1937
-
1946
< Previous | 1 | Next >
- Country:
- United States
- Indicia Publishers:
- 14
- Brands:
- 5
- Total Number of Series:
- 19
- Total Number of Issues:
- 70
- Notes:
- Harry "A" Chesler (the "A" was not a proper initial- supposedly Chesler claimed it stood for "Anything") was a comic book packager and publisher. He operated a packaging studio more or less continuously from the mid-30s through 1953, and at times also operated as a publisher.
He first published two oversize comics, Star Comics and Star Ranger, as Chesler Publications in 1937. He sold this venture to Ultem Publications, but continued to produce the comics (now normal sized) as well as two additional titles that Ultem had acquired. All of Ultem's comics were entirely put together by Chesler and continued the trade dress of his early books.
After Ultem sold its titles to Centaur, Chesler spent the next several years packaging comics for other publishers and selling them individual stories. One such comic was a 1938 giveaway for Cocomalt, which is included here because it has no other publishing information beyond Chesler's copyright. While some sources list Chesler as publishing or co-owning early Quality Comics issues, this is not correct. At most, he supplied them with a few stories.
In 1941 Chesler returned as a publisher with Dynamic Publications, Inc. From this point on, most of Chesler's comics would be branded with a logo proclaiming them the "World's Greatest Comics". In 1941-1942, this also identified each issue as "A Dynamic Publication". After just over half a year, the U. S. was ramping up its involvement in World War II, and Dynamic ceased publishing, producing a few books through surrogates.
The surrogate activity picks up dramatically in 1944, leading into Chesler's third major wave of publishing. In place of "A Dynamic Publication" these had "Harry "A" Chesler, Jr.". Junior, however, was the son of Chesler the publisher, a point of much confusion for latter-day comics researchers. This period lasted through 1946, after which the ongoing titles were continued in Canada by Superior Publishers through early 1948. Chesler continued to run his art shop, but no longer published his own comics after 1946.
Related Publishers:
Ultem: http://www.comics.org/publisher/7631/
Superior Publishers Limited: http://www.comics.org/publisher/223/
Editing
| Series | Year | # Issues | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulls Eye Comics | 1944 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Captain Battle Comics | 1942 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Carnival Comics | 1945 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Cocomalt Big Book of Comics | 1938 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Dynamic Comics | 1941 | 16 issues (16 indexed) | Gallery |
| Jest Comics | 1944 | 2 issues (2 indexed) | Gallery |
| Kayo Comics | 1945 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Komik Pages | 1945 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Major Victory Comics | 1944 | 3 issues (3 indexed) | Gallery |
| Punch Comics | 1941 | 13 issues (13 indexed) | Gallery |
| Red Seal Comics | 1945 | 5 issues (5 indexed) | Gallery |
| Scoop Comics | 1941 | 3 issues (3 indexed) | Gallery |
| Scoop Comics | 1944 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Skyrocket Comics | 1944 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Snap Comics | 1944 | 1 issue (1 indexed) | Gallery |
| Spotlight Comics | 1944 | 3 issues (3 indexed) | Gallery |
| Star Comics | 1937 | 6 issues (6 indexed) | Gallery |
| Star Ranger | 1937 | 6 issues (6 indexed) | Gallery |
| Yankee Comics | 1941 | 4 issues (4 indexed) | Gallery |
All portions of the Grand Comics Database, except where noted otherwise, are
copyrighted by the GCD and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. This includes but is not necessarily limited to our database schema and data distribution format.