St. John Publications was an American publisher of magazines and comic books. During the 1947-1958 existence of its comic-book division, St. John established several industry firsts. Founded by Archer St. John, the firm was located in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

at 545

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping ...

. After the St. John comic books came to an end in 1958, the company continued to publish its magazine line into the next decade. Flying Eagle Publications was a magazine affiliate of St. John Publications. Comic book imprints included Approved Comics, Blue Ribbon, and Jubilee Publications.

History

Archer St. John

The younger brother of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

correspondent and author Robert William St. John (1902–2003), Archer St. John was born either c. 1901 or on October 15, 1904 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. Their mother Amy, a nurse, and father John, a pharmacist, moved the family to suburban Oak Park in 1910. Following the father's death in 1917 and the mother's eventual remarriage, Archer attended the St. Albans Episcopal Academy boarding school in

Sycamore, Illinois Sycamore is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. It has a commercial district based and centered on Illinois Route 64. The population was 18577 at the 2020 census, up from 17,519 at the 2010 census. Sycamore is the county seat of De ...

. Both brothers became journalists, with Archer founding the '' Berwyn'' llinois''Tribune'' in the mid-1920s. Additiona
WebCitation archive
on November 28, 2010. He left that newspaper by 1930. By then, he had become advertising manager of the New York City-based model-train maker

Lionel Trains Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is headquartered in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line from the Lionel Corporation by cereal conglomerat ...

Corporation. Among his duties, he edited the company's hobbyist magazine, ''Model Builder'', debuting January 1937. It included true railroad stories in its editorial mix, eventually adding such illustrated featurettes as "Famous Railroad Sagas". By this time, he was married and living in

Darien, Connecticut Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under 13 square miles, it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast. It has the youngest population of any ...

, with wife Gertrude (née Adams) and son Michael. By the early 1940s, St. John was editor of the 17-issue magazine ''Flying Cadet'' (Jan. 1943 – Oct. 1944). Like ''Model Builder'', it mixed editorial prose with comics-style instructional featurettes. That changed with its final issue, a standard comic book that included fictional adventure ("Buzz Benson" by Maurice Whitman and

George Kapitan George Kapitan (July 23, 1919 – November 27, 1996)George Kapitan
at the

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

pilot) and humor ("Grease Pan Gus") features. The company — also called Flying Cadet — additionally published ''American Air Forces'' #1 (Oct. 1944), as well as some issues of ''Dynamic Comics'' and ''Punch Comics''. Either editing in his off hours while continuing to work at Lionel, or having left and returned to the company — a December 1944 letter that he signed places St. John in the Lionel advertising department at that time — St. John left the model-train maker in early 1945. After acquiring a reported $400,000 in start-up financing, he began publishing two comic books, ''Comics Revue'' and ''Pageant of Comics'', both reprinting comic strips. They appeared under his own name as publisher in 1947. Shortly afterward, his comic book company took on the name St. John Publications. It had offices at 545

in Manhattan, New York City, and in 1950 took on additional space at 235-243 Pulaski Street in the neighboring borough of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Artist

Joe Kubert Joseph Kubert (; September 18, 1926 – August 12, 2012) was a Polish-born 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 Hawkman. He is also kno ...

who worked for St. John described him as "one of the most aristocratic upper-crust types that you'd ever come across. But he was as much unlike that underneath that veneer as anybody I can think of. When you sat down to talk to him he was really a regular guy." Nadine King, office manager for the company, socialized with St. John often, described him as "exceptional bright" and said that "...he did make a lot of money and lost a lot of money."Benson
p. 29
/ref> Marion McDermott was an editor for St. John Publications. Fellow editor Nadine King said in an interview published in 2012 that St. John had an affair with McDermott. They traveled together to

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on in 1950 and 1951. Renée also recounted that St. John chased her once around a table in the office and a woman editor put a stop to it. In the early 1950s St. John became friends with artist Matt Baker, who provided most of the comic book covers for the company. When asked about the nature of the relationship, Baker's brother Fred Robinson said in an interview published in 2012, "They had a very close relationship. I don't know exactly what it was." They traveled to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

together and were photographed in the

TCL Chinese Theatre Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The original Chinese T ...

in front of

Jean Harlow Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...

's footprints.Amash, Nolen-Weathington, ''Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour''
p. 119
/ref> According to the people that worked for him, including Renée, St. John was charming and pleasant to work for, but he struggled with alcoholism. Graphic designer Warren Kramer recounted that St. John would attend

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...

meetings, and was sober "most of the time". He said that St. John was "almost exactly" like the

Harry Myers Harry C. Myers (September 5, 1882 – December 25, 1938) was an American film actor and director, sometimes credited as Henry Myers. He performed in many short comedy films with his wife Rosemary Theby. Myers appeared in 330 films between 1908 ...

' "Eccentric Millionaire" character in the film ''

City Lights ''City Lights'' is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin's Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and ...

''.Benson, p. 37 That character is an alcoholic who suffers from

state-dependent memory State-dependent memory or state-dependent learning is the phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall. State-dependent memory is heavily researched in regard ...

