Talk:Max Gaines

Untitled
M. C. Gaines was born in the 1890's, not 1922.

April 29 edits
I've just spent just under one hour trying to verify the information than an anonymous IP put in regarding Max Gaines' birthdate and birth name. The Social Security Death Index has nothing under any combination I did of first name Maxwell, Max or M, last name Gaines, Ginsburg or Ginzburg, on "exact name" or "Soundex" searches and both with and without the 1947 death year. Nothing turned up.

A cite this editor supplied to Gaines draft card linked to a site requiring registration, which Wikipedia disallows per policy here.

Obviously, I did a Google search and found no independent confirmation online. The next step is to use print sources.

To whomever added these edits, I and I know other editors applaud and respect your work to help provide an accurate, encyclopedic record. If the facts are as you say, then they will exist somewhere verifiable -- perhaps Who's Who in America or in some other authoritative source. --Tenebrae 13:48, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

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Hi Tenebrae,

If you look on New York Times (1857-Current file); Aug 30, 1947; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2003) pg. 17, there is an article called "BLAMED IN BOAT CRASH" by Lake Placid Coroner and it says that Max Gaines was 53 when he died.

Sorry about giving a link that required registration... I really didn't mean to. How can I upload M.C. Gaines' 1942 U.S. World War II Draft Registration Card to this site? Or can I just e-mail it to you?

As for M.C. Gaines having the birthname of Ginsburg... Al Feldstein is still alive and can confirm it. You can contact Al on his website: http://www.alfeldstein.com/

The story of why Max changed his last name from Ginsburg to Gaines goes like this:

"...M. C. changed his name from Ginsberg (or Ginzberg) to Gaines as a young adult...at a time in America when anti-Semitism was rampant and when having an obvious Jewish name was a detriment to business and financial success.

MAD-ly yours, Al Feldstein"

The MAD World Of William M. Gaines by Frank Jacobs (1972) mentions that Bill Gaines' uncle Will, the one who told Bill about his father's boating accident in 1947, had the last name of Ginsburg. Look up "Ginsburg, Will (uncle)" in the index.

Hope this helps,

Jeffrey ^_^ (teto7totoro at yahoo dot com)


 * Well, this does clear up that the spelling of his birth name really is in question. People in the same immigrant family sometimes do spell the last name differently. In my own family, come to that.


 * If the Times article gives his age as 53 in 1947, then "c. 1894" is verified (since we don't know if he would have turned 54 in 1947).


 * Information obtained in an e-mail from Al Feldstein, though, just isn't usable. That would be what Wikipedia calls original research, which is one of main, main taboos. If we can find an existing citation, in print or online, for these points ... well, we need to, actually. I'll look in my print library, you nose around, let's see what we can come up with.

It's good working with you, and really, for goodness' sake, Max Gaines deserves a proper bio here if anyone does! --Tenebrae 00:58, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Re: sale of All-American Comics
On this page, it lists the sale occurred in 1944. On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-American_Publications it lists 1946. http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/DCHISTORY/DCHISTORY-1a.htm lists the sale occurred in Sept 1945, and appeared in comic books cover-dated Nov 1945. http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/DCHISTORY/DCHISTORY-2.htm goes on to list March 1946 comic books' Statement of Ownership reflected the change. The same page lists All-American and Detective were merged into National (publishers of Superman) in Sept 1946. Hope this helps! Darci (talk) 01:05, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Need citation for rescue of child in boating accident
The New York Times article provided as a cite does not mention this. Cshay (talk) 06:11, 29 April 2015 (UTC)


 * I've removed mention of the child rescue until it can reliably cited. --Tenebrae (talk) 20:11, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

Birth name
The article from the Bryan, Texas, newspaper The Eagle says right at top, "Editor’s note: Much of this column is condensed from the Fall 2003 issue of Reform Judaism in an article titled “Kings of Comics: How Jews Created the Comic Book Industry” by Arie Kaplan." Therefore the original article should be used, since the small-town Texas paper created an apparent serial-transmission error by copying "Ginzberg" from Reform Judaism as "Ginsburg". --Tenebrae (talk) 20:11, 24 March 2016 (UTC)