Talk:Martin Goodman (publisher)

Birth year
A previous writer gave publisher Martin Goodman's birth date as January 18, 1908, but did not cite a source for this. I could find no independent confirmation. Two sources, which I've footnoted (the Les Daniels authorized book, and the index for the Michigan State U. comics collection), each gives 1910. Goodman is probably listed in Who's Who in America, if anyone has access to that as a source, to help solve this discrepancy. -- 24.215.162.25 04:37, 20 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not the "previous writer" and own no old Who's Who, but I do have a .PDF of MG's NYT Obituary notice, from June 11, 1992, page D11. This obit gives no birthdate, but says he died 6/6/1992 at age 84.  1992-84=1908, so it's some confirmation.  If it's trustworthy...  the rest of the article includes "facts" like:


 * "...Goodman... invented such popular characters as Captain America and Spiderman..."


 * ...and further claims that in the '30s MG was a talented and published animation/comic artist! It seems quite likely that the NYT somehow had him mixed up with Kirby.


 * AC 05:50, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

the social security death index and the obit in the Miami papers and his return papers to the USA in 1934 (after a boat cruise - seen on Ancestry.com) gives his birth date as January 18, 1908. I wonder where Daniels and Randy Scott (of MSU) got the 1910 date.

Steven 02:29, 1 March 2007 (UTC)StevenRowe

Goodman pulps
Huh, a list I posted (as Brand Echh, http://www.comicboards.com/invaders/view.php?trd=041126211131) on a message board appears as an external link. I know the message board doesn't have a permanent archive. Guess that's the list that was posted here by someone else. At any rate, I'd like to see entries for at least some of these pulp books, what do you guys think? In particular, "The Angel Detective" (first and only appearance of a crime noir hero very similar to Timely's Angel), the entire "Marvel Science Stories" line (including Marvel Science Stories, Marvel Tales, Marvel Stories and Marvel Science Fiction) and "Ka-zar the Great" (the predecessor of Marvel's Ka-Zar). Marvel Science issues in the 1950s included some early works by L. Ron Hubbard. - Kevingarcia 08:03, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Timely changed to Atlas when?
While revising a convoluted passage, I wound up adding this weasel:


 * "During the 1950s, the company formerly known as Timely was called Atlas Comics"

...obviously it would be better to state when exactly the name change occured. Anybody know? AC 17:31, 16 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, officially there was no name change. During the 1930s and 40s Goodman published comics under "Timely" and "Marvel," and no doubt a few other names. These distinctions were hardly legally binding as they were just names put in the corner of books (most books from that period had no company logo at all). Likewise, "Atlas" was hardly the uniform for all comics published by Goodman in the 1950s. It wasn't until after the Fantastic Four appeared that the phrase "Marvel Comics" became the standard by which all of Goodman's comics were known. Readers, collectors and fans of all types find it easier to just refer to Goodman's comics, 1938 to circa 1950, as "Timely Comics" and all of his horror, crime, science fiction, romance, western and brief super-hero comics of 1950-1961 as "Atlas Comics." There are no official dates, unfortunately. - Kevingarcia 07:29, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what you mean by "no official dates". Published dates and dates of incorporation are part of the public record.  The data is the logos on the covers, editorial content in Goodman's mags, indicias, filings of incorporation, contemporary newspaper articles, etc.  It may be that no scholar has yet attempted an appraisal, but that certainly doesn't mean the data isn't out there.  AC 05:39, 26 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm no expert here, but Goodman did publish comics under multiple companies - Atlas, Timely, Manvis, Red Circle, etc. - through the early 1960s, and he still published a few non-super-hero comics, like Pussycat, through these other entities. The logos put on the cover were often little more than a tag to signify the quality of creators or retain readers. Just because DC (then National and American) put "A Superman Publication" on titles didn't mean the name of the company was "Superman." The name "Marvel" on many 1940s comics (including Mighty Mouse and other funny animal books) did not signify the official name of the publisher. - Kevingarcia 23:12, 1 August 2006 (UTC)


