Western Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as "Western
Printing and Lithographing Co." was a large publishing company that put
out books, magazines, comic books and other items. The company no longer
exists. It was established in 1907 as "West Side Printing Company",
changing its name in 1910. The firm was based in Racine, WI, with
editorial offices in both New York and Los Angeles, and another printing
plant in Poughkeepsie, NY. In 1915 the company bought out
Chicago publisher
Hamming-Whitman Publishing Co, which became their subsidiary Whitman
Publishing Company. Another subsidiary was "K.K. Publications", named
after Kay Kamen, head of character
merchandising at
Walt Disney Studios
from 1933-1949. K.K. Publications seemed to have ended in the mid/late
1960s.
Most people are unaware of Western Publishing,
because everything they published was under other names (Whitman,
Golden, etc). They produced
comic books, a
wide-range of children's books, and some adult books, many of them
distributed outside the normal publication channels.
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