Star Publications, Inc. was a Golden Age

Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...

 American comic book publisher, operating during the years 1949–1954. Founded by artist/editor L.B. Cole and lawyer Gerhard Kramer, Star specialized in horror

Horror comics

Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. Horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the imposition of the self-censorship Comics Code Authority contributed to...

 comics, crime

Crime 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...

, and 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...

 comics — but also published funny animal stories. Star was originally 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...

 before relocating to Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

.

Notable creators who contributed to Star Publications titles included Nina Albright

Nina Albright

Nina Albright was an American comic book artist during the Golden Age of Comic Books, one of the few woman working in that field during the period....

, Tex Blaisdell

Tex Blaisdell

Philip Eustice Blaisdell , better known as Tex Blaisdell, was an American comic strip artist and comic book editor...

, Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media...

, Milt Hammer, Alvin Hollingsworth

Alvin Hollingsworth

Alvin Hollingsworth , whose pseudonyms included Alvin Holly, was an African-American painter and one of the first Black artists in comic books.-Early life and comics:...

, Joe Kubert

Joe Kubert

Joe Kubert is an American comic book artist who went on to found The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman...

, Pat Masulli

Pat Masulli

Patrick J. Masulli was an American comic book creator, most notably as the executive editor of Charlton Comics from 1955–1966, during much of the Silver Age of Comic Books...

, and Wally Wood

Wally Wood

Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...

. Co-owner Cole contributed many of his distinctive cover illustrations. Bruno Premiani

Bruno Premiani

Giordano Bruno Premiani , whose work is credited as Bruno Premiani, was an Italian illustrator known for his work for several American comic book publishers, particularly DC Comics...

 worked as an editor at the company.

History

In 1949, publisher 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...

 sold its characters and artwork to 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:...

cover artist L.B. Cole. Using his new assets, Cole and partner Kramer began Star Publications. The company's first title was Blue Bolt, which continued the numbering of the Novelty Press title (starting with issue #102). By 1951, inspired by the popularity of horror comics like EC Comics

EC 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...

' Tales from the Crypt, Cole shifted the Blue Bolt comic to horror, renaming it Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror. (The title was eventually changed again, to Ghostly Weird Stories, lasting five more issues before being canceled.)

Other notable titles published by Star included All-Famous Police Cases, Frisky Animals, Shocking Mystery Cases, and the romance titles Popular Teen-Agers, Top Love Stories, and True-To-Life Romances. The company also published a line of coloring books in comic book format (mostly with titles like The Star Coloring Book of...), consisting of full-page drawings with no word balloons and no narrative.

Due to the grisly nature of titles like Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror, The Horrors, and Startling Terror Tales, Star Publications was singled out in Fredric Wertham

Fredric Wertham

Fredric Wertham was a Jewish German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children. His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent , which purported that comic books are...

's 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent

Seduction of the Innocent

Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized...

. Like many comic book publishers of the time, faced with the public outcry against the industry, and the pressures of the 1954 hearings by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency — as well as the 1955 death of publisher Kramer — the company shut down shortly thereafter.

Notable titles published

• All-Famous Police Cases (11 issues, 1952–1954)
• Blue Bolt/Blue Bolt Weird Tales of Terror/Ghostly Weird Stories
  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:...
  
  (23 issues, 1949–1954)
• Frisky Animals (15 issues, 1951–1954)
• Popular Teen-Agers (19 issues, 1950–1954)
• Shocking Mystery Cases (11 issues, 1952–1954)
• Top Love Stories (17 issues, 1951–1954)
• True-To-Life Romances (21 issues, 1950–1954)