Status | defunct, 1948 |
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Founded | 1941 |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Holyoke and Springfield, Massachusetts |
Key people | Joe Kubert, Charles Quinlan, Allen Ulmer, Carmine Infantino, Dan Barry |
Publication types | Comic books |
Fiction genres | Superhero, war, humor |
The Holyoke Publishing Company was an American magazine and comic-book publisher with offices in Holyoke, and Springfield, Massachusetts, and New York City, Its best-known comics characters were Blue Beetle and the superhero duo Cat-Man (later rendered as Catman, sans hyphen) and Kitten, all inherited from defunct former clients of Holyoke's printing business.
Holyoke is sometimes confused with companies owned by Frank Z. Temerson, including Helnit, Et-Es-Go, and Continental; with Worth Carnahan's Bilbara Publishing Company; and with Temerson's art director L. B. Cole's packaging clients Narrative Publishers and Aviation Press.
Holyoke Publishing originated with Sherman Bowles, who had taken over his family's Springfield, Massachusetts newspaper dynasty, consisting of The Republican and other papers. He entered comic-book publishing through his printing division, which took over two existing titles from Frank Z. Temerson's Helnit Publishing Company: the superhero series Cat-Man Comics and the war comics series Captain Aero Comics. This occurred in late 1941, with comics cover-dated January 1942 and February 1942. Temerson's staff, including artist Charles Quinlan, continued to produce both series. Quinlan had previously partnered with publisher Worth Carnahan in the companies Bilbara Publishing and Hit Publishing, leading them to often be erroneously grouped with Holyoke. Holyoke's next acquisition was the superhero series Blue Beetle, taking it over from Victor A. Fox's bankruptFox Publications beginning with issue #12 (June 1942).