I. W. Publications


I.W. Publications was a short-lived comic book publisher in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The company was part of I.W. Enterprises, and named for the company's owner, Israel Waldman. I.W. Publications was notable for publishing unauthorized reprints of other publishers' properties. Usually these companies were already out of business — but not always.
I.W. Publications published comics in a wide variety of genres, including crime, science fiction, Western, horror, war and romance comics, as well as funny animal and superhero titles. The company was known for its low-budget products: most of I.W.'s comics were sold in grocery and discount stores, often in "three comics for a quarter" plastic bags. The numbering of most of the company's titles is misleading, often not starting at issue #1 and skipping issue numbers. Incredibly, the company produced 118 separate titles, but only 332 individual issues — many titles only published a single issue.
The company published one comic book with original material: Marty Mouse #1, featuring funny animal stories by Vincent Fago, among others.
Some I.W./Super Comics titles used original cover art: illustrators included Jack Abel, Ross Andru, Sol Brodsky, Carl Burgos, Mike Esposito, and John Severin, with lettering by Ben Oda.

History

Following the publication of Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent and the 1954 comic book hearings of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, many comic book publishers closed down shop in the years 1954–1956. Other than I.W., no new publishers debuted in 1958. Comics historian Don Markstein explained the company's methods:
The company started publishing in 1958, with comics originally published by Avon Comics, Fiction House, Magazine Enterprises, and others. Many of these comics had the tagline "A Top Quality Comics." After releasing a great quantity of comics in 1958, the company went on hiatus until 1963, when it again released a number of comics up into 1964. The latter half of the company's existence, it published comics under the Super Comics name. Many of these titles were reprints of Toby Press, Avon, Magazine Enterprises, and Quality Comics. Many of these titles had the tagline "Super Comics Seal of Quality."
I.W. Publications went out of business in 1964. Waldman would later be involved with the short-lived black-and-white comics magazines publisher Skywald Publications in the 1970s.

Publishers whose work was reprinted in I.W. Publications comics