Skywald Publications was an American publisher of black-and-white comics magazines, primarily the

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

anthologies ''Nightmare'', ''Psycho'', and ''Scream''. It also published a small line of comic books and other genre magazines. Skywald's original comics were similar in appearance and quality to rival black-and-white publisher Warren Publishing, and even employed many of the same creators. Skwyald operated from 1970 to 1975. Comics professionals who produced work for the Skywald magazines include writers

T. Casey Brennan Terrance Casey Brennan is an American comic book writer. During the 1970s, he wrote for Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics anthologies ''Creepy'' and ''Eerie'', and ''Vampirella''. He also wrote for DC Comics' ''House of Mys ...

, Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Gardner Fox, Gary Friedrich, Doug Moench, Dave Sim,

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men ( ...

, and Marv Wolfman; and artists Rich Buckler,

Gene Day Howard Eugene Day (August 13, 1951 – September 23, 1982) was a Canadian comics artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''Star Wars'' licensed series and '' Master of Kung Fu''. He was considered a mentor by independent comic writer/art ...

Vince Colletta, Bill Everett,

Bruce Jones Bruce Jones may refer to: * Bruce Jones (actor) (born 1953), British actor *Bruce Jones (American football) (1904–1974), American football player *Bruce Jones (comics) (born 1944), American comic book writer *Bruce Jones (surfboards) (?–2014), ...

, Pablo Marcos, Syd Shores, Chic Stone, and Tom Sutton. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed pseudonyms. Future industry star John Byrne published his first professional story, a two-pager written by editor

Al Hewetson Alan Hewetson ( August 30, 1946 Interview conducted May 26, 1973. – January 6, 2004) Additional . was a Scottish people, Scottish-Canadians, Canadian writer and editor of American horror-comics magazines, best known for his work with the 197 ...

, in Skywald's ''Nightmare'' #20 (Aug. 1974).

History

Founding

The company name is a combination of those of its founders, former Marvel Comics

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Sol Brodsky Soloman Brodsky (April 22, 1923 – June 4, 1984) was an American comic book artist who, as Marvel Comics' Silver Age production manager, was one of the key architects of the small company's expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate. He ...

("Sky") and low-budget entrepreneur Israel Waldman ("wald"), whose

I. W. Publications I.W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) was a short-lived comic book publisher in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The company was part of I.W. Enterprises, and named for the company's owner, Israel Waldman. I.W. Publications was notable fo ...

(also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published unauthorized comic book reprints for sale through

grocery A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, an ...

and discount stores. Skywald was based in New York City. Brodsky, who also served as editor, brought in

– briefly an assistant to Marvel chief

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and a freelancer for the Warren Publishing horror magazines and others – as a freelance writer. "Archaic Al", as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Hewetson, aiming at a more literary bent than the work of industry leader Warren Publishing, developed what he called "the Horror-Mood" and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as

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, H. P. Lovecraft and Kafka. Interview excerpt from Hewetson, Al. ''The Complete Illustrated History of the Skywald Horror-Mood'' (Critical Vision : 2004), Skywald's first publication was ''Nightmare'' #1 ( cover-dated Dec. 1970). The first issues of magazines like ''Nightmare'' and ''Psycho'' featured some original work and a lot of reworked reprint filler, mostly from horror comics published by

Avon Comics Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reach ...

in the 1950s.Arndt, Richard J
''Horror Comics in Black and White: A History and Catalog, 1964-2004''
(McFarland, 2013), p. 162. In an unusual arrangement, Hewetson managed editorial from his home in

St. Catharines, Ontario St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontari ...

, Canada, though the publisher was based in Manhattan. As he described in 1973,

Non-horror magazines

Skywald also produced two issues of the magazine ''

Hell-Rider ''Hell-Rider'' is a short-lived, black-and-white comics magazine published by Skywald Publications, a 1970s company best known for its horror-comics magazines ''Nightmare'', ''Psycho'', and ''Scream''. Like them and the similar publications of W ...

'' (Aug. and Oct. 1971), featuring a vigilante motorcyclist with a

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-equipped bike. The character was created by Gary Friedrich (who would go on to co-create the Marvel motorcyclist '' Ghost Rider'') and

penciler A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...

Ross Andru Ross Andru (; born Rostislav Androuchkevitch, June 15, 1927 – November 9, 1993) Part 1: Animation: We Leave the Army", p. 21. In 1948, Andru's first professional work as a comic strip illustrator was drawing layouts for the ''Tarzan (comics), T ...

. Backup features were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich, with art credits disputed by different sources for issue #1; the second-issue "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler Syd Shores and inker Esposito, the second "Wild Bunch" to penciler-inker Rich Buckler. Another two-issue title, ''The Crime Machine'', consisted solely of comic-book crime fiction reprints from the 1950s. A remaining title, ''Science Fiction Odyssey'', was planned for September 1971 publication, but withdrawn; some of its stories eventually appeared in the horror magazines. The company also published a small number of magazines unrelated to horror or comics. Among these was '' Judy Garland'' (1970), a "special tribute issue". Hewetson said in 1973, "We produced, when this company began, a production called ''The Judy Garland Book'' which is the most threatening thing which ever happened to our company. We printed far too many copies and we sold maybe four or five. We lost a lot of money." Interview conducted May 26, 1973. Skywald published two issues of the men's adventure title ''King: The Magazine for the Man's Man'' in 1971; the first issue featured a Harry Rosenbaum cover and interior illustration by

Boris Vallejo Boris Vallejo (born January 8, 1941) is a Peruvian-American painter who works in the science fiction, fantasy, and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction and fantasy fiction ...

.''The Complete Illustrated History of the Skywald Horror-mood'' edited by Alan Hewetson, pg. 255

Comic books

The short-lived color comic-book line, edited by Brodsky, comprised the Western titles ''Blazing Six-Guns'', ''The Bravados'', ''Butch Cassidy'', ''The Sundance Kid'', and ''Wild Western Action''; the romance title ''Tender Love Stories''; the

series '' The Heap''; and ''Jungle Adventures''. These all were combinations of new material and reprints. Contributors, in addition to some of those noted above, included Dick Ayers, Mike Friedrich, Jack Katz, John Severin, and John Tartaglione. Notably, ''The Sundance Kid'' #1–2 (June–July 1971) contained Jack Kirby Western reprints from ''Bullseye'' #2–3 (Oct. and Dec. 1954). None of the comics lasted more than three issues, except the romance comic ''Tender Love Stories'', which ran four. "The color comics, more or less, broke even," Hewetson said in 1973. "I think we could've continued with them to try and establish a color comics area, except for the fact that, at the very same time as Skywald began the color comics,

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

and Marvel were engaged in a price war which hurt just about everybody."

Demise

Editor

, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on January 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by... Skywald lasted through the end of 1974 or early 1975, with ''Psycho'' #24 (March 1975) being its final publication. ''Nightmare'' published 23 issues and ''Scream'' put out 11 issues.

References

External links

* * {{Comic book publishers in North America Comic book publishing companies of the United States Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Magazine publishing companies of the United States Companies based in New York City Horror comics Defunct companies based in New York (state) Publishing companies established in 1970 1970 establishments in New York City