Avon Calling
Avon was a minor comic book company that published from 1947 to 1953, they sometimes put “A Realistic Comic” on their cover instead of the Avon logo. Below are four of their gems.
1. Slave Girl Comics: (1949) Way to dodge the whole “comics are immoral sleaze corrupting the minds of our youth” thing going on at the time.
2. Television Puppet Show: (1950) Comics are among the few members of the mass media where everybody wants to be the first, to be the second to do something.
But at least they could have put a little more thought and effort into their effort to steal some of the audience from Howdy Doody!
3. City of the Living Dead: (1952) An unnumbered one-shot that seems to be trying to case in on what was going on at EC Comics.
However it has to be of note that it’s the first item that I know of to feature the whole “living dead” thing as it’s theme, which would not be seen on that scale until Night of the Living Dead years later.
Avon also put out another comic the same year called The Dead Who Walk.
4. Gangsters & Gun Molls: (1951) “Crime Never Wins,” but it sure is hot!
Avon went out of business when the Comic Code Authority, and the general attitude toward comics at the time, made things impossible for the majority of their efforts.
There version of Davy Crockett, which came out 4 years before the Disney film, and Peter Rabbit Comics not withstanding.
