Eastern Color Printing

An earlier short history of Eastern Color, appeared in this blog (now removed)  and afterwards added some information from Wikipedia.  Wikipedia did have (as of Dec 2011) some major bloopers, basically from not being familiar with the material published. That's not to say I don't have any bloopers....but at least my material is taken mainly from  contemporary newspaper accounts, and   the focus below is on them as a comic book printing company.   I'll be happy to, and want to, update with new information and with\ the names of comic book companies that they printed for.


Eastern Color Printing

  formed in  August 1928 as a  separate company and successor to the newspaper supplement publishing of the Waterbury Republican and  Waterbury American.
  (per Wikipedia: William B. Pape, VP and principal executive officer of the newspapers)

1928 Per Wikipedia - printed "The Funnies" for Dell from 1928 to 1930. Wikipedia say "published", but they mean "printed".

1933-1941 (Per Wikipedia) printed "Gulf Funnies Weekly"

1933 Spring  "Funnies on Parade" published and  printed in Waterbury, 32 pages 10,000 copies

1934 Famous Funnies: Series One - first modern style comic book,  - available for purchase in chain stores.

1934 July (cover date) Famous Funnies #1 - first modern style newsstand comic book

1937 per Wikipedia - builds new plant to print comic strip supplements for newspapers.

March 1942 Curtiss Way Co. sold to Eastern Color.
 Curtiss Way prints covers and binds comic books.

April 1950 Eastern Color prints 1.5 million comics weekly
1954 - Wikipedia cites that Eastern Color prints 40% of all comic books.
1955 -  Eastern Color ends their own comic book titles.

June 1960  Sells the Curtiss Way Co. and the Domonel Co.
   the Curtiss Way division was publishing magazines and comics, and under the name Domonel for their new owner  will continue printing magazines and newspaper inserts.  The former  Curtiss Way company plants are closed in 1968.

January 1961 Eastern Color named co-conspirator in monopoly controlled by the Greater Buffalo Press.

April 1963 - in Appellant court

April 1967  strike

circa December 1967, Eastern Color prints their last Marvel Comics, with cover date of February 1968

1972 sells Waterbury plant, moves printing to Avon.


1973  Wikipedia says stops printing comic books

October 1973 still printing comics sections - shortens some due to newsprint shortage

October 1974 tax court decision

February 1981 toxic gas  released in plant.

March 1983  month old strike settled


February 1987 - wikepedia says fire destroys one of the presses.

1988 - prints comics for 11 newspapers

1989 Wikipedia says loses Sears circular printing account, which was 40% of the business.

July 2001 - the final printing assets were sold, but the name and shell of the company continue to 
exist.

March 2002 -files for bankruptcy Wikipedia says closes June 2002

Dec 2003 former CFO, Lackerbee pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud

June 2004 former CEO, A. Robert Palmer sentenced  -  He was President in 1987-1992+

William J. Pape (1873 -1961)   founder and owner; President  1931-1955
                                                   Chairman of the Board    1957 - 1959
George G. Janosik  (1889-1943)    secretary: 1931- 1937+
                                                    director       +1939+
                                            listed as retired in 1942.
   born in Budapest, immigrated as a child,  business manager for Ticker Publications at least in 1921-1922, and McClure's' Newspaper  Syndicate in 1926. 
Eric Pape   (1899 - 1962)      son of William J. Pape
                                                assistant secretary 1931-1937
                                                secretary    1939 -1948+
                                               vice president   1957  - 1959       
James Darcey  (c1896 - 1964) ,       treasurer 1930 -1945, 1951-1955+
                                  also on staff of the American-Republican, Inc.
William B. Pape (1899 - 1974)  son of William J. Pape
                 vice president 1931- 1957+, President 1959
                 treasurer +1942-1944, 1945-1951
                 Business Manager  1944-1955+
                 Chairman of the Board      
Richard J. Pape            grandson of founder     CEO 1961-1987
A. Robert Palmer       President in 1987-1992+

owners of Eastern Color    -1944-1951-

   American-Republican, Inc. (which was also co- owned by the Pape family);  Eric A. Pape; William B. Pape;  E. Robert Stevenson;  James H. Darcey;  B. H. Dupuy
   
