Gold Key Comics produced comic books from 1962 to 1984. Although they did produce some original materials, they were primarily noted for creating comic book series based on properties from other sources, such as Disney, Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera. Gold Key, using the pre-established familiar characters, was wildly successful in the 60s, with sales in the millions. This started to change in the 70s as the comic market generally suffered slumping sales. By the late 70s, Gold Key had abandoned the newsstands and were selling them bundled three to a cellophane bag in department store toy departments. It did not help sales. In 1981, the owners of Gold Key, Western Publishing, dropped the Gold Key logo and put the comics under the Whitman imprint, a catchall used for other comics, coloring books and a revived form of Big Little Books. Losses continued to mount and in 1984, Western Publishing completely left the comic book business. |
Note: Issues 15 and 16 were reprints of 7 and 6. |