Atlas (comics)

Atlas, in comics, may refer to:

It may also refer to:

See also

Atlas Comics

Atlas Comics may refer to

See also

Atlas Comics (1950s)

Atlas Comics is the 1950s comic book publishing company that evolved into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback-novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic book division during this time. Atlas evolved out of Goodman's 1940s comic book division, Timely Comics, and was located on the 14th floor of the Empire State Building.

This company is distinct from the 1970s comic book company, also founded by Goodman, that is known as Atlas/Seaboard Comics.

History

After the Golden Age

Atlas Comics grew out of Timely Comics, the company that magazine and paperback-novel publisher Martin Goodman founded in 1939, and which during its wartime peak of popularity published its star characters the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. With a postwar decline of interest in superheroes, Timely largely stopped producing such comics in February 1950 with the cancellation of Captain America Comics at issue #75, by which time the series had already been titled Captain America's Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale featuring only anthological suspense stories and no superheroes. The company's flagship title, Marvel Mystery Comics, starring the Human Torch, had already ended its run with #92 in June 1949, as had Sub-Mariner Comics with #32 the same month, and The Human Torch with #35 in March 1949. Timely made one more attempt at superheroes with the publication of Marvel Boy #1 (Dec. 1950), which was retitled Astonishing with issue #3 (April 1951) and continued the Marvel Boy feature through #6 (Oct. 1951). The early to mid-1950s also found comic books falling out of fashion due to competition from television and other media.