Western Publishing, a/k/ Gold Key, divided its prodigious output pretty evenly between movie and TV adaptations, humor and adventure.
The humor titles were Atom Ant, Beetle Bailey, Bugs Bunny, Cave Kids, Daffy Duck, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Marge’s Little Lulu, Popeye the Sailor, Porky Pig, Tom and Jerry, Top Cat, Woody Woodpecker, Yogi Bear and the numerous Walt Disney titles — Comics and Stories, Christmas Parade, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Best of Donald, Duck, Super Goof and Uncle Scrooge.
The movie and TV-related titles included Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, The Man from UNCLE, Three Stooges, Bonanza, Lassie, The Munsters, Daniel Boone, Legend of Jesse James, The Twilight Zone, Walt Disney’s Zorro, Walt Disney’s That Darn Cat and Walt Disney’s Old Yeller (the first movie my grandparents sent me to see — what were they thinking?).
Previously, under the Dell imprint, the Western-produced humor titles had dominated the market. In 1960, for example, Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories were the industry’s No. 1 and No. 2 titles, selling an average of 1,040,543 and 1,004,901 copies per issue respectively.
But by 1965, Superman was the top-selling comic book with a circulation of 823,829. It was followed by Superboy, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Archie, World’s Finest, Batman and then, in 10th place, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories (circulation 410,209).
Uncle Scrooge, in 16th place at 330,925, had lost two-thirds of its readership. I’d guess the aging of the Baby Boomers had something to do with that.
Ron Kasman wrote: About the diminishing sales of Uncle Scrooge. The late issues weren't that good. Also more of my money was going to Marvel. I was 11 in 1965.
ReplyDeleteBob Doncaster said: I read a number of their adventure titles and quite a few of the movie/tv titles. I remember a one shot John Steed and Emma Peel, I guess because the Avengers was taken. They had one busy licensing department. Might have been a lot cheaper to acquire back then. Now you have products on the market before it hits the screen
ReplyDeleteTom Stewart said: I'd heard Dell had better distribution.
ReplyDeleteEd Chaczyk wrote: Better writing and better art catapulted Marvel and DC in front of Western. And, although I love the George Wilson covers, the primary colors of Marvel and DC comics really attracted my eye.
ReplyDeleteRon Kasman wrote: Just thinking about it Dan. I remember near the end of the Barks run there was one issue that had rectangular word balloons. They were looking for something that would get them back where they were and somebody that that might be part of it. I also read somewhere that WDCS was going to put Mickey Mouse in the lead story after decades of having Donald as the lead story. They never did. Barks said, if my memory serves me well, that he was reusing gags not remembering if he had used them before or not. He was also trying topical stories like Giant Robot Robbers and The Great Wig Mystery, Microducks from Outer Space, the Loony Lunar Gold Rush and Interplanetary Postman. I loved the Loony Lunar Gold Rush but even I spotted the others as pandering. I also remember my friends telling me outright that I was childish for reading Uncle Scrooge. Time has given me the last laugh on that but other kids like me must have gone over to Marvel about that time and pushed aside the stories of their earlier childhood.
ReplyDeleteJoel Canfield said: Yeah, that was my trajectory. Loved WDC&S when I was younger (even had a subscription) but dropped it for the superheroes.
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ReplyDeleteMichael Fraley wrote:
The first Gold Key I recall having was an issue of "Family Affair." I found most of their titles pretty sedate, and "Magnus" -- a guy in a pink (I know, printer's "true red") miniskirt fighting robots was *both* sedate and just plain odd.