Alan Class Comics
Encyclopedia
Alan Class Comics was a British
comics
publishing company between 1959 and 1989, owned by Alan Class (born in London
, England
July 21, 1937). The company produced anthology
titles, reprinting comics stories from many U.S. publishers of the 1940s to 1960s in a black and white digest format
for a U.K. audience.
The various Alan Class black and white anthology titles that appeared in the U.K. from 1959 to 1989 contained reprints of stories ranging from the 1940s to 1960s. These were from U.S. comics publishers such as Timely
, Atlas
- and their later incarnation, Marvel Comics
- ACG
, Charlton
, Archie
and their Red Circle
and M.L.J imprints, Fawcett
, King Features comics and newspaper strips, Lev Gleason and Sterling. Included in these reprints were many early mystery, superhero and monster stories by artists such as Steve Ditko
and Jack Kirby
that are now regarded as classics of the 1950s and early 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s these reprints were the main, if not the only, medium through which most British children were introduced to the aforementioned monster and mystery stories and most non-DC or Marvel superheroes.
Across the titles, the cover art ranged from only slightly adapted versions of the original comics the stories came from to new covers, many produced from adapted pages or panels within the stories or pasted-up montages of various panels. Many of these covers were originally drawn or painted by classic comics artists of the time, especially Ditko and Kirby. Since the books were wider than the American originals, all the cover art was visible where American printings were cut-off . The reason: By the 1960s the width of American comics shrank while artists used the same size art boards. So the American versions look cut-off while Alan Class covers don't. Variations on these covers were often used more than once across the titles, as were the stories. To complicate things further, none of the comics had anything to identify their date of issue on the cover, or inside the comic in many cases; and many were not numbered. This was a deliberate policy to extend the shelf life of the titles - the comics often remained on the racks longer than dated issues from other companies. Additionally, it helped Alan Class devise a system to maximise profits whereby warehouse stocks of unsold comics were returned to him; these were later re-issued over a number of years' summer seasons to capture the market for reading material during the summer holidays. "Every copy was of value to me, and some wholesale houses wanted to 'shred' unsold copies. I insisted that all unsold copies were returned back to me complete … because during the summer period, May–September, a new market would become available. Beach and coastal resorts were thronged with thousands of holidaymakers with their children, who at certain times had to be kept quiet and happy, and what better way than to read a comic".
As well as the monster, horror and mystery story reprints, many Alan Class comics featured superheroes. Early Marvel Comics tales of Fantastic Four
and The Amazing Spider-Man
by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko respectively, Giant-Man
, Ant-Man
and The Wasp
, the Human Torch
, S.H.I.E.L.D.
by Jim Steranko
, odd issues of Iron Man
, X-Men
, Captain America
and Doctor Strange
were published in random order with no regard to continuity - any references to next issue's story in the original run were often covered over before printing, and there was no guarantee that any character would appear in consecutive issues of a title, or even in the same title. One of the few exceptions to this was when 'Creepy Worlds' #32-38 nearly reprinted the first Fantastic Four stories in sequence (missing only #7). Archie/Radio Comics' characters Jaguar, The Fly and Mighty Crusaders
, Charlton's Captain Atom
and Judomaster
, ACG's Magicman and Nemesis
, King Features Flash Gordon
, The Phantom
by Reed Crandall
and Mandrake the Magician
, among others, also appeared on a random basis across many titles. Golden Age superheroes such as Novelty Press
's Blue Bolt
and the 1940s Timely Captain America
and Human Torch
tales were similarly treated. Almost exclusively, only characters published by National Comics
(now DC Comics
) were unrepresented, as the syndicated merchandising deal did not include them. The balance of each comic was made up with short stories from other comic book titles and the occasional text story. Superheroes did not necessarily get cover billing in any issue, they were treated with the same importance as any other story.
