Eastern Color Printing
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (November 2009) |
Founded | 1928 |
---|---|
Founder | George Janosik |
Defunct | 2002 |
Headquarters | comic books |
Divisions | Curtiss-Way division |
The Eastern Color Printing Company was a company that published
Eastern published its own comic books until the mid-1950s, and continued to print comic books for other publishers until 1973. Eastern Color Printing struggled financially from the 1970s to 2002, when the business closed, a victim of changing printing technologies.
Company history
Foundation and early years
In March 1924,
A few years later, in August 1928, Pape formed the Eastern Color Printing Company, with himself as vice president and principal executive officer. Replacing the original press with a Goss four-deck press, the company acquired additional presses in 1929 and 1931. During this time period, Eastern, headquartered at 61 Leavenworth Street in Waterbury, established itself in the pulp magazine industry by being one of the few firms to print color covers for the pulps.[1]
From 1928 to 1930, Eastern published 36 issues of a tabloid-format comics periodical,
Around 1929, Eastern became the first major institution to perfect an engraving process that allowed for the addition of color to black-and-white comics, proving a boon to
1930s
By 1932, Eastern Color Printing was printing comic sections for a score of newspapers, and by the following year, color for newspapers' Sunday comics section and black-and-white for the daily strips becomes the industry standard.
In 1933, Eastern's 45-year-old sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg reinvented the comic-book format when he saw the increasing popularity of newspaper comic strips and determined comics could be a successful medium for advertising. Sales offices at this time were located in New York City, New York (alternately listed at 40 or 50 Church Street in different sources).
In April 1933,
In early 1933, Eastern also began producing small comic broadsides for the Ledger Syndicate of Philadelphia, printing Sunday color comics from 7 in × 9 in (180 mm × 230 mm) plates. Wildenberg and his coworkers realized that two such plates would fit on a tabloid-sized page, and later that year, Wildenberg created the first modern-format comic book when idly folding a newspaper into halves and then into quarters and finding that a convenient book size. In Spring 1933, Eastern printed one million copies of the first modern-format comic book, the 32-page Funnies on Parade, as a way to keep their press running, and as a promotion for Procter & Gamble.[2]
The names of those associated with the project read as a who's-who of early publishers in what comics historians and fans call the
The Funnies on Parade promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for
- 1934 (early)
Eastern prints Shell Globe, for distribution at 13,000 Shell gas stations. The series features cartoonist Bud Fisher’s popular characters Mutt and Jeff. The characters of Shell Globe are marketed wildly, through miniature figurines, posters, radio announcements, billboards, play masks, and window stickers.
Interest from advertisers tapers off a bit when advertisers doubt that children would be willing to pay money for comic strip reprints. Eastern Color Printing president George Janosik forms a 50/50 joint venture with Dell publisher
- 1934 – May
Eastern employee Harold Moore proposes a monthly comic book series. Famous Funnies #1 appears with a July cover date. The title loses money at first, and George Delacorte sells his interest back to Eastern. Famous Funnies #2 marks the start of original material produced specifically for the book, and #3 begins a run of Buck Rogers features.
- Mid-1934
Famous Funnies turns a profit beginning with issue #7. It gains popularity quickly, and the title lasts about 20 years. The success of Famous Funnies soon leads to the title being sold on newsstands alongside slicker magazines, and inspires at least five other competitors[who?] to begin publishing their own comic books. Eastern begins to experiment with modifying the newspaper reprints to be more suitable to the comic book format. Lettering, reduced in reproduction to the point of illegibility, is reworked for the size of the comic book page. Adventure strips, reprinted in several weeks’ worth of strips at a time, is trimmed of panels providing a recap of previous events, contributing to a concise and more smoothly flowing version of the story.
- 1935
Eastern executive
- 1936 – December
Eastern publishes the first issue of The
- 1937 – July
Having filled up the maximum floor space at their old American press-room at Printers Court, Eastern constructs a separate and new plant on Commercial Street. The new plant includes two new Scott presses.
