Myron Fass
Encyclopedia
Myron Fass was an American
publisher
of pulp magazine
s and comic books, operating from the 1950s through the 1990s under a multitude of company names, including M. F. Enterprises and Eerie Publications
. At his height in the 1970s, Fass was known as the biggest — and sleaziest — multi-title newsstand magazine publisher in the country. He put out up to fifty cheaply produced titles a month, many of them one-offs, covering any subject matter he thought would sell, from soft-core pornography to professional wrestling
, UFOs
to punk rock
, horror film
s to firearm
magazines.
, romance
, Western
, and other comics for a multitude of publishers, including Ace Periodicals, Avon Comics, Charlton Comics
, Fawcett Comics
, Feature Comics
, Fox Comics, Lev Gleason Publications
, Magazine Enterprises
, Marvel Comics
, Story Comics, Street & Smith Comics, and Trojan Comics. Fass produced some of this material with the S. M. Iger Studio from 1949–1953. For Toby Press
, Fass was a regular artist on Dr. Anthony King, Hollywood Love Doctor, Great Lover Romances, John Wayne Adventure Comics
, Tales of Horror, and War.
's Mad
magazine. (Fass was a huge admirer of EC publisher William Gaines
.) The girlie magazine Foto-Rama and the monster magazine Shock Tales soon followed.
Backed by William Harris
, who invented the Harris Press (still used today), by the beginning of the 1960s Fass was publishing his own material under the company name Tempest Publications. It was during this period that Fass launched the pin-up girlie mags Pic, Buccaneer, Poorboy, and Jaguar.
Other Tempest publications were the "newspaper magazine" Quick, Companion, and the over-the-top tabloid
National Mirror. Al Goldstein
worked for Fass in 1968 before starting Screw magazine, writing for the National Mirror, the new tabloid Hush-Hush News, and the digest-sized girlie titles Pic and Bold.
In 1966 William Harris's son Stanley R. Harris partnered with Fass to form the black-and-white horror magazine publisher Eerie Publications
. Eerie's output was a low-rent response to the popularity of the Warren Publishing
horror comic magazines Creepy
and Eerie
. Fass's titles, all of which featured grisly, lurid color covers, included Weird, Horror Tales, Terror Tales
, Tales from the Tomb, Tales of Voodoo, and Witches' Tales. Fass's brother Irving worked as an art director, and an old collaborator from the Iger studio days, Robert W. Farrell, had the title of publisher.
Eerie stayed in business until 1981, although co-owner Harris left in 1976 after a series of disputes with the mercurial Fass. Harris immediately went on to form the consumer magazine publisher Harris Publications
.
Also in 1966, Fass formed M. F. Enterprises, a four-color comic publisher whose main product was Captain Marvel, a short-lived attempt to revive the long-dormant Fawcett Comics superhero
in slightly different form. M. F. Enterprises only published comics for two years, though Fass continued to use the company name for his magazines.
In the 1970s, under the company name Countrywide Publications, Fass began producing more one-shots and pushing even further the boundaries of good taste, with magazines on such topics as the Kennedy assassination, Elvis Presley
's death, and the shooting of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt
. As such, Fass was responsible for almost every bottom-of-the barrel publication to come out in the decade. If any pulp magazine was successful enough, his company would imitate it — often multiple times. If anybody was famous, he published a quickie magazine to cash in on their fame. Fass's standard of success was 20,000 copies sold per issue. During this period, Fass was known to wear a loaded gun to work. He lived in New Jersey
with his wife Phyllis and an assortment of luxury automobiles.
By the mid-1980s Fass had become increasingly erratic, both in his behavior and publishing output. He moved to Ocala, Florida
, where he ran a gun shop and continued to publish (mostly firearm-related) magazines. During this period, Fass published under the name CFV Publishers and called himself "Chief Merion Riley-Foss." His son David worked with him.
In the mid-1990s, Fass and his son David were still in Florida publishing gun magazines and other titles under the company name Creative Arts. According to former employee Jeff Goodman, by this time Fass was showing signs of paranoia
and would not talk to anyone.
's Astro City
series features an homage to Fass in its Fass Gardens location.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
publisher
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
of pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
s and comic books, operating from the 1950s through the 1990s under a multitude of company names, including M. F. Enterprises and Eerie Publications
Eerie Publications
Eerie Publications was a publisher of black-and-white horror-anthology comics magazines. Less well-known and more downscale than the field's leader, Warren Publishing , the New York City-based company was one of several related publishing ventures run by comic-book artist and 1970s magazine...
. At his height in the 1970s, Fass was known as the biggest — and sleaziest — multi-title newsstand magazine publisher in the country. He put out up to fifty cheaply produced titles a month, many of them one-offs, covering any subject matter he thought would sell, from soft-core pornography to professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
, UFOs
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
to punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s to firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
magazines.