During 30 years of publishing, Alan Class produced 26 b/w anthology reprint titles, some 1455 comics. Six of the titles - Astounding Stories, Creepy Worlds, Secrets of the Unknown, Sinister Tales, Suspense Stories and Uncanny Tales - lasted almost through the entire publishing history of the company. However, a number of Alan Class titles were un-numbered short-run or one-off issues. These were experimental titles testing the market for different genres of comics such as Romance (My Secret Confessions, which anthologised ACG love story reprints, and Uncensored Love), War titles (Journey Into Danger #1 - 8, reprinting Atlas war stories, and 2 issues of Tales Of Action), and Westerns (3 issues of Blazing Trails featuring Charlton and Fawcett Western stories, and one issue of Hell-Fire Raiders(1966) reprinting Fawcett Tom Mix
, Tex Ritter
and Lash LaRue stories). None of these went on to become longer-running titles - Alan Class would later say of the whole line "Only the suspense/space stories stood the test of time." Interestingly, although many of the reprints scattered across the successful anthologies were science-fiction stories, titles themed solely on science fiction were comparative failures. Class tried first with one issue of Race For the Moon (1959), anthologising Harvey
science fiction reprints, followed by Outer Space(1961), featuring mainly Charlton reprints, which ran only 10 issues, and Race Into Space the same year, which again only lasted one issue. The same year Class published probably the only science fiction title that was a deliberate one-off - Space Adventures Presents Space Trip To The Moon (1961), which was a reprint of Fawcett's 1950 one shot Destination Moon, itself an adaptation of the 1950 film
of the same name with short story fillers. It is possible that this was part of Class's licence for the Charlton inventory as that company had reprinted the tale in Space Adventures
#20 (March 1956). Later in the 1960s, the science fiction title Out Of This World ran for two separate series, the first run of 23 issues - advertised as a "new Mystery Space series" - mainly reprinting Charlton stories (including the 'Tales of the Mysterious Traveler' by Steve Ditko), and a 10 issue run in the 1970s.
Class also issued several short run titles in the humour and crime genres. There were five issues of 'Just Dennis' (1965) with reprints of the American version of Dennis the Menace
together with Atomic Mouse
and Atom the Cat reprints (the series was not titled 'Dennis the Menace' to avoid copyright issues with DC Thomson's British Dennis the Menace
character), and two issues of 'Super Mouse' featuring Charlton humour reprints. Their one attempt at a themed crime stories title, Tales of the Underworld, featuring Charlton and Fawcett crime stories, only lasted 10 issues.
In 1963, Alan Class bought the inventory of L. Miller & Son, Ltd.
, a U.K. publisher since the 1940s that had also reprinted many U.S. comics in b/w format. This included the asbestos printing plates from which Miller had produced their comics. However, it is unclear what inventory titles this gave Alan Class. Many of the companies that Miller had published material from, such as Charlton and Fawcett, had already been reprinted by Class; and most of the Fawcett superhero material that Miller had specialised in - Captain Marvel
, Captain Marvel Jr. and the rest of the Marvel Family
especially, were not reprinted as a result of the long-running case between National/D.C. and Fawcett over Captain Marvel.
Alan Class Comics lost the right to their leased Marvel Comics characters after 1966, when Odhams Press began publishing their Power Comics
range in January 1967, and licensed the Marvel Comics superheroes for their own titles. There was some overlap, with both companies reprinting Marvel superhero stories for some time. The available reprint material was reduced even further when, sometime between 1968 and 1971, King Features Syndicate sued Alan Class over publishing rights to their titles and characters, including The Phantom. As a result of this diminution of the accessible stories, the Alan Class titles began to issue more and more reprints of the material already printed in earlier issues. The standard 68 page format began to vary, with page counts ranging from 48 - 100 pages, and cover prices from 10p to 55p, with the six surviving long-running titles settling for a while at 48 pages for 25p before continuing an inexorable upward increase in price to 55p in the 1980s. Eventually slow sales and distribution problems combined with the rise of the specialist comic shop and the decline of newsagent purchases, together with easy availability of new U.S. comics and (relatively) back issues ended the line in the late 1980s - "the reality was in 1989 costs were escalating,sales were falling – Marvels were on everybodies wish-list, and my comics were at 55p which I didn’t feel could be increased – enough was enough!" Nothing comparable has been published in the U.K since.
