (23 iss., becomes Crime Does Not Pay)

Spooky Mysteries (1946 Your Guide Publications) 1 shot (1 iss.)

Giant Boy Book of Comics (Newsbook) 1 shot (1 iss.)

Dime Comics 1(1945), 1(1951) (Newsbook) (2 iss.)

 

Captain Battle Comics 2nd series (Magazine Press/Picture Scoop) 3, 5 (no #4?)(2 iss.)

Complete Book of True Crime Comics (William H. Wise, re-bound CDNP) 1 shot (1 iss.)

Crime Does Not Pay (Golfing-1945) (?) 1 shot (1 iss., not sure what this is?!)

 

Tops Comics (1944 ; 132 pages; Lev Gleason?) #2000 (1 iss.)

Tops Comics (1944 Consolidated/Lev Gleason ;small size) #2001, #2002, #2003 (3 iss.)

Tops in Humor (1944 Consolidated/Lev Gleason?/Chesler? ; interior of #2 states Wise/Chesler) 1,2 (2 iss.)

 

Jim Dandy (Dandy Magazines ; Biro 1956 ; Lev gleason?) 1-3 (3 iss.)

Shorty Shiner (Biro 1956, self-published?) 1-3 (3 iss.)

Poppo of the Popcorn Theatre (Biro self-produced for Fuller Publishing ‘55/’56) 1-13 (13 iss.) (Promotional and non-promotional copies exist?)

[adamstrange]

That explains True Crime. Since Jack Cole had been editing/drawing/writing stories for Silver Streak, they must have felt comfortable working together on the True Crime series.

[dgillock]

Mike-

I think your list makes sense. Most of them I would still like to add to my collection, esp copies of "Giant Boy Book of Comics" and "Complete Book of True Crime Comics", and the Silver Streak run.

 

Do you have any info about this "mysterious" Crime Does Not Pay (Golfing-1945) 1 shot listed in OS. I've never been able to find out any info about what it is, let alone see a copy. Was it repackaged material by a different publisher? Was it about golf?

 

-Douglas

[mmiichael]

 

I can't help with much comic data as I'm not a collector - but there was a publishng company called Golfing owned by a couple named McCombs. They did some Golfing magazine and dabbled briefly in comics.

 

Most likely the comic is a wartime money grab where they had some paper and strcuk some deal to rperint CDNP material. I don't think it's worth losing sleep over.

 

For the others, there are many odd listings in Overstreet that are actually Canadian reprints but not designated as such.

 

I dug up a paper list I have of Gleason and related companies and who does what:

 

SILVER STREAK #1-7 are Your Guide, #8-18 are New Friday, and then Gleason's Comic House takes over with #19.

 

DAREDEVIL #1-3 are Your Guide, #4-7 are New Friday, and then Gleason takes over with #8.

 

CAPTAIN BATTLE #1-2 are New Friday, and Comic House starts off with the title change and launch of BOY COMICS #3, the actual first issue.

 

There could be the odd overlap and failure to change the name on the indidicia somewhere.

 

I'd say the Your Guide issues are not Gleason, and in fact it was noted in WRITER'S DIGEST of the time that they were sold to New Friday. New Friday might be considered transitional Gleason as he was involved and Biro was taking over.

 

There are some 40s Humour titles that are Gleason I'll try to find a list for. One is a wartime title called CRYING LION. Generally these things were farmed out to some packagers and I'd say are just assembly line fodder.

 

My own tastes the Dan Gillmor FRIDAY magazines are 100 times more interesting. Gillmor was Gleason's boss and a radical activist. He bought the comics line and a magazine called POPULAR PSYCHOLOGY GUIDE from Your Guide to help keep his magazine afloat.

 

 

Mike Feldman

[mmiichael]

 

There's no connection between Gleason and any of those Chesler comics. Chesler reprinted some Gleason material maybe a couple of times when packaging for someone and comic dealers seized on this as some kind of connection.

 

You have to define what a publisher is in the case of these smaller companies. Often a group of investors will pay for a few comics to be released as they have paper, printing and/or distribution avaialable. They contact a downmarket packager and ask his to slap something together. If they're unwilling to pay for new material they end up with whatever reprints he can hustle up cheaply. Oftyen the choice is based on film and color separations being available.

 

I don't understand the fixation with collecting something because it's from a certain company.

 

Mike Feldman

[mmiichael]

 

This may repeat a post I sent that hasn't shown up.

 

There is no connection between Gleason and those Consolidated or Chesler books.

Chesler packaged something for a client using Gleason reprints maybe a couple of times and dealers seized on this years ago.

 

In the 40s it was common for a group of small investors with paper, printing or distribution to put out comics to take advantage of a boom market. Most often they had a packager put the content together. If they didn't want to pay much they had to settle for reprinted material. What was chosen was usually based on availability of original art, proofs or negs.

 

Can't say I understand this fixation with wanting a comic book because it supposedly was issued by a certain publisher.

 

Gleason published a number of literary and political magazines but no one seems to care anyhing about them.

