Editing Quality Comics (section)

==History==
Quality Comics was founded by [[Everett M. Arnold]], a printer who saw the rapidly rising popularity of the comic book [[mass media|medium]] in the late 1930s. Deducing that [[Great Depression|Depression-era]] audiences wanted established quality and familiar [[comic strips]] for their hard-earned dimes, in 1937 the enterprising Arnold formed Comic Favorites, Inc. (in collaboration with three newspaper [[syndicate]]s: the [[McNaught Syndicate]], the [[Frank J. Markey Syndicate]], and Iowa's [[Register and Tribune Syndicate]]).<ref>{{ cite book |last=Steranko |first=Jim |title=[[The Steranko History of Comics|The Steranko History of Comics 2]] |year=1972 |publisher=Supergraphics |location=Reading, PA |page=92 }}</ref>

Comic Favorites, Inc.'s first publication was ''Feature Funnies'', which began primarily with color reprints of hit strips from all three co-owning syndicates (including ''[[Joe Palooka]]'', ''[[Mickey Finn (comic strip)|Mickey Finn]]'', and ''[[Dixie Dugan]]'' [all three from McNaught]) alongside a small number of original features.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kooiman |first1=Mike |last2=Amash |first2=Jim |title=Quality Companion, The |date=November 2011 |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |location=Raleigh, NC |isbn=978-1-60549-037-3 |page=8 }}</ref> The original material came from various sources, including the company's in-house staff and freelancers (from the first issue)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kooiman |first1=Mike |last2=Amash |first2=Jim |title=Quality Companion, The |date=November 2011 |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |location=Raleigh, NC |isbn=978-1-60549-037-3 |pages=8, 11 }}</ref> and the [[Eisner & Iger]] shop (from issue #3).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kooiman |first1=Mike |last2=Amash |first2=Jim |title=Quality Companion, The |date=November 2011 |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |location=Raleigh, NC |isbn=978-1-60549-037-3 |pages=9–10 }}</ref>

A frequent point of confusion is whether and how comic packaging shop [[Harry "A" Chesler]] was involved with the company's early days. Several sources<ref>{{cite book|last=Benton|first=Mike|title=The Comic Book in America, Updated Edition|year=1989|publisher=Taylor Publishing Company|location=Dallas, TX|isbn=0-87833-835-7|pages=142}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Beerbohm|first=Robert Lee|title=The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide|year=2006|publisher=Gemstone Publishing|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-375-72108-3|edition=37th |author2=Richard D. Olson |editor=Robert M. Overstreet|page=386}}</ref> list Chesler as the publisher of ''Feature Funnies'', but the only primary source to mention Chesler is an interview with Arnold in which he describes purchasing content from the shop for ''Military Comics'' and ''Police Comics'',<ref>{{cite book|last=Steranko|first=Jim|title=The Steranko History of Comics 2|year=1972|publisher=Supergraphics|location=Reading, PA|pages=92–93}}</ref> neither of which began until 1941. An interview with Will Eisner quoted in ''The Quality Companion'' indicates that Arnold did not always own Comic Favorites, Inc., but the authors of that reference were unable to find any corroborating evidence amidst a large volume of evidence to the contrary.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kooiman |first1=Mike |last2=Amash |first2=Jim |title=Quality Companion, The |date=November 2011 |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |location=Raleigh, NC |isbn=978-1-60549-037-3 |page=208 }}</ref>

In 1939, Arnold and the owners of the Register & Tribune Syndicate's parent company, brothers [[John Cowles Sr.]] and [[Gardner Cowles Jr.]], bought out the McNaught and Markey interests. Arnold became 50% owner of the newly formed Comic Magazines, Inc., the corporate entity that would publish the Quality Comics line. That year Quality released ''Smash Comics'' #1 (Aug. 1939), the company's first comic book with exclusively new material.

Initially buying features from [[Eisner & Iger]], a prominent "packager" that produced comics on demand for [[publishers]] entering the new medium, Quality introduced such [[superheroes]] as [[Plastic Man]] and [[Kid Eternity]], and non-superhero characters including the [[aviator]] hero [[Blackhawk (DC Comics)|Blackhawk]]. Quality also published comic-book reprints of [[Will Eisner]]'s "[[Spirit (comics character)|The Spirit]]", the seven-page lead feature in a weekly 16-page, tabloid-sized, [[newsprint]] comic book, known colloquially as "The Spirit Section", distributed through Sunday [[newspapers]].
[[Image:CrackComics5.jpg|thumb|''Crack Comics'' #5 (Sept. 1940), first use of the "Quality Comic Group" logo (to right of "COMICS"). Cover art by [[Gill Fox]].]]
The name Quality Comics debuted on the cover of ''[[Crack Comics]]'' #5 (Sept. 1940; see at right). "Seemingly never an official publishing title," the Connecticut Historical Society noted, "the Quality Comics Group is a trademarked name (presumably taking its name from Stamford's nickname of 'the Quality City') encompassing Comic Favorites Inc., E.M. Arnold Publications, Smash Comics, and any other imprints owned by Arnold".<ref name=chs>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927212535/http://www.chs.org/comics/quality.htm|archive-date=September 27, 2007|title=Quality Comic Group: A Brief History|publisher=[[Connecticut Historical Society]]|url=http://www.chs.org/comics/quality.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> A 1954 federal document<ref>Archive of [https://web.archive.org/web/20091027160127/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/kefauver.html ''Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency Interim Report of the Committee on the Judiciary Pursuant to S. Res. 89 and S. Res. 190'']. [http://www.reocities.com/Athens/8580/kefauver.html Reocities archive of original] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027160127/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/kefauver.html |date=2009-10-27 }}.</ref> noted that the Quality Romance Group, owned by Everett M. and Claire C. Arnold, with an office at 347 Madison Avenue, in New York City, published two titles as Arnold Publications, Inc., two titles as Comic Favorites, Inc., and 14 titles as Comic Magazines, Inc.

By the mid-1950s, with [[television]] and [[mass market paperback|paperback books]] drawing readers away from comic books in general and superheroes in particular, interest in Quality's characters had declined considerably. After a foray into other genres such as [[war comics|war]], [[humor]], [[Romance comics in the United States (1946–1975)|romance]] and [[horror fiction|horror]], the company ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956.