Buried Treasure
Unlocking the Mystery Chris Irving digs deep to reveal the curious history of Below: Superb Russ Manning artwork featuring Tarzan. Courtesy of Bob Pollak. Tarzan ©2002 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
by Christopher Irving The Gold Key comic book imprint and its history are firmly rooted in the histories of other companies. Besides their licensed books (most memorably Carl Barks’ work on the classic Uncle Scrooge), Gold Key is best remembered, perhaps, for three distinctive and atypical adventure heroes: A man who gave new meaning to the term “kung fu” grip; a scientist always green around the gills; and a pair of Native Americans lost in a prehistoric land. Although Gold Key proper—as well as two of its memorable trio—didn’t come to life until the 1960s, the imprint’s genesis lies in the development of Dell Publishing, a company that dates back to the 1920s, in the time of the earliest comic books.
“Dell Comics are Good Comics” Dell, a company who would grow to be one of the largest book and magazine publishing houses in American history, was started by George Delacorte as a periodical concern in 1921, specializing in pulp fiction. By the mid-’40s, Delacorte owned more than 200 publications and his impressive comic line (once selling in the range of 300 million copies per year) had become the main supplier for powerhouse magazine distributor American News Company in 1942, when Dell entered the increasingly lucrative paperback book business. “My father started the company with a partner, a man who worked with the New York Sun,” George’s youngest son Albert Delacorte recalled in a recent interview. “My father was very sociable and he belonged to the
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newspaper club and played pool with all the editors. He was still a very young man in his twenties. This man, named Johnson, put up $10,000, [George] put up $10,000, and my grandfather put up $10,000. His printing was either partially or entirely on credit and his distribution the same. [The printer and distributor] must have felt that he was an up-and-coming guy, and I suppose they wrote contracts that guaranteed venture capital: If the guy does well, they have a contract that keeps the business with the printer or distribution company. In other words, he can’t go to another company until that contract expires. “He started with only little unimportant pulp magazines: Famous Stories (just stuff taken out of short story anthologies, an imitation of a very successful magazine called The Golden Book), Cupid’s Diary, Sweetheart Stories, War Stories (tales of World War I, of course), and there were lots more of them.” Albert believes one of the venture capital partners in his father’s initial deal was American News Company, the distributor whose downfall in 1957 would adversely effect the magazine industry (significantly Martin Goodman’s Marvel imprint (then called Atlas Comics), leading that comics house to strike up a hobbling distribution deal with its’ nearest competitor, DC Comics). “In those days, my father did everything,” Albert continued. “He was his own circulation department, he sold advertising, and appeared on radio with his editors who were all women; they would dramatize the stories, and he’d be the male part. They would carry on these love stories in dialogue in a small radio program. “I can recall the only person he had helping him was an AfricanAmerican who was very able and wrote operas. His name was Valdo Freeman. I remember going down to a bindery, and seeing Valdo and my father trim magazines; it was one of these huge things where you pulled a lever down, and you’d see chips of this cheap newsprint paper flying all over the floor. The magazine was relatively trimmed.”
Witness at the Creation Amongst the relevant publishing landmarks George Delacorte is associated is the 1929 debut of The Funnies, the first collection of allnew original comic strip material in periodical form and thus regarded as the first so-called “Platinum Age” comic book. The format of the weekly Funnies was the same size as a Sunday comics newspaper tabloid supplement section until #5, and the odd size is most likely what contributed to the title’s initial failure, as it was often mistaken for—naturally—leftover Sunday comics supplements. (From a historical perspective, The Funnies featured the work of Victoria Pazmino, the first published female comic book artist.) Even reducing the 10¢ cover price to a mere 5¢ with #25 didn’t save the title, and publication ceased with #36, cover dated October 1930. After a few more hits and misses on the comic book newsstand, Dell released Popular Comics in February 1936 in the by-then-standard comic book format. What ensured Popular’s success was the newspaper comic strips reprinted within its covers: Chicago Tribune Syndicate’s Dick Tracy, The Gumps, Gasoline Alley, and numerous others. Within the year, Dell would release a revived Funnies comic book as well as The Comics, both being reprint titles. All three comics were packaged by the legendary M.C. “Max” Gaines, who would later help launch All-American Comics with DC, and the pioneer who founded Educational (later COMIC BOOK ARTIST 22
October 2002