Avon (publishers)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Avon Publications was a paperback book and comic book publisher. It today exists only as an imprint of HarperCollins, publishing primarily romance novels and some books in other genres.[1]
Avon Books was founded in 1941 by the American News Corporation to create a rival to Pocket Books. They hired Joseph and Edna Meyers to establish the company. They bought out J.S. Ogilvie Publications, a pulp magazine publisher, and renamed it "Avon Publications". They also got into comic books.
In 1953, Avon Books sold books in the price range of 25¢ to 35¢ and were selling more than 20 million copies a year. Their books were characterized by Time Magazine as "westerns, whodunits and the kind of boy-meets-girl story that can be illustrated by a ripe cheesecake jacket." [2]
Avon was bought by the Hearst Corporation in 1959.[3] In 1999, the News Corporation bought out Hearst's book division, and merged Avon with HarperCollins.
[edit] Avon Comics
From at least 1945 through the mid-1950s, Avon published comic books. Its titles included horror fiction, science fiction, Westerns, romance comics, war comics and funny-animal comics. Most titles lasted only a few issues, with the six longest-running detailed in the complete list below:
- All True Detective
- Atomic Spy Cases
- Attack On Planet Mars
- Avon Fantasy - An Earth Man On Venus
- Bachelor's Diary
- Badmen of the West
- Badmen of Tombstone
- Behind Prison Bars
- Betty and Her Steady
- The Blackhawk Indian Tomahawk War
- Blazing Six Guns
- Boy Detective
- Buddies in the U.S. Army
- Butch Cassidy
- Campus Romance
- Captain Silver's Log of the Sea Hound
- Captain Steve Savage (1950 and 1954 series)
- Chief Crazy Horse
- Chief Victorio's Apache Massacre
- City of the Living Dead
- Complete Romance
- Cow Puncher
- Custer's Last Fight
- The Dalton Boys
- Davy Crockett
- Diary of Horror
- Eerie (1947 series) and Eerie (17 issues, 1951-53)
- Escape from Devil's Island
- Famous Gangsters
- Fighting Daniel Boone
- Fighting Davy Crockett
- Fighting Indians of the Wild West! (plus 1952 annual)
- Fighting Undersea Commandos
- Flying Saucers (1950 and 1952 series)
- For a Night of Love
- Frontier Romances
- Funnies Annual
- Funny Tunes
- Gangsters and Gun Molls
- Geronimo
- Going Steady with Betty
- Jesse James (24 issues plus 1952 annual, 1950-56; no issues #10-14 published)
- King of the Bad Men of Deadwood
- King Solomon's Mines
- Kit Carson
- Last of The Comanches
- Little Jack Frost
- The Mask of Dr. Fu Manchu
- The Masked Bandit
- Merry Mouse
- Molly O'Day
- Murderous Gangsters
- Night of Mystery
- Out of This World
- Out of This World Adventures
- Outlaws of the Wild West
- Pancho Villa
- Parole Breakers
- Penny
- Peter Rabbit Comics (#1-6, 1947-1949) and Peter Rabbit (#7-34, 1950-56)
- Peter Rabbit Easter Parade (one-shot)
- Peter Rabbit Jumbo Book (one-shot)
- Phantom Witch Doctor
- Pixie Puzzle Rocket To Adventureland (one-shot)
- Police Line-Up
- Prison Break!
- Prison Riot
- Realistic Romances
- Red Mountain featuring Quantrell's Raiders
- Robotmen of the Lost Planet
- Rocket to the Moon"
- Romantic Love (1949 and 1954 series)
- The Saint (12 issues, 1947-1952)
- The Savage Raids of Chief Geronimo
- Sea Hound
- Secret Diary of Eerie Adventures
- Sensational Police Cases
- Sheriff Bob Dixon's Chuck Wagon
- Sideshow
- Slave Girl Comics
- Space Comics
- Space Detective
- Space Mouse
- Space Thrillers
- Sparkling Love
- Spotty the Pup
- Strange Worlds (22 issues, 1950-1952, 1954-1955)
- Super Pup
- Teddy Roosevelt and His Rough Riders
- Television Puppet Show
- U.S. Marines in Action
- U.S. Paratroops
- U.S. Tank Commandos
- Undersea Fighting Commandos
- The Underworld Story'
- The Unknown Man
- War Dogs of the U.S. Army
- Western Bandits
- White Chief of the Pawnee Indians
- White Princess of the Jungle
- Wild Bill Hickock (28 issues, 1949-1956)
- Witchcraft
- With the U.S. Paratroops Behind Enemy Lines
