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| Founded | 1943 |
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| Founder | Leonard Miller Arnold Miller |
| Defunct | 1966 |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | London |
| Key people | Colin Traver,Mick Anglo, Len Miller, Colin Andrew |
| Publication types | Comic magazines,Paperback Books |
| Fiction genres | Superheroes, Westerns, Science Fiction, Horror/Suspense, Adventure |
L. Miller & Son, Ltd. was a British publisher of magazines,comic books,pulp fiction andpaperback books intended primarily to take advantage of the British ban on importing printed matter. Between 1943 and 1966, the firm published British editions of many American comic books, primarily those ofFawcett Comics and American paperback books, primarily those of Fawcett Publications'Gold Medal Books. The company is best known for the 1954 creation ofMarvelman – a blatant imitation of theGolden AgeCaptain Marvel – after America'sFawcett Publications capitulated toNational Periodicals (DC Comics). L. Miller & Son also published a large line ofWestern comics — many reprints but also some original titles - and both category fiction and non-fiction paperbacks.
During and directly afterWorld War II, the UK was intent on promoting homegrown publishers, and thus banned the direct importation ofAmerican periodicals, including comic books.[1] L. Miller & Son, Ltd. was founded in 1943 by Leonard Miller and his son Arnold L. Miller. To get around the importation ban, from 1945 L. Miller & Son published black-and-white reprints of theFawcett ComicsMarvel Family titles, includingCaptain Marvel Adventures,Captain Marvel Jr.,The Marvel Family, andWhiz Comics.
The company also produced original comics. Between 1950 and 1952, British writer/artistMick Anglo producedSpace Commando Comics, featuring "Space Commander Kerry," for L. Miller & Son, while concurrently producing strips for Len Miller's son Arnold's ownArnold Book Company.[2][3]
Throughout the 1950s, L. Miller & Son published a large line ofWestern comics. L. Miller & Son's original Western titles, which they started producing in 1954, includedColorado Kid,Davy Crockett,Kid Dynamite Western Comic,Pancho Villa Western Comic, andRocky Mountain King Western Comic. Some of the longer-running Western reprint titles includedGabby Hayes Western,Hopalong Cassidy Comic,Lash Larue Western,Monte Hale Western,Rocky Lane Western,Six-Gun Heroes, andWestern Hero.
In 1954, the decision on theNational Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc. lawsuit found that Fawcett'sCaptain Marvel character was an infringement on the copyright of National'sSuperman character after a long legal battle. The suit resulted in Fawcett Publications canceling all of its superhero-related publications, including those featuring Captain Marvel and related characters. L. Miller & Son was forced to cancel their line of "Marvel" titles (though the company continued to publishWhiz Comics minus any Marvel Family stories).
Faced with the sudden loss of their star feature, and operating under different copyright laws, the company turned toMick Anglo to come up with a replacement character that, while ostensibly a new creation, mimicked enough core elements of Captain Marvel to retain the interest of readers who had enjoyed the reprints.[2] Anglo (along with writer/publisher Leonard Miller) createdMarvelman.Captain Marvel, Jr., was adapted to createYoung Marvelman, andMary Marvel had her gender changed to create the maleKid Marvelman. The magic word "Shazam!" was replaced with "Kimota" ("Atomik" backward). Using the "new" characters, the company launched three titles,Marvelman,Marvelman Family, andYoung Marvelman.
In 1959, the ban on the importation of foreign comics was lifted.[1] American comics became much more widely available in the U.K., and demand for British-produced comics shrunk. By the end of the 1950s, L. Miller & Son had canceled all their Western titles. In the same vein, Miller canceledMarvelman Family, and turned bothMarvelman andYoung Marvelman into reprint books. Both titles struggled on, each putting out 346 issues, but both were finally canceled in 1963. (Marvelman — now calledMiracleman — was revived in 1982 in a dark, post-modern reboot by writerAlan Moore, with later contributions byNeil Gaiman.)
Meanwhile, Leonard Miller's son Arnold's operation,Arnold Book Company, had been essentially forced out of business by a British backlash against the gory Americanhorror comics it was reprinting. Arnold moved into film production, directing a series of nudist films beginning in 1959. Leonard was against his son's new career, and as a result of their dispute, he ejected Arnold from L. Miller & Son, which became simplyL. Miller & Co.[4]
Ironically, starting in 1961, L. Miller & Co. itself moved into the horror/suspense genre with two new titles,Mystic andSpellbound, both of which culled pre-Comics Code material from American publishers likeAtlas,Marvel Comics,American Comics Group, Charlton, andE.C. Comics.
L. Miller & Co. declared bankruptcy in 1963,[5] and ceased comic book publication in 1966. The physical asbestos printing plates from which Miller had produced their comics, and presumably the rights to the comics as well,[citation needed] were sold to fellow black-and-white British publisherAlan Class, Ltd.[4] Class, for his part, was interested primarily in horror and science fiction stories, and reprinted few of the original Miller creations. (Class was still using some of the Miller printing plates as recently as the late 1990s.)
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