Spark Publications was a short-lived

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

publisher in the mid-1940s, during the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era 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 many well-known cha ...

. The company was established and owned by

Ken Crossen Kendell Foster Crossen (July 25, 1910 – November 29, 1981) was an American pulp fiction and science fiction writer. He was the creator and writer of stories about the Green Lama (a pulp and comic book hero) and the Milo March detective and spy ...

, who was the creator and writer of the

Green Lama The Green Lama is a fictional pulp magazine hero of the 1940s, created by American author Kendell Foster Crossen. He is commonly portrayed as a powerful Buddhist Lama, dressing in green robes with a red scarf and using his powerful skill set to ...

. Most of their comics was produced by a studio run by

Jerry Robinson Sherrill David Robinson (January 1, 1922 – December 7, 2011), known as Jerry Robinson, was an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s. He is best known as the co-creator of Robin and th ...

and

Mort Meskin Morton Meskin (May 30, 1916 – March 29, 1995)Social Security Death Index, SS# 071-16-1099. was an American comic book artist best known for his work in the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books, well into the late-1950s and 1960s Silver Age. Early li ...

. Other creators who worked for Spark included Joseph Greene and

Mac Raboy Emmanuel "Mac" Raboy (April 9, 1914 – December 12, 1967) was an American comics artist best known for his comic-book work on Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr.Brent Frankenhoff & Maggie Thompson ''The Greatest Comic Book Covers Of All Time''. ...

. The combination of Robinson, Meskin, and Raboy, using similar styles, gave Spark's books a sort of house style. During their short existence Spark put out fifteen issues of three titles: two issues of ''Atoman'', eight of ''

The Green Lama The Green Lama is a fictional pulp magazine hero of the 1940s, created by American author Kendell Foster Crossen. He is commonly portrayed as a powerful Buddhist Lama, dressing in green robes with a red scarf and using his powerful skill set to ...

'' (a series they picked up from

Crestwood Publications Crestwood Publications, also known as Feature Publications, was a magazine publisher that also published comic books from the 1940s through the 1960s. Its title ''Prize Comics'' contained what is considered the first ongoing horror comic-book fea ...

), and five of ''Golden Lad''. Solely a publisher of superhero comics, the company was too small to survive the shrinking of the market post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Characters

* AtomanAtoman
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on April 6, 2012. *Golden Girl *

Golden Lad Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

(first published by Crestwood/Prize Comics and in

pulp magazines Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

) *Lieutenant Hercules *Magga the Magnificent *Marvin the Great *Shaman & Flame *Swift Arrow

Titles published

*''Atoman Comics'' (2 issues, 1946) *''Golden Lad'' (5 issues, 1945/46) *''Green Lama'' (8 issues, 1944–46)

References

External links

*
Spark characters at International Superheroes
Comic book publishing companies of the United States Defunct comics and manga publishing companies {{comics-company-stub