Treasure Chest (comics)

Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact
Treasure Chest vol. 12, #12 (Feb. 14, 1957). Cover artist unknown
Publication information
Publisher	George A. Pflaum
Schedule	biweekly during school year, monthly during summer
Publication date	1946 - 1972
No. of issues	496 plus 12 summer issues
Creative team
Written by	Various
Artist(s)	Various

Treasure Chest (full name for most of its run: Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact) was a Catholic-oriented comic book series created by Dayton, Ohio publisher George A. Pflaum and distributed in parochial schools from 1946 to 1972.

Its inspirational stories of sports and folk heroes, saints, school kids, Catholic living, history, science and similar topics were drawn by artists that included such prominent figures as EC's Reed Crandall, Graham Ingels and Joe Orlando, Marvel Comics' Joe Sinnott, and DC Comics' Murphy Anderson and Jim Mooney. Other features included literary adaptations and such typical comics fare as funny animal humor strips.

Created by Dayton, Ohio, publisher George A. Pflaum and debuting March 12, 1946, as Treasure Chest of Fun & Facts,Treasure Chest was distributed in parochial schools and published biweekly throughout the school year until the 1960s, when it became monthly and doubled the number of pages. It was available solely by student subscription, and delivered in bulk to classrooms. Initially, the covers were of the same paper stock as the interiors; comic books' more typical slick covers were added in 1948. Six-issue summer editions were published in 1966 and 1967.

Beginning with Vol. 4, #1 (Sept. 7, 1948), the title changed to Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact, with the final word now singular. A source notes that with Vol. 23, #1 (Sept 7, 1967), the title changed a final time, exchanging the ampersand for "and", although Vol. 21 No. 1 issue dated September 9, 1965 and featuring "The Champ is Back" as the cover story uses the ampersand in place of the word "and". Many very early issues were cover-titled simply Treasure Chest without the otherwise ubiquitous subhead.