Tower Comicswas an Americancomic bookpublishing company that operated from 1965 to 1969, best known forWally Wood'sT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents,a strange combination of secret agents and superheroes; andSamm Schwartz'sTippy Teen,anArchie Andrewsclone. The comics were published byHarry Shortenand edited by Schwartz and Wood. Tower Comics was part ofTower Publications,a paperback publisher at that point best known for theirMidwood Booksline of soft-coreerotic fictionaimed at male readers.
 | |
| Parent company | Tower Publications |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1965 |
| Founder | Harry Shorten |
| Defunct | 1969 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | 185 Madison Avenue[1] New York City |
| Key people | Harry Shorten Wallace Wood Samm Schwartz |
| Publication types | Comic books |
Tower Comics set themselves apart by publishing 25-cent, 64-page comics, during a time of 12-cent, 32-page comics. The comics were something of a throw-back to theGolden Age,in that they had more pages than most of their contemporaries and usually featured five or six independent stories, with all the main characters coming together for the final story of the issue, a commonGolden Ageplotting device used in team books such asDC Comics'sAll-Star Comics.
History
editTower publisher Harry Shorten "cut a dream deal with Wally Wood" in which Shorten would be the managing editor and "Wood would be granted a wide latitude of creative and business freedom devoid of a 9-to-5 office job or hefty administrative duties, and be allowed to concentrate on creating characters and concepts for an expanding line of superhero comics".
When it became obvious Wood could not handle the volume of material Shorten wanted to publish, he hired Samm Schwartz, who Shorten knew from both men's many years atArchie Comics.[1]Schwartz handled the scheduling of all the material and assignments of scripts and art other than Wood's own.[2]Schwartz'sTippy Teen,anArchie-style comic about the adventures of a spunky teenaged girl, ran 27 issues.Tippy Teenand its spin-off,Go-Go and Animal,featured many stories drawn by Schwartz, as well as contributions from moonlighting Archie artists likeHarry LuceyandDan DeCarlo.
Other notable creators associated with Tower includedDan Adkins,Gil Kane,Reed Crandall,Steve Ditko,Richard Bassford,Len Brown,Steve Skeates,Larry Ivie,Bill Pearson,Russ Jones,Roger Brand,and Tim Battersby-Brent.[1]
Legacy
editAt some point in the early 1980sJohn Carbonaropurchased the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and associated characters and published them in hisJC Comicsline.[3]In 1984,Deluxe Comicslaunched their own line of new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents stories, claiming the characters had fallen into the public domain. Carbonaro sued,[4]and was eventually awarded full legal rights to the property.[3][5]
In the early 2000s DC began to reprint the original Tower stories as part of theirDC Archive Editions,and in 2010 DC began publishing a newT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agentsseries, having announced the year before that they had secured the lawful right to do so.
Titles published
edit- Fight the Enemy(3 issues, Aug. 1966 – Mar. 1967) –wartitle
- T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents(20 issues, Nov. 1965 – Nov. 1969) – and spin-off titles:
- Dynamo(4 issues, Aug. 1966 – June 1967)
- NoMan(2 issues, Nov. 1966 – Mar. 1967)
- Undersea Agent(6 issues, Jan. 1966 – Mar. 1967) – minimal ties withT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents
- Tippy Teen(26 issues, Nov. 1965 – Oct. 1969) – teen comics; includes the unnumberedTippy Teen Special Collector's Edition(Nov. 1969); and spin-off titles:
- Teen-in(4 issues, Summer 1968 – Fall 1969)
- Tippy's Friends Go-go and Animal / Tippy's Friend Go-Go(15 issues, Aug. 1966 – Oct. 1969)
Paperback collections
edit- Dynamo, Man of High Camp(Tower Book42–660) 1966 – reprintsT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents#1
- NoMan, the Invisible THUNDER Agent(Tower Book 42-672) 1966 – reprints NoMan stories fromT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents#2–5
- Menthor, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent with the Super Helmet(Tower Book 42-674) 1966 – reprints Menthor stories fromT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents#2–5
- The Terrific Trio(Tower Book 42-687) 1966 – reprints storiesT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents#2, 3, 6
References
edit- ^abcIrving, Chris. "Rise and Fall of Tower Comics: Chris Irving on the History of the Short-Lived Comics Publisher",Comic Book Artist#14(TwoMorrows Publishing, July 2001), pp. 12–14.
- ^Klein, Robert and Michael Uslan. "Introduction",T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents ArchivesVolume 1 (DC Comics, 2002).
- ^abSodaro, Robert J. "The Resplendent Sound of T.H.U.N.D.E.R.!"Comics Value Annual(1999). Archived onThunderAgents.com.Accessed Feb. 8, 2014.
- ^"Blood and T.H.U.N.D.E.R.",The Comics Journal#97 (April 1985), pp. 7–11.
- ^"Deluxe suspendsT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents",The Comics Journal#100 (July 1985), pp. 20–22.
External links
edit- Tower Comicsat theGrand Comics Database
- Tower Comicsat the Comic Book DB (archived fromthe original)
- "Tower Comics Checklist".Comic Book Artist(#14). July 2001.Archivedfrom the original on June 29, 2011.RetrievedJune 16,2012.
- International Catalogue of Superheroes section for Tower