Curtis Circulation Company, LLC is a company that is in the magazines distribution business. It is also known for lending its name to an affiliated company,
Marvel Comics GroupMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, for a line of magazines,
Curtis MagazinesCurtis Magazines was an imprint of Marvel Comics that existed from 1971 to 1980. The imprint published black-and-white magazines that did not carry the Comics Code Authority seal. Initially, page counts varied between 68,76, and 84 pages....
.
History
Curtis Circulation Company started out as
Curtis Publishing CompanyThe Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home,...
's circulation department, becoming an official subsidiary of in 1946.
In 1968,
Perfect Film & Chemical CorporationCadence Industries Corporation, formerly Perfect Film & Chemical Corporation, was an American conglomerate owned by Martin "Marty" S. Ackerman. From 1968 through 1986, Perfect/Cadence was the parent company of the publisher of Marvel Comics....
loaned $5 million to Curtis Publishing Company, publisher of the
Saturday Evening Post, at the request of Curtis' primary loan holder, First National Bank of Boston. Despite attempts to revive the
Post 's circulation, and with the lack of a purchaser, Curtis Publishing shut the magazine down in 1969.
In the fall of 1968, Perfect Film bought out publisher
Martin GoodmanMartin Goodman born on was an American publisher of pulp magazines, paperback books, men's adventure magazines, and comic books, launching the company that would become Marvel Comics....
— owner of Magazine Management Company, the parent of
Marvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
and other ventures — and made Magazine Management the direct subsidiary. It placed the other corporations as subsidiaries of that. Perfect Film purchased Curtis Circulation that same year from
Curtis Publishing CompanyThe Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home,...
. Beginning in 1969 (and lasting until the parent's company's sale of Marvel in 1986), Curtis became the official distributor of Marvel Comics.
In 1973, Perfect Film renamed itself Cadence Industries. When Cadence Industries was liquidated in 1986, it sold Curtis Circulation to Joseph M. Walsh and Hachette Distribution Services.