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{{Short description|British comic book publisher}}
{{EngvarB|date=December 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=December 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
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| name = Arnold Book Company
| name = Arnold Book Company
| founded = 1948
| founded = 1948
| status = Defunct (1958)
| status = Acquired by [[Thorpe & Porter]] (1958)<ref name=Depelley />
| founder = Arnold L. Miller
| founder = Arnold L. Miller
| image =
| image =
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| publications = [[British comics|Comics]]
| publications = [[British comics|Comics]]
| topics =
| topics =
| genre = [[Horror comics|Horror/suspense]], [[Crime comics|Crime]], [[Romance comics|Romance]]
| genre = [[Horror comics|Horror/suspense]], [[Crime comics|crime]], [[Romance comics|romance]]
| imprints = Prize
| imprints = Prize
}}
}}
'''Arnold Book Company''' ('''ABC''') was a British publisher of [[comic books]] that operated in the late 1940s and 1950s, most actively in the period 1950 to 1954. ABC was closely connected to the fellow British comics publisher [[L. Miller & Son]]. ABC published original titles like the [[war comic]] ''Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron'' and the [[Science fiction comics|science fiction]] title ''Space Comics'', and reprints of American titles like ''[[Adventures into the Unknown]]'', ''[[Black Magic (comics)|Black Magic Comics]]'', and ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'' (many featuring the work of [[Joe Simon]] and [[Jack Kirby]]). The company found the most success with the genres of [[Horror comics|horror]], [[Crime comics|crime]], [[Science fiction comics|science fiction]], and [[Romance comics|romance]].
'''Arnold Book Company''' ('''ABC''') was a British publisher of [[comic books]] that operated in the late 1940s and 1950s, most actively from 1950 to 1954. ABC published original titles like the [[war comic]] ''Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron'' and the [[Science fiction comics|science fiction]] title ''Space Comics'', and reprints of American [[Horror comics|horror]] and [[Crime comics|crime]] titles (many featuring the work of [[Joe Simon]] and [[Jack Kirby]]) like ''[[Adventures into the Unknown]]'', ''[[Black Magic (comics)|Black Magic Comics]]'', and ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]''. British contributors to the company's titles include [[Mick Anglo]] and [[Denis Gifford]].<ref name="Darlington">{{cite journal|last=Darlington|first=Andrew|title=Daredevils of the Stratosphere|journal=The Mentor|date=October 1995|issue=88|pages=10|url=http://efanzines.com/Mentor/TM88COMP.pdf|access-date=24 July 2012}}</ref> Arnold Book Company was closely connected to the fellow British comics publisher [[L. Miller & Son]].


In the 1950s, Arnold Book Company suffered from backlash for some of its [[horror comics|horror comic]] reprints, leading to the company's closure in 1958. ABC's founder, Arnold L. Miller, later became a filmmaker and film producer, primarily in the [[Nudist film|nudist]] and [[sexploitation]] genre.
British contributors to the company's titles include [[Mick Anglo]] and [[Denis Gifford]].<ref name="Darlington">{{cite journal|last=Darlington|first=Andrew|title=Daredevils of the Stratosphere|journal=The Mentor|date=October 1995|issue=88|pages=10|url=http://efanzines.com/Mentor/TM88COMP.pdf|accessdate=24 July 2012}}</ref>


== History ==
== History ==
The company was founded in 1948 by Arnold Louis Miller,<ref name=Fowler>{{Cite web | url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1375558/index.html |publisher=BFI Screenonline|title = Miller, Arnold Louis (1922-) Biography|author=Fowler, William|accessdate=December 21, 2020}}</ref> the "Son" in [[L. Miller & Son, Ltd.]] a British reprint publisher (founded in 1943) of many American comic books, primarily those of [[Fawcett Comics]]. (L. Miller & Son became known later on for the 1954 creation [by British writer/artist [[Mick Anglo]]] of [[Marvelman]] – a blatant imitation of the Fawcett's [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]].)
The company was founded in 1948 by Arnold Louis Miller,<ref name=Fowler>{{Cite web | url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1375558/index.html |publisher=BFI Screenonline|title = Miller, Arnold Louis (1922-) Biography|author=Fowler, William|access-date=December 21, 2020}}</ref> the "Son" in [[L. Miller & Son, Ltd.]] a British reprint publisher (founded in 1943) of many American comic books, primarily those of [[Fawcett Comics]]. (L. Miller & Son became known later on for the 1954 creation [by British writer/artist [[Mick Anglo]]] of [[Marvelman]] – a blatant imitation of Fawcett's [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]].)


