Skywald Publications
Encyclopedia
Skywald Publications is a 1970s publisher of black-and-white comics magazines, primarily the horror
anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. It also published a small line of comic books and other magazines.
Skywald's first publication was Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted through the end of 1974 or early 1975, with Psycho #24 (March 1975) its final publication. Nightmare published 23 issues and Scream put out 11 issues.
production manager Sol Brodsky
("Sky") and low-budget entrepreneur
Israel Waldman ("wald"), whose I. W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published comic book reprints for sale through grocery
and discount store
s. Skywald was based in New York City
.
Brodsky, who also served as editor
, brought in Al Hewetson
— briefly an assistant to Marvel chief Stan Lee
and a freelancer for the Warren Publishing
horror magazines and others — as a freelance writer
. "Archaic Al", as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Under Hewetson, the horror magazines attempted a somewhat more literary bent than the twist-ending shockers of early Warren Publishing
, the field's leader with such popular titles as Creepy
and Eerie
. Hewetson called this "the Horror-Mood", and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as Poe
, H. P. Lovecraft
and Kafka
.
Comics professionals who produced work for the Skywald magazines include writers T. Casey Brennan
, Gerry Conway
, Steve Englehart
, Gardner Fox
, Doug Moench
, Dave Sim
, Len Wein
, and Marv Wolfman
, and artists Rich Buckler
, Gene Day
Vince Colletta
, Bill Everett
, Bruce Jones
, Pablo Marcos
, Syd Shores
, Chic Stone
, and Tom Sutton
. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed pseudonym
s. Future industry star John Byrne published his first professional story, a two-pager written by editor Hewetson, in Skywald's Nightmare #20 (August 1974).
(Aug. & Oct. 1971), featuring a vigilante motorcyclist with a flamethrower
-equipped bike. The character was created by Gary Friedrich
(who would go on to co-create the Marvel motorcyclist Ghost Rider
) with artists Ross Andru
(penciler) and Mike Esposito
(inker
). Backup features were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich, with art credits disputed by different sources for issue #1; the second-issue "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler Syd Shores
and inker Esposito, the second "Wild Bunch" to penciler-inker Rich Buckler
.
Another two-issue title, The Crime Machine, consisted solely of comic-book crime fiction
reprints from the 1950s. A remaining title, Science Fiction Odyssey, was planned for September 1971 publication, but withdrawn; some of its stories eventually appeared in the horror magazines.
The company also published a small number of magazines unrelated to horror or comics. Among these was Judy Garland
(1970), a "special tribute issue".
The short-lived color comic-book line, edited by Brodsky, comprised the Western
titles Blazing Six-Guns, The Bravados, Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, and Wild Western Action; the romance title Tender Love Stories; the horror
series The Heap; and Jungle Adventures. These each were combinations of new material and reprints. Contributors, in addition to some of those noted above, include Dick Ayers
, Mike Friedrich
, Jack Katz
, John Severin
, and John Tartaglione
. Notably, The Sundance Kid #1-2 (June-July 1971) contained Jack Kirby
Western reprints from Bullseye #2-3 (Oct. & Dec. 1954). None of the comics lasted more than three issues.
, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on Jan. 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. It also published a small line of comic books and other magazines.
Skywald's first publication was Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted through the end of 1974 or early 1975, with Psycho #24 (March 1975) its final publication. Nightmare published 23 issues and Scream put out 11 issues.
Founding
The company name is a combination of those of its founders, former Marvel ComicsMarvel 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...
production manager Sol Brodsky
Sol Brodsky
Sol Brodsky was an American comic book artist who, as Marvel Comics' Silver Age production manager, was one of the key architects of the small company's expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate. He later rose to vice president, operations and vice president, special projects...
("Sky") and low-budget entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
Israel Waldman ("wald"), whose I. W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published comic book reprints for sale through grocery
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
and discount store
Discount store
A discount store is a type of department store, which sells products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Most discount department stores offer a wide assortment of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances...
s. Skywald was based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Brodsky, who also served as editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, brought in Al Hewetson
Al Hewetson
Al Hewetson was a Scottish-Canadian writer and editor of American horror-comics magazines, best known for his work with the 1970s publisher Skywald Publications, where he created what he termed the magazines' "Horror-Mood" sensibility...
— briefly an assistant to Marvel chief Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
and a freelancer for 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 magazines and others — as a freelance writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. "Archaic Al", as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Under Hewetson, the horror magazines attempted a somewhat more literary bent than the twist-ending shockers of early 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...
, the field's leader with such popular titles as 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...
. Hewetson called this "the Horror-Mood", and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
and Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
.
T. Casey Brennan
Terrance Casey Brennan is an American comic book writer.During the 1970s, he wrote for Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics anthologies Creepy and Eerie, and Vampirella...
, Gerry Conway
Gerry Conway
Gerard F. "Gerry" Conway is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics vigilante The Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man...
, Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart is an American novelist. In his earlier career he was a comic book writer best known for his work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics, particularly in the 1970s...
, Gardner Fox
Gardner Fox
Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer best known for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic-book historians estimate that he wrote over 4,000 comics stories....
, Doug Moench
Doug Moench
Douglas Moench , better known as Doug Moench, is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Black Mask, Moon Knight and Deathlok.-Biography:...
, Dave Sim
Dave Sim
David Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
, Len Wein
Len Wein
Len Wein is an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men...
, and Marv Wolfman
Marv Wolfman
Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.-1960s:...
, and artists Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and, with writer Doug Moench, co-creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25...
