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3rd party comic publishers from the Bronze Age?

Started by Brian48,

24 posts in this topic

Brian48

Brian48

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Just out of curiosity, does anyone remember all the other comic book publishers from the '70s that wasn't either DC, Marvel, or Archie? I got to thinking about some of the childhood books I wanted to re-acquire and just realized that some of them were not published under the "big three". I am only referring to regular size, news stand/rack comics and not some of the magazine sized titles from Warren and such.

 

Here are the ones I remember, but I might be leaving one or two out.

 

Charlton comics

Harvey comics

Gold key comics

Dell comics

Atlas (Seaboard)

Comely Comics

 

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Brian48

Brian48

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Eclipse started in 1978

 

Ah, that's right. Didn't even come to mind as that was later towards the tail end of my collecting days.

 

Regarding Tower, I don't remember that publisher from my childhood. I think they were slightly before my time. As I recall, I started reading comics starting around '71-72,

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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Sal Quartuccio

Star Reach Productions

Last Gasp

Rip Off Press

H.M. (Heavy Metal) Communications

IPC Magazines (2000 AD)

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the blob

the blob

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Charlton comics

Harvey comics

Gold key comics

Dell comics

--

 

 

Dell is Goldkey

 

Hard to think of Charlton really as a "third party"...they had a lot of titles, but did they really have regular readers? I never got it because other than some cool horror covers and e-man for a minute, why would anyone buy charltons? their horror books were not nearly as good as DCs. their war books were vastly inferior. they barely did superheros. even their romance was generally inferior.

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Jeffro.

Jeffro.

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Charlton comics

Harvey comics

Gold key comics

Dell comics

--

 

 

Dell is Goldkey

 

Hard to think of Charlton really as a "third party"...they had a lot of titles, but did they really have regular readers? I never got it because other than some cool horror covers and e-man for a minute, why would anyone buy charltons? their horror books were not nearly as good as DCs. their war books were vastly inferior. they barely did superheros. even their romance was generally inferior.

 

I wouldn't call any of these companies "3rd party" Dell sold more comics than Marvel or DC could ever hope to sell. Harvey alone had 30+ Richie Rich titles in the 70s.

 

Nothing 3rd party about these companies.

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jools&jim

jools&jim

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Sal Quartuccio

Star Reach Productions

Last Gasp

Rip Off Press

H.M. (Heavy Metal) Communications

IPC Magazines (2000 AD)

Some of these publishers may have put out "regular size, news stand/rack comics", but most of their stuff wouldn't have been available outside of head-shops or early comics specialty stores.

 

My sense is that the OP was looking for (more-or-less) widely-distributed mainstream publishers whose books may have sometimes shared traditional retail space with Marvel & DC, etc...

 

 

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seanfingh

seanfingh

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Charlton comics

Harvey comics

Gold key comics

Dell comics

--

 

 

Dell is Goldkey

 

Hard to think of Charlton really as a "third party"...they had a lot of titles, but did they really have regular readers? I never got it because other than some cool horror covers and e-man for a minute, why would anyone buy charltons? their horror books were not nearly as good as DCs. their war books were vastly inferior. they barely did superheros. even their romance was generally inferior.

 

Spoken like a guy from NYC. In Indiana you took whatever you got. And on weeks where there were no new Marvel or DC, my dad would bring home Charltons. I never turned my nose ujp at them once. I knew the art sucked, but so did Frank Robbins on Invaders, and I loved that book.

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the blob

the blob

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Charlton comics

Harvey comics

Gold key comics

Dell comics

--

 

 

Dell is Goldkey

 

Hard to think of Charlton really as a "third party"...they had a lot of titles, but did they really have regular readers? I never got it because other than some cool horror covers and e-man for a minute, why would anyone buy charltons? their horror books were not nearly as good as DCs. their war books were vastly inferior. they barely did superheros. even their romance was generally inferior.

 

Spoken like a guy from NYC. In Indiana you took whatever you got. And on weeks where there were no new Marvel or DC, my dad would bring home Charltons. I never turned my nose ujp at them once. I knew the art sucked, but so did Frank Robbins on Invaders, and I loved that book.

 

the only time we ever got any charltons was on a road trip out to the middle of nowhere in the 70s and i guess my dad bought some random comics at the gas station to shut us up in the back. nice gesture. i wouldn't dare complain about him buying as anything, but needless to say, my older brother and i were sort of like "what the heck are these?" (in our heads!)

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the blob

the blob

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why would anyone read charltons?

 

When your mom bought the wrong thing

 

that's what i'm saying. how could they sustain a whole business and like 25-35 different titles based on mistaken purchases and nothing else coming out that week?

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Jeffro.

Jeffro.

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why would anyone read charltons?

 

When your mom bought the wrong thing

 

that's what i'm saying. how could they sustain a whole business and like 25-35 different titles based on mistaken purchases and nothing else coming out that week?

 

Obviously they did, which speaks to the viability of the company for decades.

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