Occam's Razor POV: Croydon/Kramer was a book publisher, just like Ace and Avon, and Croydon experimented with comics between 1944-1946 getting content from Jacquet and other studios. Kramer started Star as a companion company to Croydon (per the pulp digest research), two years later Premium sold their titles to Kramer and Cole who used Star to publish the line.
This new information from Ken regarding Croydon and Kramer adds to the data, archiver, but I don't think it "proves" anything other than Kramer knew of Croydon Publishing Co. in 1941. It's a LONG leap to suggest that a text book manufacturer suddenly "decided" to publish comics. From my point of view, it's equally (if not more) likely that Croydon the non-fiction publisher had a paper allowance during WWII and a vastly depleted audience who were either working in War production or in the services. They would be ripe for some comic hustler to make a deal for their paper allowance and to start publishing comics. That hustler MIGHT have been Kramer, and perhaps likely WAS Kramer, but we can't say with any more certainty than before just who owned and financed '45 Croydon comics.
I think its clear that Croydon Publishing Co. existed before, during and after the comic books were published by Croydon. Croydon published Kramer's book, Croydon is linked to Kramer by the pulp digest people, the Croydon addresses sync up with the Star addresses. I'm not sure what more information people want other than digging Kramer up and re-animating his corpse and asking the man directly.
I agree with most of that. The fly in the ointment is Cole's declarative statement that the paperback and digests of Croydon Publishing were published in 1951 and backdated to 1945. That weakens the link between Kramer's Star and '45 Croydon. Doesn't break it, I agree.
Let's assume that the owner of '45 Croydon IS Kramer. The comic company lasts for 3 years, at best. Mr. Tax Expert keeps the name and office on the books for tax purposes (remember he wrote a book on it in 1941) and then in 1949/50 enters into a partnership with L.B. Cole and starts a new company, Star. The partners publish comic books and paperback. Kramer revives the Croydon name and applies it to the paperbacks and backdates them to 1945 for reasons I mentioned before.
That assumption matches all the facts that we know, and it DOESN'T make '45 Croydon published by Star. They are two distinct companies from two distinct time periods and the owner of one became the co-owner of the other. That's what needs to be established: Croydon (the comic company) and Star (the comic company) are NOT the same or in any way connected other than the shared address and, perhaps, Kramer.
Any more talk about mysterious third party companies being involved fronting for Croydon and Star hence the same address, or that some mythical "Croyden" is involved other than being a typo in the OPG, or the back-dating of all Croydon paperbacks to establish a history to 1941, and I'm going to start thinking that 9/11 Truthers are rational people.
Again, I'm pretty much agreeing with except the part about trying to connect Croydon paperbacks to 1941. I don't think anyone was attempting that, nor should they. There's a disconnect in 1944 when someone usurps/buys/rents the Croydon name and paper allowance. The original text book publisher doesn't resurface, so let's assume it's a "buy" and that there is now a clean break between owners. I suggest this because with the G.I. Bill and the end of the war, there would likely be an upswing in the market for text books, yet Croydon doesn't enter that market.
Now, does anyone think that Rural Home and Croydon should be in the same category? I understand the view of having some shop content in the same category, but then shouldn't we be placing the Fox, Ajax, and Fiction House books in the same category to reflect they came from the Iger shop?
No, I don't think Rural Home and Croydon are the same, but there is a connection. Rural Home was a publisher before it published comic books. It, too, has a history. It catered to women in the rural areas of the country. With the war, their market either got involved in other things or didn't have the money or time to devote to magazines. But they DID have a paper allowance because they published magazines before the war. They, too, were sold and transformed into a comic book company. They lasted a while. Another such magazine, Farm Women's Publishing, didn't survive the transformation and only managed two issues of Circus.
The period is FULL of these and other attempts to circumvent the paper rationing. Keep searching and speculating and... More later. I'm nursing Karen through her home recovery from knee-replacement surgery and must run. Sorry.
Fascinating subjects... Bye (|:{>
