[The Australian Panther]

ROLY POLY #12 also has two girls that bear an uncanny resemblance to Betty and Veronica
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Both #11 and # 12 have Black Hood stories. #15 has Black Hood taking up the cover.
#15 also has 'hero' characters rarely seen before. "Blue Circle' 'the Toreador' 'Steel Fist'.

I note these comics were offered by something called 'COMIC CLUB" available by mail. Maybe they were only available by mail?
Roly Poly #1 has Steel Sterling' on the cover. Ad on our page #13 features Archie and an MLJ logo. Archie and the gang are also on page #20. Then we have RED RUBE.
Since no attempt is made to disguise the fact that the material is MLJ's and the inside front cover states, ' 1944, Published by Burten Magazine Distributing Co. Chicago Ill." I would deduce that MLJ was fully aware of this publishing exploit. Either that or they shut it down quickly. Although it went at least #15 issues til 1946. l



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Link to the comment: Roly-Poly Comics 11

[Robb_K]

ROLY POLY #12 also has two girls that bear an uncanny resemblance to Betty and Veronica
.
Both #11 and # 12 have Black Hood stories. #15 has Black Hood taking up the cover.
#15 also has 'hero' characters rarely seen before. "Blue Circle' 'the Toreador' 'Steel Fist'.

I note these comics were offered by something called 'COMIC CLUB" available by mail. Maybe they were only available by mail?
Roly Poly #1 has Steel Sterling' on the cover. Ad on our page #13 features Archie and an MLJ logo. Archie and the gang are also on page #20. Then we have RED RUBE.
Since no attempt is made to disguise the fact that the material is MLJ's and the inside front cover states, ' 1944, Published by Burten Magazine Distributing Co. Chicago Ill." I would deduce that MLJ was fully aware of this publishing exploit. Either that or they shut it down quickly. Although it went at least #15 issues til 1946. l

Your theory might explain the weird situation of MLJ reprints appearing in another publisher's issues ONLY 2 years after they appeared in MLJ original publications.  I never saw the Roly Poly issues in used comics bins when I started looking in them in 1952-53 or so.  That means they must have been quite rare (similar printings to giveaway comics (maybe 5%, certainly no more than 10% of commercial print runs).  Maybe MLJ hired Burten to distribute them to ONLY "Comic Club" mail order sales customers(with NO newstand, grocery store and drugstore sales), so the issue of copyright infringement wouldn't apply in such a case.  But IF that were the situation, what part did Green Publishing play in that?  And why did Green have newsstand sales with "Atomic Comics" and "Liberty Comics", and their 1957 issues that had originally been published by several non-related publishers.  GCD mentions Norlen as a Green Publishing affiliate.  All3 of these publishers seemed to behave like IW/Super Comics, purchasing their comic art at bargain bin prices from printer warehouse "Going-Out-Of-Business sales as original finished inked drawings and printing plates.  The Liberty and Atomic Comics were reasonably less common, but not nearly as rare as Roly Poly.  So, I wonder if they could also have been solely "Comic Book Club" issues.  I also seem to remember seeing both "Atomic Comics" and "Liberty Comics" on newstand shelves in the historical photos of newstand comic book shelves or spinning racks.