Hillman Periodicals

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hillman Periodicals
Founded1938
FounderAlex L. Hillman
Defunct1953 (comics), 1961 (magazines and paperbacks)
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters location535
paperback books
Fiction genresSuperhero, crime, Western

Hillman Periodicals, Inc., was an American

The Heap
.

Company history

Founding

People Today
(Aug. 11, 1954)

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Hillman competed with Bernarr Macfadden and Fawcett Publications by publishing comics, true confessions magazines (Real Story, Real Confessions, Real Romances) and crime magazines (Crime Detective, Real Detective, Crime Confessions).

In 1948 Hillman began publishing paperback books. There were several series of abridged mystery and western novels published in the larger 'digest' size. The long-running Hillman paperbacks first appeared in 1948 and lasted until 1961.

Pageant and Airboy

In 1944, Hillman launched a

digest-sized, general-interest, "slick" (glossy paper) magazine, Pageant, with an initial print run of 500,000 copies.[1] To obtain the paper during World War II wartime rationing, Hillman ended his detective magazines and comics, which together brought in a $250,000 annual profit.[1]
He returned to comics in 1946, resuming some titles from the earlier series.

Like most comic book publishers during the period fans and historians called the

aviator-adventurer Airboy
in Air Fighters Comics and its successor, Airboy Comics.

Later years

Hillman ceased publishing comic books in 1953, while continuing to launch such new magazines as Homeland, and

libertarian opinion. Amid a 1953 battle for control of directors and editors, publisher Hillman announced his resignation as the Freeman treasurer because "it has been almost impossible for the past six months to run the magazine".[2] The following year, Hillman said he was thinking about launching a "conservative Republican" morning newspaper in Washington, D.C.
, but nothing came of it.

Hillman periodicals also had a publication named Flight, edited by Norton Wood. (Wood had previously served as managing editor of a highly classified monthly report on air weapons prepared by

H-Bomb" with futuristic drawings by Matt Greene artistically depicting a U.S. coastal city under coordinated attack by Russian bombers and submarines, and giant "inner tube" satellite space stations with depictions proposed by Wernher von Braun
orbits in space flight.

Hillman sold Pageant to Macfadden Communications Group in April 1961, and the magazine continued until 1977.

Alex L. Hillman

Publisher Alex L. Hillman was a noted art collector who initially developed an interest in the field when he was a book publisher, commissioning artists to illustrate new editions of

classic literature. He was married to Rita Hillman. He began his collection with such American painters as Raphael Soyer and Preston Dickinson, and expanded it to include impressionist and other painters. He eventually established the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, a private foundation in Manhattan
, to oversee the collection.

Comic book titles published

Source:[3]

  • Air Fighters Comics (1941 series)
  • Airboy Comics (1945 series - continues from Air Fighters)
  • All Sports Comics (1948 series continues from Real Sports)
  • All-Time Sports Comics (1949 series continues from All Sports)
  • Clue Comics (1943 series)
  • Crime Detective Comics (1948 series)
  • Crime Must Stop (1952 series)
  • Dead-Eye Western Comics (1948 series)
  • Frogman Comics (1952 series) [1]
  • Hot Rod and Speedway Comics (1952 series)
  • Joe College (1949 series)
  • Miracle Comics (1940 series)
  • Monster Crime Comics (1952 series)
  • Mr. Anthony's Love Clinic (1949 series)
  • My Date Comics (1947 series)
  • Pirates Comics (1950 series)
  • Punch and Judy Comics (1944 series)
  • Real Clue Crime Stories (1947 series continues from Clue Comics)
  • Real Sports Comics (1948 series)
  • Rocket Comics (1940 series)
  • Romantic Confessions (1949 series)
  • Top Secret (1952 series)
  • Victory Comics (1941 series)
  • Western Fighters (1948 series)

References

  1. ^ a b "Blend". Time. November 27, 1944. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007.
  2. ^ "Battle for the Freeman". Time. January 26, 1953. Archived from the original on May 23, 2011.
  3. ^ Hillman at the Grand Comics Database.

External links