On 15 May 2005 30th Century Comics in London announced that they had obtained the rights to sell Alan Class's personal collection, including the original printing plates for the comics range.
Edited by comic historian Denis Gifford
, and named after one of the earliest comic characters, 'Ally Sloper
' showed a love for old British comics, comic strips and artists. With a cover strap-line "First British comic hero 1867, First British comic magazine 1976," Ally Sloper contained an eclectic mix of strips and articles. Some were in the style of British comic strips from the early 20th century, while others were created by classic artists such as Frank Hampson's 'Dawn O'Dare' and Frank Bellamy
, who provided Swade a 3-page black and white western without words for issue #1 (his last work as he died before completing the second strip). Also featured were newer British artists such as Kevin O'Neill (issue #2) and Hunt Emerson (issue #4).
Unfortunately, the title suffered from poor distribution, and (although critically acclaimed by the fan press) insufficient public interest, and it disappeared from the market after only four months.
A definitive catalogue of the contents of each issue has never been published. 30th Century Comics website has probably the most complete information publicly available on Alan Class Comics contents.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
publishing company between 1959 and 1989, owned by Alan Class (born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
July 21, 1937). The company produced anthology
Comics anthology
Comics anthologies collect works in the medium of comics that are too short for standalone publication.- U.S. :- UK :British comics have a long tradition publishing comics anthologies, often weekly...
titles, reprinting comics stories from many U.S. publishers of the 1940s to 1960s in a black and white digest format
Digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches, but can also be 5⅜ x 8⅜ inches and 5½ x 7½ inches. These sizes have evolved from the printing press operation end...
for a U.K. audience.
Background
Alan Class initially imported limited numbers of remaindered copies of American movie, romance and detective magazines for U.K. distribution. To avoid the cost, supply and importation difficulties he had encountered, in 1958 he set up a publishing business to produce his own magazines and entered into an agreement with an American comic and comic strip syndication company for the rights to reproduce U.S. comic strips and titles under their control for a U.K audience.The various Alan Class black and white anthology titles that appeared in the U.K. from 1959 to 1989 contained reprints of stories ranging from the 1940s to 1960s. These were from U.S. comics publishers such as Timely
Timely Comics
Timely Comics, an imprint of Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics....
, Atlas
Atlas Comics
Atlas Comics may refer to* Atlas Comics , one of the two comic publishing companies that would be the forerunner of Marvel Comics* Seaboard Periodicals, founded by Timely/Atlas /Marvel founder, a short-lived comic publisher that published under the Atlas Comics name and referred to as...
- and their later incarnation, Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
- ACG
American Comics Group
American Comics Group was a New York City-based comic book publisher which operated during the Golden and Silver Age of comic books. ACG published one of the first horror comics titles, Adventures into the Unknown. Another of ACG's claims to fame was the character of Herbie Popnecker, who starred...
, Charlton
Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut...
, Archie
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
and their Red Circle
Red Circle Comics
Red Circle Comics was an imprint used by Archie Comics Publications, Inc. to publish non-Archie characters, especially their superheroes, in the 1970s and '80s.-Phase 1: 1970s:...
and M.L.J imprints, Fawcett
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...
, King Features comics and newspaper strips, Lev Gleason and Sterling. Included in these reprints were many early mystery, superhero and monster stories by artists such as Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko
Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange....
and Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
that are now regarded as classics of the 1950s and early 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s these reprints were the main, if not the only, medium through which most British children were introduced to the aforementioned monster and mystery stories and most non-DC or Marvel superheroes.