. However, Kramer added that although "Very peculiar", St. John was "...a very, very decent guy."Benson, p. 37 In 1952, Archer St. John's brother Robert saw Archer in person for the last time. Archer flew from New York to

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

, and on Robert's description "looked dreadful: he was terribly disheveled. His face was badly cut up; his hand was cut; there was blood all over his shirt." St. John had been drinking heavily on the plane. He bought a Swiss watch intended, he said, for a woman with whom he was living in New York City, then immediately flew back. On August 22, 1955, St. John spoke on the phone for the last time with Robert, who described him as "very despondent".Horowitz, p. 21
215
St. John died either that night or early the following morning. The by-then divorced St. John was found at the 170 East 79th Street Manhattan penthouse apartment of Frances Stratford, with whom he had been involved since at least September 1954, when they took a vacation together to the Bahamas. The day before his death he had also called his son Michael, who was at work in the St. John Publishing office to tell him that he was being blackmailed. But he would not reveal his whereabouts.Horowitz, p. 216. The police, pending an autopsy, listed the cause as an apparent overdose of sleeping pills, and gave his age as 54.Horowitz, p. 214. He had been residing at the

New York Athletic Club The New York Athletic Club is a private social club and athletic club in New York (state), New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Park South in Manha ...

at the time of his death. (Abstract only) St. John's son Michael compared his father's death with that of

Dorothy Kilgallen Dorothy Mae Kilgallen (July 3, 1913 – November 8, 1965) was an American columnist, journalist, and television game show panelist. After spending two semesters at the College of New Rochelle, she started her career shortly before her 18th birth ...

and said that in addition to alcohol, his father was addicted to

amphetamines Substituted amphetamines are a class of compounds based upon the amphetamine structure; it includes all derivative compounds which are formed by replacing, or substituting, one or more hydrogen atoms in the amphetamine core structure with sub ...

.Horowitz
p. 215

Magazines

The group of magazines published by St. John included crime fiction (''Manhunt'', ''Mantrap'', ''Menace'', ''Murder'', ''Verdict''), a Western digest (''Gunsmoke''), the scandal-exposé title ''Secret Life'' and the men's magazine ''Nugget''. ''Manhunt'' began January 1953 as the monthly digest, ''Manhunt Detective Story Monthly''. The title was shortened to ''Manhunt'' early in 1956. It expanded to a larger standard-size format from March 1957 to May 1958 but then returned to digest-size and a bimonthly schedule. The popularity of ''Manhunt'' kept it running for 114 issues until April–May 1967. ''Verdict'' ran as a digest-size monthly from June 1953 to September 1953 and was briefly titled ''Verdict Crime Detection Magazine'' (Aug.–Nov. 1956) before a shortening back to ''Verdict''. He acquired the 21-year-old publication ''Magazine Digest'' in 1950.

Comic books

The company's comics include the first 3-D comic book, ''Three Dimension Comics'' #1 (Sept. 1953 oversize format, Oct. 1953 standard-size reprint), featuring the

Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by P ...

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...

character

Mighty Mouse Mighty Mouse is an American animated anthropomorphic superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. The character was originally called Super Mouse, and made his debut in the 1942 short ''The Mouse of Tomorro ...

. According to

, co-creator with the brothers Norman Maurer and Leonard Maurer, it sold an exceptional 1.2 million copies at 25 cents apiece at a time when comics cost a dime. St. John also published the second 3-D comic, the aptly named ''3-D Comics'', the single issue of which incongruously billed itself as "World's First!" Other St. John comic books included the first movie-comedian tie-in series, '' Abbott and Costello Comics''; one of the first proto-

graphic novels A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

, the 25-cent "picture novel" ''It Rhymes with Lust'' (1950); and a five-issue series (Sept. 1953 – Oct. 1954), appearing under three titles, that introduced the enduring Kubert prehistoric hero Tor. In 1953, St. John took over a number of

Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, an ...

comics titles, including the

romance comics Romance comics is a comics genre depicting strong and close romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published t ...

''Cinderella Love'' and ''Romantic Love'', the

Western comic Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier (usually anywhere west of the Mississippi River) and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books ...

''Kid Cowboy'', and the jungle adventure title ''Wild Boy of the Congo''. St. John Publications utilized the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

comic-book artist in mainstream media, Matt Baker, who contributed to the ostensibly true-crime series ''Authentic Police Cases'', the light humor comic ''Canteen Kate'', the romance books ''Cinderella Love'' and ''Teen-Age Romances'', and many others.

Mice and men

St. John acquired the license to publish comics based on the movie cartoons of producer Paul Terry. The

properties, originally adapted to comic books by

Timely Comics Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...

, the 1940s predecessor of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

, included such characters as

Heckle and Jeckle Heckle and Jeckle are postwar animated cartoon characters created by Paul Terry, originally produced at his own Terrytoons animation studio and released through 20th Century Fox. The characters are a pair of identical anthropomorphic yellow-bi ...

, Dinky Duck, Gandy Goose, and Little Roquefort. The first such St. John comic was ''Mighty Mouse'' #5 (Aug. 1947), its numbering taken over from the Timely run. The company expanded into licensed characters from another

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

company, the joint

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Famous Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized control ...