Between 1950 and 1952, [[Mick Anglo]] produced a number of strips for Arnold Book Company, on stories such as "Captain Valiant" (in ''Space Comics'') and ''Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron'', while concurrently producing ''Space Commando Comics'', featuring "Space Commander Kerry," for L. Miller & Son.<ref name=CW43>Holland, Steve, "Who's Who in British Comics", ''Comics World'' #43, Aceville Publications Ltd. (September–October 1995).</ref> In 1954, Anglo created one issue of ''Captain Universe''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/capuni.htm |title=Captain Universe |publisher=the International Catalogue of Superheroes |accessdate=31 March 2010 }}</ref> for ABC, a near-identical character to [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]] and [[Marvelman]].{{efn|Captain Universe uses a magic word, "Galap", to gain superhuman powers, just as Captain Marvel's "Shazam" and Marvelman's "Kimota."}}
Between 1950 and 1952, [[Mick Anglo]] produced a number of strips for Arnold Book Company, on stories such as "Captain Valiant" (in ''Space Comics'') and ''Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron'', while concurrently producing ''Space Commando Comics'', featuring "Space Commander Kerry," for L. Miller & Son.<ref name=CW43>Holland, Steve, "Who's Who in British Comics", ''Comics World'' #43, Aceville Publications Ltd. (September–October 1995).</ref> In 1954, Anglo created two issues of ''[[Captain Universe (British comics)|Captain Universe]]''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/capuni.htm |title=Captain Universe |publisher=the International Catalogue of Superheroes |access-date=31 March 2010 }}</ref> for ABC, a near-identical character to [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]] and [[Marvelman]].{{efn|Captain Universe uses a magic word, "Galap", to gain superhuman powers, just as Captain Marvel's "Shazam" and Marvelman's "Kimota."}}


=== Relationship with Thorpe & Porter ===
=== Relationship with Thorpe & Porter ===
In the period 1951 to 1953, the British distributor/publisher [[Thorpe & Porter]] (T & P) acquired a number of ABC's reprint titles, including ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'', ''Young Brides'', ''Young Eagle'', and ''[[Young Love (comics)|Young Love]]''. (When T & P acquired ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'', it continued the numbering of the ABC version; with the other titles, T & P restarted the numbering at #1.)
In the period 1951 to 1953, the British distributor/publisher [[Thorpe & Porter]] (T & P) acquired a number of ABC's reprint titles, including ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'', ''Young Brides'', ''Young Eagle'', and ''[[Young Love (comics)|Young Love]]''. (When T & P acquired ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'', it continued the numbering of the ABC version; with the other titles, T & P restarted the numbering at #1.)


In 1953, Thorpe & Porter seems to have acquired the Arnold Book Company as a separate line; Arnold Book Company appears as an [[Imprint (publishing)|imprint]] on the T & P titles ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'', ''[[Kid Colt, Outlaw]]'' ''Young Brides'', and ''Young Romance'' from that point until 1958.<ref>[https://www.comics.org/indicia_publisher/2681/ "Thorpe & Porter : Arnold Book Co. (Indicia / Colophon Publisher),"] Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 21, 2020.</ref> (T & P later published a second volume of 13 issues of ''Justice Traps the Guilty''.)
In 1953, Thorpe & Porter seems to have acquired the Arnold Book Company as a separate line; Arnold Book Company appears as an [[Imprint (publishing)|imprint]] on the T & P titles ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'', ''[[Kid Colt, Outlaw]]'', ''Young Brides'', and ''Young Romance'' from that point until 1958.<ref>[https://www.comics.org/indicia_publisher/2681/ "Thorpe & Porter : Arnold Book Co. (Indicia / Colophon Publisher),"] Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 21, 2020.</ref> (T & P later published a second volume of 13 issues of ''Justice Traps the Guilty''.)


