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Centaur Publications (also known as Centaur Comics) was one of the earliest
American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...
publishers. During their short existence, they created several colorful characters, including
Bill Everett William Blake Everett (; May 18, 1917 – February 27, 1973) was an American comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner as well as co-creating Zombie (comics), Zombie and Daredevil (Marvel Comics character), Daredevil ...
's Amazing-Man.


History


Comics Magazine Company

Centaur developed primarily from the Comics Magazine Company, Inc. In 1936, comic-book entrepreneur Everett M. "Busy" Arnold gave financial or other unspecified help to that New York City-based firm, founded by John Mahon and Bill Cook, former employees of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's
National Allied Publications National Comics Publications (NCP; later known as National Periodical Publications Inc. or simply National) was an American comic book publishing company. It was the direct predecessor of modern-day DC Comics. History The corporation was origin ...
(the primary forerunner of
DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
). The duo published the premiere issue of ''The Comics Magazine'' (May 1936), using inventory content from National Allied's submissions. One collector/historian suggests this was in lieu of pay. Among the Comics Magazine Company's original features was ''Dr. Mystic the Occult Detective'' (not to be confused with Mr. Mystic of newspapers' " The Spirit Section"). This two-page feature was by future
Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...
creators
Jerry Siegel Jerome "Jerry" Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996) Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/ Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He was the co-creator of ...
and
Joe Shuster Joseph Shuster ( ; July 10, 1914 – July 30, 1992) was a Canadian-American comic book artist best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with Jerry Siegel, in ''Action Comics'' #1 ( cover-dated June 1938). Shuster was involv ...
, and was part of their Doctor Occult continuity, with the name changed for trademark consideration. This was the beginning of a serial that introduced the villain Koth, and the Seven, that continued into DC's ''More Fun Comics'' #14–17 (issues also designated as vol. 2 #2–5). The company's flagship title, the eponymous ''Comics Magazine'', premiered with a May 1936 cover date. That comic book series featured the first masked
hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
in
American comics American comics may refer to: * History of American comics *American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form ori ...
, writer-artist George Brenner's the
Clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...
, in the November 1936 issue.


Ultem Publications

Another entrepreneur, Harry "A" Chesler, published ''Star Comics'' and ''Star Ranger'' through his own Chesler Publications, each with first issues cover-dated February 1937. These titles were soon bought out by I. W. Ullman and Frank Z. Temerson's Ultem Publications. In September 1937, Ultem acquired the Comics Magazine Company's titles, retaining Chesler as the packager for both his own previous titles and the two that were continued from the Comics Magazine Co."Ultem (1937–1938)
at the
Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...
Financial difficulties forced Ultem to sell some of its properties, including the Clock, to "Busy" Arnold's
Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, ...
.


Centaur Comics

By January 1938, Ultem was bought out by Joe Hardie, Fred Gardner, and Raymond Kelly's Centaur Publications, Inc., which had been publishing pulp magazines since at least 1933. Hardie, Gardner, and Kelly used this base to create Centaur Comics, which began publishing in March 1938. They also drew on the back inventory of stories to fill out the early issues of their new titles with reprints. Centaur Publications, Inc. ceased production at the end of 1940, but continued to produce comics under the name Comic Corporation of America. Centaur ceased publication four years later, primarily due to poor distribution, but in that period had created several colorful characters, including
Bill Everett William Blake Everett (; May 18, 1917 – February 27, 1973) was an American comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner as well as co-creating Zombie (comics), Zombie and Daredevil (Marvel Comics character), Daredevil ...
's Amazing Man. Everett would later go on to comics fame by introducing Namor the Submariner to Timely (later Atlas Comics, then
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
). Everett's first nationally published comic work was the cover of ''Amazing Mystery Funnies'' No. 1 (1938).


Revival

In 1992,
Malibu Comics Malibu Comics Entertainment, Inc. (launched as Malibu Graphics) was an American comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. Notable titles published by Malibu included ''Th ...
revived several Centaur heroes—which by that time had lapsed into public domain—as the
superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...
team The Protectors. Malibu selected R. A. Jones to revamp and write the series. Included were Airman, Amazing Man, the Arrow, the Clock (as a retired mystery man, then the President of the United States, Brian O'Brien), the Fantom of the Fair, also known as Fantoman (renamed by Malibu as Gravestone), the Ferret, Man of War, the Masked Marvel (renamed Night Mask), Mighty Man, Prince Zardi the Eternal Man, and the Shark (renamed Thresher), as well as completely original characters, such as Arc and Aura. Several of these characters had short-lived titles of their own.
AC Comics AC Comics (formerly known as Paragon Publications and Americomics) is a comic book publishing company started by Bill Black.
reprinted a number of stories featuring Centaur characters in their anthologies. R. A. Jones was approached by a small book publisher, Westerntainment, to do a prose novel about the Centaur characters with the idea that the story takes place in their original time period. By December 2014, his novel ''The Steel Ring'' was available. A second book, ''Twilight War'', was green-lit by that time. Those Centaur heroes in ''Ring'' were Amazing Man, the Clock, Ferret, Iron Skull, Man of War and others. In October 2016, ''Twilight War'' was available. Centaur characters for the second novel included Airman, the Arrow, Eternal Man and Phantom Princess. Each novel takes place in a different year of World War II. At the time of the second novel's release, Jones had planned to do a total of seven books in the series for each year of the war.


Characters

*
Airman * Amazing-Man * The Arrow * Black Panther * Blue Fire * Blue Lady * The Buzzard * Chuck Hardy * The Conqueror (enemy of Dean Denton) * The Clock (at the Comics Magazine Co., character sold to
Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, ...
but reprints of CMC stories appeared at Centaur) * Dan Hastings * Dash Dartwell * Dean Denton * Diana Deane * Dirk the demon * Dr. Darkness * Dr. Hypno * Dr. Mystic * Dr. Synthe * The Electric Ray * The Eye * Ermine * Eternal man * Fantom of the Fair/Fantoman * The Ferret * The Fire Man * Iron Skull * King of Darkness * Liberty Guards * Mad Ming * Magician from Mars * Man O'War * Marksman * The Masked Marvel * Meteor Martin * Mighty-Man * Minimidget * Miraco the Great * Nightshade * The Rainbow * The Sentinel * The Shark * Scarlet Ace * Skyrocket Steele * Solarman * Speed Centaur * Super-Ann (two characters of the same name) * T.N.T * TNT Todd * Vapo-man * The Voice * The Witch (Migthy Man villain)


Titles


References


External links

*
AC Comics page about Centaur Publications




* Steranko, Jim (1972). ''The Steranko History of Comics 2''. Supergraphics. pp. 91–109. (offline) {{GoldenAge 1938 comics debuts 1942 comics endings