Anglo-American Publishing was a Canadian
comic book
A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
publisher during the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
era. While they published a number of Canadian creations, they also printed Canadian reworkings of scripts bought from American publisher
Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s. Its most popular character was Captain Marvel, the alter ego of radio reporter Billy Bats ...
.
As of 2017, Anglo-American characters have begun appearing in
Chapterhouse Comics
Chapterhouse Comics was a Canadian comics, comic book publishing company that publishes books featuring classic Canadian comics, Canadian comic book characters such as Captain Canuck and Northguard in a unified comic book universe.
In 2020, Cha ...
publications, later acquired by
Lev Gleason Publications
Lev Gleason Incorporated, formerly known as Lev Gleason Publishing, is a Canadian comic book company founded by Leverett Stone Gleason (1898–1971). They were the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, incl ...
.
History
American comic books were barred from crossing the border into Canada when the War Exchange Conservation Act passed in December 1940. In order to fill in the void and supply Canadian kids' appetite for comic books, Anglo American and
Maple Leaf Publishing started publishing comics in March 1941.
Anglo-American's first title that March was ''
Robin Hood and Company'', a tabloid-sized publication which reprinted comic strips,
chief amongst them ''Robin Hood and Company'' by ''
Toronto Telegrams
, which had run in Canadian newspapers since 1935.
Characters
Amongst Anglo-American's characters were:
*Circus Capers
*Clip Thomson & Tub
*Commander Steel
*The Crusaders: Bob Crawford, Paul Leighton and Lois Leighton
*Doctor Destine and Rugged
*Don Shield and His Revrso-Ray
*Freelance, Big John Collins, and Natasha
*Martin Blake The Animal King
*Men of the Mounted
*Michael Lee British Secret Service
*Pat The Air Cadet
*Purple Rider and Purple Kid
*Red Rover and Knuckles
*Robin Hood and his band
*Sooper Dooper
*Terry Kane
See also
*
Canadian comics
*
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era in the history of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and ma ...
*
Hillborough Studios
*
Bell Features
References
Works cited
*
Bell, John. ''
Invaders from the North''.
Dundurn Press
Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult fiction and non-fiction. The company publishes Canadian literature, history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Hum ...
, 2007.
*
Beaty, Bart. "Comic Books and Graphic Novels". ''Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada'' (editor: New, William H.).
University of Toronto Press
The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911.
The press originally printed only examination books and the university calendar. Its first s ...
, 2002. Pages 221–223.
Comic book publishing companies of Canada
Golden Age of Comic Books
Publishing companies established in 1941
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