=== Horror comics controversy and closure ===
=== Horror comics controversy and closure ===
In 1952, ABC cashed in on the popularity of [[horror comics]] with reprints of the (relatively gore-free) [[Prize Comics]] title ''[[Black Magic (comics)|Black Magic Comics]]'', publishing that title into 1954. Meanwhile, starting around 1950, "lurid American '[[Crime comics|crime]]' and '[[horror comics]]' reached Britain." Titles such as [[EC Comics]]' ''[[The Haunt of Fear]]'', ''[[Tales from the Crypt (comics)|Tales from the Crypt]]'', and ''[[The Vault of Horror (comics)|The Vault of Horror]]'' first arrived as [[Sailing ballast|ballast]] in ships from the United States, and at first were only available in the "environs of the great ports of [[Liverpool]], [[Manchester]], [[Belfast]] and London." The comics, which exhibited a gruesome ''joie de vivre'', with grimly ironic fates meted out to many of the stories' protagonists, prompted what in retrospect has been characterised as a [[moral panic]].<ref name="histoday94">{{cite journal| url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000228860 | title= Horror Comics: The Nasties of the 1950s | first= John| last= Sringhall | work=[[History Today]]| issue= 7| volume= 44 | date=July 1994| publisher= [[Questia Online Library]]| access-date=2010-10-23 }}</ref>
Starting around 1950, "lurid American '[[Crime comics|crime]]' and '[[horror comics]]' reached Britain." Titles such as [[EC Comics]]' ''[[The Haunt of Fear]]'', ''[[Tales from the Crypt (comics)|Tales from the Crypt]]'', and ''[[The Vault of Horror (comics)|The Vault of Horror]]'' first arrived as [[Sailing ballast|ballast]] in ships from the United States, and at first were only available in the "environs of the great ports of [[Liverpool]], [[Manchester]], [[Belfast]] and London." EC's comics, which exhibited a gruesome ''joie de vivre'', with grimly ironic fates meted out to many of the stories' protagonists, prompted what in retrospect has been characterised as a [[moral panic]].<ref name="histoday94">{{cite journal | url= https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000228860 | title= Horror Comics: The Nasties of the 1950s | first= John | last= Sringhall | journal= [[History Today]] | issue= 7 | volume= 44 | date= July 1994 | publisher= | access-date= | archive-date= 4 May 2012 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120504231008/http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000228860 | url-status= dead }}</ref>


In 1952, Arnold Book Company, "using blocks made from imported American [[matrix (printing)|matrices]]," printed British single-issue editions of ''The Haunt of Fear'', ''Tales from the Crypt'', and ''The Vault of Horror'', selling them in "small back-street newsagents."<ref name="histoday94"/> The ensuing outcry was heard in the British press; an article in the ''[[The Times]]'' of April 22, 1955, accusing horror titles like those being published by ABC of deranging young readers, pushing the most susceptible to desecrate local cemeteries. Shortly, at the urging of the Most Reverend [[Geoffrey Fisher]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], Major [[Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby|Gwilym Lloyd George]], the [[Home Secretary]] and [[Minister of Welsh Affairs]], and the [[National Union of Teachers]], Parliament passed the [[Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955]].<ref>{{cite web| title= 22 February 1955 → Commons Sitting → Orders of the Day |work=[[Hansard]]| date= 22 February 1955 |url= http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1955/feb/22/children-and-young-persons-harmful | publisher= millbanksystems.com | access-date=2010-10-23}}</ref> The act targeted horror comics<ref>[http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1955/feb/22/children-and-young-persons-harmful Hansard], 22 Feb 1955</ref> — especially ABC's EC reprint titles.
In 1952, Arnold Book Company cashed in on the popularity of [[horror comics]] with reprints of the (relatively gore-free) [[Prize Comics]] title ''[[Black Magic (comics)|Black Magic Comics]]'', publishing that title into 1954. Around that same time, in 1952 and again in 1954, "using blocks made from imported American [[matrix (printing)|matrices]]," ABC printed British single-issue editions of EC's ''The Haunt of Fear'', ''Tales from the Crypt'', and ''The Vault of Horror'', selling them in "small back-street newsagents."<ref name="histoday94"/> The ensuing outcry was heard in the British press; an article in ''[[The Times]]'' of April 22, 1955, accused horror comics of deranging young readers, pushing the most susceptible to desecrate local cemeteries. Shortly, at the urging of the Most Reverend [[Geoffrey Fisher]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], Major [[Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby|Gwilym Lloyd George]], the [[Home Secretary]] and [[Minister of Welsh Affairs]], and the [[National Union of Teachers]], Parliament passed the [[Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955]].<ref name=Hansard>{{cite web| title= 22 February 1955 → Commons Sitting → Orders of the Day |work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]| date= 22 February 1955 |url= https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1955/feb/22/children-and-young-persons-harmful | access-date=2010-10-23}}</ref> The act targeted horror comics<ref name=Hansard /> — especially ABC's EC reprint titles.


