Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: crime comics, Matt Baker

Matt Baker Outlaws, Select Detective from D.S. Publishing, at Auction

Matt Baker made contributions to little-known D.S. Publishing titles Outlaws and Select Detective before the beginning of his St. John era.

Matt Baker's brief work for D.S. Publishing corresponds with the period during which he left Iger Studio to work freelance (he also continued to freelance via Iger during this period).  This transitional period was still busy time for Baker.  He was still getting regular work from Fiction House and Fox, but his St. John era was yet to come.  Baker did stories for D.S. Publishing titles Outlaws and Select Detective during this period, and there are copies of Outlaws #2 (D.S. Publishing, 1948) Condition: FN and Select Detective #1 (D.S. Publishing, 1948) Condition: FN up for auction in the 2024 July 18 The Matt Baker Comics Showcase Auction #40267 at Heritage Auctions.

Baker's story in the debut issue of Select Detective features a hardboiled private detective named Don Stancy, while his story in issue #2 of the series featured the narrator of a radio crime drama named Clemmy Kent.  But the story in Outlaws #2 drawn by Baker was the type of tale that had become publisher's specialty — the chronicle of a historical criminal from real life.  We've covered D.S. Publishing's knack for picking out interesting historical criminals such as "The Bat" Inspired Lone Wolf of Boston, James E. Walters, in Exposed #1, and notorious bank robber Eddie Bentz in Gangsters Can't Win #2.  The Matt Baker-drawn tale in Outlaws #2 features Gentleman Ben Thompson, who notably only received that name in the 1940s. The story is set during Thompson's time in Dodge City in the 1870s, but in this case appears to be a loose mixture of several legends about Thompson. Although very briefly the marshal of Austin, Texas, in his era, Thompson was known as a reckless desperado and evil genius who came to be dreaded by the some citizens of that town and lauded by others.

Founded by Richard Davis, D.S. Publishing began life in 1940 with the company name Dance Forum, Inc, as the publisher of Dance Magazine.  A short time later, the company was renamed D.S. Publishing after the last names of Davis and then-partner A. Walter Socolow. D.S. Publishing put out a wide range of magazines throughout the 1940s, including Song Parade and Song Leader, "song sheet" magazines that reprinted lyrics of popular songs of the time, Tune-In, which covered the radio industry, and Silhouette, a fashion magazine.  The company got into the comic book business in late 1947 with Jeff Jordan, U.S. Agent. With crime comics on the rise at the time in the wake of the success of titles such as Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay, D.S. Publishing is best remembered today for a short-lived but extensive crime comic book line including titles like Gangsters Can't Win, Outlaws, Public Enemies, Pay-Off, Underworld, and Exposed.

Around the time he was drawing Select Detective #2, Baker likely also received his first St. John assignments for Crime Reporter and Northwest Mounties, and along with his ongoing Fox and Fiction House work at this time, this spelled the end of his D.S. Publishing contributions.  But his D.S. Publishing material is often overlooked, and there are copies of Outlaws #2 (D.S. Publishing, 1948) Condition: FN and Select Detective #1 (D.S. Publishing, 1948) Condition: FN up for auction in the 2024 July 18 The Matt Baker Comics Showcase Auction #40267 at Heritage Auctions.

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