 * IANAE, but I have picked up a lot of bits and pieces. § Martin Goodman published under a vast number of names. For tax and postal permit reasons, his staff published under these names for thirty years. When "Marvel Comic" appeared, the other magazines still appeared under their old publishers, only the comic books were under the aegis of a single entity. § "Timely Comics" produced very few comic books and the logo appeared on the cover of even fewer. The name was used to refer to Goodman's Golden Age comic books in the early days of comic fandom. (It would be interesting to see where Timely was first used in that manner.) § "Atlas" and the globe logo was actually the logo for Goodman's magazine distribution company. Again, early comic book fans used it as a hook to refer to Goodman's post-Golden Age and pre-Silver Age comic books. § There are 'official dates' for when the comic books, and other magazines, appeared, but there as there was no all-encompassing "publisher" there are no dates for when "Timely" became "Atlas".Richard Paul Hall 17:04, 8 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The changeovers from Timely to Atlas and from Atlas to Marvel are covered in great detail at Atlas Comics (1950s). Anyone wanting to take a crack at condensing some of it for the purposes of this article has plenty of footnoted data there to work with. I'd do it, but it's such a relatively small part of his publishing history that it might be better to have a wikilinked sentence. --Tenebrae 17:18, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

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Re: Goodman pulps
I am the one doing detailed work on Goodman's pulps. I took notice of your list but my primary -published- references were Len Robbins "The Pulp Index", Ellis-Gunnison-Locke's "The Adventure House Guide to the Pulps", Cook & Miller's "Mystery, Detection and Espionage Pulps", Miller & Contento's index of SF pulps, somebody's index of digest magazines, and both editions of the Bookery-Fantasy Pulp index & price guide. I have also worked with pulp collectors and their checklists. Your list was over 90% correct.

I have a detailed checklist online. Version 2.0 should be out real soon, as of 2008-4-21, with a lot of new information and cover scans. Richardpaulhall (talk) 05:13, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Certainly there is a great deal that could be written about Goodman's pulp line, but there is very little crossover between Goodman's pulps and his comic books. § "The Angel Detective" : a failed one-shot hero pulp. Outside of the name, there is no connection to the comic book character. § Goodman's science fiction pulps; Dynamic, Marvel Stories, Uncanny Stories, "Marvel Science Stories"; a relatively unimportant group of three science fiction pulps and a digest. Other publishers did science fiction better. § "Ka-zar the Great", remembered now only because the name was used for a Marvel Comics character. One of many Tarzan clones in the pulps, he was the only one to have his own title. But Ki-Gor appeared in over 40 issues of the Fiction House pulp "Jungle Stories". § "Marvel Science" was one of a small number of Goodman fiction digest magazines, the only science fiction title. L. Ron Hubbard's "early works" were in pulp magazines. § As a publisher of pulps, Goodman produced westerns, a strong market. He produced many sport pulp titles but never had a hit like Popular's "Dime Sport" or Street & Smith's "Sport Story". -30- Richard Paul Hall 17:45, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

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Pulps and the Golden Age of Comics
Footnote [5] "Sources differ as to dates and facts surrounding these brief years."

Ro and Offenberger disagree. I have found nothing that documents these early days. The earliest pulp that is part of the "Columbia" group is Mystery Novels Magazine [v 2 #5, January 1935] published by Winford, part of the "Double-Action" Group, aka "Blue Ribbon", which is Columbia. So Winford starts publishing in early to late 1934.

"Newstand Publications" starts with Western Supernovel Magazine [v 1 # 1, May 1933]. But my readings, no listable sources, show Martin Goodman, Louis Silberkleit, and probably Lincoln Hoffman, founded Newsstand Publications, Inc.

Western Fiction Publishing's first offering was Western Fiction Magazine, January 1935. This is the second dba created by what wold become Martin Goodman's "Red Circle" Group. I have not discovered when and why Louis Silberkleit left. Nor what Lincoln Hoffman's role was. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.28.109.236 (talk) 21:07, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

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They took a plane
"...so they took a plane instead, avoiding the Hindenburg disaster." They took a transatlantic commercial airline flight? In 1937? Hmm... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.191.157.159 (talk) 12:12, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Broken Link
Does anyone have an archive of the 2010 Atlas relaunch announcement? AtlasArchive.com no longer exists.

Klayman55 (talk) 22:38, 30 March 2019 (UTC)Klayman55

the hobo camp claim
The article features the claim that Goodman spent time in hobo camps as a young man during the depression. That is utterly false. He worked at the Eastern Distribution Company from 1924 to 1932. The Mutual Magazine Distributors from 1932 to 1935. Then he founded Red Circle in 1935. He was continuously employed during the depression and well off enough to found companies. 107.193.104.112 (talk) 23:25, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

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Trivia
Has there been any publication about the possible inside joke of Martin Goodman being a related (variant) to Victor Timely, as his creation of an umbrella termed Timely Comics eventually became Marvel Comics? A out-of-universe early 1900's connection. 134.79.89.15 (talk) 17:42, 5 March 2023 (UTC)
 * One has informed the Time-Keepers. 134.79.160.199 (talk) 10:36, 2 April 2023 (UTC)