Archer St. John, who had a background in journalism and advertising, founded St. John Publications in 1947. After acquiring substantial financing, St. John launched two titles: Comics Revue and Pageant of Comics. Both of these were repackaged comic strips, but the best was yet to come.
In 1947 St. John entered a licensing deal with Terrytoons, which lasted for the majority of the time the company was in existence. The first comic produced was Mighty Mouse #5. Many of these licensed comics featured artwork by Terrytoons animators, rather than in-house staff.
Abbott and Costello (first movie-comedian tie-in series) launched in 1948 ran until September 1956. The early issues feature work by husband and wife team, Eric Peters and Lily Renée. Another influential partnership that worked for St. John was Norman Maurer and Joe Kubert. Matt Baker was also a major contributor. His art can be found in many titles including: Authentic Police Cases, Canteen Kate, Cinderella Love and Teen-Age Romances.
St. John was an innovative publisher with amongst other notable achievements; producing the first 3-D comic book and the classic title 1,000,000 Years Ago! featuring Tor.