Early life
Fass was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of an Orthodox Jewish laborer.Comics artist
Starting in 1948 and until the mid-1950s shrinkage of the industry initiated by the institution of the Comics Code, Fass illustrated horror, crimeCrime comics
Crime comics is a genre of American comic books and format of crime fiction. The genre was originally popular in the 1940s and 1950s and is marked by a moralistic editorial tone and graphic depictions of violence and criminal activity. Crime comics began in 1942 with the publication of Crime Does...
, romance
Romance comics
Romance comics is a comics genre depicting romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published through the first three decades of the Cold War...
, Western
Western comics
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century...
, and other comics for a multitude of publishers, including Ace Periodicals, Avon Comics, Charlton Comics
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...
, Fawcett Comics
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...
, Feature Comics
Feature Comics
Feature Comics was a comic book anthology title published in the United States by Quality Comics from 1939 until 1950, that featured short stories in the superhero and humor genres. The series was a continuation of Feature Funnies, a reprint collection of newspaper comic strips that was published...
, Fox Comics, Lev Gleason Publications
Lev Gleason Publications
Lev Gleason Publications, founded by Leverett Gleason, was the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, including Daredevil, Crime Does Not Pay, and Boy Comics....
, Magazine Enterprises
Magazine Enterprises
Magazine Enterprises was an American comic book company lasting from 1943 to 1958, which published primarily Western, humor, crime, adventure, and children's comics, with virtually no superheroes...
, 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...
, Story Comics, Street & Smith Comics, and Trojan Comics. Fass produced some of this material with the S. M. Iger Studio from 1949–1953. For Toby Press
Toby Press
Toby Press was an American comic-book company that published from 1949 to 1955. Founded by Elliott Caplin, brother of cartoonist Al Capp and himself an established comic strip writer, the company published reprints of Capp's Li'l Abner strip; licensed-character comics starring such film and...
, Fass was a regular artist on Dr. Anthony King, Hollywood Love Doctor, Great Lover Romances, John Wayne Adventure Comics
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, Tales of Horror, and War.
Publisher
In 1956, Fass packaged the Whitestone Publishing title Lunatickle, one of the first imitators of ECEC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
's Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
magazine. (Fass was a huge admirer of EC publisher William Gaines
William Gaines
William Maxwell Gaines , better known as Bill Gaines, was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically important line of mature-audience comics...
.) The girlie magazine Foto-Rama and the monster magazine Shock Tales soon followed.
Backed by William Harris
William Harris
William or Will or Willie Harris may refer to:*William Harris , past president of Columbia University*William Harris , NFL player...
, who invented the Harris Press (still used today), by the beginning of the 1960s Fass was publishing his own material under the company name Tempest Publications. It was during this period that Fass launched the pin-up girlie mags Pic, Buccaneer, Poorboy, and Jaguar.
Other Tempest publications were the "newspaper magazine" Quick, Companion, and the over-the-top tabloid
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
National Mirror. Al Goldstein
Al Goldstein
Alvin "Al" Goldstein is a former American publisher and pornographer. His company Milky Way Productions, home of Screw, and his long-running cable TV show, Midnight Blue was started in 1968 and went into bankruptcy in 2004...
worked for Fass in 1968 before starting Screw magazine, writing for the National Mirror, the new tabloid Hush-Hush News, and the digest-sized girlie titles Pic and Bold.
In 1966 William Harris's son Stanley R. Harris partnered with Fass to form the black-and-white horror magazine publisher Eerie Publications
Eerie Publications
Eerie Publications was a publisher of black-and-white horror-anthology comics magazines. Less well-known and more downscale than the field's leader, Warren Publishing , the New York City-based company was one of several related publishing ventures run by comic-book artist and 1970s magazine...
. Eerie's output was a low-rent response to the popularity of the Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades...
horror comic magazines Creepy
Creepy
Creepy was an American horror-comics magazine launched by Warren Publishing in 1964. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and thus did not require the approval or seal of the Comics Code Authority. The anthology magazine was initially published quarterly but...
and Eerie
Eerie
Eerie was an American magazine of horror comics introduced in 1966 by Warren Publishing. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and thus did not require the approval or seal of the Comics Code Authority. Each issue's stories were introduced by the host...
. Fass's titles, all of which featured grisly, lurid color covers, included Weird, Horror Tales, Terror Tales
Terror Tales
Terror Tales was a long-running American pulp magazine of the horror comics and weird menace genres. It was originally published by Popular Publications. The first issue was published in September 1934...
, Tales from the Tomb, Tales of Voodoo, and Witches' Tales. Fass's brother Irving worked as an art director, and an old collaborator from the Iger studio days, Robert W. Farrell, had the title of publisher.