Across the titles, the cover art ranged from only slightly adapted versions of the original comics the stories came from to new covers, many produced from adapted pages or panels within the stories or pasted-up montages of various panels. Many of these covers were originally drawn or painted by classic comics artists of the time, especially Ditko and Kirby. Since the books were wider than the American originals, all the cover art was visible where American printings were cut-off . The reason: By the 1960s the width of American comics shrank while artists used the same size art boards. So the American versions look cut-off while Alan Class covers don't. Variations on these covers were often used more than once across the titles, as were the stories. To complicate things further, none of the comics had anything to identify their date of issue on the cover, or inside the comic in many cases; and many were not numbered. This was a deliberate policy to extend the shelf life of the titles - the comics often remained on the racks longer than dated issues from other companies. Additionally, it helped Alan Class devise a system to maximise profits whereby warehouse stocks of unsold comics were returned to him; these were later re-issued over a number of years' summer seasons to capture the market for reading material during the summer holidays. "Every copy was of value to me, and some wholesale houses wanted to 'shred' unsold copies. I insisted that all unsold copies were returned back to me complete … because during the summer period, May–September, a new market would become available. Beach and coastal resorts were thronged with thousands of holidaymakers with their children, who at certain times had to be kept quiet and happy, and what better way than to read a comic".
As well as the monster, horror and mystery story reprints, many Alan Class comics featured superheroes. Early Marvel Comics tales of Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
and The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...
by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko respectively, Giant-Man
Giant-Man
Giant-Man is the alias used by a number of Marvel Comics' fictional characters :* Henry Pym, the original character who has also used other aliases, like Ant-Man and Yellowjacket....
, Ant-Man
Ant-Man
Ant-Man is the name of several fictional characters appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Ant-Man was originally the superhero persona of Hank Pym, a brilliant scientist who invented a substance that allowed him to change his size...
and The Wasp
Wasp (comics)
The Wasp is a fictional character, a superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe and founding member of The Avengers. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Tales to Astonish #44 ....
, the Human Torch
Human Torch
The Human Torch is a fictional character and superhero appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, he is a member of the superhero team the Fantastic Four, debuting in The Fantastic Four #1...
, S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage and a secret military law-enforcement agency in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 , it often deals with superhuman threats....
by Jim Steranko
Jim Steranko
James F. Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator....
, odd issues of Iron Man
Iron Man
Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...
, X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
, Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
and Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in Strange Tales #110 ....
were published in random order with no regard to continuity - any references to next issue's story in the original run were often covered over before printing, and there was no guarantee that any character would appear in consecutive issues of a title, or even in the same title. One of the few exceptions to this was when 'Creepy Worlds' #32-38 nearly reprinted the first Fantastic Four stories in sequence (missing only #7). Archie/Radio Comics' characters Jaguar, The Fly and Mighty Crusaders
Mighty Crusaders
The Mighty Crusaders is a fictional superhero team published by Archie Comics. The team originally appeared in Fly-Man #31, #32 and #33 before being launched in its own title, Mighty Crusaders. Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, the series lasted seven issues before being cancelled. The...
, Charlton's Captain Atom
Captain Atom
Captain Atom is a fictional comic book superhero that has existed in three basic incarnations. Created by writer Joe Gill and artist/co-writer Steve Ditko, he first appeared in Space Adventures #33 . Captain Atom was created for Charlton Comics but was later acquired by DC Comics and revised for...
and Judomaster
Judomaster
Judomaster is the name given to three fictional superheroes published by DC Comics. The first Judomaster debuted in Special War Series #4 published by Charlton Comics, and was created by Joe Gill and Frank McLaughlin.-Hadley Jagger:...
, ACG's Magicman and Nemesis
Nemesis (comics)
Nemesis, in comics may refer to:* Nemesis , a superhero in the DC Universe, affiliated with the Suicide Squad* Nemesis , a comic book series from Marvel's Icon imprint written by Mark Millar, with art by Steve McNiven...
