Magazine Management Company

Magazine Management Co., Inc. was an American publishing company lasting from at least c. 1947 to the early 1970s, known for men's-adventure magazines, risqué men's magazines, humor, romance, puzzle, celebrity/film and other types of magazines, and later adding comic books and black-and-white comics magazines to the mix. It was the parent company of Atlas Comics, and its rebranded incarnation, Marvel Comics.

Founded by Martin Goodman, who had begun his career in the 1930s with pulp magazines published under a variety of shell companies, Magazine Management served as an early employer of such staff writers as Rona Barrett, Bruce Jay Friedman, David Markson, Mario Puzo, Martin Cruz Smith, Mickey Spillane, and Ernest Tidyman.

Subsidiaries of Magazine Management included Humorama, which published digest-sized magazines of girlie cartoons; and Marvel Comics. The company also published black-and-white comics magazines such as ''Vampire Tales'', ''Savage Tales'', and ''Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction'' that utilized primarily Marvel writers and artists.

History

Founded by Martin Goodman, who had begun his career in the 1930s with pulp magazines published under a variety of shell companies, Magazine Management existed as of at least 1947. By the early 1960s, the company occupied the second floor at 60th Street and Madison Avenue. It published men's-adventure magazines with such writers as Bruce Jay Friedman, David Markson, Mario Puzo, Martin Cruz Smith, Mickey Spillane, and Ernest Tidyman; film magazines with writers including Rona Barrett; and humor publications, among other types. By the late 1960s, its men's-adventure magazines such as ''Stag'' and ''Male'' had begun evolving into men's magazines, with pictorials about dancers and swimsuit models replaced by bikinis and discreet nude shots, with gradually fewer fiction stories, and eventually into pornographic magazines.

One division of the company was the Marvel Comics Group. As one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas recalled, "I was startled to learn in '65 that Marvel was just part of a parent company called Magazine Management."

In late 1968, Goodman sold all his publishing businesses to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation, which made the subsidiary Magazine Management Company the parent company of all the acquired Goodman concerns. Goodman remained as publisher until 1972. Perfect Film and Chemical renamed itself Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group in 1973, the first of many changes, mergers, and acquisitions that led to what became the 21st century corporation Marvel Entertainment.

Culture

As writer Dorothy Gallagher reminisced in 1998,

Author Adam Parfrey, in his book about men's adventure magazines, described how,

Titles published

Comics magazines

Humor magazines

*''Best Cartoons from the Editors of Male & Stag'', Magazine Management—published at least from 1973 to 1975)
* ''Cartoon Capers''—published at least from vol. 4, #2 (1969) to vol. 10, #3 (1975)Michigan State University Libraries: Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection

* ''Cartoon Laughs''—confirmed extant: vol 12, #3 (1973)
* Humorama titles

Men's-adventure and erotic magazines

Magazine Management's publications included such men's adventure magazines as '' For Men Only'', ''Male'' and ''Stag'', edited during the 1950s by Noah Sarlat. As well, there were such ephemera as a one-shot black-and-white " nudie cutie" comic, ''The Adventures of Pussycat'' (Oct. 1968), that reprinted some stories of the sexy, tongue-in-cheek secret-agent strip that ran in some of his men's magazines. Marvel Comics writers Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Ernie Hart, and artists Wally Wood, Al Hartley, Jim Mooney, and Bill Everett and "good girl art" cartoonist Bill Ward contributed.

Launched pre-1970

* ''Action Life'' — ran 16 issues, Atlas Magazines
* ''Complete Man'' — published June 1965? to April 1967?, Atlas Magazines/Diamond
* '' For Men Only'' — confirmed at least from vol. 4, #11 (Dec. 1957) through at least vol. 26, #3 (March 1976)
::Published by Canam Publishers at least 1957), Newsstand Publications Inc. (at least 1966–1967), Perfect Film Inc. (at least 1968), Magazine Management Co. Inc. (at least 1970)
* ''Male'' — published at least vol. 1, #2 (July 1950) through 1977
* ''Male Home Companion''
* ''Stag'' — at least 314 issues published February 1942 – Feb. 1976
::Published by Official Communications Inc. (1951), Official Magazines (Feb. 1952 – March 1958), Atlas (July 1958 – Oct. 1968), Magazine Management (Dec. 1970 to end) ''Stag'' (1950)
at the Magazine Data File.
* ''Stag Annual'' — at least 18 issues published 1964–1975
::Published by Atlas (1964–1968), Magazine Management (1970–1975)
* '' Swank''

*''Men'' published by Magazine Management.

1970s and later

* ''FILM International'' — covering R- through X-rated movies Additional on July 24, 2010.

Other magazines

*''Celebrity''—extant in at least 1977
*''Modern Movies''
*''Movie World''
*''Screen Stars'' Slide, p. 243

References

{{Authority control

1947 establishments in New York City
1973 disestablishments in New York (state)
American companies established in 1947
American companies disestablished in 1973
Marvel Comics
Publishing companies established in 1947
Publishing companies disestablished in 1973
Publishing companies based in New York City