I think "Croyden" is a mistake by Boatner which explains where the misspelling comes from that turns up in many locations on the web, including this site for a long time. It is clearly Croydon in the logos from the website images. And I'm not sure about Boatner's claim of backdating in the OPG. The publication addresses track chornologically. I think the "back-dating claim" by Boatner is due to some confusion with certain Croydon books that were reprinted during this period. They would have their original copyright even though they were republished in 1951.
From the chronology, Star Publications pre-dates the Star Comics line by a few years. What I think Cole was meaning to say with the purchase of the Premium titles was that Kramer was looking to get into publishing comics (again) and not publishing in general.
If you take the available information you get a very compelling chronology.
===1944-1947===
From bookscans.com:
CROYDON AWARD MYSTERY series issues 1945-1947
Croydon Publishing Co., 108 West 39th St., New York 18, NY
Logo:
http://bookscans.com/Publishers/digest/images/croydonmys001(nn).jpgLogo:
http://bookscans.com/Publishers/digest/images/CroydonMys11.jpgFrom Croydon comic indicias:
Croydon Publishing Co., 108 West 39th Street, New York 18, N.Y. for comics published 1944-1946.
===1949-1950===
From bookscans.com:
STORK ORIGINAL NOVEL series issues 1949-1950
Star Publications Inc., 286 Fifth Ave., NY 1, NY
Comments: Started as a companion to Croydon Books, publishing only new books.
===1950-1952===
From bookscans.com:
CROYDON LOVE NOVEL/CROYDON BOOK series issues 1949-1952
Croydon Publishing Co., 286 Fifth Ave., New York 1, NY
Comments: J. A. Kramer was the publisher.
Logo:
http://bookscans.com/Publishers/sexydigests/images/Croydon014.jpgFrom Star comics indicias:
Star Publications, Inc., 286 Fifth Avenue, New York 1, NY for comics published 1950-May 1952
===1952-1954===
From bookscans.com:
CROYDON BOOK series issues 1952-1954
Croydon Publishing Co., 545 Fifth Ave., New York 17, NY
From Star comics indicias:
Star Publications, Inc., 545 Fifth Ave., New York 17, NY for comics published Oct 1952-1954
I think this is a solid 99% case for Croydon+Kramer+Star being one and the same (sorry, no tax return to make this a 100% slam-dunk).
I think we're all confusing a 1951 paperback book company with a 1945 comic book company with a similar name. Overstreet specifically says "a source of non-comic Cole artwork..." He did covers for Croyden paperbacks. The Croydon comic book work was NOT done in 1951 and back-dated. Croyden and Croydon are TWO different entities entirely.
This is, as I said a year ago, a "can of worms" and we'll probably never know the whole story.
Peace, Jim (|:{>