Star Publications, Inc. was a

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

American comic book publisher, operating during the years 1949–1954. Founded by artist/editor L.B. Cole and lawyer Gerhard Kramer,Kramer bio
Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Accessed July 29, 2011. Star specialized in horror comics,

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

, and

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

comics — but also published

talking animal A talking animal or speaking animal is any non-human animal that can produce sounds or gestures resembling those of a human language. Several species or groups of animals have developed forms of communication which superficially resemble verbal ...

stories.Sibra, Steve. "Another Side of L.B. Cole: The Funny Animal Comics of Star Publications," ''Comic Book Marketplace'' vol. 2, #43 (Jan. 1997), pp. 34-38. Star was originally based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

before relocating to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. Notable creators who contributed to Star Publications titles included Nina Albright,

Tex Blaisdell Philip Eustice Blaisdell (March 30, 1920 – March 14, 1999), better known as Tex Blaisdell, was an American comic-strip artist and comic-book editor. He worked on 22 syndicated features, including '' Little Orphan Annie'', which he drew for f ...

Frank Frazetta Frank Frazetta (born Frank Frazzetta ; February 9, 1928 – May 10, 2010) was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers, and other media. He is ...

, Milt Hammer,

Alvin Hollingsworth Alvin C. Hollingsworth (25 February 1928 – July 14, 2000),
at the Joe Kubert Joseph Kubert (; September 18, 1926 – August 12, 2012) was a Poland, Polish-born Americans, American comic book artist, art teacher, and founder of The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkm ...

, Pat Masulli, and

Wally Wood Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as ''Weird Science (comic), Weird Science'', ''Weird Fantasy'', an ...

. Co-owner Cole contributed many of his distinctive cover illustrations.

Bruno Premiani Giordano Bruno Premiani (January 4, 1907 – August 17, 1984)
at the Lambiek Comiclopedia, which notes, "Most American sources ...

worked as an editor at the company.

History

In 1949, publisher

Novelty Press Novelty Press (a.k.a. Premium Service Co., Inc.; a.k.a. Novelty Publications; a.k.a. Premier Group) was an American Golden Age comic-book publisher that operated from 1940 to 1949. It was the comic book imprint of Curtis Publishing Company, publi ...

sold its characters and artwork to ''

Blue Bolt Blue Bolt is a fictional American comic book superhero created by writer-artist Joe Simon in 1940, during the period fans and historians refer to as the Golden Age of Comic Books. Publication history Initially published by Novelty Press, ''Blu ...

'' cover artist L.B. Cole.Markstein, Don
"Blue Bolt," Don Markstein's Toonopedia.
Retrieved July 11, 2008. Using his new assets, Cole and partner Kramer began Star Publications. The company's first title was ''Blue Bolt'', which continued the numbering of the Novelty Press title (starting with issue #102). By 1951, inspired by the popularity of horror comics like

EC Comics Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-195 ...

' ''

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'', Cole shifted the Blue Bolt comic to horror, renaming it ''Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror''. (The title was eventually changed again, to ''Ghostly Weird Stories'', lasting five more issues before being canceled.) Other notable titles published by Star included ''All-Famous Police Cases'', ''Frisky Animals'', ''Shocking Mystery Cases'', and the romance titles ''Popular Teen-Agers'', ''Top Love Stories'', and ''True-To-Life Romances''. The company also published a line of

coloring books A coloring book (British English: colouring-in book, colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media. ...

in comic book format (mostly with titles like ''The Star Coloring Book of...''), consisting of full-page drawings with no word balloons and no narrative. Due to the grisly nature of titles like ''Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror'', ''The Horrors'', and ''Startling Terror Tales'', Star Publications was singled out in

Fredric Wertham Fredric Wertham (; born Friedrich Ignatz Wertheimer, March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981) was a German-American psychiatrist and author. Wertham had an early reputation as a progressive psychiatrist who treated poor black patients at his Lafargue ...

's 1954 book ''

Seduction of the Innocent ''Seduction of the Innocent'' is a book by German-born American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was tak ...

''. Like many comic book publishers of the time, faced with the public outcry against the industry, and the pressures of the 1954 hearings by the

United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established by the United States Senate in 1953 to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency. Background The subcommittee was a unit of the United States Senate Judiciary Co ...

— as well as the 1955 death of publisher Kramer — the company shut down shortly thereafter.

Notable titles published

* ''All-Famous Police Cases'' (11 issues, 1952–1954) * '' Blue Bolt/Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror/Ghostly Weird Stories'' (23 issues, 1949–1954) * ''Frisky Animals'' (15 issues, 1951–1954) * ''Popular Teen-Agers'' (19 issues, 1950–1954) * ''Shocking Mystery Cases'' (11 issues, 1952–1954) * ''Top Love Stories'' (17 issues, 1951–1954) * ''True-To-Life Romances'' (21 issues, 1950–1954)

Notes

References

* * {{comicbookdb, type=publisher, id=1982, title=Star Publications Defunct comics and manga publishing companies Comic book publishing companies of the United States 1949 establishments in New York City