As a result of this backlash, Arnold Book Company had mostly shut down its comic book activities after 1954, and had disappeared from the scene entirely by 1958.<ref>Barker, Martin. ''A Haunt of Fears'' (London: Pluto Press, 1984), pp. 15, 146).</ref><ref>Lent, John A., editor. ''Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign'' (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999), pp. 73, 86.</ref>
As a result of this backlash, Arnold Book Company had mostly shut down its comic book activities after 1954,<ref>Barker, Martin. ''A Haunt of Fears'' (London: Pluto Press, 1984), pp. 15, 146.</ref><ref>Lent, John A., editor. ''Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign'' (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999), pp. 73, 86.</ref> and was closed down entirely in 1958.<ref name=Depelley>(French) Depelley, Jean. [http://bdzoom.com/72380/comic-books/miller-son-2eme-et-derniere-partie/ "Miller & Son (2ème et dernière partie),"] BDZoom.com (March 18, 2014).</ref>

⚫
=== Arnold Miller's later career ===
⚫
Arnold Miller moved on to publishing the glamour magazine ''Photo Studio'',<ref name=Fowler /> and then transitioned to a career in filmmaking, particularly [[Nudist film|nudist]] and [[sexploitation]] movies. He directed seven films in the period 1959 to 1970, produced several movies with [[Stanley Long]],<ref>Morse, Erik. [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/12/british-erotic-cinema-history "The sex files: a history of erotic films from slo-mo frolics to romping stags: The British once took their titillation from heavily censored softcore films. Forty are now in the BFI’s new erotic archive,"] ''The Guardian'' (12 Jan 2017).</ref> and worked with [[Tigon British Film Productions]].<ref name=Fowler />

Films directed by Miller include:
⚫
* ''[[Nudist Memories]]'' (1959)
⚫
* ''[[Nudes of the World]]'' (1961)
⚫
* ''[[West End Jungle]]'' (1961)
⚫
* ''[[Take Off Your Clothes and Live!]]'' (1963)
⚫
* ''[[London in the Raw]]'' (with [[Norman Cohen]]) (1964)
⚫
* ''[[Secrets of a Windmill Girl]]'' (1966)
⚫
* ''[[A Touch of the Other]]'' (1970)


== Titles published (selected) ==
== Titles published (selected) ==
=== Original titles ===
=== Original titles ===
* ''Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron'' (17 issues, 1952–1954)
* ''Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron'' (17 issues, 1952–1954)
* ''Captain Universe'' (1 issue, 1954) — [[Mick Anglo]]'s clone of [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]]/[[Marvelman]]
* ''[[Captain Universe (British comics)|Captain Universe]]'' (2 issues, 1954) — [[Mick Anglo]]'s clone of [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]]/[[Marvelman]]
* ''Space Comics'' (32 issues, 1953–1954) — contributions from [[Mick Anglo]] and [[Denis Gifford]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Archive for the 'Arnold Book Company' Category: Space Comics|url=http://themagicrobot.wordpress.com/category/arnold-book-company/|work=The Magic Robot: A Digital Scrapbook|accessdate=20 February 2012}}</ref><ref name="Gifford 1985">{{cite book|last=Gifford|first=Denis|title=Complete Catalogue of British Comics|year=1985|publisher=Webb & Bower|location=Exeter, England|isbn=0-86350-079-X|page=197}}</ref>
* ''Space Comics'' (32 issues, 1953–1954) — contributions from [[Mick Anglo]] and [[Denis Gifford]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Archive for the 'Arnold Book Company' Category: Space Comics|url=http://themagicrobot.wordpress.com/category/arnold-book-company/|work=The Magic Robot: A Digital Scrapbook|access-date=20 February 2012}}</ref><ref name="Gifford 1985">{{cite book|last=Gifford|first=Denis|title=Complete Catalogue of British Comics|year=1985|publisher=Webb & Bower|location=Exeter, England|isbn=0-86350-079-X|page=197}}</ref>