 

 

 

Mike Feldman

[dgillock]

Can't say I understand this fixation with wanting a comic book because it supposedly was issued by a certain publisher.

 

Well, I can't speak for every collector who chooses to "focus" their collecting on a particular publisher, but I can certainly explain for myself...

 

My interest in Lev Gleasons actually has less to do with the publisher itself and more to do with Charles Biro's work with the company. His writing style has always appealed to me as does his focus on tightly constructed stories. I'm willing to accept the stiffness of the art that he did and at times I think the "literalness" of his rendering helped keep the focus on story. I also am a fan of Norman Maurer, Dan Barry, Bob Fuje, and other talented people who worked with the company over the years.

 

I also see Biro as an important figure in the comicbook industry in general. He really rose through the young industry and created (along with Bob Wood and others) a line of comics distinct from anything else on the market. As editor and primary writer, his willingness to put himself forward as "the face" of the company seems unique at the time and was pretty obviously a big influence on what Stan Lee went on to do with Marvel in the early '60s.

 

Obviously, Biro did some work for some other GA companies as well- MLJ in particular- but I think his mature work is found between the pages of Boy, Daredevil, CDNP, and the rest of the Lev Gleason line. I've owned and collected a lot of different comics over the years and I've simply decided that if I'm going to keep collecting with intent, it just makes more sense to focus on something specific that directly appeals to me. In my case (for now), it is a particular publishers line. For someone else, it might be a character, an artist, writer, title, or even a theme. It's all good... You know, collect what you like and you'll never be disappointed. Also, as my collection of Lev Gleasons increases and I need fewer and fewer issues to complete my set, it will become harder and harder to track down affordable copies- also a good thing as it will limit my spending.

 

None of this is stopping me from reading and learning about other comics and their histories, but with services like Ebay, Heritage, Comiclink, the Internet in general, as well as conventions, stores, and private dealings, I find it best to limit myself a bit when I get the buying-bug.

[mmiichael]

Sorry I don't know your name. I respect what you're saying. The Biro edited Gleason comics are truly special. Stan Lee used to call up Biro regularly and ask him how he did it during the period when Gleason's line outsold other all the other Independent titles - though they never approached Dell's sales levels.

 

Eisner and Barks were the two writers who I think infused their stories with compelling qualities so lacking in most comics of the 40s. I guess Otto Binder and Alvin Schwartz are examples as well.

 

For the record, although Biro would take credit for everything, it appears that Robert Bernstein was actually the main writer who toiled anonymously for many years, who was responsible for the bulk of those classic long morality tales that the Gleason line is famous for. Someone should do some research on this, sometime.

 

 

Mike Feldman

[dgillock]

I'm willing to admit I know little about Robert Bernstein aside from the fact that I believe he did some work with with the "Archie-Hero Re-boot" in the 60's and for DC in the 70's (Superman Family?!?)... Please fill me in. I want to give credit where credit is due.

[mmiichael]

 

Robert Bernstein [1919-83] started out as a pulp writer, was on staff at Harvey Comics not long after they started, and worked for most of the major comic publishers particularly DC in the 50s into the early 60s. He was a top writer for SUPERMAN in that prime period 1959-62 and also had a stint at EC at the end doing Post-Trend and Pictofictions.

 

It is acknowledged he was Biro's ghost-writer after WW2 and is listed as such in Jerry Bails's WHOSWHO.

 

 

Mike Feldman

[dgillock]

Thought I would revive this thread to show evidence of something that I was already pretty certain about. Overtstreet Lists Tops Comics #2000 (1944, 132p) as having been published by Consolidated Book Publ. It then lists Tops Comics #2001, 2002, and 2003 as having been published by Consolidated (Lev Gleason), and the related title Tops In Humor #2000 (#1) and #2 as also being Consolidated (Lev Gleason). I own a copy of Tops in Humor #2, and I have generally suspected that these books have pretty much nothing to do with Lev Gleason. In fact, Tops in Humor #2 is credited to Chesler right inside the book. Found this auction today on Ebay:

 

Tops #2000 Auction

 

This still doesn't prove that Lev Gleason material wasn't contained in Tops #2001, 2002, 2003, or Tops in Humor #2000 (#1), but it is another example which makes me question the connection between the two companies. Unfortunately, they seem to be pretty difficult to find, so confirming this for sure has not been easy.

I wonder how the connection was made in the first place by OS? Anyone familiar with any of the characters listed on the cover (who knew there was a female Black Orchid character before the 70's DC one?)

[mmiichael]

Consolidated is a large scale company, I think also a printer, based in Chicago that occassionally produced comics.

 

No connection to Gleason - a key indicator is that all Gleason product has their distributor symbol PDC from 1942-3 onward.

 

A lot of confusion has been caused by early indexers making unfounded associations

 

- packagers sometimes use the same characters when putting together books for different clients

 

but Gleason was a pretty tight shipped - they rarely outsourced

 

many things attributed to them 1943-6 are not them

 

Mike Feldman

[dgillock]

 

many things attributed to them 1943-6 are not them

 

Mike Feldman

 

This I have been slowly discovering... Thanks again for your input on this!