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Information about Max Gaines

Max Gaines
Birth nameMaxwell Ginsburg or Maxwell Ginzberg
Born
New York, New York
DiedJuly 20 1947
Lake Placid, New York
Area(s)Publisher


Maxwell Charles Gaines[1] a.k.a. M.C. Gaines, a.k.a. Charles Gaines, a.k.a. Charlie Gaines (born Maxwell Ginsburg[2] or Maxwell Ginzberg[3] c. 1894;[4] died August 20, 1947) was a pioneering figure in the creation of the modern comic book. In 1933, when Gaines devised the first four-color, saddle-stitched newsprint pamphlet, a precursor to the color-comics format that became the standard for the American comic book industry.

He later became co-publisher of All-American Publications, a seminal comic-book company that introduced such enduring fictional characters as Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Hawkman.

Biography

Early life and career

The notion came to Gaines one day when he was cleaning his mother's attic, and he started reading a stack of old newspaper comic sections. When he approached Eastern Color Printing with his idea, he learned that Eastern was already doing comic strip reprints in tabloid-sized promotional giveaways. Gaines suggested folding the tabloid yet again to increase the page count to 64 and publishing in a magazine format. The next step came when Gaines experimented by putting issues on trial newsstands with ten cents on the cover.

Gaines was the first to distribute through newsstands. His Funnies on Parade and Famous Funnies offered reprints of Sunday newspaper comics. Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics featured reprints of Reg'lar Fellers, Dixie Dugan, Joe Palooka, The Nebbs, Keeping Up with the Joneses, Somebody's Stenog and Hairbreadth Harry.

All-American Publications

In 1938, Gaines and Jack Leibowitz began publishing comics with original material under the name All-American Publications. At the time, Leibowitz was the co-owner with Harry Donenfeld of National Allied Publications, the precursor company to DC Comics, and Donenfeld financed Gaines' creation of All-American. All-American published several superhero/adventure anthologies such as All-American Comics and Flash Comics, as well as other titles. For a time, All-American and National shared marketing and promotional efforts as well as characters. Several of National's characters (Starman, Doctor Fate, The Spectre) appeared alongside All-American's Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Hawkman in that company's hit title All Star Comics.

Gaines' relationship with Donenfeld and National waxed and waned over the years. By the early 1940s, the All-American titles were branded separately and no longer featured National-owned characters. In 1944, Donenfeld bought out Gaines and merged National and All-American into a single company.

EC Comics

Gaines used the proceeds from the sale of All-American to establish another comics line, Educational Comics. EC Comics continued All-American's Picture Stories from the Bible and added new titles such as Picture Stories from American History. Gaines soon expanded the line with humor and funny animal books such as Land of the Lost, Animal Fables and Ed Wheelan's Fat and Slat. Many of these books carried a slightly revised publisher logo which changed the "Educational" in EC to "Entertaining."

Death and legacy

Tragedy struck at Lake Placid, New York during the summer of 1947 when Gaines, his friend Sam Irwin and Irwin's son were struck by a speedboat. Gaines died in the accident, but saved Irwin's son by throwing him into the back of the boat at the last second. The operator of the speedboat was not prosecuted.<ref name="times" /> Max Gaines' 25-year-old son, William "Bill" Gaines, inherited EC and changed the direction of the company. Although it continued to advertise and sell back issues of "Educational" titles, Bill Gaines concentrated on publishing new Entertaining Comics. He replaced the juvenile humor books with titles pitched to an older audience and strongly influenced by his own love of popular culture. These spanned several genres as he made a transition from romance (Modern Love) and Westerns (Gunslingers) to science fiction (Weird Science), horror (Tales from the Crypt) and satire (Harvey Kurtzman's Mad).

See also

References

1. ^ Gerrard Jones, Men of Tomorrow pp99 Arrow Books ISBN 978 0 099 48706 7
2. ^ The Eagle (July 17, 2004: "Comic Books Served as Creative Outlet for Jews", by Abraham Clearfield
3. ^ Reform Judaism: "How the Jews Created the Comic Book Industry", by Arie Kaplan
4. ^ The New York Times (August 21, 1947): article name and byline n.a.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
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Year 1947 (MCMXLVII
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A comic book is a magazine or book containing sequential art in the form of a narrative. Comic books are often called comics for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact it is often serious and
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An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the comics form. The standard dimensions are 6 ⅝" × 10 ¼".
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All-American Publications is one of three American comic book companies that combined to form the modern-day DC Comics, one of the world's two largest comics publishers. Superheroes created for All-American include the original Atom, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Wonder Woman,
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fictional character is any person, persona, identity, or entity whose existence originates from a work of fiction. The process of creating and developing characters in a work of fiction is called characterization.
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First appearance
Bill Finger
Martin Nodell

Characters
See also
Green Lantern Corps
List of Green Lanterns


Green Lantern
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    Wonder Woman is a fictional DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. Two strong women, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne, a mutual lover,[1] served as exemplars for the character and greatly influenced her creation.
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    First appearance
    Gardner Fox
    Dennis Neville

    Characters
    See also


    For other meanings of the term, see Hawkman (disambiguation)
    Hawkman
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    Famous Funnies is an American publication of the 1930s that represents what popular culture historians consider the first true American comic book, following seminal precursors.

    The creation of the modern American comic book came in stages.
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    Reg'lar Fellers was a long-run newspaper comic strip adapted into a feature film, a radio series on NBC and an animated cartoon. Created by Gene Byrnes (1889-1974), the comic strip offered a humorous look at a gang of suburban children (who nevertheless spoke like New York street
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    Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. With various assistants and successors, the strip lasted for over half of a century with spin-offs to radio, movies, television and merchandising.
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    All-American Publications is one of three American comic book companies that combined to form the modern-day DC Comics, one of the world's two largest comics publishers. Superheroes created for All-American include the original Atom, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Wonder Woman,
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    Harry Donenfeld (1893-1965), was an American publisher who is known primarily for being the owner of National Allied Publications, which famously distributed Detective Comics and Action Comics, the originator publications for the superhero characters Batman and Superman.
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    DC Comics

    Subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
    Founded 1934, by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (as National Allied Publications)
    Headquarters 1700 Broadway, New York City, New York

    Key people Paul Levitz (President and Publisher)
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    All-American Comics was the flagship title of comic book publisher All-American Publications. It ran for 102 issues from April 1939 to October 1948, at which time it was renamed All-American Western.
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    Flash Comics was an anthology comic book published by All-American Publications and later National Periodicals (DC Comics). The title ran for 104 issues between January 1940 to February 1949.
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    First appearance
    Gardner Fox
    Jack Burnley

    Characters
    See also


    Starman is a name used by several different fictional DC Comics superheroes, most prominently Ted Knight and his son Jack.
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    Dr. Fate (vol.
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    Spectre is a fictional cosmic entity and superhero who has appeared in numerous comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in a next issue ad in More Fun Comics
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    First appearance
    Bill Finger
    Martin Nodell

    Characters
    See also
    Green Lantern Corps
    List of Green Lanterns


    Green Lantern
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      Wonder Woman is a fictional DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. Two strong women, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne, a mutual lover,[1] served as exemplars for the character and greatly influenced her creation.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      First appearance
      Gardner Fox
      Dennis Neville

      Characters
      See also


      For other meanings of the term, see Hawkman (disambiguation)
      Hawkman
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      All Star Comics is a 1940s comic book series from All-American Publications, one of the early companies that merged with National Periodical Publications to form the modern-day DC Comics.
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      Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in crime fiction, horror fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the 1950s, until censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate
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      Funny animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals. The characters themselves may also be called funny animals.
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