Gold Key Comics, which became Whitman Comics, was an American comic book publisher.
In 1962, Dell Comics, which had been distributing Western's comics for decades, broke off its agreement with them which led to the creation of Gold Key Comics, Inc. This period is regarded as the beginning of a long decline for Disney comics as the quality of many non-Barks stories plunged. Gold Key gave a solo comic book to Barks' Beagle Boys and promoted characters like Super Goof, Moby Duck, and Mad Madam Mim (to name a few who have survived from this period), but many of their attempts did not succeed. The space taken by this glut of new stories wiped out all remaining newspaper reprints. In fact, many of the new stories Western began making at this time never appeared in the States; they were prepared in a special deal with the Walt Disney studio for foreign consumption alone. Donald's cousin Fethry, the tycoon John D. Rockerduck, and hillbilly hermit Hard-Haid Moe were some of the characters who were largely consigned to these "foreign" stories.
In later years Western dropped the Gold Key moniker to publish its comics under the label, Whitman, of its book-publishing arm. This did not reflect a change in quality. By the mid-1970s fans had shied away from Disney comics for the most part, and their distribution was very low; by 1984, when Whitman's line breathed its last, few were around to mourn its passing.
Titles[]
- Walt Disney's Comics and Stories (originally from Dell Comics)
- Mickey Mouse (originally from Dell Comics)
- Donald Duck (originally from Dell Comics)
- Uncle Scrooge (originally from Dell Comics)
- The Beagle Boys
- Moby Duck
- The Phantom Blot (also under name "The Phantom Blot Meets...")
- Super Goof
- Chip and Dale
- Ludwig Von Drake
- Huey, Dewey and Louie Junior Woodchucks
- Walt Disney Comics Digest
- Daisy and Donald
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- The Black Hole