| Max Gaines | |
| Birth name | Maxwell Ginsburg or Maxwell Ginzberg |
| Born | New York, New York |
| Died | August 20, 1947 Lake Placid, New York |
| Area(s) | Publisher |
Maxwell Charles Gaines[1] aka M. The City of New York Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Lake Placid is a Village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. C. Gaines, aka Charles Gaines, aka Charlie Gaines (born Maxwell Ginsburg[2] or Maxwell Ginzberg[3] c. 1894;[4] died August 20, 1947) was a pioneering figure in the creation of the modern comic book. Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A comic book (often shortened to simply comic and sometimes called a comic paper or comic magazine) is a Magazine or Book of narrative In 1933, when Gaines devised the first four-color, saddle-stitched newsprint pamphlet, a precursor to the color-comics format that became the standard for the American comic book industry. An American comic book is a small Magazine originating in the United States and containing a Narrative in the Comics form
He later became co-publisher of All-American Publications, a seminal comic-book company that introduced such enduring fictional characters as Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Hawkman. All-American Publications is one of three American comic book companies that combined to form the modern-day DC Comics, one of the world's two largest comics publishers For other meanings of the term see Hawkman (disambiguation Hawkman is a Superhero in the DC Comics universe.
Contents |
Biography
Early life and career
The notion came to Gaines one day when he was cleaning his mother's attic, and he started reading a stack of old newspaper comic sections. When he approached Eastern Color Printing with his idea, he learned that Eastern was already doing comic strip reprints in tabloid-sized promotional giveaways. Gaines suggested folding the tabloid yet again to increase the page count to 64 and publishing in a magazine format. The next step came when Gaines experimented by putting issues on trial newsstands with ten cents on the cover.
Gaines was the first to distribute through newsstands. His Funnies on Parade and Famous Funnies offered reprints of Sunday newspaper comics. Famous Funnies is an American publication of the 1930s that represents what Popular culture historians consider the first true American comic book Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics featured reprints of Reg'lar Fellers, Dixie Dugan, Joe Palooka, The Nebbs, Keeping Up with the Joneses, Somebody's Stenog and Hairbreadth Harry. Reg'lar Fellers was a long-run newspaper comic strip adapted into a feature film a radio series on NBC and an animated cartoon Joe Palooka was an American Comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion created by cartoonist Ham Fisher
All-American Publications
In 1938, Gaines and Jack Leibowitz began publishing comics with original material under the name All-American Publications. All-American Publications is one of three American comic book companies that combined to form the modern-day DC Comics, one of the world's two largest comics publishers At the time, Leibowitz was the co-owner with Harry Donenfeld of National Allied Publications, the precursor company to DC Comics, and Donenfeld financed Gaines' creation of All-American. Harry Donenfeld (1893-1965 was an American publisher who is known primarily for being the owner of National Allied Publications, which distributed Detective DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company All-American published several superhero/adventure anthologies such as All-American Comics and Flash Comics, as well as other titles. All-American Comics was the flagship title of Comic book Publisher All-American Publications. Flash Comics was an anthology comic book published by All-American Publications and later National Periodicals ( DC Comics) For a time, All-American and National shared marketing and promotional efforts as well as characters. Several of National's characters (Starman, Doctor Fate, The Spectre) appeared alongside All-American's Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Hawkman in that company's successful All Star Comics. Starman is a name used by several different fictional DC Comics Superheroes most prominently Ted Knight and his son Jack. Doctor Fate (also known by the Diminutive, Fate) is the name of a succession of fictional sorcerers who appear within DC Comics ' universe The Spectre is a fictional cosmic entity and Superhero who has appeared in numerous Comic books published by DC Comics. For other meanings of the term see Hawkman (disambiguation Hawkman is a Superhero in the DC Comics universe. All Star Comics is a 1940s Comic book series from All-American Publications, one of the early companies that merged with National Periodical Publications
Gaines' relationship with Donenfeld and National waxed and waned over the years. By the early 1940s, the All-American titles were branded separately and no longer featured National-owned characters. In 1944, Donenfeld bought out Gaines and merged National and All-American into a single company.
EC Comics
Gaines used the proceeds from the sale of All-American to establish another comics line, Educational Comics. EC Comics continued All-American's Picture Stories from the Bible and added new titles such as Picture Stories from American History. Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American Publisher of Comic books specializing in Crime fiction, Gaines soon expanded the line with humor and funny animal books such as Land of the Lost, Animal Fables and Ed Wheelan's Fat and Slat. Funny animal is a Cartooning term for the Genre of Comics and Animated cartoons in which the main characters are Humanoid or For the television series with the same title see Land of the Lost (1974 TV series Land of the Lost Many of these books carried a slightly revised publisher logo which changed the "Educational" in EC to display the Entertaining Comics insignia.
Death and legacy
Tragedy struck at Lake Placid, New York during the summer of 1947 when Gaines, his friend Sam Irwin and Irwin's son were struck by a speedboat. Lake Placid is a Village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. Gaines died in the accident, but saved Irwin's son by throwing him into the back of the boat at the last second. The operator of the speedboat was not prosecuted. [4] Max Gaines' 25-year-old son, William Gaines, inherited EC and changed the direction of the company. William Maxwell Gaines ( March 1, 1922 &ndash June 3, 1992) (more frequently referred to as Bill Gaines) was the publisher and co-editor
Although it continued to advertise and sell back issues of the Educational titles, Bill Gaines concentrated on adding new titles to the Entertaining Comics line. He replaced the juvenile humor books with titles pitched to an older audience and strongly influenced by his own love of popular culture. These spanned several genres as he made a transition from romance (Modern Love) and Westerns (Gunslingers) to science fiction (Weird Science), horror (Tales from the Crypt) and satire (Harvey Kurtzman's Mad). Weird Science was a science fiction anthology comic that was part of the EC Comics line in the early 1950s Harvey Kurtzman ( October 3, 1924, Brooklyn New York – February 21, 1993) was a U Mad is a monthly American Humor Magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952
See also
References
- ^ Gerrard Jones, Men of Tomorrow pp99 Arrow Books ISBN 978 0 099 48706 7
- ^ The Eagle (July 17, 2004: "Comic Books Served as Creative Outlet for Jews", by Abraham Clearfield
- ^ Reform Judaism: "How the Jews Created the Comic Book Industry", by Arie Kaplan
- ^ a b "Two Men Are Killed in Crash Of Motorboats on Lake Placid," The New York Times, August 21, 1947. An American comic book is a small Magazine originating in the United States and containing a Narrative in the Comics form
External links
- Monday Morning Memo: "Gift of a Jew" (March 1, 2004)
- Alter Ego vol. 3, #4 (Spring 2000) Sheldon Moldoff interview
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