1940s
In addition to publishing its own comic books, Eastern continues to do printing for the majority of publishers in the comic book industry. An article in the
- 1940
Eastern introduces its second monthly title, Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics. The title is the official publication of Reg’lar Fellers of America, a junior athletic organization dedicated to developing wholesome summer recreation for teens. The title lasts until 1955; it eventually shortens its title to simply Heroic Comics beginning with issue #16 and changes again with issue #41 to New Heroic Comics.
Properties owned by the McNaught Syndicate and published by Eastern Color Printing are transferred to Columbia Comics, publishers of Big Shot Comics and other titles. Eastern appears to have retained a close relationship with Columbia, running advertisements for Columbia books in their own comic book titles.
Eastern Color Printing purchases a new Goss press, its sixth one.
- 1941
Eastern publishes
Eastern acquires a seventh press. Finding it necessary to do own cover printing and binding for its successful comic books, Eastern acquires the Curtiss-Way plant in Meriden. Curtiss-Way was a Meriden printing facility dating back at least as far as 1895, when it was known as the Converse Publishing Company.
- 1941 – April
Inspired by the popular trend of superheroes, Famous Funnies #81 introduces Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, one of comics’ earliest super-heroines, authored by Russell Stamm. This issue marks a change in mood for Famous Funnies, as the covers switch from whimsical gags to more serious adventurous fare.
- 1941 – November
With the outbreak of World War II, the publishing industry participates in national drives to conserve paper. As a conservation measure, syndicates reduce the size of full-page Sunday comic strips to three-quarters or half the size of the newspaper page. As a result of this size reduction, newspaper strips are no longer suitable for further reduction in the comic book format, and Eastern is forced to commission new work rather than reprint material. Famous Funnies #88 carries the last sets of reprint material from the full-size newspaper page. Beginning with the following issue, Eastern Color Printing starts to commission new work for their comic book publications. Many features from the original Famous Funnies format are continued by the same artists. These artists now turned their strips into dual features – one for newspaper syndication with an emphasis on adult appeal, and the other to fit the new comic book page size and an emphasis on juvenile appeal.
- 1942
Eastern, needing to expand again, begins construction of an addition to its Commercial Street plant. The addition is completed and operational in 1946. The paper shortage of WWII forces publishers to drop from its standard 64-page format to a 52-page format, and in some cases a 48-page format. Eastern publishes the humor comic Jingle Jangle, which runs until 1949.
- 1943 – January
Eastern Color Printing alternates publishing Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics and a second edition of Heroic Comics on alternate months, switching between stories of everyday heroism and true war stories, respectively. The alternating format continues for a year, then Reg’lar Fellers... is terminated in favor of the more adult-oriented
1950s
Eastern Color Printing prints comic books for Export Newspaper Services, a New York–based company producing Spanish-language reprints of American comic books for distribution in Mexico.
- 1955 – June
Eastern Color Printing clashes with the Comics Code Authority over Heroic Comics. The CCA charges that Heroic – a war-themed comic book – contributes to juvenile delinquency by promoting violence. Eastern defends the title as an illustrated magazine of military history but makes the decision to suspend publication.
- 1955 – July
Famous Funnies ends publication with issue #218. Eastern constructs a new modern plant in Meriden that is not closely identified with comic book production. With the declining comic book market, Eastern begins to phase out publication of its own comic books, offsetting the shrinkage by printing more advertising circulars. Sunday newspaper comic supplements continue to be a standard product for Eastern.
- 1957
Eastern Color Printing, continuously installing and modifying its equipment, acquires its 14th press.
1960s
Eastern adds a 15th press, which is modified in the mid-1960s.
- 1960 – June
Eastern Color Printing sells its Curtiss-Way subsidiary to the New York–based Hughes Corporation, owner of several printing plants throughout Connecticut.
