Status | defunct 1956 |
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Founded | 1951 |
Founder | Stanley P. Morse |
Country of origin | United States of America |
Headquarters location | New York City, New York |
Publication types | Comic books |
Fiction genres | Horror, War, Mystery, Western, Crime, Science fiction, Adventure |
Imprints | Aragon Magazines Gillmor Magazines Medal Comics Media Publications S. P. M. Publications Stanmor Publications Timor Publications |
Key Publications was an American comic-book company founded by Stanley P. Morse that published under the imprints Aragon Magazines, Gillmor Magazines, Medal Comics, Media Publications, S. P. M. Publications, Stanmor Publications, and Timor Publications.
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Stanley P. Morse's[1] Key Publications, based variously at 1775 Broadway,[2] 280 Madison Avenue,[3] 175 Fifth Avenue,[4] and 261 Fifth Avenue[5] in New York City, New York, published comic books from 1951 to 1956.[6] The first, a horror anthology titled Mister Mystery, under the Media Publications imprint, ran 19 issues cover-dated September 1951 to October 1954, and featured much early work by the art team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.[7]
Wrote historian Lawrence Watt-Evans,
His titles often changed publishers from one issue to the next as he dodged creditors or changed partners, and would sometimes have cover art taken from a story from a different issue as deadlines were missed. If he came up a story short, he would simply reprint something. If he couldn't get an artist for a particular slot, he'd have his editor cut up and rearrange the art from an old story to make a new one.[1]
During the 1950s boom in horror comics, Morse "produced several acutely vile horror comics", wrote one historian,[8] and "some of the grossest and most vile" of the time, concurred another.[1] Interviewed for a 2008 book on 1950s horror comics, Morse said, "You did what you had to do — what moved 'em off the racks. ... I don't know what the hell I published. I never knew. I never read the things. I never cared."[8]
Artist Steve Ditko, the future co-creator of Spider-Man, began professionally illustrating comic books at Key in early 1953, illustrating writer Bruce Hamilton's science-fiction story "Stretching Things" for Key's Stanmor Publications, which sold the story to Ajax/Farrell, where it finally found publication in Fantastic Fears #5 (Feb. 1954).[9][10] Ditko's first published work was his second professional story, the six-page "Paper Romance" in Daring Love #1 (Oct. 1953), published by Key's Gillmor Magazines.[11]
Source:[6]