User:Archiveangel/Stanhall Comics (publisher)

Stanhall Comics was a small comics company who published six humour and children's comics titles between 1951 and 1954. Although a small company with a limited publishing history, Stanhall comics included material based on established film and comics characters, and employed several artists and writers who are otherwise known in the fields of comics and animation.

Publication history
According to company records, Stanhall Comics was owned by Michael Estrow and his son, Stanley M Estrow as one of their subsidiary comics companies of Leader News Co, who formed a number of similar small comics companies during the same period. They were mainly located at 480 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y (the same address as National Periodical Publication (later DC Comics)). The Stanhall comics line was edited by Hal Seeger and Adolphe Barreaux (who was also business manager and Production Director), the name of the company comes from a concantenation of Stanley Estrow and Hal Seeger.

Most of Stanhall's small staff roster also worked for other companies within the Leader stable before, during and after Stanhall Comics lifetime, or for NationalPeriodical Publications. Hal Seeger in particular continued to write teenage and romance comics for other companies - especially National Periodical, working on 'Leave it to Binky' and 'A Date With Debbie', although they eventually fired him as they objected to him working for other companies - easy for him as both companies were in the same building (Stephen Rowe, TCR 219, Sep 1984). Adolphe Barreaux also worked as editor for Trojan, another Leader News Co. subsidiary, while letterer Ira Schnapp also worked for National. Schnapp is particularly well-known for having created a number of classic Golden Age comics logos for National, most notably that for 'Action Comics' and 'Adventure Commics'.

Published Titles
Oh, Brother! Jan 1953 – October 1953 written by Hal Seeger and Bill Williams and drawn by Bill Williams.

Broadway Hollywood Blackouts  Mar/Apr 1954 – July/Aug 1954    10c Single page gag strips ‘crammed with grins, giggles and guffaws’ Seegar had rights to 'Hellzappopin' Broadway show, so used may of those gags in the comic

The Farmer’s Daughter Stanhall/Trojan Magazines 1 Feb/Mar 1954 (Trojan)   2 Apr/May 1954   3 June/July 1954    4 Oct 1954 Farmer’s Daughter was a natural follow up, full of suggestive and raunchy humor. The premise to Farmer’s Daughter was an endless line of travelling salesmen dropping by the farm looking for some from the farmer’s daughter. The humor better fit into the men’s stag magazines of the day. This comic was definately aimed at the adult male reader. Was Farmer’s Daughter a sign of things to come. We’ll never know since this reliance on sex was effectively stopped one short year later with the introduction of the Comics Code Authority. The Code effectively ended publication of all graphic horror and crime comic books and all overtly sexually themed comic books.

No relation to 'The Farmer's Daughter' RKO film from 1948 or the Screen Gems TV series 1963 - 1966

GI Jane (Stanhall/ Merritt) 1 May 1953 2-10 11 March 1955 (Merritt) Cover to #6 typical – 2 soldiers and Jane saying ‘ Would you look and see if there’s anything wrong with my chassis’, constantly re-arranging uniform sexily Hal Seeger scripts Bill Williams art P.X. Pete 11 was clearly material prepared before Stanhall folded Basically Jane was the story of a G.I. gal who drove the soldier boys crazy – heavy on the sexual innuen

Jingle Dingle Christmas Stocking Comics V2#1 1951  25c 100p Foodini and Pinhead  Silly Pilly    games and puzzles The first Stanhall comic - no others issued until 1953. Licensed from Fawcett - all other Trojan titles leased from other companies were published in their other lines - Youthful,

Great Foodini was in "The Great Foodini" commic - ran for four issues only published by Continental Publications, Inc in March - August 1950), then 4 issues by Fawcett in 1951 "Pinhead and Foodini" (July - Dec 1951).    Stanhall Publications, has on the cover: " Featuring your favorite characters from radio, television & comics" and "the Bunin Puppets Foodini & Pinhead."

Muggy-Doo Boy Cat Scott Shaw issue 2 http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2002-04-30 Scott Shaw issue 3 http://www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2001-10-09 July 1953 – Jan 1954  Irving Spector art Seeger apparently created all the humor comics for this line. The one “funny animal” entry was Muggy-Doo Boy Cat. The character had a strange combination of inspirations - not the least was his “Yellow Kid” sweat shirt which would have a different zany slogan in each panel. Cartoonist (and animation storyman) Irv Spector drew these books in a funny Milt Gross meets Walt Kelly style.Apparently Seeger had big plans for the Boy Cat. Ten years after the comics made their debut, Seeger, having hit it big producing low budget animation for TV, made a pilot with Muggy Doo in 1963. It failed to sell, but he did however sell it to Paramount Pictures who, strangely enough, released it as a theatrical short subject! Seeger revived Muggy Doo one more time - this time as a Boy Fox - as a back up feature on The Milton The Monster Show (ABC, 1965).Muggy-Doo Boy Cat, we salute you.

e wrote Leave it to Binky and A Date With Judy for National and went on to produce Fearless Fly and Batfink for TV. Hal Seegar (1917-2005) had a prolific career, as a Fleischer animator (Mr. Bug), a Hollywood screenwriter (several forgetable B pictures in the 1940s) and a latter day producer of TV cartoons (Milton The Monster, Batfink, Out Of The Inkwell, etc.).