| Founded | 1938; 87 years ago (1938) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Joe Hardie Fred Gardner Raymond Kelly |
| Defunct | 1942; 83 years ago (1942) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
| Key people | Bill Everett |
| Publication types | Comic books |
Centaur Publications (also known asCentaur Comics) was one of the earliestAmerican comic book publishers. During their short existence, they created several colorful characters, includingBill Everett'sAmazing-Man.
Centaur developed primarily from theComics Magazine Company, Inc. In 1936, comic-book entrepreneurEverett M. "Busy" Arnold gave financial or other unspecified help to that New York City-based firm, founded by John Mahon and Bill Cook, former employees of MajorMalcolm Wheeler-Nicholson'sNational Allied Publications (the primary forerunner ofDC Comics). The duo published the premiere issue ofThe Comics Magazine (May 1936),[1] using inventory content from National Allied's submissions. One collector/historian suggests this was in lieu of pay.[2]
Among the Comics Magazine Company's original features wasDr. Mystic the Occult Detective (not to be confused withMr. Mystic of newspapers' "The Spirit Section"). This two-page feature was by futureSuperman creatorsJerry Siegel andJoe Shuster, and was part of theirDoctor Occult continuity, with the name changed for trademark consideration. This was the beginning of a serial that introduced the villain Koth, and the Seven, that continued into DC'sMore Fun Comics #14–17 (issues also designated as vol. 2 #2–5).
The company's flagship title, the eponymousComics Magazine, premiered with a May 1936 cover date. That comic book series featured the first maskedhero inAmerican comics, writer-artistGeorge Brenner's theClock, in the November 1936 issue.
Another entrepreneur,Harry "A" Chesler, publishedStar Comics andStar Ranger through his own Chesler Publications, each with first issues cover-dated February 1937. These titles were soon bought out by I. W. Ullman andFrank Z. Temerson's Ultem Publications. In September 1937, Ultem acquired the Comics Magazine Company's titles, retaining Chesler as the packager for both his own previous titles and the two that were continued from the Comics Magazine Co.[3] Financial difficulties forced Ultem to sell some of its properties, including the Clock, to"Busy" Arnold'sQuality Comics.
By January 1938, Ultem was bought out by Joe Hardie, Fred Gardner, and Raymond Kelly'sCentaur Publications, Inc., which had been publishing pulp magazines since at least 1933. Hardie, Gardner, and Kelly used this base to create Centaur Comics, which began publishing in March 1938. They also drew on the back inventory of stories to fill out the early issues of their new titles with reprints. Centaur Publications, Inc. ceased production at the end of 1940, but continued to produce comics under the nameComic Corporation of America.
Centaur ceased publication four years later, primarily due to poordistribution, but in that period had created several colorful characters, includingBill Everett'sAmazing Man. Everett would later go on to comics fame by introducingNamor the Submariner toTimely (laterAtlas Comics, thenMarvel Comics). Everett's first nationally published comic work was the cover ofAmazing Mystery Funnies No. 1 (1938).
In 1992,Malibu Comics revived several Centaur heroes—which by that time had lapsed into public domain—as thesuperhero team TheProtectors. Malibu selected R. A. Jones to revamp and write the series.[4] Included were Airman, Amazing Man,[4] the Arrow, the Clock (as a retired mystery man, then the President of the United States, Brian O'Brien), the Fantom of the Fair, also known as Fantoman (renamed by Malibu as Gravestone), the Ferret,[citation needed] Man of War,[4] the Masked Marvel (renamed Night Mask), Mighty Man, Prince Zardi the Eternal Man, and the Shark (renamed Thresher),[citation needed] as well as completely original characters,[4] such as Arc and Aura. Several of these characters had short-lived titles of their own.AC Comics reprinted a number of stories featuring Centaur characters in their anthologies.[citation needed]
R. A. Jones was approached by a small book publisher, Westerntainment,[5] to do a prose novel about the Centaur characters with the idea that the story takes place in their original time period. By December 2014, his novelThe Steel Ring was available. A second book,Twilight War, was green-lit by that time.[4] Those Centaur heroes inRing were Amazing Man, the Clock, Ferret, Iron Skull, Man of War and others. In October 2016,Twilight War was available. Centaur characters for the second novel included Airman, the Arrow, Eternal Man and Phantom Princess. Each novel takes place in a different year of World War II. At the time of the second novel's release, Jones had planned to do a total of seven books in the series for each year of the war.[5]
