This was originally posted as part of a longer piece. It's separated here for convenience.
When we discuss big mainstream comics publishers nowadays, we're usually just talking about DC Comics and Marvel Comics, plus maybe Archie, and that's about it. Although there are many other funnybook factories in existence even today, The Big Two Plus One are really all the general public knows. It's a safe bet that most folks outside fandom (and even many within fandom) believe that either Marvel or DC is/was the best-selling U.S. comics publisher of all time.
That belief would be wrong. The biggest-selling publisher in the history of American comic books was Dell Comics in the 1940s and '50s, its popularity built upon the appeal of a number of beloved licensed characters. What licensed characters? Dell published the adventures and/or misadventures of Mickey Mouse and the rest of the Disney stable, Bugs Bunny and his crew from Warner Brothers cartoons, Woody Woodpecker, and Tom & Jerry, as well as non-animated properties like Tarzan, Our Gang, Gene Autry, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Zorro, and The Lone Ranger, and that's not even a partial list. Even at peak popularity, Superman and Batman couldn't beat that line-up of superstars.
Much of Dell's licensing muscle came through its partnership with Western Publishing, a company which actually produced all those fantastic Uncle Scrooge and Little Lulu comics that millions of kids were snapping up for a cumulative total of more dimes than most of us can imagine. But Dell and Western went separate ways in the early '60s. The divorce meant that Western got to keep the kids (most of those existing licences); Dell continued with a mix of a few new titles (such as John Stanley's Melvin Monster) and licenses, including TV shows like Get Smart and The Monkees, while Western started its own new publishing imprint: Gold Key Comics.
Although licensed titles remained Gold Key's principal stock in trade in the '60s, the company also added a number of original properties to its line. These Gold Key originals included Space Family Robinson, Mighty Samson, M.A.R.S. Patrol, and Dell-era holdover Turok, Son Of Stone. And there were two titles that, along with (I guess) the campy two-issue revival of '40s hero The Owl, basically comprised Gold Key's compact superhero line: Magnus, Robot Fighter (with simply gorgeous art by Russ Manning) and Doctor Solar: Man Of The Atom.
As a voracious young comics reader in the '60s and early '70s, DC and Marvel were my primary interests. But that "voracious" description meant that I also read Archie, and Harvey (particularly Hot Stuff, Richie Rich, and Sad Sack, and even Spyman and--Lord help me--Fruitman), Charlton (the Action Heroes line of Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, The Peacemaker, Judo Master, and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt), the short-lived King Comics line (Mandrake The Magician, Flash Gordon, and The Phantom), Dell (an odd book called Super Heroes), and of course Gold Key. I may never get over my childhood crush on Magnus' girlfriend Leeja Clane, as lovingly depicted by Manning. I read Gold Key's Magnus and Doctor Solar and Super Goof, and reprints of the legendary Carl Barks' magnificent stories of Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, Gladstone Gander, The Beagle Boys, and The Junior Woodchucks, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
For all that, I still viewed the Gold Key line (other than Carl Barks' work) as somehow lesser, and for no good reason. I wasn't about to pass up on any comics, mind you, but I clearly favored The Avengers and The X-Men and Justice League Of America and Batman's team-ups in The Brave And The Bold over anything Gold Key was doing at the time. But I was still at least interested in Magnus, Robot Fighter (ah, Leeja!) and in Doctor Solar: Man of The Atom.
So where does The Occult Files Of Dr. Spektor fit into this narrative? Well, the good doctor was the (gold) key to it all for me.
Dr. Spektor was created by writer Don Glut and artist Dan Spiegle, and his Wikipedia entry lists his first appearance as a ten-page story in Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest # 5 in 1972. The subsequent series The Occult Files Of Dr. Spektor ran 24 issues, 1973-1977, with Jesse Santos replacing Spiegle at the drawing board. It was a supernatural thriller series, not far removed conceptually from DC's The Phantom Stranger or even Marvel's Dr. Strange, as our hero battles mystic menaces. Dr. Adam Spektor was aided by his lovely Native American assistant Lakota Rainflower, and confidentially, I think Adam and Lakota were, y'know, doin' it off-panel. Not my place to judge.
