William J. Pape (b. 1873)

Born: 1873 December 1 in Merseyside, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Died: 1961 January 29 in Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States

Biography: William J. Pape was the president and owner of Eastern Color Printing Company, from its founding in August 1928 until his death in January 1961.

In 1901, Pape formed a partnership with William M. Lathrop and together they purchased the Waterbury (Connecticut) Republican newspaper, becoming sole owner of the newspaper in 1910. In 1922, he purchased the Waterbury American and renamed the newspaper, Waterbury Republican and American (or Republican-American).

In 1924, the Republican and American began publishing its Sunday comics in color and soon offered to print color Sunday color comic sections for other newspapers. In August 1928, Pape founded Eastern Color Printing Company as a separate entity from the Republican and American newspaper to specialize in color printing.

Eastern Color would print The Funnies for Dell, from 1928 to 1930 and Gulf Comic/Funnies Weekly, from 1933 to 1941. During 1933, Eastern would publish Funnies on Parade and Toy World Funnies and in 1934, the one-shot and then the series Famous Funnies. From 1934 to 1955, Eastern Color published Famous Funnies and other comic book titles before getting out of the comic book publishing business. Pape's Eastern Color would continue to print up other company's comic book titles and Sunday comic sections well into the 1970s and would print and publish the occasional giveaway or premium comic book even after they stopped their comic book line in 1955.

Name:

    William J. Pape Type: Common Alternative Name
    Given name: William J. Family name: Pape

Other Names:

  1. William Jamieson Pape Type: Name at Birth
    Given name: William Jamieson Family name: Pape

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