Skywald Publications
Skywald Publications is a 1970s
publisher of black-and-white comics
magazines, primarily the
horror anthologies
Nightmare,
Psycho, and
Scream. It also published a small line of
comic books and other magazines.
The company name is a combination of those of its founders, former
Marvel Comics production manager Sol Brodsky ("Sky") and low-budget
entrepreneur Israel Waldman ("wald"), whose
I.W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published unlicensed comic-book reprints for sale through
grocery and
discount stores. Skywald was based in
New York City.
Brodsky, who also served as
editor, brought in
Al Hewetson â€" briefly an assistant to Marvel chief
Stan Lee and a freelancer for the
Warren Publishing horror magazines and others â€" as a freelance
writer. "Archaic Al", as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Under Hewetson, the horror magazines attempted a somewhat more literary bent than the twist-ending shockers of early
Warren Publishing, the field's leader with such popular titles as
Creepy and
Eerie. Hewetson called this "the Horror-Mood", and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as
Poe,
Lovecraft and
Kafka.
Comics professionals who produced work for the Skywald magazines include writers
Gerry Conway,
Steve Englehart,
Gardner Fox,
Doug Moench,
Dave Sim,
Len Wein, and
Marv Wolfman, and artists
Rich Buckler,
Vince Colletta,
Bill Everett,
Bruce Jones,
Pablo Marcos,
Syd Shores,
Chic Stone, and
Tom Sutton. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed
pseudonyms.
Non-horror magazines
Skywald also produced two issues of the magazine
Hell-Rider (Aug. & Oct. 1971), featuring a vigilante motorcyclist with a
flamethrower-equipped bike. The character was created by
Gary Friedrich (who would go on to co-create the Marvel motorcyclist
Ghost Rider) with artists
Ross Andru (
penciler) and
Mike Esposito (
inker). Backup features were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich, with art credits disputed by different sources for issue #1; the second-issue "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler
Syd Shores and inker Esposito, the second "Wild Bunch" to penciler-inker
Rich Buckler.
Another two-issue title,
The Crime Machine, consisted solely of comic-book
crime fiction reprints from the 1950s. A remaining title,
Science Fiction Odyssey, was planned for September 1971 publication, but withdrawn; some of its stories eventually appeared in the horror magazines.
The company also published a small number of magazines unrelated to horror or comics. Among these was
Judy Garland (1970), a "special tribute issue" [
1].
|
Judy Garland, a Skywald "tribute" |
The short-lived color comic-book line, edited by Brodsky, was comprised of the
Western titles
Blazing Six-Guns,
The Bravados,
Butch Cassidy,
The Sundance Kid, and
Wild Western Action; the
romance title
Tender Love Stories; the
horror series
The Heap; and
Jungle Adventures. These each were combinations of new material and reprints. Contributors, in addition to some of those noted above, include
Dick Ayers,
Mike Friedrich,
Jack Katz,
John Severin, and
John Tartaglione. Notably,
The Sundance Kid #1-2 (June-July 1971) contained
Jack Kirby Western reprints from
Bullseye #2-3 (Oct. & Dec. 1954).
None of the comics lasted more than three issues.
Skywald's first publication was
Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted through the end of 1974 or early 1975, with
Psycho #24 (March 1975) its final publication.
Hewetson, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on Jan. 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by
Marvel's distributor. Our issues were selling well, and some sold out. Such returns as we received were shipped overseas, mainly to England, where they sold out completely. ... When Marvel entered the game with countless [black-and-white horror] titles gutting [sic] the newsstand, their distributor was so powerful they denied Skywald access to all but the very largest newsstands, so our presence was minimal and fans and readers simply couldn't find us. ... The Waldmans [Israel and business manager Hershel Waldman] and I had a business lunch with our distributor in the fall of '74 and we were given very specific information about the state of affairs on the newsstands â€" which had nothing to do with Warren's or Skywald's solid readership base [2].
*
The Complete Illustrated History of the Horror-Mood, edited by Alan Hewetson (Critical Vision, 2004) ISBN 1900486377
*
The Complete Skywald Checklist*
The Skywald Magazines*
Hell-Rider: A Memoir of the 70s*
Oddball Comics: Wambi (The Jungle Boy) RE: unlicensed Waldman reprints
*
Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Super Rabbit RE: unlicensed Waldman reprints
*
Wildwood Cemetery: The Spirit Database RE: unlicensed Waldman reprints