, Gene Day
Gene Day
Howard Eugene Day was a Canadian comic book artist best known for Marvel Comics' Star Wars licensed series and Master of Kung Fu...
Vince Colletta
Vince Colletta
Vincent Joseph Colletta was an American comic book artist and art director best known as one of industry legend Jack Kirby's frequent inkers during the 1950s-1960s period called the Silver Age of comic books...
, Bill Everett
Bill Everett
William Blake "Bill" Everett, also known as William Blake and Everett Blake was a comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil for Marvel Comics...
, Bruce Jones
Bruce Jones (comics)
Bruce Jones, whose pen names include Philip Roland and Bruce Elliot, is an American comic book writer, novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter whose work included writing Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk from 2001-2005.-Early career:...
, Pablo Marcos
Pablo Marcos
Pablo Marcos Ortega, known professionally as Pablo Marcos is a comic book artist and commercial illustrator best known as one of his home country's leading cartoonists and for his work on such popular American comics characters as Batman and Conan the Barbarian, particularly during the 1970s...
, Syd Shores
Syd Shores
Sydney Shores was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America both during the 1940s, in what fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, and during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books....
, Chic Stone
Chic Stone
Charles Eber "Chic" Stone was an American comic book artist best known as one of Jack Kirby's Silver Age inkers, including on a landmark run of Fantastic Four.-Biography:...
, and Tom Sutton
Tom Sutton
Tom Sutton was an American comic book artist who sometimes used the pseudonyms Sean Todd and Dementia...
. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s. Future industry star John Byrne published his first professional story, a two-pager written by editor Hewetson, in Skywald's Nightmare #20 (August 1974).
Non-horror magazines
Skywald also produced two issues of the magazine Hell-RiderHell-Rider
Hell-Rider is a short-lived, black-and-white comics magazine published by Skywald Publications, a 1970s company best known for its horror-comics magazines Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. Like them and the similar publications of Warren Publishing, these were mature-audience magazines not covered by...
(Aug. & Oct. 1971), featuring a vigilante motorcyclist with a flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
-equipped bike. The character was created by Gary Friedrich
Gary Friedrich
Gary Friedrich . is an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' Sgt...
(who would go on to co-create the Marvel motorcyclist Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider (comics)
Ghost Rider is the name of several fictional supernatural antiheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was later changed to Night Rider and subsequently to Phantom Rider.The first supernatural Ghost Rider is...
) with artists Ross Andru
Ross Andru
Ross Andru was an American comic book artist and editor. He is best known for his work on Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Flash and Metal Men....
(penciler) and Mike Esposito
Mike Esposito (comics)
Mike Esposito , who sometimes used the pseudonyms Mickey Demeo, Mickey Dee, Michael Dee, and Joe Gaudioso, was an American comic book artist whose work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics and others spanned the 1950s to the 2000s...
(inker
Inker
The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
). Backup features were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich, with art credits disputed by different sources for issue #1; the second-issue "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler Syd Shores
Syd Shores
Sydney Shores was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America both during the 1940s, in what fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, and during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books....
and inker Esposito, the second "Wild Bunch" to penciler-inker Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and, with writer Doug Moench, co-creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25...
.
Another two-issue title, The Crime Machine, consisted solely of comic-book crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
reprints from the 1950s. A remaining title, Science Fiction Odyssey, was planned for September 1971 publication, but withdrawn; some of its stories eventually appeared in the horror magazines.
The company also published a small number of magazines unrelated to horror or comics. Among these was Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
(1970), a "special tribute issue".
Comic book line
Western comics
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century...
titles Blazing Six-Guns, The Bravados, Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, and Wild Western Action; the romance title Tender Love Stories; the horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
series The Heap; and Jungle Adventures. These each were combinations of new material and reprints. Contributors, in addition to some of those noted above, include Dick Ayers
Dick Ayers
Richard "Dick" Ayers is an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on some of the earliest issues of Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four, and as the signature...
, Mike Friedrich
Mike Friedrich
Mike Friedrich is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series Star*Reach, one of the first independent comics...
, Jack Katz
Jack Katz (artist)
Jack Katz is an American comic book artist and writer, painter and art teacherknown for his graphic novel, The First Kingdom.-Early life and career:...
, John Severin
John Severin
John Powers Severin is an American comic book artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat; for Marvel Comics, primarily on its war and Western comics; and for the satiric magazine Cracked...
, and John Tartaglione
John Tartaglione
John Tartaglione , a.k.a. '"John Tartag." and other pseudonyms, was an American comic book artist best known as a 1950s romance-comics artist; a Marvel Comics inker during the Silver Age of comic books; and the illustrator of the Marvel biographies The Life of Pope John Paul II, and Mother Teresa...
. Notably, The Sundance Kid #1-2 (June-July 1971) contained 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....
Western reprints from Bullseye #2-3 (Oct. & Dec. 1954). None of the comics lasted more than three issues.
Skywald's end
Editor Al HewetsonAl Hewetson
Al Hewetson was a Scottish-Canadian writer and editor of American horror-comics magazines, best known for his work with the 1970s publisher Skywald Publications, where he created what he termed the magazines' "Horror-Mood" sensibility...
, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on Jan. 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by
External links
- "Hell-Rider: A Memoir of the 70s", StompTokyo.com/The Bad Movie Report, June 11, 2004. WebCitation archive.
Further reading
- The Complete Illustrated History of the Horror-Mood, edited by Alan Hewetson (Critical Vision, 2004) ISBN 1-900486-37-7