Key Publications


Key Publications was an American comic-book company founded by Stanley P. Morse that published under the imprints Aragon Magazines, Gillmor Magazines, Medal Comics, Media Publications, S. P. M. Publications, Stanmor Publications, and Timor Publications.

History

Stanley P. Morse's Key Publications, based variously at 1775 Broadway, 280 Madison Avenue, 175 Fifth Avenue, and 261 Fifth Avenue in New York City, New York, published comic books from 1951 to 1956. The first, an action-adventure series starring the titular Mister Universe published under the Media Publications imprint, ran for only five issues cover-dated from July 1951 to February 1952, while the second, a horror anthology titled Mister Mystery, ran 19 issues cover-dated September 1951 to October 1954, and featured much early work by the art team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.
Artist Steve Ditko, the future co-creator of Spider-Man, began his professional comics career at Key in early 1953, illustrating writer Bruce Hamilton's science-fiction story "Stretching Things" for Key's Stanmor Publications, which sold the story to Ajax/Farrell, where it finally found publication in Fantastic Fears #5. Ditko's first published work was his second professional story, the six-page "Paper Romance" in Daring Love #1, published by Key's Gillmor Magazines.
Historian Lawrence Watt-Evans wrote of Morse:
During the 1950s boom in horror comics, Morse "produced several acutely vile horror comics", wrote one historian, and "some of the grossest and most vile" of the time, concurred another. Interviewed for a 2008 book on 1950s horror comics, Morse said, "You did what you had to do — what moved 'em off the racks.... I don't know what the hell I published. I never knew. I never read the things. I never cared." At their peak in 1955, Morse's combined imprints published 56 comics across 18 titles, more than contemporary publishers such as Ace Magazines, Ajax-Farrell, EC Comics, Magazine Enterprises, or Prize Comics.

Titles by imprint

Source:

Aragon

  • Battle Fire #1–4, #6
  • Mister Mystery #7–19 ; continued from Media Publications
  • Mutiny #1–3
  • Navy Task Force #1–6, #8
  • Weird Tales of the Future #5–6 ; continued from S.P.M.

    Gillmor

  • Action Adventure Comics #2–4
  • Climax #1–2
  • Daring Love #1 / Radiant Love #2–6
  • Real Adventure Comics #1
  • Super Fun #1
  • Weird Mysteries #1–12
  • Western Rough Riders #1–4

    Key Publications / Medal Comics

The "Medal Comics" imprint appears on the covers of Diary Confessions #14, Navy Patrol #4, and Flying Aces #3 & #5.
  • Diary Confession #9–12, #14 ; continued from Ideal Romance
  • Flying Aces #1–3, #5
  • Hector Comics #1–3
  • Ideal Romance #3–8 ; continued from Tender Romance, see Diary Confessions
  • Navy Patrol #1–4
  • Peter Cottontail #1–2
  • Peter Cottontail Three Dimensional Comics #1
  • Prize Mystery #1–3
  • Silver Kid Western #1–5
  • Tender Romance #1–2 ; see Ideal Romance
  • Warpath #1–3
  • Weird Chills #1–3

    Media

  • Mister Mystery #1–6 ; see Aragon
  • Mister Universe #1–5

    S. P. M

  • Junior Hopp Comics #1–3
  • Weird Tales of the Future #1–4 ; continued under Aragon

    Stanmor

  • Battle Attack #1–8
  • Battle Cry #1–20
  • Battle Squadron #1–5
  • Pete the Panic #1

    Timor

  • Algie #1–3
  • Animal Adventures #1–3
  • Blazing Western #1–5
  • Crime Detector #1–5