- 1961
After serving about three years at the Curtiss-Way division, Richard J. Pape, William B. Pape’s son, is put in complete charge of Eastern’s mechanical operations.
- 1968
Plans are formulated for a new building. Several new presses are purchased over the next couple of years.
1970s
- 1972
Eastern Color Printing closes its Waterbury plant and moves to Avon. Around the same time, Eastern sells many of its comic book file copies and cover proofs.
- 1973
By this time, Eastern phases out its comic book printing business in favor of printing Sunday comics supplements. Sears-Roebuck remains its largest customer.
1980s
- 1987 – January
Eastern Color Printing recruits CEO Robert Palmer. The following September, management of Eastern passes from the Pape family to Palmer.
- 1987 – February
Eastern suffers the loss of a Goss press valued at over $1 million in a fire at the plant.
- 1989
Eastern suffers a significant setback with the loss of its longtime customer,
- 1989–1990
Eastern embarks on a rebuilding program to replace the lost Sears business. The company experiences financial hardships compounded by the recession. After losing more customers to heatset printers, Eastern approaches Rockwell Graphics System (Goss) in 1993 about installation of a heatset press, which is installed the following year.
1990s
- 1999
Eastern incorporates digital technology into its pre-press processes. Eastern stays in business by printing advertising for corporations such as
2000s
- 2002 – June
Eastern Color Printing goes out of business.
Published titles
Source:[6]
- The Amazing Willie Mays (1 issue, 1954)
- Big Chief Wahoo (7 issues, 1942-1943)
- Buck Rogers (6 issues, 1940-1943)
- Buster Crabbe (12 issues, 1951-1953)
- Club 16 Comics (4 issues, 1948-1949)
- Conquest (1 issue, 1955)
- Dickie Dare (4 issues, 1941-1942)
- Dover the Bird (1 issue, 1955)
- Famous Funnies - Series One (1 issue, 1934)
- Famous Funnies (218 issues, 1934-1955)
- Heroic Comics (97 issues, 1940-1955. Initially as Reg'lar Fellers' Heroic Comics and during the final years as New Heroic Comics)
- Jingle Jangle Comics (42 issues, 1942-1949)
- The John Hix Scrapbook (2 issues, 1938-1939)
- Juke Box Comics (6 issues, 1948-1949)
- Mickey Finn (4 issues, 1942-1944, thereafter continued by Columbia Comics)
- Movie Love (22 issues, 1950-1953)
- Napoleon and Uncle Elby (1 issue, 1942)
- Oaky Doaks (1 issue, 1942)
- Personal Love (33 issues, 1950-1955)
- Steve Roper (5 issues, 1948)
- Strictly Private (2 issues, 1942)
- Sugar Bowl Comics (5 issues, 1948-1949)
- Tales from the Great Book (4 issues, 1955-1956)
Giveaways include
- Century of Comics (1 issue, 1933)
- Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics (1 issue, 1933)
- Funnies on Parade (1 issue, 1933)
- Gulf Funny Weekly/Gulf Comic Weekly (422 issues, 1933-1941)
- Skippy’s Own Book of Comics (1 issue, 1933)
- Standard Oil Comics (19 issues, 1933-1934)
- Toy World Funnies (1 issue, 1933)
Notes
- ^ "Heroes, Heartthrobs and Horrors: Celebrating Connecticut’s Invention of the Comic Book," Archived 2020-07-22 at the Wayback Machine Connecticut Historical Society official website. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
- ^ Brown, Mitchell. "The 100 Greatest Comic Books of the 20th Century: Funnies on Parade" (Internet archive link)
- ^ Goulart, Ron. Comic Book Encyclopedia (Harper Entertainment, New York, 2004)
- ^ Dooling, Michael C. “Three Generations in the Newspaper Business,” Connecticut Explored, Fall 2010, pp. 22–23.
- ^ Hartford Courant (Feb. 15, 1954).
- ^ Eastern Color: 1933–1956, Grand Comics Database