Skywald Publications

Skywald operated from 1970 to 1975. Comics professionals who produced work for the Skywald magazines include writers T. Casey Brennan, Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Gardner Fox, Gary Friedrich, Doug Moench, Dave Sim, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman; and artists Rich Buckler, Gene Day, Vince Colletta, Bill Everett, Bruce Jones, Pablo Marcos, Syd Shores, Chic Stone, and Tom Sutton. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed pseudonyms. Future industry star John Byrne published his first professional story, a two-pager written by editor Al Hewetson, in Skywald's Nightmare #20 (Aug.

It is associated with United States. The record gives 1970 as its date of establishment or first appearance. Recorded genres are superhero comics and horror comics. Its recorded founders are Sol Brodsky. Its recorded seat is New York City. The recorded field of activity is publishing.

• Name — Skywald Publications • Founded — 1970 • Defunct — 1975 • Founder — Sol Brodsky Israel Waldman • Headquarters — New York City • Country — United States • Keypeople — Al Hewetson, Herschel Waldman • Publications — Black-and-white comics magazines, comic books • Genre — Horror, Western

The company name is a combination of those of its founders, former Marvel Comics production manager Sol Brodsky ("Sky") and low-budget entrepreneur Israel Waldman ("wald"), whose I. W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published unauthorized comic book reprints for sale through grocery and discount stores. Skywald was based in New York City. • Illustration — Hell-Rider #1 (Aug. 1971). Painted cover by Harry Rosenbaum. Brodsky, who also served as editor, brought in Al Hewetson – briefly an assistant to Marvel chief Stan Lee and a freelancer for the Warren Publishing horror magazines and others – as a freelance writer. "Archaic Al", as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Hewetson, aiming at a more literary bent than the work of industry leader Warren Publishing, developed what he called "the Horror-Mood" and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as Poe, H. P. Lovecraft and Kafka. Skywald's first publication was Nightmare #1 (cover-dated Dec. 1970). The first issues of magazines like Nightmare and Psycho featured some original work and a lot of reworked reprint filler, mostly from horror comics published by Avon Comics in the 1950s. In an unusual arrangement, Hewetson managed editorial from his home in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, though the publisher was based in Manhattan. As he described in 1973,

Skywald also produced two issues of the magazine Hell-Rider (Aug. and Oct. 1971), featuring a vigilante motorcyclist with a flamethrower-equipped bike. The character was created by Gary Friedrich (who would go on to co-create the Marvel motorcyclist Ghost Rider) and penciler Ross Andru. Backup features were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich, with art credits disputed by different sources for issue #1; the second-issue "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler Syd Shores and inker Esposito, the second "Wild Bunch" to penciler-inker Rich Buckler. • Illustration — Judy Garland tribute magazine (1970). Cover artist unknown Another two-issue title, The Crime Machine, consisted solely of comic-book crime fiction reprints from the 1950s. A remaining title, Science Fiction Odyssey, was planned for September 1971 publication, but withdrawn; some of its stories eventually appeared in the horror magazines. The company also published a small number of magazines unrelated to horror or comics. Among these was Judy Garland (1970), a "special tribute issue". Hewetson said in 1973, "We produced, when this company began, a production called The Judy Garland Book which is the most threatening thing which ever happened to our company. We printed far too many copies and we sold maybe four or five. We lost a lot of money." Skywald published two issues of the men's adventure title King: The Magazine for the Man's Man in 1971; the first issue featured a Harry Rosenbaum cover and interior illustration by Boris Vallejo.

Editor Al Hewetson, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on January 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by: Skywald lasted through early 1975, with Psycho #24 (March 1975) being its final publication. Nightmare published 23 issues and Scream put out 11 issues.