Hardie-Kelly

1941 - 1958 ?
Country:
United States
Indicia / Colophon Publishers:
6
Total Number of Series:
17
Total Number of Issues:
268
Show Covers by Month:
using on-sale date or using publication date
Show Issues by Month:
using on-sale date or using publication date
Creator Checklist:
via linked story records
Notes:
This groups all joint publishing efforts of Joseph Hardie and Raymond J. Kelly, except for those advertised as The Centaur Group (including some obvious continuations after that branding was dropped). See https://www.comics.org/publisher/58/ for those titles, which include everything from Centaur Publications, Inc., and some series from the Comic Corporation of America.

Hardie founded Harle Publications with George L. Aichele and Warren Angel in 1936. Kelly became the publisher and business manager for the company in 1937. Harle was the longest lasting company in the group, outliving both Hardie and Kelly and continuing to publish under the Harle name into at least the 1990s. It published only one short series of comics, during the mid-50s.

Hardie and Kelly founded H-K Publications together in 1940, followed by the Comic Corporation of America in 1941. While the Comic Corporation of America initially published new books in the Centaur group, in late 1941 it began publishing a separate line of risqué humor comics for military servicemen. For the purposes of this publisher grouping at the GCD, those comics are where the group begins. During this period, H-K, like Harle, only produce non-comics publications.

Available records for this group are sparse, but it appears that Comic Corporation of America continued publishing humor comics through about 1946. It was the only company to publish both these sorts of comics and the Centaur Group comics.

H-K and various new companies took over existing titles or were used for new titles starting around 1943 or 44. For reasons not currently known, starting in 1956, all books published by this group no longer printed a publishing company in their indicia. The last known comic from this group appeared in 1958.

These notes are partially based on information from the Field Guide to American Pulp Artists:
https://www.pulpartists.com/Hardie.html

Centaur: https://www.comics.org/publisher/58/
Series Year Issues Covers Published
A Pocketful of Pepper [m] 1944 15 issues (2 indexed) Have 10 (Need 10) Winter 1942 - April 1946
Cartoon Jamboree [m] 1950 13 issues (1 indexed) Have 11 (Need 3) November 1956 - August 1958
Cheer [m] 1940 1 issues (0 indexed) Add Spring 1948
Cheers [m] 1942 13 issues (1 indexed) Have 5 (Need 11) November 1942 - 1944 ?
Flying Models [m] 1954 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery May 1954
Fun [m] 1950 3 issues (1 indexed) Gallery December 1955 - April 1956
Grin! [m] 1950 3 issues (0 indexed) Gallery March 1950 - September 1950
How to Keep Smiling [m] 1950 2 issues (0 indexed) Have 2 (Need 2) August 1956 - October 1956
Jeeps! [m] 1942 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery February 1942
Keep 'Em Laughing! [m] 1942 13 issues (0 indexed) Have 10 (Need 4) July-August 1942 - Spring 1946
Khaki Wacky [m] 1941 7 issues (0 indexed) Have 5 (Need 5) December 1941 - August 1942
Mirth [m] 1950 41 issues (10 indexed) Have 35 (Need 19) August 1950 - August 1958
Model Fun [m] 1954 4 issues (2 indexed) Gallery Fall 1954 - July 1955
Pepper [m] 1947 38 issues (1 indexed) Have 32 (Need 15) Winter 1947 - September 1958
Smiles [m] 1942 82 issues (8 indexed) Have 77 (Need 29) May 1942 - September 1958
What's Cookin'! [m] 1942 13 issues (1 indexed) Have 9 (Need 4) October 1942 - Spring 1946
Yoo Hoo [m] 1942 18 issues (1 indexed) Have 12 (Need 10) November 1941 - April 1946

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