Tower Comics
Entry updated 4 April 2017. Tagged: Comics, Publisher.
The Comics imprint of Tower Books, active from 1965 to 1969, originally edited by Wally Wood. Wood found himself unable to handle the workload alone and brought in veteran comics writer Samm Schwartz (1920-1997) to help with all titles except his own. Wood had been promised a great deal of creative control and a large budget for the line, which included teen titles, war comics, and Superhero titles. It is best remembered today for Wood's The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, featuring a curious team of both secret agents and traditional superheroes. Other titles, some connected to the above, were Dynamo Man and Undersea Agent.
The Tower Comics line was unusual in being priced at 25 cents per copy and consisting of 64 pages at a time when 32-page comics with a cover price of 12¢ were the norm. This may be one reason for the line's short life. Wood used the 1940s-era framing device of having several independent stories per issue, each starring one of the team members and leading up to a final story in which they all unite to defeat the current threat – another factor which may have discouraged readers. Tower Books issued at least four paperback reprints of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents stories in 1966. The team has since been twice revived, first by JC Comics in the 1980s and currently by DC Comics, which has gained control of the rights to these characters. [GSt]
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