=== Reprint titles ===
=== Reprint titles ===
Line 61: Line 50:
* ''The Haunt of Fear'' (3 issues, 1952–1954) — reprints from [[EC Comics]]'s ''[[The Haunt of Fear]]'' and ''[[Shock SuspenStories]]''
* ''The Haunt of Fear'' (3 issues, 1952–1954) — reprints from [[EC Comics]]'s ''[[The Haunt of Fear]]'' and ''[[Shock SuspenStories]]''
* ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'' (28 issues, 1951–1953) — Crestwood Publications/Prize Comics title of the same name; acquired in 1957 by [[Thorpe & Porter]] and continued for another 15 issues under the Arnold Book Company imprint
* ''[[Justice Traps the Guilty]]'' (28 issues, 1951–1953) — Crestwood Publications/Prize Comics title of the same name; acquired in 1957 by [[Thorpe & Porter]] and continued for another 15 issues under the Arnold Book Company imprint
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (2 issues, 1952–1954) — reprints from the EC Comics' ''[[Tales from the Crypt (comics)|Tales from the Crypt]]'', ''Shock SuspenStories'', and ''[[Crime SuspenStories]]''
* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (2 issues, 1952–1954) —&nbsp;reprints from the EC Comics' ''[[Tales from the Crypt (comics)|Tales from the Crypt]]'', ''Shock SuspenStories'', and ''[[Crime SuspenStories]]''
* ''[[The Vault of Horror (comics)|The Vault of Horror]]'' (1 issue, 1954) — EC Comics title of the same name
* ''[[The Vault of Horror (comics)|The Vault of Horror]]'' (1 issue, 1954) — EC Comics title of the same name
* ''Young Brides'' (10 issues, 1952) — Prize Comics title of the same name; acquired by Thorpe & Porter in 1953
* ''Young Brides'' (10 issues, 1952) — Prize Comics title of the same name; acquired by Thorpe & Porter in 1953
* ''Young Eagle'' (8 issues, 1951) — [[Fawcett Publications]] title; acquired by Thorpe & Porter in 1951
* ''Young Eagle'' (8 issues, 1951) — [[Fawcett Publications]] title; acquired by Thorpe & Porter in 1951
* ''[[Young Love (comics)|Young Love]]'' (12 issues, 1952) — Crestwood Publications title of the same name; acquired by Thorpe & Porter in 1953
* ''[[Young Love (comics)|Young Love]]'' (12 issues, 1952) — Crestwood Publications title of the same name; acquired by Thorpe & Porter in 1953

⚫
== Arnold Miller's later career ==
After the closure of Arnold Book Company, Arnold Miller moved on to publishing the glamour magazine ''Photo Studio'',<ref name=Fowler /> and then transitioned to a career in filmmaking, particularly [[Nudist film|nudist]] and [[sexploitation]] movies. Arnold Miller's father Leonard was against his son's new career, and as a result of their dispute, he ejected Arnold from [[L. Miller & Son]], which became simply '''L. Miller & Co'''.<ref name=Depelley />

