- John L. Goldwater
Infobox Comics creator
name = John L. Goldwater
imagesize =
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = birth date|1916|9|14|mf=y
location =East Harlem ,New York
deathdate = death date and age|1999|02|26|1916|09|14
deathplace =
nationality = American
area = Writer, Editor, Publisher
alias =
notable works = ArchieComics Code Authority
awards =John L. Goldwater (September 14, 1916 - February 26, 1999) founded (with Maurice Coyne and Louis Silberkleit) MLJ Comics (later known as
Archie Comics ), and served as editor and co-publisher for many years. In the mid-1950s he was a key proponent and custodian of thecomic book censorship guidelines known as theComics Code Authority .Biography
Early life and career
John L. Goldwater was born in
East Harlem ,New York onSeptember 14 ,1916 .cite news | author=Denis Gifford | title=Obituary: John L. Goldwater | date=27 March 1999 | work=The Independent | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990327/ai_n14205550 |accessdate = 2008-07-08 ] "His mother died giving birth to him... and his father succumbed to grief, abandoning his baby and dying soon afterward," leaving the orphaned John to be raised by afoster mother . Distantly related toUS Senator Barry M. Goldwater , in his youth, the teenage Goldwaterhitchhike d his way west during the Depression,cite news | author=Ralph Blumenthal | title=John L. Goldwater, Creator of Archie and Pals, Dies at 83 | date=2 March 1999 | work=New York Times | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E1DC103CF931A35750C0A96F958260 |accessdate = 2008-07-08 ] leaving "New York, hopping freight trains and bumming rides to the Midwest, where he worked for a time inKansas as anews reporter . Assigned to school sports, he hung around with football teams, meeting the players and the girls they attracted, who would later supply him with ample comic material." A few years later, "he continued west to theGrand Canyon , where he worked at a lodge," from which he was dismissed for "socializing with the female help," his employers paid for him to travel toSan Francisco , where he saved enough money (again working as a reporter) to travel by ship back to New York. On the boat, "he met two young women bound for the novitiate... [b] oth fell for him, which later gave him the idea of the Betty-Veronica rivalry."Married twice, Goldwater's second wife Gloria was the first "national chairwoman" of the women's division of the
Anti-Defamation League ofB'nai B'rith , while Goldwater was himself a national commissioner of the same organisation.MLJ Comics
Arriving back in
New York , he gained employment at the docks, where his "experience with shipping" inspired him to both start his own company - Periodicals for Export, Inc. - and strike a deal with pulp/magazine publisherLouis Silberkleit to "buy his outdated issues at a penny each," which he then re-sold abroad. [http://www.mightycrusaders.net/history.htm "Publisher Profile: Archie Comics" By Rik Offenberger, from "Borderline" #19 (March 1, 2003)] . Accessed July 8, 2008] Finding success in his venture, Goldwater was soon joined by Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne to form their own publishing venture MLJ Comics, (named after the first initial of each of the three individuals).Silberkleit and Coyne, with (Timely/Marvel's)
Martin Goodman , were among the earliest publishers ofpulp magazine s with theirColumbia Publications publishing house, and others. In addition to having bought stock from them for his "Periodicals for Export" venture, Goldwater worked alongside the two of them forPaul Sampliner ,Jack Liebowitz andHarry Donenfeld 'sIndependent News - the distribution arm ofNational Periodicals , forerunner ofDC Comics .Inspired by the success of National's
Superman andBatman (and hot on the heels of Goodman's Timely Comics publications), Goldwater and company published their first comic - "Blue Ribbon Comics " #1 - in November 1939", and soonafter, in his role as editor, Goldwater helped devise the Shield as star of "Pep Comics ", the Black Hood for "Top Notch Comics ", andSteel Sterling in "Zip Comics "."Interviewed for the book "The Best of Archie" (1980), Goldman recalls that he "thought of Superman as an abnormal individual and concluded that the antithesis, a normal person, could be just as popular," so "in 1941, just as the war was restricting paper supplies," the fledgling company began publishing such a character in the pages of "
Pep Comics " #22: Archie Andrews.Archie Comics
In 1941, Goldwater, "inspired by the popular '
Andy Hardy ' movies starringMickey Rooney " cquote|"dreamed up the carrot-topped, freckle-faced character perpetually torn between two loves, one blond, one dark. He was a hapless teen-age Everyman counterpoised to the hyperpotent Superman, who had made his debut just a few years earlier." Calling the character Archie, the name echoing that of a schoolfriend, Goldwater - and series co-creator/writer/artistBob Montana with the surrounding cast supposedly "patterned after teen-agers he [Goldwater] had met in the Midwest."uccess
The success of the Archie line of comics, thought Goldwater, was because cquote|" [Archie is] basically a square, but in my opinion the squares are the backbone of America... [and] strong families." At its peak, the Archie
comic strip ran in 750 newspapers, while comics sales continue to sell millions of copies each year (from a height of c. 50 million) through grocery stores and newsvenders as well as tailored comics shops - Archie Comics' output is among the few still carried by the full range of venues.The Archie line of comics (and related items) gave Goldwater a "multimillion-dollar fortune and publishing empire, Archie Comic Publications Inc. of Mamoroneck, N.Y.," a major rival to the comics industry's Superhero houses Marvel and
DC Comics . Archie would feature not just in comic books and newpapers strips, but on radio, television and in film, as well as having his own "short-lived chain of Archie restaurants."Goldwater ran Archie Comics until his retirement in 1983. [http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/02-99/02-28-99/zzzddobi.htm "South Coast Today": Obituaries 02/28/1999] . Accessed September 5, 2008]
The Comics Code
In 1954, with a public outcry against comics building on
Fredric Wertham 's book "Seduction of the Innocent " and theEstes Kefauver -ledUnited States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings, Goldwater helped found the "Comics Magazine Association of America , whoseComics Code Authority persuaded magazines to voluntarily weed out offensive copy as well as ads for guns, knives and war weapons." Goldwater served as president of the Comics Magazine Assoc. for 25 years, personally decrying such events as the 1971United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare -sanctioned "Spider-man " storyline dealing with the problems ofdrug addiction , which while talking of the evils of drugs still violated the code's guidelines by mentioning them at all.Thompson, Don & Maggie, "Crack in the Code" in "Newfangles" #44 (February, 1971)]Other roles
Goldwater also found time to serve as President of the New York Society for the Deaf, and was actively involved as a National Commissioner of the
Anti-Defamation League ofB'nai B'rith , for "more than 50 years." In a 1999 notice placed in the "New York Times ", he was described as a "Poet Laureate , listed in ["The"] "Who's Who of America"," and a member of both the "Old Oaks Country Club and theFriars Club ."Later life
In 1973, Goldwater "licens [ed] Archie for evangelical Christian messages," despite his personal Jewish faith, feeling that the "sentiments were in line with his wholesome family message." Ten years later, after Goldwater's retirement, the then-publicly traded Archie Comics company was acquired by Richard Goldwater (his son) and Silberkleit's son Michael, returning it to private ownership.
Goldwater died in New York on
26 February 1999 , and was survived by his second wife and three sons: Richard (from his first marriage), Jonathan and Jared. He was also described as a " [d] evoted brother of Dorothy Glaser and the late Jack."cite news | author=| title=Paid Notices: Deaths Goldwater, John L. | date=28 February 1999 | work=The New York Times | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E1D7123CF93BA15751C0A96F958260 |accessdate = 2008-09-05 ] Donations were invited in his honor to the Anti-Defamation League.ee also
*
Archie Comics
*Archie Andrews References
External links
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E1DC103CF931A35750C0A96F958260 New York Times Obituary]
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