, King Features Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
, The Phantom
The Phantom
The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional African country Bengalla.The Phantom is...
by Reed Crandall
Reed Crandall
Reed Crandall was an American illustrator and penciller of comic books and magazines. He was best known for the Quality Comics character Blackhawk and for stories in the critically acclaimed EC Comics of the 1950s.Crandall was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2009.-Early...
and Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk , which began June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate.Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964,...
, among others, also appeared on a random basis across many titles. Golden Age superheroes such as Novelty Press
Novelty Press
Novelty Press was an American Golden Age comic-book publisher that operated from 1940–1949. It was the comic book imprint of Curtis Publishing Company, publisher of The Saturday Evening Post...
's Blue Bolt
Blue Bolt
Blue Bolt is a fictional American comic book superhero created by writer-artist Joe Simon in 1940, during the period fans and historians refer to as the Golden Age of Comic Books.-Publication history:...
and the 1940s Timely Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
and Human Torch
Human Torch
The Human Torch is a fictional character and superhero appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, he is a member of the superhero team the Fantastic Four, debuting in The Fantastic Four #1...
tales were similarly treated. Almost exclusively, only characters published by National Comics
National Comics
National Comics may refer to:* National Comics: An early name for the comic book publisher known later as DC Comics.* National Comics : a 1940's comic book series published by Quality Comics....
(now DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
) were unrepresented, as the syndicated merchandising deal did not include them. The balance of each comic was made up with short stories from other comic book titles and the occasional text story. Superheroes did not necessarily get cover billing in any issue, they were treated with the same importance as any other story.
Publication history
Alan Class Comics began as 68 page titles, containing a mix of stories reproduced in black and white with colour covers, and selling for 1s. Each issue measured 235mm x 185mm (9 1/4" x 7 1/4"), slightly wider than the original American versions allowing for all of the original cover art to be seen which was cut in the originals.During 30 years of publishing, Alan Class produced 26 b/w anthology reprint titles, some 1455 comics. Six of the titles - Astounding Stories, Creepy Worlds, Secrets of the Unknown, Sinister Tales, Suspense Stories and Uncanny Tales - lasted almost through the entire publishing history of the company. However, a number of Alan Class titles were un-numbered short-run or one-off issues. These were experimental titles testing the market for different genres of comics such as Romance (My Secret Confessions, which anthologised ACG love story reprints, and Uncensored Love), War titles (Journey Into Danger #1 - 8, reprinting Atlas war stories, and 2 issues of Tales Of Action), and Westerns (3 issues of Blazing Trails featuring Charlton and Fawcett Western stories, and one issue of Hell-Fire Raiders(1966) reprinting Fawcett Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
, Tex Ritter
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...
and Lash LaRue stories). None of these went on to become longer-running titles - Alan Class would later say of the whole line "Only the suspense/space stories stood the test of time." Interestingly, although many of the reprints scattered across the successful anthologies were science-fiction stories, titles themed solely on science fiction were comparative failures. Class tried first with one issue of Race For the Moon (1959), anthologising Harvey
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...
science fiction reprints, followed by Outer Space(1961), featuring mainly Charlton reprints, which ran only 10 issues, and Race Into Space the same year, which again only lasted one issue. The same year Class published probably the only science fiction title that was a deliberate one-off - Space Adventures Presents Space Trip To The Moon (1961), which was a reprint of Fawcett's 1950 one shot Destination Moon, itself an adaptation of the 1950 film
Destination Moon (film)
Destination Moon is an American science fiction feature film produced by George Pal, who later produced When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine. Pal commissioned the script by James O'Hanlon and Rip Van Ronkel...
of the same name with short story fillers. It is possible that this was part of Class's licence for the Charlton inventory as that company had reprinted the tale in Space Adventures
Space Adventures
Space Adventures, Ltd. is a Virginia, USA-based space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. , offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights , and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours...