⚫
Arnold Miller directed seven films in the period 1959 to 1970, produced several movies with [[Stanley Long]],<ref>Morse, Erik. [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/12/british-erotic-cinema-history "The sex files: a history of erotic films from slo-mo frolics to romping stags: The British once took their titillation from heavily censored softcore films. Forty are now in the BFI’s new erotic archive,"] ''The Guardian'' (12 Jan 2017).</ref> and worked with [[Tigon British Film Productions]].<ref name=Fowler /> Films directed by Miller include:
⚫
* ''[[Nudist Memories]]'' (1959)
⚫
* ''[[Nudes of the World]]'' (1961)
⚫
* ''[[West End Jungle]]'' (1961)
⚫
* ''[[Take Off Your Clothes and Live!]]'' (1963)
⚫
* ''[[London in the Raw]]'' (co-directed with [[Norman Cohen]]) (1964)
* ''[[Primitive London]]'' (1965)
⚫
* ''[[Secrets of a Windmill Girl]]'' (1966)
⚫
* ''[[A Touch of the Other]]'' (1970)
* ''Under the Table You Must Go'' (1970)
* ''Top of the Bill'' (1971)
* ''Growing Up: A New Approach to Sex Education, No. 1'' (1971)
* ''Up and Away'' (1971)
* ''Top Gear'' (1972)
* ''Frustrated Wives'' (1974)
* ''Gateway to the Presidents'' (1975) — [[short film]]
* ''Yep and Nope'' (1975) — short
* ''Where the Fun Never Sets'' (1975) — short
* ''Two Man-Made Wonders'' (1975) — short
* ''Hollywood'' (1976) — short
* ''The Great Desert'' (1976) — short
* ''The Great Adventure'' (1977) — short
* ''Highway Five'' (1977) — short
* ''Sea World'' (1977) — short

Miller died on April 26, 2014, in [[Hertfordshire]], England.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587922/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm|title=Arnold L. Miller (1922–1914)|work=[[Internet Movie Database]]|access-date=March 8, 2023}}</ref>


== References ==
== References ==
=== Notes ===
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}
Line 76: Line 96:
* {{gcdb publisher|id= 4515 |title=Arnold Book Company}}
* {{gcdb publisher|id= 4515 |title=Arnold Book Company}}


{{GoldenAge}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold Book Company}}
[[Category:1948 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1948 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1958 disestablishments in England]]
[[Category:1958 disestablishments in England]]

Latest revision as of 09:26, 22 August 2024

Arnold Book Company
StatusAcquired by Thorpe & Porter (1958)[1]
Founded1948
FounderArnold L. Miller
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters location2 Lower James Street
London W1
Key peopleMick Anglo
Denis Gifford
Publication typesComics
Fiction genresHorror/suspense, crime, romance
ImprintsPrize

Arnold Book Company (ABC) was a British publisher of comic books that operated in the late 1940s and 1950s, most actively from 1950 to 1954. ABC published original titles like the war comic Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron and the science fiction title Space Comics, and reprints of American horror and crime titles (many featuring the work of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby) like Adventures into the Unknown, Black Magic Comics, and Justice Traps the Guilty. British contributors to the company's titles include Mick Anglo and Denis Gifford.[2] Arnold Book Company was closely connected to the fellow British comics publisher L. Miller & Son.

In the 1950s, Arnold Book Company suffered from backlash for some of its horror comic reprints, leading to the company's closure in 1958. ABC's founder, Arnold L. Miller, later became a filmmaker and film producer, primarily in the nudist and sexploitation genre.

History

[edit]

The company was founded in 1948 by Arnold Louis Miller,[3] the "Son" in L. Miller & Son, Ltd. a British reprint publisher (founded in 1943) of many American comic books, primarily those of Fawcett Comics. (L. Miller & Son became known later on for the 1954 creation [by British writer/artist Mick Anglo] of Marvelman – a blatant imitation of Fawcett's Captain Marvel.)

Between 1950 and 1952, Mick Anglo produced a number of strips for Arnold Book Company, on stories such as "Captain Valiant" (in Space Comics) and Ace Malloy of the Special Squadron, while concurrently producing Space Commando Comics, featuring "Space Commander Kerry," for L. Miller & Son.[4] In 1954, Anglo created two issues of Captain Universe[5] for ABC, a near-identical character to Captain Marvel and Marvelman.[a]

Relationship with Thorpe & Porter

[edit]

In the period 1951 to 1953, the British distributor/publisher Thorpe & Porter (T & P) acquired a number of ABC's reprint titles, including Justice Traps the Guilty, Young Brides, Young Eagle, and Young Love. (When T & P acquired Justice Traps the Guilty, it continued the numbering of the ABC version; with the other titles, T & P restarted the numbering at #1.)

In 1953, Thorpe & Porter seems to have acquired the Arnold Book Company as a separate line; Arnold Book Company appears as an imprint on the T & P titles Justice Traps the Guilty, Kid Colt, Outlaw, Young Brides, and Young Romance from that point until 1958.[6] (T & P later published a second volume of 13 issues of Justice Traps the Guilty.)