, which included the future

Harvey Comics Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by A ...

characters

Casper the Friendly Ghost Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a pleasant, personable and translucent ghost, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio. The ...

Baby Huey Baby Huey is a gigantic and naïve duckling cartoon character. He was created by Martin Taras for Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios, and became a Paramount cartoon star during the 1950s. Huey first appeared in ''Quack-a-Doodle-Doo'', a ''Nov ...

(who premiered in that ''Casper the Friendly Ghost'' #1 before his March 3, 1950, screen debut, "Quack A Doodle Do"), and

Little Audrey Little Audrey (full name: Audrey Smith) is a fictional character, appearing in early 20th century folklore prior to starring in a series of Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios cartoons from 1947 to 1958. She is considered a variation of the better ...

. Little Eva, Audrey's lesser-known replacement, was added to the publishing schedule in 1952 after the Audrey license passed on to Harvey. Continuing in the popular vein of reprinted comic strips, St. John published comic books of such gag strips as '' Moon Mullins'' and '' Nancy'', and of the NEA syndicate's

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

adventure strip ''Vic Flint''. This

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

fiction by the pseudonymous Michael O'Malley (writer Ernest Lynn and others) and artists Ralph Lane, Dean Miller, Art Sansom and John Lane, was reprinted in the comic books ''Vic Flint'' (#1–5?, Aug. 1948 – April 1949); all but the first issue of ''Fugitives from Justice'' (#1–5, 1953); and some issues of ''Authentic Police Cases'' (#1–38, 1948–1955).St. John
(publisher) at the Grand Comics Database

Romance comics

St. John's first romance comic was '' Teen-Age Romances'' #1 (Jan. 1949), followed by ten issues of romance comics over the next nine months. St. John's ''Hollywood Confessions'' #1 (Oct. 1949) metamorphosed two issues later into ''Hollywood Pictorial'', and then shifted from comic book to movie magazine (''Hollywood Pictorial Western'') with issue #4 (March 1950). That was the first title in what eventually became the St. John magazine group. The company introduced several other, mostly short-lived original series from 1948 through 1953, including a rare, for the company, superhero series, '' Zip-Jet'', starring a yellow-clad "supersonic enemy of evil" reprinted from ''Punch Comics''' "Rocketman" feature. That and the two St. John series titled ''Atom-Age Combat'' directly reflected the era's

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

"nuclear jitters" and popular culture fascination with the breaking of the

sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...

Pioneering "Picture Novels"

In 1950—more than 20 years before Gil Kane & Archie Goodwin's ''

Blackmark ''Blackmark'' is a paperback book (Bantam S5871) published by the American company Bantam Books in January 1971. It is one of the first American graphic novels, predating works such as Richard Corben's ''Bloodstar'' (1976), Jim Steranko's '' C ...

'' and almost 30 before

Don McGregor Donald Francis McGregor (born June 15, 1945) is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics; he is the author of one of the first graphic novels. Early life Don McGregor was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he ...

Paul Gulacy Paul Gulacy (; born August 15, 1953) is an American comics artist best known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and for drawing one of the first graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' 1978 '' Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species'', ...

's ''

Sabre A sabre (French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as t ...

'' and

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was not ...

's ''

A Contract with God ''A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories'' is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Will Eisner published in 1978. The book's short story cycle revolves around poor Jewish characters who live in a tenement in New York City. Eisner pro ...

''—St. John helped pioneer the medium that would become known as the

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

. The digest-sized, adult-oriented "Picture Novel" '' It Rhymes with Lust'' was a

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...

-influenced slice of steeltown life starring a scheming, manipulative redhead named Rust. Touted as "an original full-length novel" on its cover, the book by

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

ous writer "Drake Waller" (

Arnold Drake Arnold Drake (March 1, 1924 – March 12, 2007) was an American comic book writer and screenwriter best known for co-creating the DC Comics characters Deadman and the Doom Patrol, and the Marvel Comics characters the Guardians of the Galaxy, amo ...

and

Leslie Waller Leslie Elson Waller (April 1, 1923 – March 29, 2007) was an American writer. Biography He is a son of Ukrainian immigrants and was born in Chicago, Illinois. He suffered from amblyopia and poliomyelitis as a child, but graduated from Hyde Par ...

), penciler Matt Baker and inker

Ray Osrin Raymond Harold Osrin (October 5, 1928 – April 3, 2001) was an American comic book artist and cartoonist. He was most notable for his work in the Golden Age of Comic Books. Later, he took a position as the editorial cartoonist for the Cleveland ...

, was sold at newsstands. It proved successful enough to lead to an unrelated second picture novel, ''The Case of the Winking Buddha'', by pulp novelist

Manning Lee Stokes Manning Lee Stokes (June 21, 1911 – January 5, 1976) was an American novelist who worked under a large number of pseudonyms. He specialized in pulp fiction, especially in the genres of mystery, detective fiction, westerns, sleaze, spy fictio ...

and illustrator

Charles Raab Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

Comic book titles published

References

External links

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