 The original Timely Comics logo. | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | 1939 |
| Defunct | 1950 |
| Fate | Rebranded as Atlas Comics in 1951 |
| Successor | Atlas Comics, Marvel Comics |
| Headquarters | Manhattan, New York City |
Key people | Martin Goodman |
| Products | Comic books, magazine |
Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics.[1]
Founded in 1939, during the era called the Golden Age of comic books, "Timely" was the umbrella name for the comics division of pulp magazine publisher Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities all producing the same product.[1] The company's first publication in 1939 used Timely Publications,[2][3] based at his existing company in the McGraw-Hill Building at 330 West 42nd Street in New York City. In 1942, it moved to the 14th floor of the Empire State Building, where it remained until 1951. In 2016, Marvel announced that Timely Comics would be the name of a new imprint of low-priced reprint comics.
- ^ a b Daniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. New York: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 27 & 32–33. ISBN 0-8109-3821-9. "Timely Publications became the name under which Goodman first published a comic book line. He eventually created a number of companies to publish comics ... but Timely was the name by which Goodman's Golden Age comics were known." "Marvel wasn't always Marvel; in the early 1940s the company was known as Timely Comics, and some covers bore this shield."
- ^ Postal indicia in issue, per Marvel Comics #1 [1st printing] (October 1939) at the Grand Comics Database: "Vol.1, No.1, MARVEL COMICS, Oct., 1939 Published monthly by Timely Publications, ... Art and editorial by Funnies Incorporated..."
- ^ Per statement of ownership, dated October 2, 1939, published in Marvel Mystery Comics #4 (Feb. 1940), p. 40; reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Volume 1 (Marvel Comics, 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1609-5, ISBN 978-0-7851-1609-7), p. 239