Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On:   Red Circle Books From One of Martin Goodman's Companies!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3706 -   I wanted to share a special photo album that I started last night on my Facebook Fan Page, titled... "Magazine Management Company's History".

The first four photos are from Martin's company, Lion Books, that published Red Circle Books.

Martin Goodman, (pictured to the left in 1942), who was the owner of the magazine house 'Magazine Management Company', founded Lion Books in November of 1949. Early releases carried the imprint "Red Circle Books" (numbers 1-7, 12 and 13); later volumes were "Lion Books" (numbers 8-11 and 14-233).

For those of you that don't know... Martin Goodman was also the founder of Timely Comics, that later evolved into 'Marvel Comics'. 

At one time, Martin's magazines and books were the main basis of revenue for his company. 

Indeed, Timely Comics just had a small office within the magazine empire's mass of offices at one time.

As I mentioned above, 'Red Circle Books' was an imprint of 'Lion Books'. The first several paperbacks from the company were imprinted with the 'Red Circle Books' logo, but the 'Lion' name and its famous Lion colophon soon graced the cover on all of the books from this company. Indeed, the book numbered 1 through 7, plus 12 & 13, were Red Circle Books, but books numbered 8 & 11, and 14 through 233 made  up the original Lion series.

Actually, there were two distinct series from Lion Books. Lion’s standard sized 25¢ book was printed until 1955. But then, beginning in 1954, Lion actually began printing Lion Library, 35¢ LL series, with the tall-format, plus Lion Books, the 25¢ LB series, which included both tall and standard format, in a combined sequential order of publishing.

As well, the Lion Books cover art was considered first-rate, and indeed many of the books covers and titles were considered overtly provocative!   Besides the artwork, there were several authors who had beginnings with Lion Books and became collectible, among them Jim Thompson and Robert Bloch!

Martin Goodman sold Lion Book to New American Library in the summer of 1957. Several Lion titles were later reprinted under their Signet label.

For more reading on Martin Goodman and his publishing empire:

Martin Goodman, publisher

Red Circle (publishing)

Magazine Management Company

Timely Comics

 My blog on Martin Goodman from November 21st of 2008

~ Michael

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,706 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

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Note:  My online 'Loca8' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

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