#20 (March 1956). Later in the 1960s, the science fiction title Out Of This World ran for two separate series, the first run of 23 issues - advertised as a "new Mystery Space series" - mainly reprinting Charlton stories (including the 'Tales of the Mysterious Traveler' by Steve Ditko), and a 10 issue run in the 1970s.
Class also issued several short run titles in the humour and crime genres. There were five issues of 'Just Dennis' (1965) with reprints of the American version of Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace (U.S.)
Dennis the Menace is a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip originally created, written and illustrated by Hank Ketcham. It debuted on March 12, 1951 in 16 newspapers and was originally distributed by Post-Hall Syndicate...
together with Atomic Mouse
Atomic Mouse
Atomic Mouse is a funny animal superhero created in 1953 by Al Fago for Charlton Comics, depicted as an ordinary mouse who is shrunk by an evil magician and given U-235 pills that grant him super powers, which he uses in his fight for justice against the evil Count Gatto...
and Atom the Cat reprints (the series was not titled 'Dennis the Menace' to avoid copyright issues with DC Thomson's British Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace (UK)
Dennis the Menace, later called Dennis the Menace and Gnasher and now Dennis and Gnasher, is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic The Beano, published by D. C...
character), and two issues of 'Super Mouse' featuring Charlton humour reprints. Their one attempt at a themed crime stories title, Tales of the Underworld, featuring Charlton and Fawcett crime stories, only lasted 10 issues.
In 1963, Alan Class bought the inventory of L. Miller & Son, Ltd.
L. Miller & Son, Ltd.
L. Miller & Son, Ltd. was a British publisher of magazines, comic books, and pulp fiction intended primarily to take advantage of the British ban on importing printed matter. Between 1943 and 1966, the firm published British editions of many American comic books, primarily those of Fawcett Comics...
, a U.K. publisher since the 1940s that had also reprinted many U.S. comics in b/w format. This included the asbestos printing plates from which Miller had produced their comics. However, it is unclear what inventory titles this gave Alan Class. Many of the companies that Miller had published material from, such as Charlton and Fawcett, had already been reprinted by Class; and most of the Fawcett superhero material that Miller had specialised in - Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
, Captain Marvel Jr. and the rest of the Marvel Family
Marvel Family
The Marvel Family is a group of fictional characters, a team of superheroes in the Fawcett Comics and DC Comics universes. Created in 1942 by writer Otto Binder and Fawcett artists C. C...
especially, were not reprinted as a result of the long-running case between National/D.C. and Fawcett over Captain Marvel.
Alan Class Comics lost the right to their leased Marvel Comics characters after 1966, when Odhams Press began publishing their Power Comics
Power Comics
Power Comics was an imprint of the British comics publisher Odhams Press that was particularly notable for its use of material reprinted from American Marvel Comics. Appearing chiefly during the years 1967 and 1968, the Power Comics line consisted of five weekly titles: Wham!, Smash!, Pow!,...
range in January 1967, and licensed the Marvel Comics superheroes for their own titles. There was some overlap, with both companies reprinting Marvel superhero stories for some time. The available reprint material was reduced even further when, sometime between 1968 and 1971, King Features Syndicate sued Alan Class over publishing rights to their titles and characters, including The Phantom. As a result of this diminution of the accessible stories, the Alan Class titles began to issue more and more reprints of the material already printed in earlier issues. The standard 68 page format began to vary, with page counts ranging from 48 - 100 pages, and cover prices from 10p to 55p, with the six surviving long-running titles settling for a while at 48 pages for 25p before continuing an inexorable upward increase in price to 55p in the 1980s. Eventually slow sales and distribution problems combined with the rise of the specialist comic shop and the decline of newsagent purchases, together with easy availability of new U.S. comics and (relatively) back issues ended the line in the late 1980s - "the reality was in 1989 costs were escalating,sales were falling – Marvels were on everybodies wish-list, and my comics were at 55p which I didn’t feel could be increased – enough was enough!" Nothing comparable has been published in the U.K since.
