[Superman]

Where are the indicia? What is the date of this book? This looks more like a Holyoke book than a Fox book.

Link to the book: Real Hit Comics 01

[jimmm kelly]

According to the GCD http://www.comics.org/issue/3345/, this was a straight reprint by Fox from Holyoke's BLUE BEETLE 25 (September '43). But REAL HIT COMICS No. 1 was published by Fox.

[JVJ]

According to the GCD http://www.comics.org/issue/3345/, this was a straight reprint by Fox from Holyoke's BLUE BEETLE 25 (September '43). But REAL HIT COMICS No. 1 was published by Fox.

GCD is in error then. This is a Holyoke book, with Holyoke characters and Holyoke artists. Fox had no rights to them, ever.

(|:{>

[jimmm kelly]

It wouldn't be the first time that a publisher that had no rights to something went ahead and published something anyway.

[JVJ]

Jimmm, Holyoke was a printer. In 1944 they had the rights to Blue Beetle because Victor Fox owed them a whole bunch of money. This was a lawyer thing, with real judges and court rooms and stuff. Fox was trying to get OUT of bankruptcy and reestablish his publishing business. One of the few assets he owned was the Blue Beetle character. A few months after this Holyoke one-shot, Fox does get his character back and begins publishing comic books again.

Now, spin me a story that explains why Fox would risk his entire legal future just to tweak the nose of some printer by ripping off what everyone would obviously know didn't belong to Victor Fox? Especially THE printer that's holding his character in escrow! Yes, things do get ripped off, but definitely NOT in this case.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[movielover]

I've just sent this over to Holyoke

[jimmm kelly]

You're most probably right about all that. I was just relaying the information that the GCD gives and I imagine the guys at CB+ depend on the GCD info to be correct, so that's why it probably got put in the Fox category. I knew that this was around the time of Fox's legal problems (the first round of his problems), but not the details. Someone should inform the guys at the GCD so they can change their information.

[jimmm kelly]

The part that I don't understand is why Holyoke would go ahead and reprint the full contents of BLUE BEETLE 25, including cover art (just with a title change), so soon after having released that exact comic. It makes no sense to me. If it wasn't Fox, then can we be sure that it was Holyoke?

In the last few weeks I've been looking at so many examples of one publisher reprinting the full contents of another publisher's comics (mainly in the case of Canadian editions) that it seems reasonable to me that someone did the same with BLUE BEETLE 25. It could've been Holyoke, but I don't see what they would have had to gain by doing that.

And REAL HIT COMICS was a one-shot--which seems to have been the case with other one-off reprints from unusual publishers.

[mr_goldenage]

Fox owed Holyoke money for printing expenses and Holyoke as you know took over the Blue Beetle during the war years when Victor Fox had no paper ration to print on (plus no money to pay his creditors) so this was one way to make extra money for Holyoke (they did this with their Holyoke One-Shots with the earlier Crash Comics stuff too). This isn't the only reason I am sure but maybe one explanation.

RB @ Work

[JVJ]

The part that I don't understand is why Holyoke would go ahead and reprint the full contents of BLUE BEETLE 25, including cover art (just with a title change), so soon after having released that exact comic. It makes no sense to me. If it wasn't Fox, then can we be sure that it was Holyoke?

In the last few weeks I've been looking at so many examples of one publisher reprinting the full contents of another publisher's comics (mainly in the case of Canadian editions) that it seems reasonable to me that someone did the same with BLUE BEETLE 25. It could've been Holyoke, but I don't see what they would have had to gain by doing that.

And REAL HIT COMICS was a one-shot--which seems to have been the case with other one-off reprints from unusual publishers.

My take on this, Jimmm, is that Holyoke knew that the transfer of BB back to Fox was coming up. Blue Beetle had been a moderately popular title for them and Fox had been a pain in the neck customer - they did have to sue him to get paid and then accept the publishing rights to one of his characters for a term as part of the settlement to get that money. I can imagine Mr. "I AM COMICS" coming off strong and vindictive as his time neared to reclaim his character and can imagine the Holyoke folks saying something like, "Can we get one more book out before we have to turn the rights back to this jerk? Wring as much as possible from the BB guy before Fox goes and destroys his own character." So they reprinted BB #25 as Real Hit #1 because they could and because they knew it would tick Fox off. Fox was not much loved in the comic biz, especially not by the printers he'd stiffed. FWIW.

(|:{>

[movielover]

on GCD, this now resides in Holyoke