Eric Pape didn't make it to President of Eastern Color, but he was President of the family owned radio stations in the 1950s instead.
Elias Robert Stevenson (1882 - ?)   editor of the newspaper
Benjamin H. Dupuy    (c1877 - 1953)   superintendent of press room

employees known (and connected to comics):
Maxwell Charles Gaines
Harry Wildenberg
Lev Gleason


comic book companies that were clients
Marvel:  1940s to 1968
IW-Super    ?


28 December 2014 (two blog posts from December 14,& 15 2011 combined for clarity. No additional information added.  25 July 2016: information on George Geza Janosik added

Mickey Klar Marks at Timely

Mickey Klar Marks left her mark on comics, literally.  First, She wrote a lot of text pages which are credited to her.   Second, she left her record books to the University of Mississippi, so we know what comic stories she wrote as well, Well sorta, as she didn't list where these stories appeared, but rather when she was paid.
And yes. she was paid for work for Timely.   As one can see from the short list below, she didn't write much for Timely, 1 text story in 1946, 9 humor stories in 1948, and 2 text stories in 1949.

Mickey Klar Marks (1914-1986)
Work for Timely
Record book (alphabetically arranged by UofM).

Annie Oakley: Cooking Without Gas 1948 8 pp
Annie Oakley:  Garden Rodeo 1948 7pp

Heads In The Clouds 1949 3pp text

Millie Does It Up Brown  1948 7pp

Mitzi:  Dean Mitizi 1948 10pp
Mitzi:  Lydia Sees Red 1948 7pp
Mitzi: The Overnight Garden 1948 9pp

Nellie the Nurse:  Nellie Cures All 1948 7pp
Nellie the Nurse:  The Taxi Ambulance 1948 8pp
Nellie the Nurse:  The Victor Doesn't Always Win 1948 7pp

Shred of Evidence 1949 6pp text
The Wrong Foot 1946 6pp text

Using www.atlastales.com and www.comics.org
we see Marks credited with
Junior Miss #37 December 1949  Operation Romance 5pp illustrated story
we can also find
 A Shred of Evidence 2pp text story  code# 5315  Tex Taylor #8 December 1949
 Heads In The Clouds 1pp text story   code#6065   Georgie Comics #24 November 1949
reprinted in Georgie Comics #32 August 1951

Can anyone else figure out which stories these are?

Current longest running series in Comics

When I first starting reading comics,  most comics publishers  would put their numbers on the front cover - and would encourage you to start collecting the series. This led to comic shops with back issues, so that one could buy issues they missed.  I recall buying comics with numbering in the 300s, inspiring me to think that  maybe one day I would  get those earlier numbers.  How things have changed.
    From the March 2014 Diamond catalogue for comics to be sold in May.

Longest running series:

Marvel
   Avengers #30

Dark Horse
   BPRD Hell on Earth #119

DC
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You #45
   (Looney Tunes published bi-monthly, and not out this month)

IDW
 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #34

image
Spawn #243
Witchblade #175
Savage Dragon #197
the Walking Dead #127
Invincible #112

and others over 100 issues
AC:
Femforce #167

Antartic Press:
Gold Digger #212
Ninja High School solicited an issue recently

Archie:
Archie #656
Archie Double Digest #251
Sonic The Hedgehog #261
and other bi-monthly titles not offered this month

Bongo:
no Simpson Comics offered this month

Zenescope:
Grimm Fairy Tales #97 (sure to make 100)

It's possible I missed some, but obviously the trend is toward mini-series and away from long running
comics.  It may make very good economic sense for the company, but it does make long consecutive runs of a title much less likely for a collector to collect.  Therefore a massive change, and likely to deeply affect "the hobby".


personal note: so where have I been?  
1) moved from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains
2) various illnesses and surgeries, an illness  that saps the energy being the worst
3) annoyance at doing research and having folks re-write an article as their own.
And how has your year gone?