Posted in : Comics , Vintage Paper| Tagged : l.b . cole , Star Publications
Jerome A. Kramer made his way into cartoon strip publishing via a unique path . He come in publication launching a democratic income tax booklet , then published strip and paperbacks .
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amusing book publisherJerome A. Kramer(1907 - 1956 ) was expect Abraham Joseph Kramer in New York City and had become a CPA by 1930 . Best recall as the conscientious objector - founder of Star Publications with L.B. Cole , picayune has been see about Kramer ’s activities in the comical Scripture concern up to now , perhaps due to some historical mental confusion over names he may have used over the class . Kramer had also become an accounting instructor by the late 1930s . He entered the publishing business in 1942 with a 25 - cent instructional folder , Income Tax Simplified(with revised versions published under various other claim ) , establish his own publication company , Croydon Publishing Company , in the appendage . The taxation booklets became a hit , and he was well - known for his expertise in this field for the residue of his aliveness . He was featured in an eight - part hebdomadary tv set series thatVarietyreferred to asDuMont ’s Taxcastsin the runup to the 1953 tax season .
Croydon PublishingCompany entered the comic account book business in 1944 withVariety Comics . Note that theunconfirmed GCD referenceto a man namedBenjamin Gerberowning Croydon is wrong . Gerber is touch base toCroydon Detroit Publishing , a different society that publishes maps . Beyond the three - issueVariety Comics , Kramer ’s Croydon publishedseveral one - shot titlesin 1945 - 1946 , includingMiss Cairo JonesandCaptain Wizard Comics . The timing of Kramer ’s entry into comics strongly suggests he was induced to enter the field of force just as it was booming due to his access to newspaper at a time when newsprint usage was being controlled in the United States by the War Production Board . Many such publishersfrom outside of comics wereinducedtoenter the fieldas sort of " surrogates " in exactly this time frame due to their access to paper . Croydon also start publishing paperbacks around 1945 , with L.B. Cole providing some cover song for Croydon paperbacks beginning in that yr .
This background put up a theoretical account , and perhaps some aristocratical correction , for understanding Cole ’s later recollections of Kramer and the circumstances surrounding the organisation of Star Publications . As quoted in the indispensableBlack visible light : The World of L.B. Cole , when Curtis Publishing Company ’s Premium Comics Group / Novelty Publications amusing book armoury became available for skill in 1949 , Cole says they both " indicate up in the Novelty Publications office on the same day to bid on Premium ’s plus , " move on to say that Kramer " was interested in entering the publication field . " However , Kramer had already enter the mirthful playscript and paperbacked publication patronage by then , and Cole had even provide top art for Kramer ’s Croydon paperback endeavor .
Jerome A. Kramer ’s role in the comic Good Book and paperback publishing concern of that geological era will preserve to come out with further inquiry . As for Star Publications , according to Cole , the publication speculation acquire around 15,000 pages of mirthful art inventory from Curtis at a cost of $ 12,000 , split equally between Cole and Kramer for $ 6,000 each . By my calculations , they would eventually use less than half of that inventory at best . The typical Star Publications expression was to create an take out of all or mostly reprints with a new L.B. Cole back . Writer / artistJay Disbrowwas one of the most striking creators of Star Publications ' original , non - reprint material . Notably , the final Star Publications seriesLaughing It Updeparted from the publisher ’s distinctive formula . A gag digest volume of the form that was coarse during the geological era , it consisted largely of one - Thomas Nelson Page cartoons , and seems to have included no L.B. Cole textile or Curtis inventory reprinting . express joy It upend in 1956 , the year of Jerome A. Kramer ’s death .
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