Eerie stayed in business until 1981, although co-owner Harris left in 1976 after a series of disputes with the mercurial Fass. Harris immediately went on to form the consumer magazine publisher Harris Publications
Harris Publications
Harris Publications Inc. is an American consumer-magazine publisher in New York City, New York, that publishes over 75 titles, including Juicy, XXL, King, Dog News, 0-60, Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, Small Business Opportunities, Men's Workout, Exercise & Health, Celebrity Hairstyles, and...
.
Also in 1966, Fass formed M. F. Enterprises, a four-color comic publisher whose main product was Captain Marvel, a short-lived attempt to revive the long-dormant Fawcett Comics superhero
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...
in slightly different form. M. F. Enterprises only published comics for two years, though Fass continued to use the company name for his magazines.
In the 1970s, under the company name Countrywide Publications, Fass began producing more one-shots and pushing even further the boundaries of good taste, with magazines on such topics as the Kennedy assassination, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's death, and the shooting of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt
Larry Flynt
Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....
. As such, Fass was responsible for almost every bottom-of-the barrel publication to come out in the decade. If any pulp magazine was successful enough, his company would imitate it — often multiple times. If anybody was famous, he published a quickie magazine to cash in on their fame. Fass's standard of success was 20,000 copies sold per issue. During this period, Fass was known to wear a loaded gun to work. He lived in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
with his wife Phyllis and an assortment of luxury automobiles.
By the mid-1980s Fass had become increasingly erratic, both in his behavior and publishing output. He moved to Ocala, Florida
Ocala, Florida
Ocala is a city in Marion County, Florida. As of 2007, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 53,491. It is the county seat of Marion County, and the principal city of the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated 2007 population of 324,857.-History:Ocala...
, where he ran a gun shop and continued to publish (mostly firearm-related) magazines. During this period, Fass published under the name CFV Publishers and called himself "Chief Merion Riley-Foss." His son David worked with him.
In the mid-1990s, Fass and his son David were still in Florida publishing gun magazines and other titles under the company name Creative Arts. According to former employee Jeff Goodman, by this time Fass was showing signs of paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
and would not talk to anyone.
Tributes
Kurt BusiekKurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...
's Astro City
Astro City
Kurt Busiek's Astro City is a comic book series centered on a fictional American city of that name. Written by Kurt Busiek, the series is co-created and illustrated by Brent Anderson with character designs and painted covers by Alex Ross...
series features an homage to Fass in its Fass Gardens location.
Comic books and magazines
- Captain Marvel (1966)
- Gasm (5 issues, 1977–1978) — Heavy MetalHeavy Metal (magazine)Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...
knockoff - Horror Tales (1969 - 1979)
- Tales from the Tomb (1969 - 1975)
- Tales of Voodoo (1968 - 1974)
- Terror TalesTerror TalesTerror Tales was a long-running American pulp magazine of the horror comics and weird menace genres. It was originally published by Popular Publications. The first issue was published in September 1934...
(1969 - 1979) — revival of 1930s pulp magazinePulp magazinePulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
published by Popular PublicationsPopular PublicationsPopular Publications was one of the largest publishers of pulp magazines during its existence, at one point publishing 42 different titles per month. Company titles included detective, adventure, romance, and Western fiction. They were also known for the several 'weird menace' titles... - Weird (1966 - 1981)
- Witches' Tales (1969 - 1975)
Crime
- Homicide Detective
- Murder Squad Detective
- Son of Sam
- The World of Sherlock Holmes
- True Sex Crimes
Firearms
- .44 Mag / .44 and Magnum
- GunPro (launched mid-1980s)
- Shooting Bible
- Shotgun Journal
- USA Guns (launched mid-1980s)
Men's magazines
- Bold
- Brute
- Buccaneer
- Companion
- Flick
- Jaguar
- Pic
- Poorboy
Movies and TV
- Movie Lies
- Movie TV Secrets
- PhotoTV Land
- TV Photo Story
Music
- Acid Rock
- Groupie Rock
- Hard Rock
- Led Zep
- Punk Rock
- Rock
- Super Rock
Tabloids
- Hush-Hush News (launched 1968) — same title as 1950s-1960s gossip magazine
- National Mirror (1964 – 1973)
UFOs
- Ancient Astronauts
- Clones
- Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind
- ESP
- Official UFO
- Space Trek
- Space Wars
Misc.
- Confidential Report / Confidential Sex Report
- GadgetWorld
- Hall of Fame Wrestling
- Official American Horseman
- People Today
- Private Confessions of Doctors and Nurses
- Quick (launched 1964)
- Show Dogs
- True War
- Uncensored — scandal magazine
External links
- "Myron Fass: Man of Mystery," Empire of the Claw
- "Schlock Meister Myron Fass," Pattern Recognition blog