Editing Marvel Comics (section)

=== Magazine Management / Atlas Comics ===

{{Main|Atlas Comics (1950s)}}
The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Bradford W. |title=Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America |publisher=The [[Johns Hopkins University]] Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8018-6514-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/comicbooknationt00wrig/page/57 57] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/comicbooknationt00wrig/page/57 }}</ref> Goodman's comic book line dropped them for the most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than even Timely had published, featuring [[horror fiction|horror]], [[Westerns]], humor, [[talking animals in fiction|talking animal]], [[men's adventure]]-drama, giant monster, [[crime fiction|crime]], and [[war comics]], and later adding [[jungle]] books, [[Romance comics in the United States (1946–1975)|romance]] titles, [[spy fiction|espionage]], and even [[medieval]] adventure, [[Bible stories]] and sports.

Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company, the newsstand-distribution company he owned,<ref name=stjames /> on comics [[cover-date]]d November 1951 even though another company, [[Kable News]], continued to distribute his comics through the August 1952 issues.<ref name=gcdatlasglobe>[http://www.comics.org/brand/93/ Marvel: Atlas <nowiki>[wireframe globe]</nowiki> (Brand)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117195008/http://www.comics.org/brand/93/ |date=January 17, 2012 }} at the Grand Comics Database</ref> This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.comics.org/publisher/78/indicia_publishers/|title=Marvel Indicia Publishers |website=comics.org|publisher=Grand Comics Database|access-date=November 18, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208004451/http://www.comics.org/publisher/78/indicia_publishers/|archive-date=December 8, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Atlas, rather than innovate, took a proven route of following [[fashion|popular trends]] in television and films—[[Western fiction|Westerns]] and war dramas prevailing for a time, [[Drive-in theater|drive-in film]] monsters another time—and even other comic books, particularly the [[Entertaining Comics|EC]] [[horror (genre)|horror]] line.<ref>Per [[Les Daniels]] in ''Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics'', pp. 67–68: "The success of EC had a definite influence on Marvel. As Stan Lee recalls, 'Martin Goodman would say, "Stan, let's do a different kind of book," and it was usually based on how the competition was doing. When we found that EC's horror books were doing well, for instance, we published a lot of horror books{{' "}}.</ref> Atlas also published a plethora of children's and teen humor titles, including [[Dan DeCarlo]]'s ''[[Homer the Happy Ghost]]'' (similar to ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]'') and ''Homer Hooper'' (à la [[Archie Andrews (comics)|Archie Andrews]]). Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch (art by [[Syd Shores]] and [[Dick Ayers]], variously), the [[Namor|Sub-Mariner]] (drawn and most stories written by [[Bill Everett]]), and [[Captain America]] (writer [[Stan Lee]], artist [[John Romita Sr.]]). Atlas did not achieve any breakout hits and, according to Stan Lee, survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply, and at a passable quality.<ref>{{cite news |last=Boatz |first=Darrel L. |date=December 1988 |title=Stan Lee |work=[[Comics Interview]] |issue=64 |pages=15–16 |publisher=[[Fictioneer Books]]}}</ref>

In 1957, Goodman switched distributors to the [[American News Company]]—which shortly afterward lost a [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] [[lawsuit]] and discontinued its business.<ref>Jones, Gerard. ''Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book'' (Basic Books, 2004).</ref> Atlas was left without distribution and was forced to turn to [[Independent News]], the distribution arm of its biggest rival, [[DC Comics|National (DC) Comics]], which imposed draconian restrictions on Goodman's company. As then-Atlas editor [[Stan Lee]] recalled in a 1988 interview, "[We had been] turning out 40, 50, 60 books a month, maybe more, and ... suddenly we went ... to either eight or 12 books a month, which was all Independent News Distributors would accept from us."<ref name="Stan and Roy">{{cite news|url=http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02stanroy.html |title=Stan the Man & Roy the Boy: A Conversation Between Stan Lee and Roy Thomas |work=[[Comic Book Artist]] |issue=2 |date=Summer 1998 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218033757/http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/02stanroy.html |archivedate=February 18, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The company was briefly renamed to Goodman Comics in 1957 under the distribution deal with [[Independent News]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-08-12 |title=Which was the first Marvel comic? |url=https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/259095-which-was-the-first-marvel-comic/ |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=CGC Comic Book Collectors Chat Boards |language=en-US}}</ref>