Gold Key Comics

**Gold Key Comics** is a publishing company from the 20th century. It eventually became known as **Whitman Comics**. It published comics and stories about characters on the TV, including Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo.

## History

Gold Key Comics was created in 1962, when its parent company Western Publishing switched to in-house publishing rather than packaging content for branding and distribution by its business partner, Dell Comics. Hoping to make their comics more like traditional children's books, they initially eliminated panel line-borders, using just the panel, with its ink and artwork evenly edged but not bordered by a "container" line. Within a year they had reverted to using inked panel borders and oval balloons. They experimented with new formats, including Whitman Comic Book, a black-and-white 136 page hardcover series containing reprints and Golden Picture Story Book, a tabloid-sized 52-page hardcover containing new material. In 1967, Gold Key reprinted a number of selected issues of their comics under the title Top Comics which were sold in plastic bags containing five comics at gas stations and various eateries. Like Dell, Gold Key was one of the few major American publishers of comic books never to display the Comics Code Authority seal on its covers.

## Titles

### Original series

Baby Snoots
Brothers of the Spear (originally a backup series in Tarzan)
The Close Shaves of Pauline Peril
Doctor Solar
Golden Comics Digest
Grimm's Ghost Stories
Jungle Twins
The Little Monsters[55][56]
M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War (initially Total War)
Magnus, Robot Fighter
Mighty Samson
Mod Wheels
Mystery Comics Digest
The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor
O.G. Whiz
Space Family Robinson
Tales of Sword and Sorcery Featuring Dagar the Invincible
Tiger Girl
Turok, Son of Stone
Tragg and the Sky Gods
UFO Flying Saucers (retitled UFO and Outer Space)
Wacky Adventures of Cracky
Wacky Witch

### Licensed series

Adam-12
The Addams Family (based on the 1974 Hanna-Barbera animated series)
Astro Boy
The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan
The Banana Splits
Battle of the Planets
The Beagle Boys (Walt Disney's)
Beep Beep the Road Runner
Beetle Bailey
Bonanza
Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery (based upon the TV series Thriller)
Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Bugs Bunny
Bullwinkle and Rocky
Chilly Willy
Daffy Duck
Dark Shadows
Doc Savage (was to tie into an ultimately unproduced movie)
Donald Duck (Walt Disney's)
Ellery Queen
Family Affair
Fireball XL5
Flash Gordon
The Flintstones
The Funky Phantom
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
The Gallant Men
The Green Hornet
Hanna-Barbera Fun-In
Have Gun, Will Travel
The Hardy Boys (based on the Filmation cartoon series)
Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!
Honey West
Hoppity Hooper
H.R. Pufnstuf
I Spy
Korak, Son of Tarzan
Happy Days
Huey, Dewey and Louie, Junior Woodchucks
The Inspector (Pink Panther spinoff)
John Steed & Emma Peel (based on The Avengers TV series and retitled to avoid confusion with Marvel Comics' superhero title of the same name)
Kimba the White Lion
Krofft Supershow
Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp
Lidsville
Little Lulu
The Lone Ranger
Looney Tunes
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Mickey Mouse (Walt Disney's)
Microbots
Mighty Mouse
Moby Duck (Walt Disney's)
The Munsters
My Favorite Martian
The Phantom
The Pink Panther
Popeye the Sailor
Porky Pig
Ripley's Believe It or Not! with three subtitles: "True War Stories" (#1 and #5), "True Demons & Monsters" (#7, #10, #19, #22, #25, #26 and #29) and "True Ghost stories" (remaining numbers) - not to be confused with the three issue Harvey Comic of 1953.
Secret Agent (based upon the TV series Danger Man)
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (retitled Scooby-Doo Mystery Comics)
Star Trek
Supercar
Super Goof (Walt Disney's)
Tarzan
The Three Stooges
Tom and Jerry
Tennessee Tuxedo
Tweety and Sylvester
The Twilight Zone
Uncle Scrooge
Underdog
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Wacky Races
Walt Disney Comics Digest
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
Walt Disney's Showcase
Where's Huddles?
The Wild Wild West
Woody Woodpecker
Yosemite Sam (and Bugs Bunny)

## Notes

* Gold Key Comics is a defunct company.
* Gold Key Comics later became known as Whitman Comics.