Horror comics controversy and closure

[edit]

Starting around 1950, "lurid American 'crime' and 'horror comics' reached Britain." Titles such as EC Comics' The Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt, and The Vault of Horror first arrived as ballast in ships from the United States, and at first were only available in the "environs of the great ports of Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast and London." EC's comics, which exhibited a gruesome joie de vivre, with grimly ironic fates meted out to many of the stories' protagonists, prompted what in retrospect has been characterised as a moral panic.[7]

In 1952, Arnold Book Company cashed in on the popularity of horror comics with reprints of the (relatively gore-free) Prize Comics title Black Magic Comics, publishing that title into 1954. Around that same time, in 1952 and again in 1954, "using blocks made from imported American matrices," ABC printed British single-issue editions of EC's The Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt, and The Vault of Horror, selling them in "small back-street newsagents."[7] The ensuing outcry was heard in the British press; an article in The Times of April 22, 1955, accused horror comics of deranging young readers, pushing the most susceptible to desecrate local cemeteries. Shortly, at the urging of the Most Reverend Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Major Gwilym Lloyd George, the Home Secretary and Minister of Welsh Affairs, and the National Union of Teachers, Parliament passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955.[8] The act targeted horror comics[8] — especially ABC's EC reprint titles.

As a result of this backlash, Arnold Book Company had mostly shut down its comic book activities after 1954,[9][10] and was closed down entirely in 1958.[1]

Titles published (selected)

[edit]

Original titles

[edit]

Reprint titles

[edit]

Arnold Miller's later career

[edit]

After the closure of Arnold Book Company, Arnold Miller moved on to publishing the glamour magazine Photo Studio,[3] and then transitioned to a career in filmmaking, particularly nudist and sexploitation movies. Arnold Miller's father Leonard was against his son's new career, and as a result of their dispute, he ejected Arnold from L. Miller & Son, which became simply L. Miller & Co.[1]

Arnold Miller directed seven films in the period 1959 to 1970, produced several movies with Stanley Long,[14] and worked with Tigon British Film Productions.[3] Films directed by Miller include:

Miller died on April 26, 2014, in Hertfordshire, England.[15]

References

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Captain Universe uses a magic word, "Galap", to gain superhuman powers, just as Captain Marvel's "Shazam" and Marvelman's "Kimota."

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c (French) Depelley, Jean. "Miller & Son (2ème et dernière partie)," BDZoom.com (March 18, 2014).
  2. ^ Darlington, Andrew (October 1995). "Daredevils of the Stratosphere" (PDF). The Mentor (88): 10. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  3. ^ a b c Fowler, William. "Miller, Arnold Louis (1922-) Biography". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  4. ^ Holland, Steve, "Who's Who in British Comics", Comics World #43, Aceville Publications Ltd. (September–October 1995).
  5. ^ "Captain Universe". the International Catalogue of Superheroes. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  6. ^ "Thorpe & Porter : Arnold Book Co. (Indicia / Colophon Publisher)," Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 21, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Sringhall, John (July 1994). "Horror Comics: The Nasties of the 1950s". History Today. 44 (7). Archived from the original on 4 May 2012.
  8. ^ a b "22 February 1955 → Commons Sitting → Orders of the Day". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 22 February 1955. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  9. ^ Barker, Martin. A Haunt of Fears (London: Pluto Press, 1984), pp. 15, 146.
  10. ^ Lent, John A., editor. Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999), pp. 73, 86.
  11. ^ "Archive for the 'Arnold Book Company' Category: Space Comics". The Magic Robot: A Digital Scrapbook. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  12. ^ Gifford, Denis (1985). Complete Catalogue of British Comics. Exeter, England: Webb & Bower. p. 197. ISBN 0-86350-079-X.
  13. ^ "Arnold Book Company : Prize (Brand Groups)," Grand Comics Database. Retrieved Dec. 21, 2020.
  14. ^ Morse, Erik. "The sex files: a history of erotic films from slo-mo frolics to romping stags: The British once took their titillation from heavily censored softcore films. Forty are now in the BFI’s new erotic archive," The Guardian (12 Jan 2017).
  15. ^ "Arnold L. Miller (1922–1914)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 8 March 2023.

Sources consulted

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