Street Enterprises was a publishing company that focused on reprints of newspaper

comic strips A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Operating from 1971–1984, Street Enterprises is most known for the sister publications ''

The Menomonee Falls Gazette ''The Menomonee Falls Gazette'' (subtitled "The international newspaper for comic art fans") was a weekly tabloid published in the 1970s by Street Enterprises that reprinted newspaper comic strips from the United States and the U.K. Comic strip ...

'' and ''

The Menomonee Falls Guardian ''The Menomonee Falls Guardian'' was a tabloid published in the mid-1970s by Street Enterprises (based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin) that reprinted humor comic strips from the United States and the UK. (''The Guardians sister publication, ''T ...

'', as well as for taking over publication of the comics news-

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...

The Comic Reader ''The Comic Reader'' (''TCR'') was a comics news-fanzine published from 1961 to 1984. Debuting in the pre-direct market era (before the proliferation of comics retailers), ''TCR'' was the first regularly published comics industry news fanzine, and ...

''. The company was based in

Menomonee Falls Menomonee Falls is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States, and is part of the Greater Milwaukee area. The population was 35,626 at the 2010 census, making it the most populous village in Wisconsin. It is the fourth largest communi ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, and was the partnership of publisher Jerry Sinkovec (b. 1948) and editor Mike Tiefenbacher (b. 1952), who ran the operation out of a storage trailer.Svoboda, Wayne
"Dynamic Duo Fights Fiercely,"
''

Milwaukee Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently ...

'' (Aug. 27, 1976). The S and T in "STreet" came from the first letters of the founders' last names.Englebert, John
"Remember Adventure Comics? They're in Print Again,"
''Waukesha Daily Freeman'' (September 2, 1972), p. 19.

History

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

-area comics enthusiasts Sinkovec and Tiefenbacher (a

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

art school graduate) met through letters printed in comics fanzines; Sinkovec himself had previously published six issues of the fanzine Comic Commentary (1970–71). Fans of

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

comic strips, which by the early 1970s had mostly disappeared from American newspapers, they banded together to publish ''

'' to keep the genre alive. In the company's early years, they published a selection of 32-page comic one-shots featuring a single character, such as

The Cisco Kid The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in ''Everybody's Magaz ...

Jungle Jim Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began on January 7, 1934, as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle ...

Krazy Kat ''Krazy Kat'' (also known as ''Krazy & Ignatz'' in some reprints and compilations) is an US, American newspaper comic strip, by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the ''New York Journal-American, New Yor ...

Prince Valiant ''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretc ...

Rip Kirby ''Rip Kirby'' is an American comic strip created by Alex Raymond and Ward Greene featuring the adventures of private detective Rip Kirby. The strip ran from 1946 to 1999 and was in the hands of artist John Prentice for more than 40 years. Pub ...

, and

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

. The dedicated partners struggled financially from the start, but nonetheless in 1973 took on two more ongoing publications. They began publishing ''

'', which reprinted humor strips, and took over (from

Paul Levitz Paul Levitz (; born October 21, 1956) is an American comic book writer, editor and executive. The president of DC Comics from 2002–2009, he worked for the company for over 35 years in a wide variety of roles. Along with publisher Jenette Kahn ...

) the comics news fanzine ''

'', which had been founded in 1961. To raise money, Street Enterprises produced artists' portfolios in 1975 and 1976, but by 1976, the duo were living in their parents' basements. Despite canceling ''The Guardian'' in 1976 and ''The Gazette'' in 1978, they were able to keep publishing ''The Comic Reader'' until 1984, when the company finally went defunct.

Titles published

* ''

'' (1 issue, 1973) * ''

'' (issue #s 101-219, 1973–1984) * ''

'' (1 issue, 1972) * ''

'' (1 issue, 1973) — 60 daily strips from July 3–Oct. 28, 1933 * ''

'' (232 issues, 1971–1978) * ''

'' (146 issues, 1973–1976) * ''The Menomonee Falls Guardian Special: Presents

Alley Oop ''Alley Oop'' is a syndicated comic strip created December 5, 1932, by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association. Hamlin introduced a cast of colorful characters an ...

'' (4 issues, 1973–1975) * '' The Gazette-Advertiser'' (2 issues, 1973) * ''

'' (1972-1973) * '' Street Comix'' (2 issues, 1972) —

and

Tiefenbacher's later career

During the 1980s, Tiefenbacher freelanced as a writer (and occasional artist) for a number of comics publishers, including

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

Spotlight Comics Spotlight Comics was an American comic publisher based in western Connecticut. It is best known for a short run of comic books based on licensed characters such as Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle that contained contributions from several major ...

, and

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...

. His most notable contributions were the scripts for a number of "Whatever Happened to...?" backup stories in ''

DC Comics Presents ''DC Comics Presents'' is a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1978 to 1986 which ran for 97 issues and four ''Annual''s. It featured team-ups between Superman and a wide variety of other characters in the DC Universe. A recurring back ...

'' in 1980–1981. He also compiled indexes for the

Justice League of America The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived ...

and

Hawkman Hawkman is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1, published by All-American ...

for

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market. It was ...

.Tiefenbacher entry
''Who's Who of American Comics Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Feb. 5, 2016.

References

External links

* {{gcdb publisher, id=4892, title=Street Enterprises Companies based in Wisconsin Defunct comics and manga publishing companies American comics Comic strips Waukesha County, Wisconsin