My introduction to Spektor and company was The Occult Files Of Dr. Spektor # 14, cover-dated June 1975. That was the summer I spent in part with my uncle's family in Pensacola. My mother and I had traveled to Missouri to visit my grandparents, as we did most summers; her brother (my Uncle Carl) was also there with his wife (Aunt Jo) and my cousins Langley, Alan, and Colin. When the time came for the Florida branch of this family tree to return home, it was decided that I would accompany them back to the panhandle for an extended stay. I remember climbing into the car with them as we left Missouri's Silver Dollar City, riding through Arkansas (where I picked up an issue of Charlton's fab E-Man comic book on a pit stop), Mississippi, Alabama, and into Florida.
Florida was a good time for this fifteen-year-old comics geek. Sure, sure, I wasted a lot of time outdoors in the sun (including almost being stung by a jellyfish off Uncle Carl's backyard dock of the bay--a good place to waste time, per Otis Redding), but there was a lot of indoor time, too. I watched reruns of the mid '60s Tarzan TV series starring Ron Ely. I jotted down all sorts of writing ideas in my spiral notebook. I made my first failed attempt to write on an electric typewriter, its sensitive keyboard succumbing uuunderrr mmy finnngeerrs' heavvvyy touuuchhh as I tried to write a proposed article for TV Guide ("The Curse Of The One-Eyed Box," about superheroes on TV). I drew. I read, and I read a lot. I read paperback novels starring Flash Gordon, The Phantom, and Doc Savage (whose feature film debut my cousins had already seen in '75), and I read stacks of new comic books. One of these was The Occult Files Of Dr. Spektor # 14.
Since comics' cover dates are always post-dated, it's a bit surprising that this June '75 book was still available for me to snag that summer. But there it was, and I recognized the guy firing lethal blasts at Dr. Spektor on the cover. Could it be?! Yes! It was the old Gold Key hero Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom. It was the first time I had ever seen two Gold Key heroes meet. Well, I had to have this!
Superhero fans delight in shared universes. Stan Lee realized this when he and Jack Kirby were building the Marvel Comics milieu in the early '60s. DC was traditionally less gung ho, but still had team-up books like World's Finest Comics ("Superman and Batman, Your Two Favorite Heroes In One Adventure Together!") and Justice League of America, and occasional crossovers in solo titles, infrequently at first, with greater frequency as someone realized kids dug the idea of their heroes hangin' out together. Even Charlton had Blue Beetle team with The Question. But Gold Key? While time travel would have been necessary for Dr. Solar to meet Turok or Magnus, it didn't matter anyway; there was no feeling that Gold Key characters would ever or could ever interact.
Until that 14th issue of The Occult Files Of Dr. Spektor in 1975.
Later, I would learn that this wasn't quite the first such Gold Key crossover, that Don Glut had already had Dr. Spektor encounter characters from Dagar The Invincible and Tragg And The Sky Gods, though I wasn't familiar with either of those titles anyway. I did see a subsequent meeting between Spektor and The Owl, though I think I missed a couple of reappearances by Dr. Solar. I only ever saw a handful of Dr. Spektor issues on the racks anywhere, so there wasn't a great opportunity to keep up with the exploits of Adam and Lakota. But I liked the series, and I wish I'd read more of it.
Gold Key Comics technically survived into the early '80s, but it was a long, long way from Western Publishing's former dominance in the '40s and '50s. The characters have outlived the line itself; Valiant Comics licensed (what irony!) original Gold Key heroes Magnus, Solar, and Turok for a well-received revival in the '90s, and those characters and others have continued to pop up in various incarnations from various publishers. Dr. Spektor himself returned in a 2014 mini-series from Dynamite Publishing, which I did not enjoy. It wasn't my Dr. Spektor. It wasn't what I remembered, and it wasn't what I wanted.
The original Dr. Spektor stories have been reprinted in a series of hardcovers from Dark Horse Publishing. I should read all of those stories someday. I bet I'd enjoy them still, just as I enjoyed seeing Dr. Spektor and Lakota meet The Man Of The Atom when I was 15. At one time, Western Publishing was responsible for the most popular comic books in our history. Decades later, Western was still responsible for some books worth reading. I bought The Lone Ranger when I could find it. I bought Magnus and Doctor Solar. Even with my limited exposure to it, I think The Occult Files Of Dr. Spektor was my favorite.
I wonder if Lakota will ever meet Leeja?
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