Tower Comics

Comics set themselves apart by publishing 25-cent, 64-page comics, during a time of 12-cent, 32-page comics. The comics were something of a throw-back to the Golden Age, in that they had more pages than most of their contemporaries and usually featured five or six independent stories, with all the main characters coming together for the final story of the issue, a common Golden Age plotting device used in team books such as DC Comics's All-Star Comics.

• Name — Tower Comics • Founder — Harry Shorten • Headquarters — 185 Madison Avenue New York City • Country — United States • Keypeople — Harry Shorten Wallace Wood Samm Schwartz • Parent — Tower Publications • Publications — Comic books

Tower publisher Harry Shorten "cut a dream deal with Wally Wood" in which Shorten would be the managing editor and "Wood would be granted a wide latitude of creative and business freedom devoid of a 9-to-5 office job or hefty administrative duties, and be allowed to concentrate on creating characters and concepts for an expanding line of superhero comics". When it became obvious Wood could not handle the volume of material Shorten wanted to publish, he hired Samm Schwartz, who Shorten knew from both men's many years at Archie Comics. Schwartz handled the scheduling of all the material and assignments of scripts and art other than Wood's own. Schwartz's Tippy Teen, an Archie-style comic about the adventures of a spunky teenaged girl, ran 27 issues. Tippy Teen and its spin-off, Go-Go and Animal, featured many stories drawn by Schwartz, as well as contributions from moonlighting Archie artists like Harry Lucey and Dan DeCarlo. Other notable creators associated with Tower included Dan Adkins, Gil Kane, Reed Crandall, Steve Ditko, Richard Bassford, Len Brown, Steve Skeates, Larry Ivie, Bill Pearson, Russ Jones, Roger Brand, and Tim Battersby-Brent. In 1968, Tower Publications itself was sold to Vanderbilt Tire & Rubber Company, who was also owner of a rival and dormant comic book publisher American Comics Group.