On 15 May 2005 30th Century Comics in London announced that they had obtained the rights to sell Alan Class's personal collection, including the original printing plates for the comics range.
Ally Sloper
The Alan Class titles in themselves did not directly reflect that Class was interested in comics above and beyond his publishing them. However, in the 1970s, Alan Class published four issues of Ally Sloper (October 1976 - February 1977), a magazine in a totally different style to the all previous Alan Class publications.Edited by comic historian Denis Gifford
Denis Gifford
Denis Gifford was a British writer. He specialized in the history of popular entertainments such as comic books and horror films...
, and named after one of the earliest comic characters, 'Ally Sloper
Ally Sloper
Alexander "Ally" Sloper is one of the earliest fictional comic strip characters. Red-nosed and blustery, an archetypal lazy schemer often found "sloping" through alleys to avoid his landlord and other creditors, he was created for the British magazine Judy, by writer and fledgling artist Charles H...
' showed a love for old British comics, comic strips and artists. With a cover strap-line "First British comic hero 1867, First British comic magazine 1976," Ally Sloper contained an eclectic mix of strips and articles. Some were in the style of British comic strips from the early 20th century, while others were created by classic artists such as Frank Hampson's 'Dawn O'Dare' and Frank Bellamy
Frank Bellamy
Frank Bellamy was a British comics artist, best known for his work on the Eagle comic, for which he illustrated Heros the Spartan and Fraser of Africa. He reworked its flagship Dan Dare strip....
, who provided Swade a 3-page black and white western without words for issue #1 (his last work as he died before completing the second strip). Also featured were newer British artists such as Kevin O'Neill (issue #2) and Hunt Emerson (issue #4).
Unfortunately, the title suffered from poor distribution, and (although critically acclaimed by the fan press) insufficient public interest, and it disappeared from the market after only four months.
List of Alan Class Comics titles
Most Alan Class comics were undated, and many un-numbered. The following is a list of the Alan Class titles, with dates of first publication when known.A definitive catalogue of the contents of each issue has never been published. 30th Century Comics website has probably the most complete information publicly available on Alan Class Comics contents.
- Amazing Stories – 2 issues (dates unknown)
- Astonishing Stories – 1 issue (date unknown)
- Astounding Stories – #1 - 195 (February 1966 - April 1989)
- Blazing Trails – #1 - 3 (dates unknown)
- Creepy Worlds – #1 - 249 (August 1962 - April 1989)
- Eerie Tales – 1 issue (date unknown)
- Hell-Fire Raiders – 1 issue (1966)
- Journey Into Danger #1 - 8 (dates unknown)
- Just Dennis – 5 issues (1965)
- My Secret Confessions – 1 issue (date unknown, 1966?)
- Out Of This World (series 1) #1 - 23 (dates unknown 1960s)
- Out of This World (series 2) #1 - 10 (dates unknown 1970s)
- Outer Space – 10 issues (1961)
- Race For the Moon 1 issue (1959)
- Race Into Space – 1 issue (1961)
- Secrets of the Unknown – #1 - 249 (October 1962 - March 1989)
- Sinister Tales – #1 - 227 (January 1964 - January 1989)
- Space Adventures Presents Space Trip To The Moon – 1 issue (1961)
- Super Mouse – 2 issues (dates unknown)
- Suspense Stories – #1 - 241 issues (May 1963 - March 1989)
- Tales Of Action – 2 issues (dates unknown)
- Tales Of The Supernatural – 1 issue (date unknown)
- Tales of the Underworld – #1 - 10 (date unknown)
- Uncanny Tales – #1 - 187? (May 1963 - unknown)
- Uncensored Love – 1 issue (date unknown)
- Weird Planets – #1 - 23? (1962–1963)
- Ally Sloper #1 - 4 (October 1976 - January 1977)